Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/248

215 So mount him not upon the breasts, for he shall surely deem That horses’ backs for such as he the softer sitting are; And wean ye him from sucking milk, for he eftsoon shall find The blood of foemen in the field the sweeter drink by far.

The midwives took the new-born child and cut the cord of his navel, after which they anointed his eyes with kohl and named him Taj el Mulouk Kharan. He was suckled at the breast of delight and reared in the lap of favouring fortune, and the days ran on and the years passed by, till he reached the age of seven. Then the King his father summoned the doctors and learned men and bade them teach his son writing and science and polite letters. This they did for some years, till he had learnt all that was needful, when the King took him out of the professors’ hands and committed him to a master, who taught him horsemanship and the use of arms, till the boy attained the age of fourteen and became proficient in martial exercises. Moreover, he outshone all the people of his time for the excess of his beauty; so that, whenever he went abroad on any ocassionoccasion [sic], all who saw him were ravished with him and made verses in his honour, and even the virtuous were seduced by his brilliant loveliness. Quoth the poet of him:

When he reached his eighteenth year, the tender down began to invade the table of his rosy cheeks, which were