the Orthodox Greek Church), his dread companions vanished; and he found himself alone in the street with a donkey’s leg-bone in his hand. Terribly frightened, he went straight home and was very ill for a long while afterwards.
VII
NURSERY TALES[1]
Allah had given a certain woman seven sons, and she was very thankful for them, but for all that she longed to have a daughter and asked Allah to let her have one. One day, as she was passing
through the market, she saw some fair, white goat’s milk cheese exposed for sale; and the sight so moved her that she exclaimed, “O my Lord! O Allah! Give me, I entreat, a daughter as white and lovely as this cheese, and I will call her “Ijbeyneh.”[2] Her prayer was heard, and in due time she became the mother of a beautiful girl with a complexion like goats’ milk cheese, the neck of a gazelle, blue eyes, black hair, and a rose on either cheek. The child was named “Ijbeyneh” and every one who saw her loved her, with the exception of her cousins who were very jealous.
When Ijbeyneh was about seven years old, these cousins, at her own request, took her with them on
