" Whereupon she went to
the cupboard and took out a sealed flask of old wine and decked
the table with flowers and green herbs. Then she recited the
following verses:
Had we thy coming known, we would for sacrifice Have poured thee
forth heart's blood and blackness of the eyes:
Ay, and we would have laid our cheeks within thy way, That so thy
feet might tread on eyelids, carpet-wise!
I thanked her, for indeed love of her had taken hold of me, and
my grief and anxiety left me. We sat carousing till nightfall,
and I passed the night with her, never knew I such a night. On
the morrow, delight succeeded delight till the middle of the day,
when I drank wine, till I lost my senses and rose, staggering
from side to side, and said to her, "Come, O fair one! I will
carry thee up from under the earth and rid thee of this genie."
She laughed and replied, "Be content and hold thy peace. One day
in every ten is the genie's, and the other nine shall be thine."
Quoth I (and indeed drunkenness had got the better of me), "This
very moment will I break the alcove, on which is graven the
talisman, and summon the Afrit hither, that I may kill him, for I
am used to kill Afrits ten at a time." When she heard this, she
conjured me by Allah to refrain and repeated the following
verses:
This is a thing wherein thine own destruction lies: I rede thee
keep thyself therefrom, if thou be wise.
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