sleep visited him not all that livelong night; but his eyes ran over with tears and he began repeating, ;
"While slanderers slumber, longsome is my night; * Suffice thee a heart so sad in parting-plight; I say, while night in care slow moments by, * 'What! no return for thee, fair morning light?'"
And the saying of another,
"When saw I Pleiad-stars his glance escape * And Pole star draught of sleep upon him pour; And the Bier-daughters [1] wend in mourning dight, * I knew that morning was for him no more!"
Such was the case with King Shahriman; but as regards Kamar al-Zaman, when the night came upon him the eunuch set the lanthorn before him and lighting the wax-candle, placed it in the candlestick; then brought him somewhat of food. The Prince ate a little and continually reproached himself for his unseemly treatment of his father, saying to himself, "O my soul, knowest thou not that a son of Adam is the hostage of his tongue, and that a man's tongue is what casteth him into deadly perils?" Then his eyes ran over with tears and he bewailed that which he had done, from anguished vitals and aching heart, repenting him with exceeding repentance of the wrong wherewith he had wronged his father and repeating,
"Fair youth shall die by stumbling of the tongue: * Stumble of foot works not man's life such wrong: The slip of lip shall oft smite off the head, * While slip of foot shall never harm one long."
Now when he had made an end of eating, he asked for the wherewithal to wash his hands and when the Mameluke had washed them clean of the remnants of food, he arose and made the Wuzu-ablution and prayed the prayers of sundown and nightfall, conjoining
- ↑ Arab. "Banát al-Na'ash," usually translated daughters of the bier, the three stars which represent the horses in either Bear, "Charles' Wain," or Ursa Minor, the waggon being supposed to be a bier. "Banát" may be also sons, plur. of Ibn, as the word points to irrational objects. So Job (ix. 9 and xxxviii. 32) refers to U. Major as "Ash" or "Aysh" in the words, "Canst thou guide the bier with its sons?" (erroneously rendered "Arcturus with his sons") In the text the lines are enigmatical, but apparently refer to a death parting.
