stood in its way, and it slipped through everything as we pass through still water, the stone columns, blocks of granite by the walls, the walls of earth, and the thick solidity of the ground beneath his feet.  They bade him say to the Sword, ‘Sleep!’ and it was no longer than a knife in the girdle.  Likewise, they bade him hiss on the heads of the serpents, and say, ‘Wake!’ and while he held it lengthwise it shot lengthening out.  Then they bade him hold in one hand the sapphire hair that conquered the lion, and with the edge of the Sword touch one point of it.  So he did that, and it split in half, and the two halves he also split; and he split those four, and those eight, till the hairs were thin as light and not distinguishable from it.  When Shibli Bagarag saw the power of the Sword, he exulted and cried, ’Praise be to the science of them that forecast events and the haps of life!’ Now, in the meantime he marked the youths take those hairs of Garraveen that he had split, and tie them round the neck of the Antelope, and empty the contents of the phial down her throat; and they put the bulb of the Lily, that was a heart, in her mouth, and she swallowed it till the flower covered her face.  Then they took each a handful of the golden waters of the brook flowing through the cave, and flung the waters over her, exclaiming, ’By the three spells that have power in Aklis, and by which these waters are a blessing!’

In the passing of a flash she took her shape, and was a damsel taller than the tallest of them that descend from the mountains, a vision of loveliness, with queenly brows, closed red lips, and large full black eyes; her hair black, and on it a net of amber strung with pearls.  To look upon her was to feel the tyranny of love, love’s pangs of alarm and hope and anguish; and she was dressed in a dress of white silk, threaded with gold and sapphire, showing in shadowy beams her rounded figure and the stateliness that was hers.  So she ran to her brothers and embraced them, calling them by their names, catching their hands, caressing them as one that had been long parted from them.  Then, seeing Shibli Bagarag as he stood transfixed with the javelins of loveliness that flew from her on all sides, she cried:  ’What, O Master of the Event! halt thou nought for the Sword but to gaze before thee in silliness?’

Then he said, ’O rare in beauty! marvel of Aklis and the world! surely the paradise of eyes is thy figure and the glory of thy face!’

But she shouted, ’To work with the Sword!  Shame on thee! is there not one, a bright one, a miracle in faithfulness, that awaiteth thy rescue on the pillar?’

And she repeated the praises he had spoken of Noorna bin Noorka, his betrothed.  Then he grasped the Sword firmly, remembering the love of Noorna, and crying, ’Lead me from this, O ye sons of Aklis, and thou, Princess Gulrevaz, lead me, that I may come to her.’

So they said, ‘Follow us!’ and he sheathed the Sword in his girdle with the word ‘Sleep!’ and followed them, his heart beating violently.