Page:The book of wonder voyages (1919).djvu/163

 the right rede." So he kissed her head, and his heart was comforted. Then his health and spirits returned to him, and he begged for food, which she brought him. And when her sisters questioned her concerning him, she replied, "His sickness was caused by our leaving him desolate, for the days we have been absent have seemed to him more than a thousand years. Perchance, too, he has been thinking of his mother, who may have been weeping for him and mourning his loss day and night, for when we were with him we were the means of diverting his thoughts." And the sisters wept saying: "'Fore Allah, he is not to blame." Then they went to salute Hasan, and when they saw how he had changed, how wasted and shrunken he had become, they wept for very pity and did all in their power to comfort and cheer him. Yet his sickness daily increased, at seeing which they all wept, especially the youngest. Now afterwards the Princesses went a-hunting, but the youngest remained with Hasan.

And when the Princesses had departed, the youngest, who remained at home, went to Hasan and said: "O my brother, show me the place where thou sawest the maidens." Then he rejoiced at her words and tried to rise, but could not for weakness. So she took him in her arms and carried him to the top of the palace, where he showed her the pavilion and the basin of water where they had bathed. And she said: "Explain to me, O my brother, how they came." Then he described what he had seen, and especially the maiden with whom he had