Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/39

Yet, O thou fair one, say, Whose house is this pavilion ?
And who the warriors round ? Belike they guard them a treasure."
And she, u That is nought to thee, so thou be an honest walker.
Rather hold thy peace, lest these around suspect thee.
This is the tent of Alia, and that of the Prince Agheyli,
And that the third, apart, of the mare of Agheyli Jaber,
The grey mare, the renowned : in the world there is none like her,
Not with the Persian kings, the Chosroes, the Irani.
Spare is her head and lean, her ears set close together ;
Her forelock is a net, her forehead a lamp lighted,
Illumining the tribe, her neck curved like a palm branch,
Her wither clean and sharp. Upon her chest and throttle
An amulet hangs of gold. Her forelegs are twin lances.
Her hoofs fly forward faster ever than flies the whirlwind.
Her tail bone held aloft, yet the hairs sweep the gravel ;
Her height twice eight, sixteen, taller than all the horses.
Here are her virtues told in full enumeration
Dear to her master's eye as gold and precious jewels."
And the grooms who heard her said, " Let not this guest despise her."