Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/106

 Lo, I will build for thee a monument of honour,

And yearly make for thee a feast and celebration,

And brave men at thy tomb shall keep thee in remembrance."

And the Emir Agheyli Jaber took by the hand Salame,

And brought him to his tent and set him with the great ones.

And the people pressed around as it were in the market of Amer,

And with them the fakir, until the dawn was breaking,

While still they chaunted on, and thus to the full morning,

With song and recitation and noble wealth of feasting.

Said the narrator:

And when they had made the morning prayer, talking and reciting, and Abu Zeyd with them in great delight, then to them came a swift horseman, and his name was Bedr ibn Saleh er Ramal, the sand-diviner, and he came from the land of Bagdad, a knower of things hidden. And when he had alighted he sat him down with the Arabs, and the Agheyli Jaber saluted him witha fair salutation, and the man said, "O Prince of the people, the news hath reached me of the loss of thy mare, nor have I come to thee save for her sake and to discourse to thee of her welfare if thou shouldst desire it." And the Emir said to him, "' If thine be an honest business, the time favoureth." And the Ramal struck the sand and made on it his figure fairly, and he said, " Know that he who stole the mare hath set her ina desert place, and he then came