CHAP XXV.
 
HISTORY OF
 
THE PRINCE OF FUTTUN
 
AND
 
THE PRINCESS MHERBANOU.

HISTORIANS have related, that in the city of Futtun there was a monarch of heaven-like power, the steps of whose throne the highest skies kissed, and the sun, like a slave, bore the badge of his commands upon his shoulder. He had a son, beautiful as the orb of light, about whose roseate cheeks the downy freshness had newly put forth, and round his face had just appeared a dusky line, as the halo round the moon. His stature was as a vigorous shrub shot up in the garden of youth, and fortune had gladdened the aspect of his stars with the water of prosperity.

VERSE.
His person was elegantly formed, like the vigorous cedar.
The wild cypress, with all its freedom, was his slave.
His two ruby lips, when smiling, shed sweets, and his mouth in conversation diffused delight.
When laughing, he scattered rays of light from the Pleiades. Salt from his wit most pungent flowed.

Agreeably to royal genius, adopt­ing the customs of Caioos and Heiko­baud,* he spent most of his time in the chace, and frequently amused himself with fishing. When mounted to pur­sue the game upon his wind-footed charger, Bharam* of the sky, from dread of his arrow, fell like the ghore to the earth; and when he took aim, the lion of the heavens sunk into his net. As he was on a certain day diverting himself with fishing, suddenly a boat appeared at a distance upon the waters, but the rowers invisible. The prince, astonished at the motion of the bark without hands, ran towards it, and as he approached nearer saw a princely barge, most elegantly shaped and set over with valuable jewels, covered with a splendid awning, and its deck spread with the richest carpets. You might have supposed it a resplendent crescent appearing from the horizon of the heavens, and with celerity proceeding on its course. In it, was a moon of four­teen years with an aspect like Luna in the full, sitting alone, with a thousand splendours and glories brilliant as the sun. Her looks were as moistened musk playing over a moon of fourteen days, and her eyebrows like two amber shades over the cheek of the ubber* inclining. With the keen glance of her piercing looks, she ensnared the fish of the waters, and, with the kummund of her enticing ringlets, seduced the world-il­luming sun from the azure citadel of the heavens into captivity.

VERSE.
Gentle as the early spring of Paradise, she glided lightly as the breeze over the culti­vation.
Coyly looking, yet not with arrogance, all other fair ones seemed before her earthly, but she formed of light.
Her lip resembled the leaf of the moistened rose filled with sweets.
Her eye was like the nergus asleep, but in its repose disturbance lay concealed.
Earth and sea adored her as she passed. All nature waited her commands.

The prince in an instant, from her keen glances, fell half dead like a fish into the net of her musk-like tresses, while the bark darted swiftly as the breeze over the waters. His attendants, who were employed in fishing, had not seen the causer of his distressed situation, which on beholding, they supposed to proceed from the excessive heat of the sun, and sprinkled rose-water upon his face. When no relief accrued from that, fancying him possessed by a demon, they had recourse to learned men, not know­ing that he was smitten by a Peri. Deeply as the skill of the wise tried for a remedy, they remained in the maze of helplessness, no favourable change appeared in his condition, but he rather became worse; so that at length all agreed in opinion that he was distracted. The king, much grieved at this, consulted philosophers and wise men; but much as these explorers of truth and speculatists in wisdom tried medicines according to the recipes of the eastern and western schools, the hand of skill did not in the least arrive at the skirt of hope. Their applications had no effect, nor could their fingers count the pulse of his con­dition. True it is, that the pain of love cannot be cured by the medicines of the physician.

When no means of relief appeared, and all the faculty laid their hands upon the ground of inability, the heart of the king, in sorrow for his son, burnt like a grain of suppund on the fire of despair. In order, if possible, to procure a remedy, he issued a proclamation, that “who­ever could extinguish the flames of calamity in the mind of the prince, should be rewarded by a fourth part of the revenues of the kingdom.” This declaration was published through­out the empire; in consequence of which every person extending the hand of endeavour according to his ability, explored the path of search after a cure.

The prime vizier’s son, who in the season of childhood had been the school-fellow and companion of the prince, and in every way enjoyed his confidence since their manhood, on hearing of his melan­choly state, hastened to visit him. He beheld the roses of his cheeks faded, and the seal of silence fixed on the casket of his mouth, and that, a stranger to him­self and friends, he lay restless on the bed of delirium.

The vizier’s son, having felt the pulse of his situation with the finger of skill, removed all persons from the chamber, and in privacy enquired his condition, saying, “Ah! my dear prince, lift up the cover of concealment from the urn of secresy, and lay open thy heart. Tell me, from the bow of what infidel’s eyebrow an arrow hath pierced thy breast, and what cruel spoiler hath plundered the treasure of thy under­standing. Should she be the Venus of the heavens, I can bring her down headlong to the earth; or if a winged Peri soaring in the firmament, by the charms of my skill, I can place her in the phial of thy controul.

VERSE.
“Though she be as a spark hidden in the flint, I can force her out like the steel.
“Be she as a bird and should mount the air, my talons can seize her in her flight.”

When the words of his friend struck the ear of the prince, he instantly opened his eyes, and having related his adven­ture, requested his assistance. The vizier’s son, having girded fast round him the girdle of consideration, said, “I have from the age of infancy planted the shrub of thy service in the borders of my heart, and strewed the gems of my life in the path of thy ransom. While the gold of animation shall remain in the purse of my body, I will not withhold my head from thy ser­vice, nor depart an hair’s breadth from the line of thy authority, in whatever thy wisdom shall command.”

The prince, from such friendly assurances and sympathizing encourage­ment, found much relief to his bursting heart, and arising from the musnud of faintness, said; “My plan is, in any way that offers, to convey myself to the country of my charmer. If, by the assistance of my stars, a union with her can be obtained, it is well; if not, to resign life as an offering in the path of a beloved object, is preferable to the sovereignty of the seven regions of the globe.”

The expedition being settled, the prince, accompanied by his friend, tak­ing a sum of money and some valuable jewels, placing the hand of hope on the strong cord of resignation, and chusing exile from his country, departed, with­out signifying his intention to others. He pursued his route, eagerly as the breeze, along the banks of the lake where the gilded crescent of the full moon of the sky of fascination had darted along the firmament of swiftness. Agreeably to the maxim, that the resolved on travel dread not precipices or caverns, winding the paths of mountains and desarts, he made light of the unevenness of the road and inconveniences of the way. In the soul-melting wilderness, in place of refreshment, he fed on longing for his mistress, and with naked body, weeping eyes, and tortured heart, hurried onwards.