Nur al-Din All and the Damsel Anis at- J alls. 15 Thereupon he rose to his feet and took her, 1 whilst the tears rolled down his cheek like rain ; and he recited with the tongue of the case these lines: Stay ! grant one parting look before we part, o Nerving my heart this severance to sustain : But, an this parting deal thee pain and bane, o Leave me to die of love and spare thee pain ! Then he went down with her to the bazar and delivered her to the broker and said to him, " O Hajj Hasan, 2 I pray thee note the value of her thou hast to cry for sale." " my lord Nur al- Din," quoth the broker, "the fundamentals are remembered;" 3 adding, " Is not this the Anis al-Jalis whom thy father bought of me for ten thousand dinars ? " " Yes," said Nur al-Din. There- upon the broker went round to the merchants, but found that all had not yet assembled. So he waited till the rest had arrived and the market was crowded with slave-girls of all nations, Turks, Franks and Circassians ; Abyssinians, Nubians and Takrurfs ; 4 Tartars, Georgians and others ; when he came forward and stand- ing cried aloud, " O merchants ! O men of money ! every round thing is not a walnut and every long thing a banana is not ; all reds are not meat nor all whites fat, nor is every brown thing a date! 5 O merchants, I have here this union-pearl that hath no price : at what sum shall I cry her ? " " Cry her at four thousand five hundred dinars," quoth one of the traders. The broker opened the door of sale at the sum named and, as he was yet calling, lo ! the Wazir Al-Mu'in bin Sawi passed through the bazar and, seeing Nur al-Din Ali waiting at one side, said to himself, "Why is Khakan's son 6 standing about here ? Hath this gallows-bird aught remaining wherewith to buy slave-girls?" Then he looked
Thus he broke his promise to his father, and it is insinuated that retribution came
upon him.
" O Pilgrim " (Ya Hajj) is a polite address even to those who have not pilgrimaged.
The feminine " Hajjah" (in Egypt pronounced " Haggch" is similarly used.
Arab. ustil = roots, i.e. I have not forgotten my business. Moslems from Central and Western North Africa. (Pilgrimage i. 261 ; iii. 7, etc.);
the " Jabarti " is the Moslem Abyssinian.
This is a favourite bit of chaff and is to be lengthened out almost indefinitely e.g.
'every brown thing is not civet nor every shining thing a diamond ; every black thing )is not charcoal nor every white chalk ; every red thing is not a ruby nor every yellow a topaz ; every long-necked thing is not a camel, etc., etc., etc.
He gives him the name of his grandfather ; a familiar usage.
