Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 3.djvu/35

Rh "O my lord! verily the bath is the Paradise of this world." Replied the Overseer, "Allah vouchsafe to thee such Paradise, and health to thy sons and guard them from the evil eye! Do ye remember aught that the eloquent have said in praise of the bath?" Quoth Taj al-Muluk, "I will repeat for thee a pair of couplets;" and he recited:—

When he ended his recital, quoth Aziz, "And I also remember two couplets in praise of the bath." The Overseer said, "Let me hear them," so he repeated the following:—

And when he had ended his recital, his verses pleased the Overseer and he wondered at his words and savoured their grace and fecundity and said to them, "By Allah, ye possess both beauty and eloquence. But now listen to me, you twain!" And he began chanting, and recited in song the following verses:—