Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/135

113 not to slay horseman after horseman, till he had made an end of thirty men. with this the vile infidels held back and feared to face him, saying, ‘Who shall cope with Jinn and Ghouls?’ But Julned cried out, saying, ‘Let a hundred horse charge him and bring him to me, alive or dead.’ So a hundred horse ran at Saadan with swords and spears, and he met them with a heart firmer than flint, proclaiming the unity of the Requiting King, whom no one thing diverteth from another. Then he set on them, crying, ‘God is Most Great!’ and smote them with his sword and made their heads fly. In one onset he slew of them four-and-seventy and put the rest to flight.

Then Julned cried out to ten of his captains, having each a thousand men under his hand, and said to them, ‘Shoot his horse with arrows, till it fall under him, and then lay hands on him.’ So ten thousand horse drove at Saadan, who met them with a stout heart; and Jemrcan, seeing this, bore down upon the infidels with his Muslims, crying out, ‘God is Most Great!’ Before they could win to the Ghoul, the enemy had slain his horse and taken him prisoner; but they ceased not to charge the infidels, though they were amongst them as a white patch on a black bull, till the day grew dark [for dust] and eyes were blinded, and the sharp sword clanged, whilst the valiant stood firm and destruction overtook the faint-heart; nor did they stint from the mellay till the dark fell down, when they drew apart, after there had been slain of the infidels men without number.

Then Jemrcan and his men returned to their tents, in great grief for Saadan, so that neither meat nor sleep was sweet to them, and they counted their host and found that less than a thousand of them had fallen. And Jemrcan said, ‘O folk, to-morrow I will go forth into the lists and slay their champions and make prize of them and their families and ransom Saadan therewith, if it please the

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