Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/117

 Called to them, " Pray, O Sheykhs, we too have grace and fortune,

Since of a truth we perceive that ye are the men of wonder."

Said the Narrator:

And when the Sheykh had come, and the man of contemplation, and the soothsayer, and the sons of the great ones, and there had been prepared for them places in the tent, then Fadel the Agheyli turned to the soothsayer, and he said to him, "Now is the hour come for thee to show thy skill and to speak plainly, and if thou dost not speak sooth then will I slay thee and overwhelm thee with destruction." But the soothsayer said, "I hear and obey." Then went he once more to his image and began to upbraid it with angry words, and he swore great oaths over it, and said to it, " Verily it was no treaty I made with thee that thou shouldest lie." And the image began again to move and to speak to Fadel and to those around him, and to tell the tale once more from the beginning, both that which was without and that which was within. And it said, "O Fadel, how hath the Prince Abu Zeyd saved thy daughter from that'traitor and hath slain Sahel and Zohwa for her sake, and how did she then help him to obtain thy mare and to gain that which he desired of thee! For his is a wondrous case, and the circumstances of it how strange!" And in making an end of speaking it said, " But if thou wouldst hearken to my bidding, then wouldst thou make fellowship and