ll my thanks. Is he generous like Spring dew?
Account the fault to me who chaffered with such an one!
He has killed, to feast chance comers, the creature he rode; nay,
more--
For a couple of singing-girls his robe has he torn in two--
I will beg! Yet I nowise gained by the tale of my wife and 60
son.

"I swear by the Holy House, my head will I never wash
Till I filch his Pearl away. Fair dealing I tried, then guile,
And now I resort to force. He said we must live or die;
Let him die, then--let me live! Be bold--but not too rash!
I have found me a peeping-place; breast, bury your breathing 65
while
I explore for myself! Now, breathe! He deceived me not, the spy!

"As he said--there lies in peace Hoseyn--how happy! Beside
Stands tethered the Pearl; thrice winds her headstall about his
wrist;
'Tis therefore he sleeps so sound--the moon through the roof reveals.
And, loose on his left, stands too that other, known far and 70
wide,
Buheyseh, her sister born; fleet is she yet ever missed
The winning tail's fire-flash a-stream past the thunderous heels.

"No less she stands saddled and bridled, this second, in case some
thief
Should enter and seize and fly with the first, as I mean to do.
What then? The Pearl is the Pearl--once mount her we both 75
escape."
Through the skirt-fold in glides Duhl--so a serpent disturbs no leaf
In a bush as he parts the twigs entwining a nest; clean through,
He is noiselessly at his work; as he planned, he performs the rape.

He has set the tent-door wide, has buckled the girth, has clipped
The headstall away from the wrist he leaves thrice bound as 80
before,
He springs on the Pearl, is launched on the desert like bolt from
bow.
Up starts our plundered man; from his breast though the heart be
ripped,
Yet his mind has the mastery. Behold, in a minute more,
He is out and off and away on Buheyseh, whose worth we know!

And Hoseyn--his blood turns flame, he has learned long since 85
to ride,
And Buheyseh does her part--they gain--they are gaining fast
On the fugitive pair, and Duhl has Ed-Darraj to cross and quit,
And to reach the ridge El-Saban--no safety till that be spied!
And Buheyseh is, bound by bound, but a horse-length off at last,
For the Pearl has m