Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night - Volume 5.djvu/64

 books that whoso will flatter the lion, beguileth him, [FN#45] for that he is readily duped by smooth speech and gentled by being glorified; so he began and said, "O Lion of the forest! O Lord of the waste! O terrible Leo! O father of fighters! O Sultan of wild beasts! Behold, I am a lover in longing, whom passion and severance have been wronging; since I parted from my dear, I have lost my reasoning gear; wherefore, to my speech do thou give ear and have ruth on my passion and hope and fear." When the lion heard this, he drew back from him and sitting down on his hindquarters, raised his head to him and began to frisk tail and paws; which when Uns al-Wujud saw, he recited these couplets,

"Lion of the wold wilt thou murther me, *     Ere I meet her who doomed me to slavery?   I am not game and I bear no fat; *     For the loss of my love makes me sickness dree;   And estrangement from her hath so worn me down *     I am like a shape in a shroud we see.   O thou sire of spoils, [FN#46] O thou lion of war, *     Give not my pains to the blamer's gree.   I burn with love, I am drowned in tears *     For a parting from lover, sore misery!   And my thoughts of her in the murk of night *     For love hath make my being unbe."

As he had finished his lines the lion rose,--And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.

When it was the Three Hundred and Seventy-fourth Night,

She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that as Uns al-Wujud ended his lines, the lion arose and stalked slowly up to him, with eyes tear-railing and licked him with his tongue, then walked on before him, signing to him as though saying, "Follow