Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 3.djvu/219

199 My sight I’ve bereft of thee, of my jealousy, And ne’er shall I see thee again, till I come to die. I’m drowned in the sea of my tears, for sheer unrest; Indeed, for sleepless sorrow in hell am I.

Then he threw himself on Asaad’s tomb and recited the following verses, whilst the tears poured from his eyes:

Then he forsook his friends and intimates, and denying himself to his women and his family, shut himself up in the House of Lamentations, where he passed his time in weeping for his sons.

Meanwhile, Amjed and Asaad fared on into the desert a whole month’s journey, eating of the fruits of the earth and drinking of the rain-pools, till their travel brought them to a mountain of black stone, where the road divided in two, one skirting the foot of the mountain and the other leading to its summit. They took the former way, for fear of thirst, and followed it five days, but saw no end to it and were overcome with weariness, being unused to walking in mountains or elsewhere. At last, despairing of coming to the end of the road, they retraced their steps and taking the other, that led over the mountain, followed it all that day, till nightfall, when Asaad, weary with much travel, said to Amjed, ‘O my brother, I can go no farther, for I am exceeding weak.’ ‘Courage,’ replied Amjed;