Page:Tales from the Arabic, Vol 3.djvu/56

38 affair.” “Know, O my neighbour,” answered the Jew, “that the slave-girls of the Commander of the Faithful are used to drink wine, and whenas they eat and drink not, they perish; and I fear lest some mishap betide her, in which case thou wouldst not be safe from the Khalif’s wrath.” “What is to be done?” asked the Sheikh; and the Jew replied, “I have old wine that will suit her.” Quoth the old man, “[I conjure thee] by the right of neighbourship, deliver me from this calamity and let me have that which is with thee!” “In the name of God,” answered the Jew and going to his house, brought out a flagon of wine, with which the Sheikh returned to Sitt el Milah. This pleased her and she said to him, “Whence hadst thou this?” “I got it from my neighbour the Jew,” answered he. “I set out to him my case with thee and he gave me this.”

Sitt el Milah filled a cup and emptied it; after which she drank a second and a third. Then she filled the cup a fourth time and handed it to the old man, but he would not accept it from her. However, she conjured him, by her own head and that of the Commander of the Faithful, that he should take it from her, till he took the cup from her hand and kissed it and would have set it down; but she conjured him by her life to smell it. So he smelt it and she said to him, “How deemest thou?” “Its smell is sweet,” replied he; and she conjured him, by the life of the Commander of the Faithful, to taste it. So he put it to his mouth and she rose to him and made him drink; whereupon, “O princess of the fair,” said he, “this is none other than good.” Quoth she,