Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/187

165 and saying, ‘If aught trouble thee or thou be in fear of any vexation, beat the Magian’s drum, whereupon the dromedaries will come to thee; and do thou mount and return to us.’ He swore to do her bidding and conjured them to return. So they returned to the palace, mourning for their separation from him, especially the youngest, to whom no rest was left nor would patience come at her call, but she wept night and day.

Meanwhile, Hassan and his wife fared on night and day, through noontide heats and early dawns, over plains and deserts and valleys and stony wastes; and God decreed them safety, so that they reached Bassora without hindrance and made their camels kneel at the door of his house. Hassan then dismissed the dromedaries and going up to the door, to open it, heard his mother weeping and reciting the following verses, in a faint voice, from a heart worn [with sorrow] and on fire with consuming affliction:

When Hassan heard his mother weeping and lamenting, he wept also and knocked loudly at the door. Quoth she, ‘Who is at the door?’ And he said, ‘Open.’ Whereupon she opened the door and knowing him, fell down in a swoon: but he tended her till she came to herself, when he embraced her and she embraced him and kissed him, whilst his wife looked on. Then he carried his goods and gear into the house, whilst his mother repeated the