were we since ye bade us adieu. 
You swore you’d be faithful to us and our love, And true to your
     oath and your troth-plight were you;
And I to you swore that a lover I was; God forbid that with
     treason mine oath I ensue! 
Yea, “Welcome!  Fair welcome to those who draw near!” I called out
     aloud, as to meet you I flew. 
The dwellings, indeed, one and all, I adorned, Bewildered and
     dazed with delight at your view;
For death in your absence to us was decreed; But, when ye came
     back, we were quickened anew.

When she had made an end of her verses, El Abbas bade the third damsel, who came from Samarcand of the Persians and whose name was Rummaneh, sing, and she answered with “Hearkening and obedience.”  Then she took the psaltery and crying out from the midst of her bead[FN#130] improvised and sang the following verses: 

My watering lips, that cull the rose of thy soft cheek, declare
     My basil,[FN#131] lily mine, to be the myrtles of thy hair. 
Sandhill[FN#132] and down[FN#133] betwixt there blooms a yellow
     willow-flower,[FN#134] Pomegranate-blossoms[FN#135] and for
     fruits pomegranates[FN#136] that doth bear. 
His eyelids’ sorcery from mine eyes hath banished sleep; since he
     From me departed, nought see I except a drowsy fair.[FN#137]
He shot me with the shafts of looks launched from an
     eyebrow’s[FN#138] bow; A chamberlain[FN#139] betwixt his
     eyes hath driven me to despair. 
My heart belike shall his infect with softness, even as me His
     body with disease infects, of its seductive air. 
Yet, if with him forgotten be the troth-plight of our loves, I
     have a king who of his grace will not forget me e’er. 
His sides the tamarisk’s slenderness deride, so lithe they are,
     Whence for conceit in his own charms still drunken doth he
     fare. 
Whenas he runs, his feet still show like wings,[FN#140] and for
     the wind When was a rider found, except King Solomon it
     were?[FN#141]

Therewithal El Abbas smiled and her verses pleased him.  Then he bade the fourth damsel come forward and sing.  Now she was from the land of Morocco and her name was Belekhsha.  So she came forward and taking the lute and the psaltery, tightened the strings thereof and smote thereon in many modes; then returned to the first mode and improvising, sang the following verses: 

When in the sitting-chamber we for merry-making sate, With thine
     eyes’ radiance the place thou didst illuminate
And pliedst us with cups of wine, whilst from the necklace
     pearls[FN#142] A strange intoxicating bliss withal did
     circulate,
Whose subtleness might well infect the understanding folk; And
     secrets didst thou, in thy cheer, to us communicate. 
Whenas we saw the cup, forthright we signed to past it round And
     sun and moon unto our