Page:Man in the Panther's Skin.djvu/223

 1238. P'hatman went, Avt'handil heard her voice making moan; she said: "Undoubtedly I am slain by him whose form is like an aloe-tree." He set her at his side; he gave her a pillow from his carpet. The shade from the eaves of the eyelashes overshadows the rosegarden (of the cheeks).

1239. Avt'handil said: "O P'hatman, I know thee; thou wilt tremble at these tidings like one bitten by a serpent; but hitherto thou hast not heard the truth concerning me: my slayers are black lashes, trees of jet.

1240. "Thou thinkest me some merchant, master of a caravan; I am the Commander-in-Chief of the exalted king Rostevan, chief of the great host befitting him; I have the mastery over many treasuries and arsenals.—

1241. "I know thee to be a good friend, faithful, trusty.—He has one daughter, a sun the enlightener of lands; she it is who consumes me and melts me; she sent me, I forsook my master, her father.

1242. "That damsel thou hadst—to seek that same damsel, that substitute for the sun, I have gone over the whole world; I have seen him who roves for her sake, where he, pale lion, lies wasting himself, his heart and strength."

1243. Avt'handil told all his own tale to P'hatman, the story of the donning of the panther hide by Tariel. He said: "Thou art the balm of him thou hast not yet seen, the resource of (him of) frequent eyelash, ruffled like a raven's wing.