more consequence from the favor which they enjoyed at the court of
Bagdad, where, for many years, they filled the highest offices of
the state with universal approbation.


TO TAHER BEN HOSIEN[14]

A pair of right hands and a single dim eye
Must form not a man, but a monster, they cry:--
Change a hand to an eye, good Taher, if you can,
And a monster perhaps may be chang'd to man.

[14] Taher Ben Hosien was ambidexter and one-eyed and, strange to say,
the most celebrated general of his time.


THE ADIEU[15]

The boatmen shout, "Tis time to part,
No longer we can stay"--
'Twas then Maimnna taught my heart
How much a glance could say.

With trembling steps to me she came;
"Farewell," she would have cried,
But ere her lips the word could frame
In half-form'd sounds it died.

Then bending down with looks of love,
Her arms she round me flung,