Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 4.djvu/310

280 till the fifth night, when she rose from her bed and going forth the village to the grave of the young Muslim, threw herself upon it and died.

Her people knew not what was come of her; but, on the morrow, there came to the village two Muslim elders, clad in hair-cloth, and with them two women in like garb, and said, ‘O people of the village, with you is a woman of the friends of God, who died a Muslim, and we will take charge of her, instead of you.’ So the damsel’s family sought her and found her dead on the young Muslim’s grave; and they said, ‘This our sister died in our faith, and we will take charge of her.’ ‘Not so,’ rejoined the two old men; ‘she died a Muslim and we claim her.’ And the dispute waxed hot between them, till one of the Muslims said, ‘Be this the test of her faith. Let the forty monks of the monastery come all and [essay to] lift her from the grave. If they succeed, then she died a Nazarene; if not, one of us shall come and lift her up, and if she yield to him, she died a Muslim.’ The villagers agreed to this and fetched the forty monks, who heartened each other and came to her, to lift her, but could not. Then we tied a great rope about her middle and tugged at it with our might; but the rope broke in sunder, and she stirred nor; and the villagers came and joined their endeavour to ours, but could not move her from her place. At last, when all our devices failed, we said to one of the two old Muslims, ‘Come thou and lift her.’ So he went up to the grave and covering her with his mantle, said, ‘In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful, and of the Faith of the Apostle of God, on whom be peace and salvation!’ Then he lifted her and taking her in his bosom, betook himself with her to a cave hard by, where they laid her, and the two women came and washed her and shrouded her. Then the two elders bore her to