ys;
of silver, in the form of rings, each with a little golden star.

Then she paid a visit to a seller of perfumes. In the deep, dark,
stone niche, in the midst of jars with gray Arabian amber, packets of
frankincense from Lebanon, bunches of aromatic herbs, and phials with
oils, was sitting an AEgyptian, a castrate,--old, obese, wrinkled,
immobile, all fragrant himself; his legs tucked under him, and blinking
his lazy eyes. He carefully counted out of a Phoenician flask into a
little clay flagon just as many drops of myrrh as there were dinarii
among all the moneys of Sulamith; and when he had finished this task he
said, gathering up with the stopper the remnant of the oil around the
neck of the bottle, and laughing slyly:

"Swarthy maiden, beautiful maiden! When this day thy beloved shall kiss
thee between thy breasts and say: 'How fragrant is thy body, O my
beloved!'--recall me at that moment. I have poured over three extra
drops for thee."

And so, when night had come, and the moon had risen over Siloam,
blending the blue whiteness of its houses with the black blueness of the
shadows and the dull green of the trees, Sulamith did arise from her
humble couch of goats'-wool and hearkened. All was quiet in the house.
Her sister was breathing evenly upon the floor, nigh the wall. Only
outside, in the wayside bushes, the cicadas chirped stridently and
passionately; and the blood throbbed noisily in her ears. The shadow of
the window-lattice, etched by the light of the moon, lay, sharp and
oblique, upon the floor.

Trembling with timidity, expectation, and happiness, Sulamith loosened
her garments, let them down to her feet, and, stepping over them, was
left naked in the middle of the room, facing the window, in the light of
the moon falling through the bars of the lattice. She poured the thick,
sweet-smelling myrrh upon her shoulders, upon her bosom, upon her
abdomen; and, fearing to lose even one precious drop, began to rub
the oil over her legs, under her armpits, and about her neck. And
the smooth, slippery touch of her palms and elbows against her body
compelled her to shiver with sweet anticipation. And, smiling and
trembling, she gazed out of the window, where, beyond the lattice, two
poplars showed,--dark on one side, silvered on the other,--and whispered
to herself:

"This is for thee, my love; this is for thee, my beloved. My beloved is
the chiefest among ten thousand, his head is as the most fine gold, hi