Page:The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare.djvu/64

And I made my plot to entrap her, standing unknown among them.
And how I came to this tree she knoweth it, Jaber's daughter,
And how with my hand I snatched her life from the hand of the wicked.
And I said to her, '^ Lady, return and be content with thy fortune.
Speak no word of it all, of that which hath befallen.
Keep thou close thy secret. So shall they do thee honour."
But she, " To return were grief, O dark one, sweetest of faces.
Nay, by an oath I adjure thee, even by the House, the Kaaba,
Tell me thy tribe and dirra, and who be thy nearest kinsmen."
And I, " I hear and obey. With the Jinns am I in kindred.
Kings are we of the great, Berkhan is my father's brother,
Shemhurish and Tayar are next to me for cousins."
But she, " Not so, the Jinns are not of thy human nature.
Tell me the truth of thy tribe, and which of the sons of Adam :
All that thou hidest speak." And I said to her, " Behold me.
Now will I tell thee all (and may the deceivers perish).
Behold me, him who came to string for thee thy necklace,
And thou gavest him dates to eat and for drink the milk of camels.