Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/72

 52 A If Laylah wa Laylah. ciown the shelves .and broke ihe windows and the -, lattices and smeared the walls (with mud and indigo, saying to me, " Woe to thee, O Kafur ! come help me to tear down these "cupboards and break up these vessels and this china-ware, 1 and the rest of it." So I went to her and aided her to smash all the shelves in the house with whatever stood upon them, after which I went round about the terrace-roofs and every part of the place, spoiling all I could and leaving no china in the hoyse urfbroken till I had laid waste the whole, crying out the while "Well-away! my master!" Then my mistress fared forth bare-faced wearing a head-kerchief and naught else, and her daughters and the children sallied out with her, and said to me, "O Kafur, go thou before us and show us the place where thy master lieth dead, that we may take him from under the fallen wall and lay him on a bier and bear him to the house and give him a fine funeral." So I went forth before them crying out, " Alack, my master ! " ; and they after me with faces and heads bare and all shrieking, " Alas ! Alas for the man ! " Now there remained none in the quarter, neither man nor woman, nor epicene, nor youth nor maid, nor child nor old trot, but went with us smiting their faces and weeping bitterly, and I led them leisurely through the whole city. The folk asked them what was the matter, whereupon they told them what they had heard from me, and all exclaimed," There is no Majesty and there is no Might save in Allah ! " Then said one of them, " He was a personage of consequence ; so let us go to the Governor and tell him what hath befallen him." When they told the Governor, -- And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. fo&en ft foa tfte Jporttetf) She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when they told the Governor, he rose and mounted and, taking with him It is or rather was the custom in Egypt and Syria to range long rows of fine China bowls along the shelves running round the rooms at the height of six or seven feet, and they formed a magnificent cornice. I bought many of them at Damascus till the people, learning their value, asked prohibitive prices. a The tale is interesting as well as amusing, excellently describing the extravagances still practised in middle-class Moslem families on the death of the pater familias. I must again note that Arab women are much more unwilling to expose the back of the head covered by the "Tarhah" (head-veil) than the face, which is hidden by the "Burka" or nose-bag.