d at her signal came troops of damsels that stood
in rings and luted sweetly on the same theme--the Queen's loneliness, her
love. And he said to the Queen, 'Is this so?'

She answered, 'Too truly so!'

Now, he thought, 'She shall at least speak the thing that is, if she look
it not.' So he took the goblet, and contrived to drop a drop from the
phial of Paravid therein without her observing him; and he handed her the
goblet, she him; and they drank. Surely, the change that came over the
Queen was an enchantment, and her eyes shot lustre, her tongue was
loosed, and she laughed like one intoxicated, lolling in her seat, lost
to majesty and the sway of her magic, crying, 'O Abarak! Abarak! little
man, long my slave and my tool; ugly little man! And O Shibli Bagarag!
nephew of the barber! weak youth! small prince of the tackle! have I not
nigh fascinated thee? And thou wilt forfeit those two silly eyes of thine
to the sack. And, O Abarak, Abarak! little man, have I flattered thee? So
fetter I the strong with my allurements! and I stay the arrow in its
flight! and I blunt the barb of high intents! Wah! I have drunk a potent
stuff; I talk! Wullahy! I know there is a danger menacing Shagpat, and
the eyes of all Genii are fixed on him. And if he be shaved, what changes
will follow! But 'tis in me to delude the barber, wullahy! and I will
avert the calamity. I will save Shagpat!'

While the Queen Rabesqurat prated in this wise with flushed face, Shibli
Bagarag was smitten with the greatness of his task, and reproached his
soul with neglect of it. And he thought, 'I am powerful by spells as none
before me have been, and 'twas by my weakness the Queen sought to tangle
me. I will clasp the Seventh Pillar and make an end of it, by Allah and
his Prophet (praised be the name!), and I will reach Aklis by a short
path and shave Shagpat with the sword.'

So he looked up, and Abarak was before him, the lifted nostrils of the
little man wide with the flame of anger. And Abarak said, 'O youth,
regard me with the eyes of judgement! Now, is it not frightful to rate me
little?--an instigation of the evil one to repute me ugly?'

The promptings of wisdom counselled Shibli Bagarag to say, 'Frightful
beyond contemplation, O Abarak! one to shame our species! Surely, there
is a moon between thy legs, a pear upon thy shoulders, and the cock that
croweth is no match for thee in measure.'

Abarak cried, 'We be aggrieved, we two! O youth, son of my