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lute and left singing; whereat the folk were troubled and I fell down in a swoon. They thought I was possessed[1] and one of them fell to reciting exorcisms in my ear; nor did they cease to comfort her and beseech her to sing, till she tuned the lute again and sang these verses:
I stand lamenting travellers who bound their burdens on; Within my heart their dwelling is, though far away they’re gone.
Hard by the ruined camp I stand and question it of them: Waste is the camping-place and void the dwellings thereupon.
Then she fell down in a swoon and weeping arose amongst the folk; and I also cried out and fainted away. The sailors were vexed with me and one of the Hashimi’s servants said to them, ‘How came ye to take this madman on board?’ So they said to each other, ‘When we come to the next village, we will put him ashore and rid us of him.’ When I heard this, I was sore troubled and summoned up all my courage, saying to myself, ‘Nothing will serve me to deliver myself from their hands, except I make shift to acquaint her with my presence in the ship, so she may prevent my putting out.’
Then we sailed on till eventide, when we came to a hamlet[2] and the captain said, ‘Come, let us go ashore.’ So they all landed, [leaving me in the ship]: whereupon I rose and going behind the curtain took the lute and changed its accord, course[3] by course, and tuning it after a fashion of my own,[4] that she had learnt of me, returned
- ↑ Of a genie, the common Eastern explanation of an epileptic fit.
- ↑ Or farm.
- ↑ Or perhaps “mode” (terikeh).
- ↑ Most of the great Arab musicians had their own peculiar fashion of tuning the lute, for the purpose of extending its register or facilitating the accompaniment of songs composed in uncommon keys and rhythms or possibly of increasing its sonority, and it appears to have been a common test of the skill of a great musician, such as Ishac el Mausili or his father Ibrahim, to require him to accompany a difficult song on a
