done, they went to the shop and ordered their stock in trade and
slept there that night. As soon as morning morrowed the Wazir
took the two young men to the Hammam bath where they washed them
clean; and they donned rich dresses and scented themselves with
essences and enjoyed themselves to the utmost. Now each of the
youths was passing fair to look upon, and in the bath they were
even as saith the poet,

"Luck to the Rubber, whose deft hand o'erdies *
A frame begotten twixt the lymph and light:[FN#17]
He shows the thaumaturgy of his craft, *
And gathers musk in form of camphor dight."[FN#18]

After bathing they left; and, when the Overseer heard that they
had gone to the Hammam, he sat down to await the twain, and
presently they came up to him like two gazelles; their cheeks
were reddened by the bath and their eyes were darker than ever;
their faces shone and they were as two lustrous moons or two
branches fruit laden. Now when he saw them he rose forthright
and said to them, "O my sons, may your bath profit you
always!"[FN#19] Where upon Taj al-Muluk replied, with the
sweetest of speech, "Allah be bountiful to thee, O my father; why
didst thou not come with us and bathe in our company?" Then they
both bent over his right hand and kissed it and walked before him
to the shop, to entreat him honourably and show their respect for
him, for that he was Chief of the Merchants and the market, and
he had done them kindness in giving them the shop. When he saw
their hips quivering as they moved, desire and longing redoubled
on him; and he puffed and snorted and he devoured them with his
eyes, for he could not contain himself, repeating the while these