Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/271



She laid her lute in her lap and with bosom inclining over it, bent to it with the bending of a mother who suckleth her child; then she preluded in twelve different modes, till the whole assembly was agitated with delight, like a waving sea, and she sang the following,

"Cut short this strangeness, leave unruth of you; * My heart shall love you aye, by youth of you! Have ruth on one who sighs and weeps and moans, * Pining and yearning for the troth of you."

The Caliph was ravished and exclaimed, "Allah bless thee and be merciful to him who taught thee!": whereupon she rose and kissed the ground before him. Then he sent for money and paid her master Abu al-Husn an hundred thousand gold pieces to her price; after which he said to her, "O Tawaddud, ask a boon of me!" Replied she, "I ask of thee that thou restore me to my lord who sold me." "'Tis well," answered the Caliph and restored her to her master and gave her five thousand dinars for herself. Moreover, he appointed Abu al-Husn one of his cup-companions for a permanence,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Four Hundred and Sixty-second Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that the Caliph gave the damsel five thousand dinars for herself and restored her to her master whom he appointed one of his cup-companions for a permanence and assigned him a monthly stipend of a thousand dinars so long as he should live; and he abode with the damsel Tawaddud in all solace and delight of life. Marvel then, O King, at the eloquence of this damsel and the hugeness of her learning and understanding and her perfect excellence in all branches of art and science; and consider the generosity of the Commander of the Faithful, Harun al-Rashid, in that he gave her master this money and said to her, "Ask a boon of me;" and she besought him to restore her to her lord. So he restored her to him and gave her five thousand dinars for herself and made him one of his boon-companions. Where is such generosity to be found after the Abbaside Caliphs?--May Allah Almighty have mercy upon them, one and all! And they tell a tale of