Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/250

220 the women of the tribe of Kureish to her house, when Aaïsheh sang the following, with Musab standing by:

The night of his going in to her, he departed not from her, till after seven courses; and on the morrow, a freed-woman of his met him and said to him, ‘May I be thy ransom! Thou art perfect, even in this.’

Quoth a certain woman, ‘I was with Aaïsheh, when her husband came in to her, and she lusted to him; so he fell upon her and she puffed and snorted and made use of all manner of rare motions and strange inventions, and I the while within hearing. So when he came out from her, I said to her, “How canst thou, with thy rank and nobility and condition, do thus, and I in thy house?” Quoth she, “A woman should bring her husband all of which she is mistress, by way of excitations and rare motions. What mislikest thou of this?” And I answered, “I would have this anights.” “Thus is it by day,” rejoined she, “and by night I do more than this; for, when he sees me, desire stirs in him and he falls on heat; so he puts out his hand to me and I obey him, and it is as thou seest.”’ ABOUL ASWED AND HIS SQUINTING SLAVE-GIRL.

Aboul Aswed bought a native-born slave-girl, who was squint-eyed, and she pleased him; but his people decried her to him; whereat he wondered and spreading out his hands, recited the following verses: