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him, she rained down kisses on his cheeks, till she left a mark upon them and they became exceeding red and his cheekbones shone. Moreover, she sucked his lips, till the blood ran out into her mouth; but with all this, her heat was not quenched nor her thirst assuaged.
She ceased not to kiss and clip him and twine leg with leg, till the forehead of the day grew white and the dawn broke forth and shone; when she put in his pocket four huckle-bones and went away. Then she sent her maid with something like snuff, which she applied to their nostrils and they sneezed and awoke. ‘O my lords,’ said the girl, ‘prayer is a duty; so rise and pray the morning prayer.’ And she brought them basin and ewer.[1] Quoth Kemerezzeman, ‘O master, we have overslept ourselves.’ ‘O my friend,’ answered the jeweller, ‘verily the air of this room is heavy; for, whenever I sleep in it, this happens to me.’ ‘It is well,’ rejoined Kemerezzeman and proceeded to make the ablution; but, when he put the water to his face, his cheeks and lips burned him. ‘This is a strange thing!’ said he. ‘If the air of the room be heavy and we have been drowned in sleep, what ails my cheeks and lips that they burn me?’ And he said to the jeweller, ‘O master, my cheeks and lips burn me.’ ‘Doubtless this comes of the mosquito-bites,’ answered the other. ‘Strange!’ said Kemerezzeman. ‘Hath this thing happened to thee?’ ‘No,’ replied Ubeid. ‘But, whenever I have a guest like thee, he complains in the morning of the mosquito-bites, and this only happens when he is like thee, beardless. If he be bearded, the mosquitoes trouble him not, and nought hinders them from me but my beard. It seems they love not bearded men.’ ‘True,’ rejoined Kemerezzeman. Then the maid brought them breakfast and they broke their fast and went out.
- ↑ For the preliminary ablution.
