Strona 267 z 1116

After that time the eldest and handsomest lady stood up and

stripped off her garments, whereupon the Porter took his neck in

hand, and rubbed and shampoo'd it, saying, "My neck and shoulders

are on the way of Allah!"[FN#160] Then she threw herself into the

basin, and swam and dived, sported and washed; and the Porter

looked at her naked figure as though she had been a slice of the

moon[FN#161] and at her face with the sheen of Luna when at full,

or like the dawn when it brighteneth, and he noted her noble

stature and shape, and those glorious forms that quivered as she

went; for she was naked as the Lord made her. Then he cried

"Alack! Alack!"and began to address her, versifying in these

couplets:-

"If I liken thy shape to the bough when green * My likeness errs

and I sore mistake it; For the bough is fairest when clad the

most * And thou art fairest when mother naked."