"I am called Chira."
"Well, Chira, tell me where Redah lives. Is it at the city of the stones or
in the garden of the palms?"
"Redah dwells in the city. Her father is the Sultan. Seven kings have
fought for her, and one of them has refreshed his heart. He is named
Chalau. Go, seek the large house. You will be with Redah when I see you
again."
Ahmed sets out, and soon meets the wife of the shepherd, who comes before
him and says, "Enter, be welcome, and may good luck attend you!" She ties
his horse, gives him to drink, and goes to find dates for Ahmed. She takes
care to count them before serving him with them. He takes out a pit, closes
the date again, puts them all together, and puts down the pit. He ate
nothing, and he said to the woman: "Take away these dates, for I have eaten
my fill." She looks, takes up the tray, counts the dates again, and
perceives that none of them has been eaten. Nevertheless, there is a pit,
and not a date missing. She cries out:
"Alas! my heart for love of this young man
Is void of life as is this date of pit."
Then she heaved a sigh and her soul flew away.
Ahmed remained there as if in a dream until the shepherd came back. "Your
wife is dead," he said to him, "and if you wish, I'll give you her weight
in gold and silver."
But the shepherd answers: "I, too, am the son of a sultan. I have come to
pay this woman a visit and desire to see her. Calm yourself. I will take
neither your gold nor silver. This is the road to follow; go, till you
arrive at the castle where she is."
Ahmed starts, and when he arrives at the castle, he stands up in his
stirrups and throws the shadow of his spear upon the window.
Redah, addressing her negress, said to her: "See now what casts that
shadow. Is it a cloud, or an Arab's spear?"
The negress goes to see, comes back to her mistress, and says to her, "It
is a horseman, such as I have never seen the like of before in all my
life."
"Return," said Redah, "and ask him who he is." Redah goes to see, and says:
"O horseman, who dost come before our eyes,
Why seekest thou thy death? Tell me upon
Thine honor true, what is thine origin?"
He answers:
"Oh, I am Ahmed el Hilalieu called. Well known
'Mongst all the tribes of daughters of Hilal.
I bear in hand a spear that loves to kill,
Who'er attacks me counts on flight and dies."
She says to him:
"Thou'rt Ahmed el Hilalieu? Never prowls
A noble bird about the Zeriba;
The generous falcon turns not near the nests,
O madman! Why take so much care
About a tree that bears not any dates?"
He answers:
"I will demand of our great Lord of all
To give us rain to cover all the land
With pasturage and flowers. And we shall eat
Of every sort of fruit that grows on earth."
Redah:
"We women are like silk. And only those
Who are true merchants know to handle us."
Ahmed el Hilalieu then says:
"I've those worth more than thou amid the girls
Of Hilal, clad in daintiest of silk
Of richest dye, O Redah, O fifth rite."
And, turning his horse's head, he goes away. But she recalls him:
"I am an orange, them the gardener;
I am a palm and thou dost cut my fruit;
I am a beast and thou dost slaughter me.
I am--upon thine honor--O gray steed,
Turn back thy head. For we are friends henceforth."