object of his heart that he beheld--Noorna, his betrothed, pale on the
pillar; she with her head between her hands and her hair scattered by the
storm, as one despairing. Still he looked, and he save swimming round
the pillar that monstrous fish, with its sole baleful eye, which had
gulped them both in the closed shell of magic pearl; and he knew the fish
for Karaz, the Genie, their enemy. Then he turned to the Princess, with
an imploring voice for counsel how to reach her and bring her rescue; but
she said, 'The Sword is in thy hands, none of us dare wield it'; and the
seven youths answered likewise. So, left to himself, he drew the Sword
from his girdle, and hissed on the heads of the serpents, at the same
time holding it so that it might lengthen out inimitably. Then he leaned
it over the eye of the glass, in the direction of the pillar besieged by
the billows, and lo! with one cut, even at that distance, he divided the
fishy monster, and with another severed the chains that had fettered
Noorna; and she arose and smiled blissfully to the sky, and stood
upright, and signalled him to lay the point of the blade on the pillar.
When he had done this, knowing her wisdom, she put a foot boldly upon the
blade and ran up it toward him, and she was half-way up the blade, when
suddenly a kite darted down upon her, pecking at her eyes, to confuse
her. She waxed unsteady and swayed this way and that, balancing with one
arm and defending herself from the attacks of the kite with another. It
seemed to Shibli Bagarag she must fall and be lost; and the sweat started
on his forehead in great drops big as nuts. Seeing that and the
agitation of his limbs, Gulrevaz cried, 'O Master of the Event, let us
hear it!'

But he shrieked, 'The kite! the kite! she is running up the blade, and
the kite is at her eyes! and she swaying, swaying! falling, falling!'

So the Princess exclaimed, 'A kite! Koorookh is match for a kite!'