Moreover
the odour of the viands on the table excited in me a longing to
eat: so I went up to the table, and lifting the cover, found in
the middle a porcelain dish, containing four fricasseed fowls,
seasoned with spices, round which were four smaller dishes, one
containing sweetmeats, another conserve of pomegranate-seeds, a
third almond patties and a fourth honey fritters, and the
contents of these dishes were part sweet and part acid. So I ate
of the fritters and a piece of meat, then went on to the almond
patties and ate what I would of them; after which I attacked the
sweetmeats, of which I ate a spoonful or two or three or four,
ending with part of a fowl and a mouthful of bread. With this my
stomach became full and my limbs heavy and I grew drowsy; so I
laid my head on a cushion, after having washed my hands, and
sleep overcame me; and I knew not what happened to me after this
nor did I awake till the sun's heat burnt me, for that I had not
tasted sleep for days. When I awoke, I found myself lying on the
naked marble, with a piece of salt and another of charcoal on my
stomach; so I stood up and shook my clothes and turned right and
left, but could see no one. At this I was perplexed and
afflicted; the tears ran down my cheeks and I mourned grievously
for myself. Then I returned home, and when I entered, I found my
cousin beating her bosom and weeping like the rain-clouds, as she
repeated the following verses:
From out my loved one's land a breeze blows cool and sweet: The
fragrance of its wafts stirs up the ancient heat.
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