Presently, he espied a tree, by whose side was a thin thread of
running water; so he made towards it and sitting down in the
shade, on the bank of the rivulet, essayed to drink, but found
that the water had no taste in his mouth;[FN#43] and, indeed his
colour had changed and his face had yellowed, and his feet were
swollen with travel and travail. So he shed copious tears and
repeated these couplets,

"The lover is drunken with love of friend; *
On a longing that groweth his joys depend:
Love-distracted, ardent, bewildered, lost *
From home, nor may food aught of pleasure lend:
How can life be delightsome to one in love, *
And from lover parted, 'twere strange, unkenned!
I melt with the fire of my pine for them, *
And the tears down my cheek in a stream descend.
Shall I see them, say me, or one that comes *
From the camp, who th' afflicted heart shall tend?"

And after thus reciting he wept till he wetted the hard dry
ground; but anon without loss of time he rose and fared on again
over waste and wold, till there came out upon him a lion, with a
neck buried in tangled mane, a head the bigness of a dome, a
mouth wider than the door thereof and teeth like elephants'
tusks. Now when Uns al-Wujud saw him, he gave himself up for
lost, and turning[FN#44] towards the Temple of Meccah, pronounced
the professions of the faith and prepared for death. He had read
in books that whoso will flatter the lion, beguileth him,[FN#45]
for that he is readily duped by smooth speech and gentled by
being glorified; so he began and said, "O Lion of the forest! O