by Allah !' He said, ' I seek Red Death, its very self.'*
To which I replied, ' I desire death with thee.' So
he said, ' Go with us.' And we journeyed the whole
of that day until night closed upon us. And half of it
had passed when we arrived at an encampment of
the encampments of the Arabs. And he said to me,
'Red Death is within this encampment, O 'Amr!
Wilt thou then hold my horse whilst I go, and return
with what I want; or wilt thou go whilst I hold thy
horse, and bring me what I desire.?'

" So I replied, ' It is well that thou shouldst go,
for thou knowest better than I what thou wantest.'
Then he flung to me his horse's bridle, and I was
willing, by AlMh \ O Commander of the Faithful, to
be SayisJ to him!

" Then he passed into a tent, and brought out of it
a damsel, than whom my eyes have never beheld one
excelling in beauty and grace. And he mounted her

* "Red Death," i.e., which takes place through the shedding
of blood. Amongst the mystics, the resistance of man to his
passions. " White Death," i.e., natural death. Amongst the
mystics, hunger. "Black Death," i.e., death by strangulation

Green Death," i.e., clothing oneself in rags or patched gar-
ments, after the manner of dervishes.
X S4yis, groom or horsekeeper.
