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Kemerezzeman forbore this young lady? Verily, this was of the perfection of his excellences; for see how he looked on her and noted her beauty and grace, yet clipped her not neither kissed her nor put his hand to her, but turned his back to her and slept.’ ‘It is well,’ answered they; ‘we saw how perfectly he bore himself.’ Then Maimouneh changed herself into a flea and entering Budour’s clothes, crept up her leg and bit her four finger-breadths below the navel; whereupon she opened her eyes and sitting up in bed, saw a youth lying beside her and breathing heavily in his sleep, the loveliest of God’s creatures, with eyes that put to shame the fair maids of Paradise, mouth like Solomon’s seal, whose water was sweeter to the taste and more efficacious than triacle,[1] lips the colour of coral and cheeks like blood-red anemones, even as saith one, describing him:
From Zeyneb[2] and Newär[2] my mind is drawn away By the rose of a cheek, whereo’er a whisker’s myrtles stray.
I’m fallen in love with a fawn, a youngling tunic-clad, And joy no more in love of bracelet-wearing may.
My mate in banquet-hall and closet’s all unlike To her with whom within my harem’s close I play:
O thou that blamest me, because I flee from Hind[2] And Zeyneb, my excuse is clear as break of day.
Would’st have me be a slave, the bondsman of a slave, One cloistered and confined behind a wall alway?[3]
Night clxxxv.When the princess saw him, a transport of passion and longing seized her and she said to herself, ‘Alas my shame! This is a strange youth and I know him not. How comes he lying in one bed with me?’ Then she looked at him again and noting his beauty and grace, said, ‘By Allah, he is a comely youth and my heart is well-nigh torn in sunder
