Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 2.djvu/90

70 Ne’er shall I them forget, nay, nor the day they went And left me all forlorn, to pine for languishment, My severance to bewail in torment and dismay. I make a vow to God, if ever day or night The herald of good news my hearing shall delight, Announcing the return o’ th’ absent ones, I’ll lay Upon their threshold’s dust my cheeks and to my soul, “Take comfort, for the loved are come again,” I’ll say. If for my loved ones’ loss I rent my heart for dole, Before I rent my clothes, reproach me not, I pray.

He abode weeping for the loss of his wife and children till the morning, when he went forth wandering at a venture, knowing not what he should do, and gave not over faring along the sea-shore days and nights, unknowing whither he went and taking no food therein other than the herbs of the earth and seeing neither man nor beast nor other living thing, till his travel brought him to the top of a mountain. He took up his sojourn in the mountain and abode there [awhile] alone, eating of its fruits and drinking of its waters. Then he came down thence and fared on along the high road three days, at the end of which time he came upon tilled fields and villages and gave not over going till he sighted a great city on the shore of the sea and came to the gate thereof at the last of the day. The gatekeepers suffered him not to enter; so he abode his night anhungred, and when he arose in the morning, he sat down hard by the gate.

Now the king of the city was dead and had left no son, and the townsfolk fell out concerning who should