Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 2.djvu/95

 The Tale of Ghanim bin Ayyub. 73 for they are not of asker-folk and, if it please Allah, we shall enter Paradise through them." " By Allah, O my master/' cried she, "thou makest me long to see them! Where are they?", adding, " Here with them to me ! " So he bade the eunuch bring them in ; and, when she looked on them and saw that they were both of distinguished beauty, she wept for them and said, " By Allah, these are people of condition and show plain signs of former opulence." "O my lady," said the Syndic's wife, "we love the poor and the destitute, more especially as reward in Heaven will recompense our love ; and, as for these persons, haply the oppressor hath dealt hardly with them and hath plundered their property and harried their houses." Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept with sore weeping, remembering their former pros- perity and contrasting it with their present poverty and miserable condition ; and their thoughts dwelt upon son and brother, whilst Kut al-Kulub wept for their weeping ; and they said, " We beseech Allah to reunite us with him whom we desire, and he is none other but my son named Ghanim bin Ayyub ! " When Kut al-Kulub heard this, she knew them to be the mother and sister of her lover and wept till a swoon came over her. When she revived she turned to them and said, " Have no fear and sorrow not, for this day is the first of your prosperity and the last of your adversity !" And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. Xoto foljcn ft toas tfje Jfortn-fouuf) Xio!)t, She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when Kut al-Kulub had consoled them she bade the Syndic lead them to his house and let his wife carry them to the Hamman and dress them in handsome clothes and take care of them and honour them with all honour ; and she gave him a sufficient sum of money. Next day, she mounted and, riding to his house, went in to his wife who rose up and kissed her hands and thanked her for her kindness. There she saw Ghanim's mother and sister whom the Syndic's wife had taken to the Hammam and clothed afresh, so that the traces of their former condition became manifest upon them. She sat talking with them awhile, after which she asked the wife about the sick youth who was in her house and she replied, " He is in the