We are young and bewitching beauties from the fields of Paradise.
God hath lavished his gifts upon us; in us there is naught to reproach.
For the love of God, sweet damozel, let me not languish for love!
And this on the girdle of a beauteous slave:—
A single wink of thine eye, a teasing touch of thy hand, will be enough to unclasp it.
For my heart is so feeble that it could almost leap from my breast.
The sight of only a part of my beauty suffices to disturb thy soul.
We quote a few more at random—graven on the fillets of El Rashid's slaves:—
Say, O men! in heaven's name is it a sun that shines beneath that fillet, or is it the fair crescent of the nights?
Is life possible without the follies of love? Nay, then! flee the sight of beautiful eyes.
Rich men of Bagdad followed the example. One El Natify had a slave on whose fillet was written:—
Seduction and the power that teaseth hearts flash from mine eye when it gazeth. Turn, unhappy man, turn away thine eye from mine eye!
On the fillet of Ward (Rose) slave of Mahany, was written:—
She is finished, all finished the beauty of her features;—nothing beyond her beauty is possible in this world.
For other mortals there is but one crescent in every month; but for me the crescent of beauty riseth daily upon the brow of Ward.
And there is a delicious coquetry in this inscription, traced with henna upon the hand of a slave-girl:—