[78]. Arab. “Fi’l-khawáfik” = in the four quarters or among the flappers (standards) or amid palpitations of heart. The bride alludes to a festal reception in a town, with burning incense, drums, flags, etc., etc.
[79]. In Egypt the shorter “honey-moon” lasts a week; and on the seventh day (pop. called Al-Subú’a) bride and bridegroom receive visits with all ceremony, of course in separate apartments. The seventh day (like the fortieth, the end of six months and the anniversary) is kept for births and deaths with Khatmahs (perlections) of the Koran, “Saylah” family gatherings and so forth. The fortieth day ends the real honey-moon. See Night dccxcii.
[80]. I have noted the popular practice, amongst men as well as women, of hiring the Hammam for private parties and picnicking in it during the greater part of the day. In this tale the bath would belong to the public and it was a mere freak of the bride to bathe with her bridegroom. “Respectable” people do not.
[81]. She speaks in the last line as the barber or the bathman.
ABU NOWAS WITH THE THREE BOYS AND THE CALIPH HARUN AL-RASHID.[[82]]
Abu Nowas one day shut himself up and, making ready a richly-furnished feast, collected for it meats of all kinds and of every colour that lips and tongue can desire. Then he went forth, to seek a minion worthy of such entertainment, saying, “Allah, my Lord and my Master, I beseech Thee to send me one who befitteth this banquet and who is fit to carouse with me this day!” Hardly had he made an end of speaking when he espied three youths handsome and beardless, as they were of the boys of Paradise,[[83]] differing in complexion but fellows in incomparable beauty; and all hearts yearned with desire to the swaying of their bending shapes, even to what saith the poet:—
I passed a beardless pair without compare ✿ And cried, “I love you, both you ferly fair!”
“Money’d?” quoth one: quoth I, “And lavish too;” ✿ Then said the fair pair, Père, c’est notre affaire.
Now Abu Nowas was given to these joys and loved to sport and make merry with fair boys and cull the rose from every brightly blooming cheek, even as saith the bard:—
Full many a reverend Shaykh feels sting of flesh, ✿ Loves pretty faces, shows at Pleasure’s depot: