Then said he to her, 'How long this abstinence from singing and permanence in this wailing and weeping? Thou art not the first that hath been parted from a beloved!' Wherefore I knew what she suffered for love of me. Then he hung a curtain before her along the gunwale and calling those who ate apart, sat down with them without the curtain; and I enquired concerning them and behold they were his brethren.[FN#43] He set before them what they needed of wine and dessert, and they ceased not to press the damsel to sing, till she called for the lute and tuning it, intoned these two couplets, 'The company left with my love by night, * Nor forbore to fare with heart's delight: And raged, since their camels off paced, a fire * As of Ghazб[FN#44]-wood in the lover's sprite.' Then weeping overpowered her and she threw down the elute and ceased singing; whereat the folks were troubled and I slipped down a-swoon. They thought I was possessed[FN#45] and one of them began reciting exorcisms in my ear; nor did they cease to comfort her and beseech her to sing, till she tuned the lute again and chaunted these couplets twain, 'I stood and bewailed who their loads had bound * And far yode but still in my heart are found; I drew near the ruins and asked of them * And the camp was void and lay waste the ground.' Then she fell down in a fainting-fit and weeping arose amongst the folk; and I also cried out and fainted away. The sailors were startled by me and one of the Hashimi's pages said to them, 'How came ye to take this madman on board?' So they said one to other, 'As soon as we come to the next village, we will set him ashore and rid us of him.' When I heard this, I was sore troubled but I heartened and hardened myself, saying in thought, 'Nothing will serve me to deliver myself from their hands, except I make shift to acquaint her with my presence in the ship, so she may prevent my being set ashore.' Then we sailed when we came hard by a hamlet[FN#46] and the skipper said, 'Come, let us go ashore.' Therewith they all landed, save myself; and as evening fell I rose and going behind the curtain took the lute and changed its accord, mode[FN#47] by mode, and tuning it after a fashion of my own,[FN#48] that she had learnt of me, returned to my place in the ship;" —And Shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say. When it was the Eight Hundred and Ninety-eighth Night,