'In the end the two peris. took me to the girl's house. I saw
her sleeping daintily. She was most lovely, and I was so amazed
at the perfection of her beauty that I stood with senses lost,
and did not know if she were real or a dream. When at last I saw
that she was a real girl, I returned thanks that I, the runner,
had come to my goal, and that I, the seeker, had found my
treasure.

'When the peri opened her eyes she asked in affright: "Who are
you? Have you come to steal? How did you get here? Be quick!
save yourself from this whirlpool of destruction, for the demons
and peris. who guard me will wake and seize you."

'But love's arrow had struck me deep, and the girl, too, looked
kindly on me. I could not go away. For some months I remained
hidden in her house. 'We did not dare to let her mother know of
our love. Sometimes the girl was very sad and fearful lest her
mother should come to know. One day her father said to her:
"Sweetheart, for some time I have noticed that your beauty is not
what it was. How is this? Has sickness touched you? Tell me
that I may seek a cure." Alas! there was now no way of concealing
the mingled delight and anguish of our love; from secret it
became known. I was put in prison and the world grew dark to my
rose, bereft of her lover.

'The peri-king ordered me to be burnt, and said: "Why have you, a
man, done this perfidious thing in my house?" His demons and
peris. collected amber-wood and made a pile, and would have set
me on it, when I remembered the word of life which the two peris.
I had rescued had breathed into my ear, and I asked that my body