Now when it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abu Suwayd continued:—When I spake these words to the ancient dame she raised her head towards me and, opening wide her eyes, recited these two couplets:—
I dyed what years have dyed, but this my staining ✿ Lasts not, while that of days is aye remaining:
Days when beclad in gear of youth I fared, ✿ Raked fore and aft by men with joy unfeigning.
I cried:—By Allah, favoured art thou for an old woman! How sincere art thou in thine after-pine for forbidden pleasures and how false is thy pretence of repentance from frowardness! And another tale is that of
[251]. Arab. “Ya ‘l-Ajúz” (in Cairo “Agooz” pronounce “Ago-o-oz”): the address is now insulting and would elicit “The old woman in thine eye” (with fingers extended). In Egypt the polite address is “O lady (Sitt), O pilgrimess, O bride, and O daughter” (although she be the wrong side of fifty). In Arabia you may say “O woman (Imraah)” but in Egypt the reply would be “The woman shall see Allah cut out thy heart!” So in Southern Italy you address “bella fé” (fair one) and cause a quarrel by “vecchiarella.”
THE EMIR ALI BIN TAHIR AND THE GIRL MUUNIS.
Once on a time was displayed for sale to Ali bin Mohammed bin Abdallah bin Táhir[[252]] a slave-girl called Muunis who was superior to her fellows in beauty and breeding, and to boot an accomplished poetess; and he asked her of her name. Replied she, “Allah advance the Emir, my name is Muunis.”[[253]] Now he knew this before; so he bowed his head awhile, then raising his eyes to her, recited this verse:—
What sayest of one by a sickness caught ✿ For the love of thy love till he waxed distraught?