' 'O Enis el
Jelis,' replied Noureddin, 'by Allah, I cannot endure to be
parted from thee for a single hour!' 'By Allah, O my lord,'
rejoined she, 'nor is it easy to me; but necessity compels, as
says the poet:
Necessity in life oft drives one into ways That to the courteous
mind are foreign and abhorred.
We do not trust our weight unto a rope, unless It be to do some
thing adapted to the cord.'
With this, he rose to his feet and took her, whilst the tears
streamed down his cheeks like rain and he recited with the tongue
of the case what follows:
Stay and vouchsafe me one more look before our parting hour, To
soothe the anguish of a heart well-nigh for reverence slain!
Yet, if it irk thee anywise to grant my last request, Far rather
let me die of love than cause thee aught of pain!
Then he went down to the market and delivered the damsel to a
broker, to whom he said, 'O Hajj[FN#109] Hassan, I would have
thee note the value of her thou hast to offer for sale!' 'O my
lord Noureddin,' replied the broker, 'I have not forgotten my
business.[FN#110] Is not this Enis el Jelis, whom thy father
bought of me for ten thousand dinars?' 'Yes,' said Noureddin.
Then the broker went round to the merchants, but found they were
not all assembled; so he waited till the rest had arrived and the
market was full of all kinds of female slaves, Turks and Franks
and Circassians and Abyssinians and Nubians and Egyptians and
Tartars and Greeks and Georgians and others; when he came forward
and said, 'O merchants! O men of wealth! every round thing is not
a walnut nor every long thing a banana; every thing red is not
meat nor everything white fat.
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