"Genii who rule o'er the tempest and wind, Peris who tread where red coral lies deep, Show forth your haunt that my fleet foot may find Where the cool moss caves 'neath the green waves sleep.
"Lie they under the sea that by Ormuz darkles, Or the broad blue bay of the Golden Isles? Or where breeze-loved haven in far west sparkles, Alight with the sun's ne'er-vanishing smiles?"
The voice swelled nearer; the rhythm was quicker, measure shorter, words stronger. The song became a prayer, a cry.
"Away! away from the grief and jarring Of this toilsome life and its pang I'd be! Forgetting earth and all strife and warring, Wrap me away to the breast of the sea!
"Wreathe me chaplets with sea-flowers brightest, With the feath'ry sea-mosses make me dressed! Make my pillow the wind-spray whitest; Rock me to sleep on the storm-waves' crest!"
Was it day that was dawning on each of those stony faces? Why this whisper; this rustle of white gowns; this mutter "Allah! Allah!" under the snowy turbans? "Truly God's angels come!" Richard's soul cried. He thought to see the vaulting open; the heavens fleeing away as unclean. What angel could sing of paynim genii and peris? But the voice yet approached, ever louder, clearer:—
"Sing, oh, sing, all ye fair, pure spirits! Spirit I, to your band I'd flee; Blest the soul who for aye inherits To rove with you through your kingdom free!"
Now the song was so near that all eyes ran into the dark for the oncoming singer, and every white robe had risen when the last lines sounded:—
"Clearer, clearer the silvery pealing Of enchanted bells steals my heart afar! Soon I'll see, all the mists unsealing, The genii's lord on his pearl-wrought car!"
Silence. They saw a light flash in the low doorway, saw it glisten on jewels, an empress's pride. A woman entered, tall as a spear, stately as a palm, black tresses flowing as a fair vine, and eyes and face to shame the houris. Around her bare throat flashed a great chain of emeralds; there were diamonds and rubies on her coronet; gold and gems on her bare brown arms; gold and gems on her sandals, that hid not the shapely feet. Her robe was one lustrous sea of violet silk, rippling about her as she glided, not walked. And as she came, she spread abroad a new melody; no words now, but only a humming, a soft, witching note, as if bidding all the spirits of the air flit at her footsteps to do her behests. Her left hand upraised the lamp; her right was held high also, and on one finger flashed something that doubled the quivering flame—a ring set with a single emerald.