Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/208

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So take heart and brace up thy resolution, for one who is to live ten years dieth not when he is but nine. Weeping and grief and mourning engender sickness and disease; wherefore do thou abide with us till thou be rested, and I will cast about how thou mayst win to thy wife and children, so it please God the Most High.’ And he wept sore and recited these verses:

Then he sat down beside her and she proceeded to talk with him and comfort him and question him of the manner of his wife’s departure. So he told her and she said, ‘By Allah, O my brother, I had it in mind to bid thee burn the feather-dress, but Satan made me forget it.’ She ceased not to talk with him and caress him and company with him other ten days, whilst sleep visited him not and he delighted not in food; and when the case was long upon him and unrest waxed in him, he recited the following verses: