[94]. Arab. “Jámi’ayn” = two cathedrals, any large (and consequently vicious) city.
[95]. Arab. “Almá,” before noticed: I cannot translate “damask-lipped” to suit European taste.
[96]. Sherbet flavoured with musk or apple to cool the mouth of “hot coppers.”
[97]. Arab. “In’ásh” lit. raising from his bier. The whole tone is rollicking and slangy.
[98]. i.e. In spite of himself: the phrase often occurs.
ABDALLAH BIN MA’AMAR WITH THE MAN OF BASSORAH AND HIS SLAVE-GIRL.
A certain man of Bassorah once bought a slave-girl and reared and educated her right well. Moreover, he loved her very dearly and spent all his substance in pleasuring and merry-making with her, till he had naught left and extreme poverty was sore upon him. So she said to him, “O my master, sell me; for thou needest my price and it maketh my heart ache to see thy sorry and want-full plight. If thou vend me and make use of my value, ‘twill be better for thee than keeping me by thee, and haply Almighty Allah will ample thee and amend thy fortune.” He agreed to this for the straitness of his case, and carried her to the bazar, where the broker offered her for sale to the Governor of Bassorah, by name Abdallah bin Ma’amar al-Taymi, and she pleased him. So he bought her, for five hundred dinars and paid the sum to her master; but when he took the money and was about to go away, the girl burst into tears and repeated these two couplets:—
May coins thou gainest joy in heart instil; ✿ For me remaineth naught save saddest ill:
I say unto my soul which sorely grieves, ✿ “Thy friend departeth an thou will or nill.”
And when her master heard this, he groaned and replied in these couplets:—