befal me what may; for I am near mine own land and care for none." Rejoined the Fireman, "Thy design is naught save to lose thy life;" and Zau al-Makan retorted, "Needs must I recite verses." "Verily," said the Stoker, "needs must there be a parting between me and thee in this place, albeit;I had intended not to leave thee, till I had brought thee to thy native city and reunited thee with thy mother and father. Thou hast now tarried with me a year and a half and I have never harmed thee in aught. What ails thee, then, that thou must needs recite verses, seeing that we are tired out with walking and watching and all the folk are asleep, for they require sleep to rest them of their fatigue?" But Zau al-Makan answered, "I will not be turned away from my purpose."[FN#311] Then grief moved him and he threw off concealment and began repeating these couplets, "Stand thou by the homes and hail the lords of the ruined stead; * Cry thou for an answer, belike reply to thee shall be sped: If the night and absence irk thy spirit kindle a torch * Wi' repine; and illuminate the gloom with a gleaming greed: If the snake of the sand dunes hiss, I shall marvel not at all! * Let him bite so I bite those beauteous lips of the luscious red: O Eden, my soul hath fled in despite of the maid I love: * Had I lost hope of Heaven my heart in despair were dead." And he also improvised the two following distichs, "We were and were the days enthralled to all our wills, * Dwelling in union sweet and homed in fairest site: Who shall restore the home of the beloved, where showed * Light of the Place for aye conjoined with Time's Delight?''[FN#312] And as he ceased his verses, he shrieked three shrieks and fell senseless to the ground and the Fireman rose and covered him. When Nuzhat al-Zaman heard the first improvisation, she called to mind her father and her mother and her brother and their whilome home; then she wept and cried at the Eunuch and said to him, "Woe to thee! He who recited the first time hath recited a second time and I heard him hard by. By Allah, an thou fetch him not to me, I will assuredly rouse the Chamberlain on thee, and he shall beat thee and cast thee out. But take these hundred dinars and give them to the singer and bring him to me gently, and do him no hurt. If he refuse, hand to him this purse of a thousand dinars, then leave him and return to me and tell me, after thou hast informed thyself of his place and his calling and what countryman he is. Return quickly and linger not."—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Seventy-third Night,