Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 6.djvu/99

79 Gherib’s wits were dazed. By and by, he went out upon an occasion and would have returned, but lost his way and entered the palace of Fekhr Taj. When she saw him, her reason fled and she cried out to her women, saying, ‘Go to your own places!’ So they withdrew and she rose and kissed Gherib’s hand, saying, ‘Welcome to my lord, who delivered me from the Ghoul! Indeed I am thine handmaid for ever.’ Then she drew him to her bed and embraced him, whereupon desire was hot upon him and he broke her seal and lay with her till the morning. Now the King thought that he had departed; but on the morrow he went in to him and Sabour rose to him and made him sit by his side.

Then entered the [tributary] kings and kissing the earth, stood on either hand and fell to talking of Gherib’s valour and saying, ‘Extolled be He who gave him such prowess, and he so young in years!’ As they were thus engaged, the King espied from the palace-windows the dust of horse approaching and cried out to his scouts, saying, ‘Out on you! Go and bring me news of yonder dust!’ So one of them took horse and riding off, returned after awhile and said, ‘O King, this is the dust of a hundred horse, and the name of their chief is Sehim el Leil.’ Quoth Gherib, ‘O my lord, this is my brother, whom I had sent on an errand, and I will go forth to meet him.’ So saying, he mounted, with his hundred men of the Benou Kehtan and a thousand Persians, and rode forth to meet his brother in great state, [that is to say if greatness may be attributed to the creature] for [real] greatness belongeth to God alone. When they came up with each other, they dismounted and embraced, and Gherib said to Sehim, ‘O my brother, hast thou brought our tribe to the Castle of the Ghoul of the Mountain and the Valley of Flowers?’ ‘O my brother,’ answered Sehim, ‘when the perfidious dog Merdas heard that thou hadst mastered the Ghoul of the