ABU SUWAYD AND THE PRETTY OLD WOMAN.
Quoth Abu Suwayd, "I and a company of my friends, entered a
garden one day to buy somewhat of fruit; and we saw in a corner
an old woman, who was bright of face, but her head-hair was
white, and she was combing it with an ivory comb. We stopped
before her, yet she paid no heed to us neither veiled her face:
so I said to her, 'O old woman,[FN#251] wert thou to dye thy hair
black, thou wouldst be handsomer than a girl: what hindereth thee
from this?' She raised her head towards me"--And Shahrazad
perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say.
When it was the Four Hundred and Twenty-fourth Night,
She said, It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that Abu Suwayd
continued: "When I spake these words to the ancient dame she
raised her head towards me and, opening wide her eyes, recited
these two couplets,
'I dyed what years have dyed, but this my staining *
Lasts not, while that of days is aye remaining:
Days when beclad in gear of youth I fared, *
Raked fore and aft by men with joy unfeigning.'
I cried, 'By Allah, favoured art thou for an old woman! How
sincere art thou in thine after-pine for forbidden pleasures and
how false is thy pretence of repentance from frowardness!'" And
another tale is that of
