She came apparelled in an azure vest, * Ultramarine, as skies are deckt and dight; I view'd th' unparellel'd sight, which show'd my eyes * A moon of Summer on a Winter-night. Then they changed that suit for another and, veiling her face in the luxuriance of her hair, loosed her lovelocks, so dark, so long that their darkness and length outvied the darkest nights, and she shot through all hearts with the magical shaft of her eye-babes. They displayed her in the third dress and she was as said of her the sayer:— Veiling her cheeks with hair a-morn she comes, * And I her mischiefs with the cloud compare: Saying, "Thou veilest morn with night!" "Ah, no!" * Quoth she, "I shroud full moon with darkling air!" Then they displayed her in the fourth bridal dress and she came forward shining like the rising sun and swaying to and fro with lovesome grace and supple ease like a gazelle-fawn. And she clave all hearts with the arrows of her eyelashes, even as saith one who described a charmer like her:— The sun of beauty she to sight appears * And, lovely-coy, she mocks all loveliness; And when he fronts her favour and her smile * A-morn, the Sun of day in clouds must dress. Then she came forth in the fifth dress, a very light of loveliness like a wand of waving willow or a gazelle of the thirsty wold. Those locks which stung like scorpions along her cheeks were bent, and her neck was bowed in blandishment, and her hips quivered as she went. As saith one of the poets describing her in verse:— She comes like fullest moon on happy night; * Taper of waist, with shape of magic might: She hath an eye whose glances quell mankind, * And Ruby on her cheeks reflects his light: Enveils her hips the blackness of her hair; *Beware of curls that bite with viper-bite! Her sides are silken-soft, the while the heart * Mere rock behind that surface lurks from sight: From the fringed curtains of her eyne she shoots * Shafts which at farthest range on mark alight: When round her neck or waist I throw my arms * Her breasts repel me with their hardened height. Ah, how her beauty all excels! ah how * That shape transcends the graceful waving bough! Then they adorned her with the sixth toilette, a dress which was green. And now she shamed in her slender straightness the nut-brown spear; her radiant face dimmed the brightest beams of full moon and she outdid the bending branches in gentle movement and flexile grace. Her loveliness exalted the beauties of earth's four quarters and she broke men's hearts by the significance of her semblance; for she was even as saith one of the poets in these lines:—