That sensual passion is very prevalent among the Arabs cannot be doubted; but I think it unjust to suppose them generally incapable of a purer feeling, worthy, if constancy be a sufficient test, of being termed true love. That they are not so, appears evident to almost every person who mixes with them in familiar society; for such a person must have opportunities of being acquainted with many Arabs sincerely attached to wives whose personal charms have long vanished, and who have neither wealth nor influence of their own, nor wealthy or influential relations, to induce their husbands to refrain from divorcing them. It very often happens, too, that an Arab is sincerely attached to a wife possessed, even in the best portion of her age, of few charms, and that the lasting favourite among two or more wives is not the most handsome. This opinion, I am sorry to observe, is at variance, as far as the Arabs of the _towns_ are concerned, with that entertained by one of the most intelligent and experienced of modern travellers who long resided among this people,--the justly celebrated Burckhardt:[236] but it is confirmed by numerous facts related by respectable Arab authors (and therefore not regarded by them as of an incredible nature), as well as by cases which have fallen under my own observation. The tale of Leylà and Mejnoon, the Juliet and Romeo of Arabia, is too well known to be here repeated; but among many other anecdotes of strong and constant love, the following may be inserted. The Khaleefeh Yezeed, the son of ´Abd-El-Melik, had two female slaves, one of whom was named Ḥabbábeh and the other, Selámeh, to the former of whom he was most ardently attached: he had purchased her for a hundred thousand dirhems, and the other for ten thousand. In their company he sometimes shut himself up for three months together, utterly neglecting the affairs of his people. At length, being reproved for this conduct by his brother Meslemeh, he promised to return to his duty: but the two slaves diverted him from his purpose; and on the following morning excited by their songs and caresses and by wine, he became frantic with pleasure, and danced and sang like a madman, till a fatal accident put a stop to his joy:--Ḥabbábeh, eating a pomegranate, was choked by one of the grains, and immediately died.