Now, of the promise made by the Sons of Aklis to visit Shibli Bagarag before their compulsory return to the labour of the Sword, and recount to him the marvel of their antecedent adventures; and of the love and grief nourished in the souls of men by the beauty and sorrowful eyes of Gulrevaz, that was mined the Bleeding Lily, and of her engagement to tell her story, on condition of receiving the first-born of Noorna to nurse for a season in Aklis; and of Shibli Bagarag’s restoration of towns and monuments destroyed by his battle with Karaz; and of the constancy of passion of Shibli Bagarag for Noorna, and his esteem for her sweetness, and his reverence for her wisdom; and of the glory of his reign, and of the Songs and Sentences of Noorna, and of his Laws for the protection and upholding of women, in honour of Noorna, concerning which the Sage has said: 

          Were men once clad in them, we should create
          A race not following, but commanding, fate: 

—­of all these records, and of the reign of Baba Mustapha in Oolb, surely the chronicles give them in fulness; and they that have searched say of them, there is matter therein for the amusement of generations.

ETEXT EDITOR’S BOOKMARKS: 

A woman’s at the core of every plot man plotteth
Every failure is a step advanced
Failures oft are but advising friends
Like an ill-reared fruit, first at the core it rotteth
More culpable the sparer than the spared
Persist, if thou wouldst truly reach thine ends
Too often hangs the house on one loose stone