Quoth she, 'I see thee dye thy hoariness:'[FN#269] * 'To hide, O
ears and eyes! from thee,' quoth I:
She roared with laugh and said, 'Right funny this; * Thou art so
lying e'en
Now when the broker heard her verse he exclaimed, "By Allah thou hast spoken sooth!" The merchant asked what she said: so the broker repeated the verses to him; and he knew that she was in the right while he was wrong and desisted from buying her. Then another came forward and said, "Ask her if she will be mine at the same price;" but, when he did so, she looked at him and seeing that he had but one eye, said, "This man is one-eyed; and it is of such as he that the poet saith,[FN#270]
'Consort not with the Cyclops e'en a day; * Beware his falsehood
and his mischief fly:
Had this monocular a jot of good, * Allah had ne'er brought
blindness to his eye!'"
Then said the broker, pointing to another bidder, "Wilt thou be sold to this man?" She looked at him and seeing that he was short of stature[FN#271] and had a beard that reached to his navel, cried, "This is he of whom the poet speaketh,
'I have a friend who hath a beard * Allah to useless length
unroll'd:
'Tis like a certain[FN#272] winter night, * Longsome and
darksome, drear and cold.'"
Said the broker, "O my lady, look who pleaseth thee of these that are present, and point him out, that I may sell thee to him." So she looked round the ring of merchants, examining one by one their physiognomies, till her glance fell on Ali Shar,—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Three Hundred and Eleventh Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the girl's glance fell on Ali Shar, she cast at him a look with longing eyes, which cost her a thousand sighs, and her heart was taken with him; for that he was of favour passing fair and pleasanter than zephyr or northern air; and she said, "O broker, I will be sold to none but to this my lord, owner of the handsome face and slender form whom the poet thus describeth,
'Displaying that fair face * The tempted they assailed
Who, had they wished me safe * That lovely face had veiled!'
For none shall own me but he, because his cheek is smooth and the water of his mouth sweet as Salsabil;[FN#273] his spittle is a cure for the sick and his charms daze and dazzle poet and proser, even as saith one of him,