and outside
the rain came down in torrents: but that was a decided advantage,
since it not only drove men indoors, but helped to keep them there.
Mesaod, the one-eyed, had finished an elaborate tuning of his
two-stringed banjo, his ginbri--a home-made instrument--and was
proceeding to arrive at a convenient pitch of voice for his song. With
a strong nasal accent he commenced reciting the loves of Si Marzak and
his fair Azizah: how he addressed her in the fondest of language,
and how she replied by caresses. When he came to the chorus they all
chimed in, for the most part to their own tune and time, as they
rocked to and fro, some clapping, some beating their thighs, and all
applauding at the end.

The whole ballad would not bear translation--for English ears,--and
the scanty portion which may be given has lost its rhythm and cadence
by the change, for Arabic is very soft and beautiful to those who
understand it. The time has come when Azizah, having quarrelled with
Si Marzak in a fit of perhaps too well-founded jealousy, desires to
"make it up again," and thus addresses her beloved--

"Oh, how I have followed thy attractiveness,
And halted between give and take!
Oh, how I'd from evil have protected thee
By my advice, hadst thou but heeded it!
Yet to-day taste, O my master,
Of the love that thou hast taught to me!

"Oh, how I have longed for the pleasure of thy visits,
And poured out bitter tears for thee;
Until at last the sad truth dawned on me
That of thy choice thou didst put me aside!
Yet to-day taste, O my master,
Of the love that thou hast taught to me!

"Thou wast sweeter than honey to me,
But thou hast become more bitter than gall.
Is it thus thou beginnest the world?
Beware lest thou make me thy foe!
Yet to-day taste, O my master,
Of the love that thou hast taught to me!

"I have hitherto been but a name to thee,
And thou took'st to thy bosom a snake,
But to-day I perceive thou'st a fancy for me:
O God, I will not be deceived!
Yes, to-day taste, O my master,
Of the love that thou hast taught to me!

"Thou know'st my complaint and my only cure:
Why, then, wilt thou heal me not?
Thou canst do so to-day, O my master,
And save me from all further woe.
Yes, to-day taste, O my master,
Of the love that thou hast taught to me!"

To which the hard-pressed swain replies--

"Of a truth thine eyes have