inclined to him, for she knew he had not come to that place save for a grave matter. So she said: "Be of good cheer, keep thine eyes cool and clear, take courage and return to thy hiding-place till the coming night, and Allah shall do as he will."
And the next night the merchant-woman with whom he had taken refuge came up to him and gave him a habergeon and a helmet, a spear, a sword, and a gilded girdle, and bade him don them, and stay where she left him for fear of the troops.
And as Hasan sat upon the bench, behold there came up an army of women. So he arose, and mingling with them, became as one of them. A little before daybreak they set out and marched to their camp, where they dispersed each to her tent. And Hasan followed one of them, and lo! it was her for whose protection he had prayed. When she entered she threw down her arms and doffed her veil, and Hasan saw her to be a grizzled old woman, with pock-marked face and without teeth or eyebrows. And she questioned him of his case, and promised him her safeguard, saying, "Have no fear whatsoever." So he told her this tale from first to last. And she said, "Glory be to God, who hath made thee appeal to me, for hadst thou appealed to any other thou wouldst have lost thy life. But know, O my son, thy wife is not here, but in the seventh of the Islands of Wak, and between us and it is seven months' journey. From here we go to an island called the Land of Birds, wherein, for the loud crying of the birds and the flapping
