that I open my thighs and he down on my back." Then cried the husband, "O Emir, she tells untruth; in order to possess her I have to fight with her." The Emir pronounced the following judgment: "I give you, he said, a year's time to prove her allegation to be false." He decides thus out of regard for the man. El Adjadje then went away reciting these verses:
"Dahama and her father Mesedjel thought,
The Emir would decide upon my impotence.
Is not the stallion sometimes lazy-minded?
And yet he is so large and vigorous."
Returned to his house he began to kiss and caress his wife; but his efforts went no farther, he remained incapable of giving proofs of his virility. Dahama said to him, "Keep your caresses and embraces; they do not satisfy love. What I desire is a solid and stiff member, the sperm of which will flow into my matrix." And she recited to him the following verses:
"
Before God! it is in vain to try with kisses
To entertain me, and with your embracings!
To still my torments I must feel a member,
Ejaculating sperm into my uterus."
El Adjadje, in despair, conducted her forthwith back to her family, and, to hide his shame, repudiated her that very night.
A poet said on that occasion:
"What are caresses to an ardent woman,
Or costly vestments and fine jewelry,[1]
If the man's organs do not meet her own.
And she is yearning for the virile verge!"
- ↑ Note of the autograph edition.—The author cites here two names of costly garments: "l'ouchahane" and the "djelbab." For the translation it appeared better not to cling to the latter, but to give the true sense, which is: "luxurious garments and jewelry."
