Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 7.djvu/231

209 and wash; and this she did to the intent that she might show him all the girls, so haply his wife should be amongst them and he know her. So the whole army assembled before her and putting off their clothes, went down into the stream, [company after company;] and Hassan watched them washing and frolicking and making merry, whilst they took no heed of him, deeming him to be of the daughters of the kings. When he beheld them stripped of their clothes, his yard rose on end, for that he saw what was between their thighs, and that of all kinds, soft and domed, plump and cushioned, large-lipped, perfect, redundant and ample, and their faces were as moons and their hair as night upon day, for that they were of the daughters of the kings.

When they were clean, they came up out of the water, naked, as the moon on the night of her full, and the old woman questioned Hassan of them, company by company, if his wife were among them; but, as often as she asked him, he made answer, ‘She is not among these, O my lady.’ Last of all, there came up a damsel, attended by half a score slave-girls and thirty waiting-women, all high-bosomed maids. They all put off their clothes and went down into the river, where the damsel fell to carrying it with a high hand over her women, throwing them down and ducking them. Presently, she came up out of the water and sat down and they brought her napkins of silk, embroidered with gold, with which she dried herself. Then they brought her clothes and jewels and ornaments of the handiwork of the Jinn, and she donned them and rose and walked among the troops, she and her maids. When Hassan saw her, his heart fluttered and he said, ‘Verily this girl is the likest of all folk to the bird I saw in the lake atop of the palace of my sisters the

VOL. VII.