"'Tis as the Figs with clear white skins outthrown * By foliaged trees, athwart whose green they peep, Were sons of Roum that guard the palace-roof * When shades close in and night-long ward they keep."[FN#391] And saith another and saith well, "Welcome[FN#392] the Fig! To us it comes * Ordered in handsome plates they bring: Likest a Sufrah[FN#393]-cloth we draw * To shape of bag without a ring." And how well saith a third, "Give me the Fig sweet-flavoured, beauty-clad, * Whose inner beauties rival outer sheen: And when it fruits thou tastest it to find * Chamomile's scent and Sugar's saccharine: And eke it favoureth on platters poured * Puff-balls of silken thread and sendal green." And how excellent is the saying of one of them, "Quoth they (and I had trained my taste thereto * Nor cared for other fruits whereby they swore), 'Why lovest so the Fig?' whereto quoth I * 'Some men love Fig and others Sycamore.[FN#394]'" And are yet goodlier those of another, "Pleaseth me more the fig than every fruit * When ripe and hanging from the sheeny bough; Like Devotee who, when the clouds pour rain, * Sheds tears and Allah's power doth avow." And in that garth were also pears of various kinds Sinaďtic,[FN#395] Aleppine and Grecian growing in clusters and alone, parcel green and parcel golden.—And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Sixty-fifth Night, She pursued, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that when the merchants' sons went down into the garth they saw therein all the fruits we mentioned and found pears Sinaďtic, Aleppine and Grecian of every hue, which here clustering there single grew, parcel green and parcel yellow to the gazer a marvel-view, as saith of them the poet, "With thee that Pear agree, whose hue a-morn * Is hue of hapless lover yellow pale; Like virgin cloistered strait in strong Harím * Whose face like racing steed outstrips the veil." And Sultani[FN#396] peaches of shades varied, yellow and red, whereof saith the poet, "Like Peach in vergier growing * And sheen of Andam[FN#397] showing: Whose balls of yellow gold * Are dyed with blood-gouts flowing." There were also green almonds of passing sweetness, resembling the cabbage[FN#398] of the palm-tree, with their kernels within three tunics lurking of the Munificent King's handiworking, even as is said of them, "Three coats yon freshest form endue * God's work of varied shape and hue: Hardness surrounds it night and day; * Prisoning without a sin to rue." And as well saith another, "Seest not that Almond plucked by hand * Of man from bough where wont to dwell: Peeling it shows the heart within * As union-pearl in oyster- shell." And as saith a third better than he,