shak ibn Ibrahim el Mosili shall sing them."

Abu 'Atahiyeh, who was sitting next to Ishak, having dictated some
lines, and Ishak having written them down, the latter sang them to a
favourite air of Haroun's, being accompanied on the lute by Isaac, the
most famous of all the players on that instrument.

The lines were these:

"O, LOVELY STARS!"

"O lovely stars! O lovely stars! O lovely stars in the sky!
Your eyes are bright, your eyes are bright, and yet you are
wondrous shy!

You none are men, you none are men, but every one a she;
And but at night, and but at night, your beauty we men may see!

The staring gaze, the staring gaze, of insolent Day you shun;
In veils of light, in veils of light, hid from the face of the Sun.

The swarthy Night, the swarthy Night, he alone may be your spouse;
His harem wide, his harem wide, no other lover allows.

The Caliph's self, the Caliph's self, has no bevy one half so fair;
Nor lodged so well, nor lodged so well, as ye in your palace of air!"

"Bravo, bravo! well worded and well sung, by Allah!" cried Haroun, as
Ishak ibn Ibrahim el Mosili concluded the verses. Then taking two
splendid golden goblets which stood before him, he commanded them to be
filled with wine, and presented one to Abu 'Atahiyeh, and the other to
Ishak ibn Ibrahim el Mosili.

"Take each of you," said the generous Caliph, "the goblet that I send
you; it is yours. And, by Allah and the beard of the Prophet! if I
could but find twenty such poets and singers, most willingly would I
find twenty such goblets for them."

The other guests were no less pleased than the host himself with the
verses of Abu 'Atahiyeh, and the singing of Ishak ibn Ibrahim el Mosili.

Presently the Caliph, addressing Abu 'Atahiyeh, said: "You have made us
some verses, now tell us a tale, for I know that your store of tales is
without end."

THE STORY OF MUBAREK,

AS TOLD BY ABU 'ATAHIYEH.

"There once lived a young man whose name was Mubarek. He was the only
son of a rich merchant at Bagdad, commonly known as Bereydah abou
Mubarek.

"To the great grief of his father, Mubarek, when he was twenty-three
years of age, developed such a longing to travel and visit those
foreign countries of which he had so often heard from other
merchants--his father's friends--that nothing could persuade him to
remain quietly in Bagdad. Bereydah abou Mubarek, having therefore
furnished his son with suc