When the prince saw this,
he rushed at him and seizing him in his arms, shook him and threw
him to the ground. Then he turned him over on his face and
binding his arms behind him with the hangers of his sword, began
to drag him by the feet towards the river: whereupon cried
Subbah, "What wilt thou do with me, O youth and cavalier of the
age and hero of the field?" "Did I not tell thee," answered
Kanmakan, "that it was my intent to send thee by the river to thy
people and thy tribe, lest their hearts be troubled for thee and
thou miss thy cousin's bride-feast?" At this, Subbah shrieked
aloud and wept and said, "Do not thus, O champion of the time!
Let me go and make me one of thy servants." And he wept and
wailed and recited the following verses:
An outcast from my folk (how long my exile lasts!) am I. Would
God I knew if I in this my strangerhood shall die!
I perish, and my folk know not the place where I am slain; I fall
in exile, far away from her for whom I sigh.
Kanmakan had compassion on him and said to him, "Make a covenant
with me and swear to be a true comrade to me and to bear me
company whithersoever I may go." "It is well," replied Subbah and
took the required oath. So Kanmakan loosed him, and he rose and
would have kissed the prince's hand; but he forbade him. Then the
Bedouin opened his wallet and taking out three barley-cakes, laid
them before Kanmakan, and they both sat down on the bank of the
stream to eat.
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