Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 5.djvu/284

250 How much they hoped for, over that which was to them ordained! Then to the grave they passed and hope availed them nothing there. Yea, they descended from their height of glory to the strait Abjection of the tomb, and ill was this their last repair. Whenas as they buried were, came one that cried to them and said, “Where be the thrones, the diadems, the raiment ye did wear? Where be the faces that were veiled and curtained round about, Whereon, of yore, were bywords made, so bright they were and fair?” And the tomb answer for them made to him that questioned them, Saying, “The roses of the cheeks are faded out fore’er. Long time they ate and drank their fill; now, after pleasant food, Themselves are eaten in their turn; the worms upon them fare.”

When the Amir read this, he wept, till he was like to swoon away, and bade write down the verses, after which he passed on into the inner palace and came to a vast hall, at each of whose four corners stood a lofty and spacious pavilion, enamelled with gold and silver and painted in various colours. Midmost the hall was a great fountain of alabaster, surmounted by a canopy of brocade, and in each of the pavilions was a richly-wrought fountain and cistern paved with marble and streams flowing in channels along the floor and meeting in a great cistern of many-coloured marble.

Quoth the Amir to the Sheikh Abdussemed, ‘Come, let us visit yonder pavilions.’ So they entered the first and found it full of gold and silver and pearls and rubies and other precious stones and metals, besides chests filled with brocades, red and white and yellow. Then they repaired to the second pavilion and opening a closet there, found it full of arms and armour, such as gilded helmets and Davidean hauberks and Indian swords and Arabian spears and Chorasmian maces and other warlike gear. Thence they passed to the third pavilion, wherein they saw closets locked and covered with curtains wrought with all manner broidery. They opened one of these and found it full of