Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/98

78 Next morning, the King mounted with Gherib and all his troops and rode forth to the tilting-ground, where he said to his men, ‘Do ye tilt with spears and gladden my heart.’ So the Persian cavaliers tilted, one against the other, and Gherib said, ‘O King of the age, I have a mind to tilt with the horsemen of the Persians, but on one condition.’ ‘What is that?’ asked the King. ‘It is,’ answered Gherib, ‘that I shall don a light tunic and take a headless spear, with a pennon dipped in saffron, whilst the Persians tilt against me with sharp spears. If any conquer me, I will give myself to him; but, if I conquer him, I will mark him on the breast and he shall leave the lists.’ Then the King cried to the commander of the troops to bring forward the champions of the Persians; so he chose out twelve hundred of his stoutest champions, and the King said to them, in the Persian tongue, ‘Whoso slayeth this Bedouin may ask of me what he will.’ So they strove with each other for the precedence and advanced upon Gherib and truth was distinguished from falsehood and jest from earnest. Quoth Gherib, ‘I put my trust in God, the God of Abraham the Friend, Who hath power over all and from whom nothing is hidden, the One, the Almighty, whom the sight comprehendeth not!’

Then a giant of the Persian champions pricked out to him, but Gherib let him not stand long before him ere he marked him and filled his breast with saffron, and as he turned away, he smote him on the nape with [the butt of] his spear, and he fell to the ground and his pages carried him forth of the lists. Then a second champion came forth against him and he overcame him and marked him on the breast; and thus did he with champion after champion, till he had overcome them all and marked them on the breast; for God the Most High gave him the victory over them and they went forth of the lists. Then the servants set food before them and they ate and drank till