Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/214

186 ended. So we said, ‘Alas for Otbeh!’ Which when the damsel heard, she cast herself down from the camel and throwing herself upon him, cried out grievously and recited the following verses:

Then she sobbed once and gave up the ghost. We dug one grave for them and laid them in the earth, and I returned to the dwellings of my people, where I abode seven years. Then I betook me again to the Hejaz and entering Medina the Luminous, to visit [the tomb of the Prophet], said in myself, ‘By Allah, I will go again to Otbeh’s tomb!’ So I repaired thither, and behold, over the grave was a tall tree, on which hung fillets of red and green and yellow stuffs. So I said to the people of the place, ‘How is this tree called?’ And they answered, ‘The tree of the Bride and the Bridegroom.’ I abode by the tomb a day and a night, then went my way; and this is all I know of Otbeh, may God the Most High have mercy upon him! HIND DAUGHTER OF EN NUMAN AND EL HEJJAJ.

It is related that Hind daughter of En Numan was the fairest woman of her day, and her beauty and grace were reported to El Hejjaj, who sought in marriage and lavished much treasure on her. So he took her to wife, engaging to give her a dowry of two hundred thousand dirhems in case of divorce, and when he went in to her, he abode with her a great while. One day after this, he went in to