waxt perfect and his wits were at their brightest. One night, as he lay awake, he communed with himself and said, "Why should I keep silence till I waste away and see not my lover? Fault have I none save poverty; so, by Allah, I am resolved to remove me from this region and wander over the wild and the word; for my position in this city is a torture and I have no friend nor lover therein to comfort me; wherefore I am determined to distract myself by absence from my native land till I die and take my rest after this shame and tribulation." And he began to improvise and recited these couplets,
"Albeit my vitals quiver 'neath this ban; * Before the foe myself I'll ne'er unman! So pardon me, my vitals are a writ * Whose superscription are my tears that ran: Heigh ho! my cousin seemeth Houri may * Come down to earth by reason of Rizwan: 'Scapes not the dreadful sword lunge of her look * Who dares the glancing of those eyne to scan: O'er Allah's wide spread world I'll roam and roam, * And from such exile win what bread I can Yes, o'er broad earth I'll roam and save my soul, * All but her absence bear ing like a man With gladsome heart I'll haunt the field of fight, * And meet the bravest Brave in battle van!"
So Kanmakan fared forth from the palace barefoot and he walked in a short sleeved gown, wearing on his head a skull cap of felt [1] seven years old and carrying a scone three days stale, and in the deep glooms of night betook himself to the portal of al-Arij of Baghdad. Here he waited for the gate being opened and when it was opened, he was the first to pass through it; and he went out at random and wandered about the wastes night and day. When the dark hours came, his mother sought him but found him not; whereupon the world waxt strait upon her for all that it was great and wide, and she took no delight in aught of weal it supplied. She looked for him a first day and a second day and a third day till ten days were past, but no news of him reached her. Then her breast became contracted and she shrieked and shrilled, saying, "O my son! O my darling! thou hast revived my regrets. Sufficed not
- ↑ Arab. "Libdah," the sign of a pauper or religious mendicant. He is addressed "Yá Abu libdah!" (O father of a felt calotte!)
