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Bring them to me. So he bade the eunuch bring them in; and when she looked on them and saw that they were both possessed of beauty, she wept for them and said, 'By Allah, they are people of condition and show signs of former fortune. 'O my lady, said the syndic's wife, 'we love the poor and destitute, because of the recompense that God hath promised to such as succour them: as for these, belike the oppressors have done them violence and robbed them of their fortune and laid waste their dwelling-place. Then Ghanim's mother and sister wept sore, recalling their former prosperity and contrasting it with their present destitute and miserable condition and thinking of Ghanim, whilst Cout el Culoub wept because they did.
Then they fared forth for Baghdad, but the camel-man forewent them and, setting Ghanim down at the Spital gate, went away with his beast. Thereupon she tucked up her sleeves and warming some water, washed his hands, feet and body; after which she clothed him in a robe belonging to one of her slave girls and made him drink a cup of wine and sprinkled rose wafer over him.
Ask what thou wilt of me, O Cout el Culoub, and it shall be granted to thee. 'O Commander of the Faithful, said she, 'I ask of thee my beloved Ghanim ben Eyoub. The Khalif granted her prayer, and she said, 'O Commander of the Faithful, if I bring him to thee, wilt thou bestow me on him? 'If he come, replied the Khalif, 'I will bestow thee on him, the gift of a generous man who does not go back on his giving. 'O Commander of the Faithful, said she, 'suffer me to go in quest of him: it may be God will unite me with him. 'Do what seemeth good to thee, answered he.
Ghanim sat with them, being overcome with bashfulness and saying to himself, 'I cannot well go away till they do. They sat listening to the recitation till nightfall, when the servants set the evening meal and sweetmeats before them and they ate till they were satisfied, then sat down again, after having washed their hands.
When he ordered her to come in, she entered and, kissing the ground between his hands, told him the whole story and how her lord, Ghanim bin Ayyub, yclept the Distraught, the Thrall o' Love, and his mother and sister were now in Baghdad. When the Caliph heard this, he turned to the eunuchs and said, "Here with Ghanim to me."
Then Ja'afar went in to the Caliph and told him all that had happened, and he ordered Kut al-Kulub to be lodged in a dark chamber and appointed an old women to serve her, feeling convinced that Ghanim had debauched her and slept with her.
Who is this that hath guarded my honour and whose honour I have violated, and who hath protected my harem, whilst I have enslaved his? 'Ghanim ben Eyoub, replied she; 'for by thy munificence, O Commander of the Faithful, he never approached me by way of lewdness nor with evil intent! Then said the Khalif, 'There is no power and no virtue but in God!
When Ghanim saw her, he knew that some one had plotted against her and drugged her; so he pulled her out of the chest and laid her on the ground on her back.
So he said to her, 'O my lady, grant me a kiss of thy mouth; maybe it will quench the fire of my heart. 'O Ghanim, replied she, 'wait till I am drunk: then steal a kiss from me, so that I may not know thou hast kissed me. Then she rose and taking off her upper clothes, sat in a shift of fine linen and a silken kerchief.
Then he wrote a letter to the Amir Mohammed ben Suleiman ez Zeini, the viceroy of Damascus, to the following purport, 'As soon as this letter reaches thee, lay hands on Ghanim ben Eyoub and send him to me. When the letter came to the viceroy, he kissed it and laid it on his head, then caused proclamation to be made in the streets of Damascus, 'Whoso is minded to plunder, let him betake himself to the house of Ghanim ben Eyoub! So they repaired to the house, where they found that Ghanim's mother and sister had made him a tomb midmost the house and sat by it, weeping for him, whereupon they seized them, without telling them the cause, and carried them before the Sultan, after having plundered the house.
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