Page:The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Vol 2.djvu/197

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mekan and Sherkan wept sore and kissed her hands and feet, sobbing aloud: but she signed to them and said, “Give over weeping and hear my words.” So they left weeping, in obedience to her, and she said, “Know that I was content to accept what my Lord did unto me, knowing that the affliction that befell me was a trial from Him (to whom belong might and majesty); since that for him who is not patient under trial and affliction there is no coming to the delights of Paradise. I had indeed besought Him that I might return to my native land, yet not for impatience of the sufferings decreed to me, but that I might die under the hoofs of the horses of the warriors of the Faith, who, being slain in battle, live again without suffering death;”^[1] and she repeated the following couplets:

The fortress^[2] is Sinaï’s self and the fire of war burns free, And thou art Moses and this the time appointed to thee.
Throw down thy rod, for lo, it shall swallow up all they make! And fear not; I trow the ropes of the folk no serpents be.^[3]
Read thou the lines of the foe for chapters,^[4] the day of the fight, And let thy sword mark on their necks the verses, what while they flee.

Then her eyes ran over with tears and her forehead shone like gleaming light, and Sherkan rose and kissed her hand and caused food to be set before her: but she refused it, saying, “I have not broken my fast (till sunset) for fifteen years; and how should I do so now, whenas my Lord hath been bountiful to me in delivering me from the captivity of the infidels and doing away from me that which was more grievous than the fiery torment? I will wait till sun-

1. “say not of those who are slain in the way (service) of God that they are dead; nay, they are living.”—Koran, ii. 149.
2. Apparently Constantinople.
3. This verse alludes to the garbled version of the miracle of Aaron’s rod given in the Koran, which attributes the act to Moses and makes the Egyptian sorcerers throw down ropes, to which by their art they give the appearance of serpents.
4. i.e. of the Koran.