cometh the state wherein you see me."

She commanded her maid-servants to prepare food for all
the women, and she spread a banquet before them in her
house. She placed knives upon the table to peel the oranges,
and then ordered Joseph to appear, arrayed in costly garments,
and wait upon her guests. When Joseph came in,
the women could not take their eyes off him, and they all cut
their hands with the knives, and the oranges in their hands
were covered with blood, but they, not knowing what they
were doing, continued to look upon the beauty of Joseph
without turning their eyes away from him.

Then Zuleika said unto them: "What have ye done?
Behold, I set oranges before you to eat, and you have cut
your hands." All the women looked at their hands, and, lo,
they were full of blood, and it flowed down and stained their
garments. They said to Zuleika, "This slave in thy house
did enchant us, and we could not turn our eyes away from
him on account of his beauty." She then said: "This happened
to you that looked upon him but a moment, and you
could not refrain yourselves! How, then, can I control
myself in whose house he abideth continually, who see him
go in and out day after day? How, then, should I not waste
away, or keep from languishing on account of him!" And
the women spake, saying: "It is true, who can look upon
this beauty in the house, and refrain her feelings? But he
is thy slave! Why dost thou not disclose to him that which
is in thy heart, rather than suffer thy life to perish through
this thing?" Zuleika answered them: "Daily do I endeavor