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them and their own country, when the pangs of travail came upon Abrizeh and she could no longer sit her horse. So she said to Ghezban, “Set me down, for the pains of labour are upon me,” and cried to Merjaneh, saying, “Do thou alight and sit down by me and deliver me.” They both drew rein and dismounting from their horses, helped the princess to alight, and she aswoon for stress of pain. When Ghezban saw her on the ground, Satan entered into him and he drew his sabre and brandishing it in her face, said, “O my lady, vouchsafe me thy favours.” With this, she turned to him and said, “It were a fine thing that I should yield to black slaves, after having I refused kings and princes!” Night lii.And she was wroth with him and said, “What words are these? Out on thee! Do not talk thus in my presence and know that I will never consent to what thou sayst, though I drink the cup of death. Wait till I have cast my burden and am delivered of the after-birth, and after, if thou be able thereto, do with me as thou wilt; but, an thou leave not lewd talk at this time, I will slay myself and leave the world and be at peace from all this.” And she recited the following verses:
O Ghezban, unhand me and let me go freer Sure, fortune is heavy enough upon me.
My Lord hath forbidden me whoredom. “The fire Shall be the transgressor’s last dwelling,” quoth He:
So look not on me with the eye of desire, For surely to lewdness I may not agree;
And if thou respect not mine honour and God Nor put away filthy behaviour from thee,
I will call with my might on the men of my tribe And draw them all hither from upland and lea.
Were I hewn, limb from limb, with the Yemani sword, Yet never a lecher my visage should see
Of the freeborn and mighty; so how then should I Let a whoreson black slave have possession of me?
When Ghezban heard this, he was exceeding angry;
