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[ We may suppose some years may have passed in this process and that Alaeddin from a lad of fifteen had reached the age of manhood. The H. V. declares that for many a twelve month the mother and son lived by cotton spinning and the sale of the plate]
125 ([return])
[ i.e. Full moon of full moons: See vol. iii. 228. It is pronounced "Badroo'l- Budoor," hence Galland's " Badr-oul- boudour. ">[
126 ([return])
[ In the H. V. Alaeddin "bethought him of a room adjacent to the Baths where he might sit and see the Princess through the door-chinks, when she raised her veil before the handmaids and eunuchs.">[
127 ([return])
[ This is the common conceit of the brow being white as day and the hair black as night.]
128 ([return])
[ Such a statement may read absurdly to the West but it is true in the East. "Selim" had seen no woman's face unveiled, save that of his sable mother Rosebud in Morier's Tale of Yeldoz, the wicked woman ("The Mirza," vol. iii. 135). The H. V. adds that Alaeddin's mother was old and verily had little beauty even in her youth. So at the sight of the Princess he learnt that Allah had created women exquisite in loveliness and heart- ensnaring; and at first glance the shaft of love pierced his heart and he fell to the ground afaint He loved her with a thousand lives and, when his mother questioned him, "his lips formed no friendship with his speech.">[