Life closes on our view.

The travellers thus who wildly roam,
Or heedlessly delay,
Are left, when they should reach their home,
Benighted on the way.

_Hebat Allah Ibn Altalmith_.

[42] Ibn Altalmith died in the 560th year of the Hegira, at the advanced
age of one hundred.

THE EARLY DEATH OF ABOU ALHASSAN ALY[43]

Soon hast thou run the race of life,
Nor could our tears thy speed control--
Still in the courser's gen'rous strife
The best will soonest reach the goal.

As Death upon his hand turns o'er
The different gems the world displays,
He seizes first to swell his store
The brightest jewel he surveys.

Thy name, by every breath convey'd,
Stretch'd o'er the globe its boundless flight;
Alas! in eve the lengthening shade
But lengthens to be lost in night!

If gracious Allah bade thee close
Thy youthful eyes so soon on day,
'Tis that he readiest welcomes those
Who love him best and best obey.

_Alnassar Ledin Allah_.

[43] Alnassar Ledin Allah was the thirty-fourth Abasside Caliph, and
the last excepting three who enjoyed this splendid title, which
was finally abolished by the Tartars in the year 656.

THE INTERVIEW

_A Song_

Darkness clos'd around, loud the tempest drove,
When thro' yonder glen I saw my lover rove,
Dearest youth!
Soon he reach'd our cot--weary, wet, and cold,
But warmth, wine, and I, to cheer his spirits strove,
Dearest youth!
How my love, cried I, durst thou hither stray
Thro' the gloom, nor fear the ghosts that haunt the grove?
Dearest youth!
In this heart, said he, fear no seat can find,
When each thought is fill'd alone with thee and love,
Dearest maid!

ARABIAN NIGHTS

[_Selected tales edited by Andrew Lang_]

THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SINDBAD

In the times of the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid there lived in Bagdad a poor
porter named Hindbad, who, on a very hot day, was sent to carry a heavy
load from one end of the city to the other. Before he had accomplished
half the distance he was so tired that, finding himself in a quiet
street where the pavement was sprinkled with rose-water, and a cool
breeze was blowing, he set his burden upon the ground, and sat down to
rest in the shade of a grand house.