The blamer is dead and my love's in my arms： * Rise to herald of joys and tuck high thy sleeve[376]！'
Then she and Masrur abode each with other in eating and drinking and sport and pleasure and good cheer，till there came to them the Destroyer of delights and Sunderer of societies and Slayer of sons and daughters.And I have also heard tell the following tale of ALI NUR AL-DIN AND MIRIAM THE
GIRDLE-GIRL[377]
There was once in days of yore and in ages and times long gone before in the parts of Cairo，a merchant named Taj al-Din who was of the most considerable of the merchants and of the chiefs of the freeborn.But he was given to travelling everywhere and loved to fare over wild and wold，waterless lowland and stony waste；and to journey to the isles of the seas，in quest of dirhams and dinars： wherefore he had in his time encountered dangers and suffered duresse of the way such as would grizzle little children and turn their black hair grey.He was possessed of black slaves and Mamelukes，eunuchs and concubines，and was the wealthiest of the merchants of his time and the goodliest of them in speech；owning horses and mules and Bactrian camels and dromedaries；
sacks great and small of size；goods and merchandise and stuffs such as muslins of Hums，silks and brocades of Ba'allak，cotton of Mery，stuffs of India，gauzes of Baghdad，burnouses of Moorland and Turkish white slaves and Abyssinian castratos and Grecian girls and Egyptian boys；and the coverings of his bales were silk with gold purfled fair，for he was wealthy beyond compare.Furthermore he was rare of comeliness，accomplished in goodliness，and gracious in his kindliness，even as one of his describers doth thus express；'A merchant I spied whose lovers * Were fighting in furious guise：