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‘Which of sweet-scented flowers?’ (A.) ‘The rose and the violet.’ (Q.) ‘How is sperma hominis secreted?’ (A.) ‘There is in man a vein that feeds all the other veins. Water [or blood] is collected from the three hundred and threescore veins and enters, in the form of red blood, the left testicle, where it is decocted, by the heat of man’s temperament, into a thick, white liquid, whose odour is as that of the palm-spathe.’ (Q.) ‘What bird [or flying thing] is it that emits seed and menstruates?’ (A.) ‘The bat, that is, the rere-mouse.’ (Q.) ‘What is that which, when it is shut out [from the air], lives, and when it smells the air, dies?’ (A.) ‘The fish.’ (Q.) ‘What serpent lays eggs?’ (A.) ‘The dragon.’
With this the physician was silent, being weary with much questioning, and Taweddud said to the Khalif, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, he hath questioned me till he is weary, and now I will ask him one question, which if he answer not, Night ccccliv.I will take his clothes as lawful prize.’ ‘Ask on,’ quoth the Khalif. So she said to the physician, ‘What is that which resembles the earth in [plane] roundness, whose resting-place and spine are hidden, little of value and estimation, narrow-chested, its throat shackled, though it be no thief nor runaway slave, thrust through and through, though not in fight, and wounded, though not in battle; time eats its vigour and water wastes it away; now it is beaten without a fault and now made to serve without stint; united after separation, submissive, but not to him who caresses it, pregnant[1] without a child in its belly, drooping, yet not leaning on its side, becoming dirty yet purifying itself, cleaving to [its mate], yet changing, copulating without a yard, wrestling without arms, resting and taking its ease, bitten, yet not crying out, [now] more complaisant than a boon-companion and [anon] more troublesome than summer-heat, leaving its
- ↑ Syn. bearing a load (hamil).
