away as though it were a hundred hours; but it is a long time for temptation and sin. Every evening, when I leave you, I must call, ‘Come with me!’ I must beckon to you with my hand—but do not attend. Do not follow me; for with every step temptation will increase. Should you come into the hall where the Tree of Knowledge stands, under whose fragrant boughs I sleep, and bend over me, and press a kiss on my mouth, then will Paradise sink into the earth, and be lost to you. The chill winds of the desert will whistle around you, the cold rain trickle from your hair, and want and sorrow will be your portion.
“I will remain,” said the Prince; and the East Wind kissed him on the forehead, and said, “Be firm, and we shall meet again here in a hundred years! Farewell, farewell!”
And the East Wind spread out his large wings: they shone like lightning seen at harvest-time; or like the aurora borealis in cold winter.
“Farewell! farewell!” was re-echoed by
