Those of you who escape shall have the money, and those
of you who are slain Christ will reward." "O King," replied they,
"we devote ourselves to the Messiah, and we will be thy
sacrifice." Then the old woman took drugs and simples and boiled
them in water, till the black essence of them was extracted. She
waited till it was cold, then dipped the end of a handkerchief
therein and coloured her face therewith.. Moreover she put on,
over her clothes, a long gaberdine with an embroidered border and
taking in her hand a rosary, went in to King Afridoun, who knew
her not nor did any of his companions know her, till she
discovered herself to them, when they all praised her for her
cunning and her son rejoiced and said, "May the Messiah never
fail thee!" Then she took with her the Syrian Christians, and
set out for the army of Baghdad. Now this accursed old woman was
a witch of the witches, past mistress in sorcery and deception,
knavish, crafty, debauched and perfidious, with foul breath, red
eyelids, sallow cheeks, pale face, bleared eyes, mangy body,
grizzled hair, humped back, withered complexion and running
nostrils. She had studied the scriptures of Islam and made the
pilgrimage to the Holy House of God,[FN#100] to come to the
knowledge of the Mohammedan ordinances and the doctrines of the
Koran; and she had professed Judaism in Jerusalem two years'
space, that she might perfect herself in the magical arts of men
and Jinn; so that she was a plague of plagues and a calamity of
calamities, utterly depraved and having no religion.
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