agement of that luminary. Solomon,
in his love-songs, exclaims: "Who is she that looketh
forth in the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the
sun?" The greatest of Persian poets, Firdausi, says of a
damsel:

"Love ye the moon? Behold her face,
And there the lucid planet trace."

And Kalidasa, the Shakspeare of India (6th century
B.C.), says:

"Her countenance is brighter than the moon."

Amongst ourselves the epithet "moon-faced" is not usually
regarded as complimentary, yet Spenser speaks of a
beautiful damsel's "moon-like forehead."--Be sure, the
poets are right!

[118] The lithe figure of a pretty girl is often likened by
Eastern poets to the waving cypress, a tree which we
associate with the grave-yard.--"Who is walking there?"
asks a Persian poet. "Thou, or a tall cypress?"

[119] "Nocturnal."

Now the season of pilgrimage to Mecca draws nigh, and it is thought that
a visit to the holy shrine and the waters of the Zemzem[120] might cure
his frenzy. Accordingly Majnun, weak and helpless, is conveyed to Mecca
in a litter. Most fervently his sorrowing father prays in the Kaaba for
his recovery, but all in vain, and they return home. Again Majnun
escapes to the desert, whence his love-plaints, expressed in eloquent
verse, find their way to Layla, who contrives to reply to them, also in
verse, assuring her lover of her own despair, and of her constancy.

[120] The sacred well in the Kaaba at Mecca, which, according
to Muslim legends, miraculously sprang up when Hagar and
her son Ishmael were perishing in the desert from thirst.

One day a gallant young chief, Ibn Salam, chances to pass near the
dwelling of Layla, and, seeing the beauteous maiden among her
companions, falls in love with her, and straightway asks her in marriage
of her parents. Layla's father does not reject the handsome and wealthy
suitor, who scatters his gold about as if it were mere sand, but desires
him to wait until his daughter is of proper age for wedlock, when the
nuptials should be duly celebrated; and with this promise Ibn Salam
departs.

Meanwhile, Noufal, the chief in whose land Majnun has taken up his
abode, while hunting one day comes upon the wretched lover, and, struck
with his appearance, inquires the cause of his distress. Noufal
conceives a warm friendship for Majnun,