Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/118

 poured it out on the fields. Of me they said: 'Thanks to God who has planted aloe-trees!'

603. "We went back (to P'hridon's). The triumph exhibited by the citizens was heard; suppliants there laid hold on the heart of beholders. All uttered praise to me and Nuradin, in a panegyric ; they said to us: 'Through the strength of your (right) arms their blood still flows!'

604. "The soldiers acclaimed P'hridon as king and me as king of kings, themselves as subjects and me as sovereign of them all. I was gloomy, they could never find me culling roses; they knew not my story, there it was not lightly spoken of.  

605. "One day the king and I went forth to the chase; we climbed upon a cape jutting out into the sea. P'hridon said to me: "I will tell thee how, when we were out riding for sport, I once saw a wonderful thing from this cape.'

606. "I bade him speak, and P'hridon told me even this tale: 'One day I wished to hunt, I mounted this steed of mine. It seemed as if there were a duck in the sea, a falcon on the land; I stood here and watched the flight of the hawk thitherward.

607. Now and then as I climbed uphill I gazed out to sea. I perceived a small thing far away on the sea, going so swiftly that nothing of its kind could equal it; I could not make it out; in my mind I marvelled at these two things.

608. I said to myself: "What is it? To what can I liken it? Is it bird or beast?" It was a boat tented over with many-folded stuff; a steersman guided it. I fixed