desire in the only way pleasing to Allah. I am my own mistress and the Kazi shall act as my guardian in consenting to the marriage contract; for it is my will that I be to thee wife and thou be to me man.' Then she sent for the Kazi and the witnesses and busied herself with making ready; and, when they came, she said to them, 'Mohammed Ali, bin Ali the Jeweller, seeketh me in wedlock and hath given me the necklace to my marriage-settlement; and I accept and consent.' So they wrote out the contract of marriage between us; and ere I went in to her the servants brought the wine-furniture and the cups passed round after the fairest fashion and the goodliest ordering; and, when the wine mounted to our heads, she ordered a damsel, a lute-player,[1] to sing. So she took the lute and sang to a pleasing and stirring motive these couplets,
'He comes; and fawn and branch and moon delight these eyne *
Fie[2] on his heart who sleeps o' nights without repine
Pair youth, for whom Heaven willed to quench in cheek one light,
* And left another light on other cheek bright li'en:
I fain finesse my chiders when they mention him, * As though the
hearing of his name I would decline;
And willing ear I lend when they of other speak; * Yet would my
soul within outflow in foods of brine:
Beauty's own prophet, he is all a miracle * Of heavenly grace,
and greatest shows his face for sign.[3]
To prayer Bilál-like cries that Mole upon his cheek * To ward
from pearly brow all eyes of ill design:[4]
The censors of their ignorance would my love dispel * But after
Faith I can't at once turn Infidel.'
We were ravished by the sweet music she made striking the strings, and the beauty of the verses she sang; and the other damsels went on to sing and to recite one after another, till ten had
- ↑ Arab. "Awwádah," the popular word; not Udíyyah as in Night cclvi. "Ud" liter.= rood and "Al-Ud"=the wood is, I have noted, the origin of our 'lute." The Span. 'laud" is larger and deeper than the guitar, and its seven strings are played upon with a plectrum of buffalo-horn.
- ↑ Arab. "Tabban lahu!"=loss (or ruin) to him. So "bu'dan lahu"=away with him, abeat in malam rem; and "Suhkan lahu"=Allah and mercy be far from him, no hope for him I
- ↑ Arab. "Áyah"=Koranic verses, sign, miracle.
- ↑ The mole on cheek calls to prayers for his preservation; and it is black as Bilal the Abyssinian. Fajran may here mean either "A.-morning" or "departing from grace."
