tered the Hammam-bath, and when they came forth
they sat down on a couch set with pearls and gems, whereupon the two
sisters came up to them and stood between their hands, as they were
moons, bending and leaning from side to side in their beauty and
loveliness. Presently they brought forward Shahrazad and displayed her,
for the first dress, in a red suit; whereupon King Shahryar rose to look
upon her, and the wits of all present, men and women, were bewitched for
that she was even as saith of her one of her describers:--

A sun on wand in knoll of sand she showed,
Clad in her cramoisy-hued chemisette:
Of her lips' honey-dew she gave me drink
And with her rosy cheeks quencht fire she set.

Then they attired Dunyazad in a dress of blue brocade, and she became as
she were the full moon when it shineth forth. So they displayed her in
this, for the first dress, before King Shah Zaman, who rejoiced in her
and well-nigh swooned away for love-longing and amorous desire; yea, he
was distraught with passion for her, whenas he saw her, because she was
as saith of her one of her describers in these couplets:--

She comes appareled in an azure vest
Ultramarine as skies are deckt and dight:
I view'd th' unparall'd sight, which showed my eyes
A Summer-moon upon a Winter-night.

Then they returned to Shahrazad and displayed her in the second dress, a
suit of surpassing goodliness, and veiled her face with her hair like a
chin-veil. Moreover, they let down her side-locks, and she was even as
saith of her one of her describers in these couplets:--

O hail to him whose locks his cheeks o'ershade,
Who slew my life by cruel hard despight:
Said I, "Hast veiled the Morn in Night?" He said,
"Nay, I but veil the Moon in hue of Night."

Then they displayed Dunyazad in a second and a third and a fourth dress,
and she paced forward like the rising sun, and swayed to and fro in the
insolence of her beauty; and she was even as saith the poet of her in
these couplets:--

The sun of beauty she to all appears
And, lovely coy, she mocks all loveliness:
And when he fronts her favor and her smile
A-morn, the sun of day in clouds must dress.

Then they displayed Shahrazad in the third dress and the fourth and the
fifth, and she became as she were a Ban-branch snell of a thirsting
gazelle, lovely of face and perfect in attribute