Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 8.djvu/15

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Then he looked at the third, on which he found these verses written in ultramarine:

And on the fourth was painted in yellow characters the following verse:

Moreover, in that garden were birds of all kinds, turtle and cushat and culver and nightingale, each carolling his several song, and amongst them the lady, swaying gracefully to and fro and ravishing all who saw her with her beauty and grace and symmetry. ‘O man,’ said she to Mesrour, ‘what brings thee into a house other than thy house and wherefore comest thou in unto women other than thy women, without leave of their owner?’ ‘O my lady,’ answered he, ‘I saw this garden, and the goodliness of its verdure pleased me and the fragrance of its flowers and the singing of its birds; so I entered, thinking to gaze on it awhile and go my way.’ ‘With all my heart,’ said she. Mesrour was amazed at the sweetness of her speech and the amorous languor of her glances and the elegance of her shape, and transported by her beauty and grace and the pleasantness of the garden and the birds. So he recited the following verses: