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saluted each other, and Sabour bent over Gherib’s hand and kissed it and thanked him for his favours. They pitched their tents in face of one another and Sabour went in to his daughter, who rose and embracing him, told him all that had befallen her and how Gherib had rescued her from the clutches of the Ghoul of the Mountain. ‘By thy life, O princess of fair ones,’ said the King, ‘I will overwhelm him with gifts!’ ‘O my father,’ rejoined she, ‘make him thy son-in-law, that he may be to thee a help against thine enemies, for he is passing valiant.’ This she said because her heart was enamoured of Gherib. ‘O my daughter,’ answered her father, ‘knowst thou not that King Khired Shah seeks thee in marriage and that he hath cast the brocade[1] and given a hundred thousand dinars [to dowry], and he is King of Shiraz and its dependencies and is lord of empire and horsemen and footmen?’ ‘O my father,’ said the princess, ‘I desire not that whereof thou speakest, and if thou constrain me to that I have no mind to, I will kill myself.’ So Sabour left her and went in to Gherib, with whom he sat awhile and could not take his fill of looking upon him; and he said in himself, ‘By Allah, my daughter is excusable if she love this Bedouin!’ Then he called for food and they ate and passed the night together.
On the morrow, they took horse and rode till they arrived at the city of Isbanir and entered, stirrup to stirrup, and it was a great day for them. Fekhr Taj repaired to her palace and the abiding-place of her rank, where her mother and her women received her with cries of joy. As for King Sabour, he sat down on his throne and seated Gherib on his right hand, whilst the princes and viceroys and chamberlains and viziers and officers stood on either hand and gave him joy of the recovery of his daughter. Quoth Sabour, ‘Whoso loveth me let him
- ↑ Quære, another form of “throwing the handkerchief.”
