ghter of Nouri was
living. Urad, seeing the concourse of people, came weeping and
trembling toward the door, and asked them the cause of their coming.

"O Urad," said her neighbours, "we saw you, not long ago, seeking your
friend Houadir, and we feared you also were missing, as you have
neither appeared among us, nor attended your daily labours among the
worms, who feed and provide for us by their subtle spinning."

"O my friends," answered Urad, "suffer a wretched maid to deplore the
loss of her dearest friends. Nouri, from whose breasts I sucked my
natural life, is now a prey to the vulture on the banks of the Tigris;
and Houadir, from whom I derive my better life, is passed away from me
like a vision in the night."

Her rustic acquaintance laughed at these sorrows of the virgin Urad.
"Alas!" said one, "Urad grieves that now she has to work for one,
instead of three." "Nay," cried another, "I wish my old folks were as
well bestowed." "And I," said a third, "were our house rid of the
old-fashioned lumber that fills it at present (my superannuated father
and mother), would soon bring a healthy young swain to supply their
places with love and affection." "Ay, true," answered two or three
more, "we must look out a clever young fellow for Urad; whom shall she
have?" "Oh, if that be all," said a crooked old maid, who was famous
for match-making, "I will send Darandu to comfort her, before night;
and, if I mistake not, he very well knows his business." "Well, pretty
Urad," cried they all, "Darandu will soon be here: he is fishing on
the Tigris; and it is but just that the river which has robbed you of
one comfort, should give you a better." At this speech, the rest
laughed very heartily, and they all ran away, crying out, "Oh, she
will do very well when Darandu approaches."

Urad, though she could despise the trifling of her country neighbours,
yet felt an oppression on her heart at the name of Darandu, who was a
youth of incomparable beauty, and added to the charms of his person an
engaging air, which was far above the reach of the rest of the country
swains, who lived on those remote banks of the Tigris. "But, O
Houadir, O Nouri!" said the afflicted virgin to herself, "never shall
Urad seek, in the arms of a lover, to forget the bounties and precepts
of so kind a mistress and so indulgent a parent."

These reflections hurried the wretched Urad into her usual sorrowful
train of thoughts, and she spent the rest of the d