Then they displayed her in the fourth bridal dress and she came forward shining like the rising sun and swaying to and fro with lovesome grace and supple ease like a gazelle-fawn. And she clave all hearts with the arrows of her eyelashes, even as saith one who described a charmer like her:—·
The sun of beauty she to sight appears ✿ And, lovely-coy, she mocks all loveliness;
And when he fronts her favour and her smile ✿ A-morn, the Sun of day in clouds must dress.
Then she came forth in the fifth dress, a very light of loveliness like a wand of waving willow or a gazelle of the thirsty wold. Those locks which stung like scorpions along her cheeks were bent, and her neck was bowed in blandishment, and her hips quivered as she went. As saith one of the poets describing her in verse:—
She comes like fullest moon on happy night; ✿ Taper of waist, with shape of magic might:
She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, ✿ And Ruby on her cheeks reflects his light:
Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; ✿ Beware of curls that bite with viper-bite!
Her sides are silken-soft, the while the heart ✿ Mere rock behind that surface lurks from sight:
From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots ✿ Shafts which at farthest range on mark alight:
When round her neck or waist I throw my arms ✿ Her breasts repel me with their hardened height.