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Then said he, "O Ibrahim, sing this song after me, and preserving the mode thereof in thy singing, teach it to thy slave-girls." Quoth I, "Repeat it to me." But he answered, "There needs no repetition; thou hast it by heart nor is there more to learn." Then he suddenly vanished from my sight.
The strong drinks caused many a wordy war, and we made a point of exhorting the pagans, with poor success I own, to purer lives. We spent our soiree alternately bepreaching the Gallas, "chaffing" Mad Said, who, despite his seventy years, was a hale old Bedouin, with a salt and sullen repartee, and quarrelling with the slave-girls.
"The prince was a pale, handsome youth, as those whom women love much are generally wont to be. He was kept in a remote part of the Seraglio, for although every joy of life was his, and he was surrounded by wealth, pomp, and slave-girls, he was never permitted to quit the Seraglio.
Then he folded the scroll and kissing it, gave it to the old woman; after which he put his hand to a chest and took out a second purse containing an hundred dinars, which he presented to her, saying, "Divide this among the slave-girls."
She followed the last of the slave-girls into the sleeping-room, and when she had assured herself that they were all there but the crazy Persian she enquired where she was. They had all seen her a few minutes ago in the shed; so she bid them good-night and left them, letting it be understood that she was about to seek the missing girl.
So I told him the whole affair, first and last, hiding naught, and said to him, 'Now as to the food I have had my will, but of the hand and wrist I have still to win my wish. Quoth he, 'Thou shalt have thy desire of the hand and wrist also, Inshallah! Then said he to the slave-girl, 'Ho, such an one, bid such an one come down. And he called his slave-girls down, one by one and showed them to me; but I saw not my mistress among them, and he said, 'O my lord, there is none left save my mother and sister; but, by Allah, I must needs have them also down and show them to thee. So I marvelled at his courtesy and large heartedness and said, 'May I be thy sacrifice!
In a few minutes you will see this remarkable grandmother, and, if we should be here alone, perhaps the grandchild too; you will then at once perceive that they owe everything to their own rare qualities and not to the chances of good fortune. Ah! there they come! they are going towards the house. Cannot you hear the slave-girls singing? Now they are going in.
My companions were not much struck with the beauty of the Queens, for they declared that some of the pretty young slave-girls had much more lovely looks. Each of the Duke's wives bring, or send, a jug of water for his large brass-pan bath every morning, and his favourite wife remains to assist in his ablutions.
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Ibn Mansur continued: "So I said, 'Do what seemeth good to thee; whereupon he called to one of his slave-girls, 'Bring me ink case and paper; and wrote these couplets,
Knowest thou not, O wretched fellow, that for them are palaces built and slave-girls bought, and over them curtains are let down, that for them do tears flow and for them armies levied and pleasure- houses raised up and riches gathered and heads smitten off?
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