his neck, the fair head of the youth on her bosom.  And she said to Abarak, ’He hath dreamed many dreams, my betrothed, but never one so sweet as that I give him.  Already, see, the hue returneth to his cheek and the dimples of pleasure.’  So was it; and she said, ’Mount, O thou of the net and the bar! and stride Koorookh across the neck, for it is nigh the setting of the moon, and by dawn we must be in our middle flight, seen of men, a cloud over them.’

Said Abarak, ‘To hear is to obey!’

He bestrode the neck of Koorookh and sat with dangling feet, till she cried, ‘Rise!’ and the bird spread its wings and flapped them wide, rising high in the silver rays, and flying rapidly forward with the three on him from the mountain in front of Aklis, and the white sea with its enchanted isles and wonders; flying and soaring till the earth was as what might be held in the hollow of the hand, and the kingdoms of the earth a mingled heap of shining dust in the midst.

THE REVIVAL

Now, the feathers of Koorookh in his flight were ruffled by a chill breeze, and they were speeding through a light glow of cold rose-colour.  Then said Noorna, ’’Tis the messenger of morning, the blush.  Oh, what changes will date from this day!’

The glow of rose became golden, and they beheld underneath them, on one side, the rim of the rising red sun, and rays streaming over the earth and its waters.  And Noorna said, ’I must warn Feshnavat, my father, and prepare him for our coming.’

So she plucked a feather from Koorookh and laid the quill downward, letting it drop.  Then said she, ‘Now for the awakening of my betrothed!’

Thereupon she hugged his head a moment, and kissed him on the eyelids, the cheeks, and the lips, crying, ‘By this means only!’ Crying that, she pushed him, sliding, from the back of the bird, and he parted from them, falling headforemost in the air like a stricken eagle.  Then she called to Koorookh, ‘Seize him!’ and the bird slanted his beak and closed his wings, the two, Abarak and Noorna, clinging to him tightly; and he was down like an arrow between Shibli Bagarag and the ground, spreading beneath him like a tent, and Noorna caught the youth gently to her lap; then she pushed him off again, intercepting his descent once more, till they were on a level with one of the mountains of the earth, from which the City of Shagpat is visible among the yellow sands like a white spot in the yolk of an egg.  So by this time the eyes of the youth gave symptoms of a desire to look upon the things that be, peeping faintly beneath the lashes, and she exclaimed joyfully, raising her white hands above her head, ‘One plunge in the lake, and life will be his again!’