Tale of the First Eunuch, Bukhayt. 49 left to open, a tomb and bury the box : so let us rest here two or three hours, then rise and do the job. Meanwhile each of us shall tell how he came to be castrated and all that befel him from first to last, the better to pass away our time while we take our rest." Thereupon the first, he of the lanthorn and whose name was Bukhayt, said, " I'll tell you my tale." " Say on," replied so he began as follows the TALE OF THE FIRST EUNUCH, BUKHA YT. KNOW, O my brothers, that when I was a little one, some five years old, I was taken home from my native country by a slave- driver who sold me to a certain Apparitor. 1 My purchaser had a daughter three years old, with whom I was brought up, and they used to make mock of me, letting me play with her and dance for her 2 and sing to her, till I reached the age of twelve and she that of ten ; and even then they did not forbid me seeing her. One day I went in to her and found her sitting in an inner room, and she looked as if she had just come out of the bath which was in the house ; for she was scented with essences and reek of aromatic woods, and her face shone like the circle of the moon on the four- teenth night. She began to sport with me, and I with her. Now I had just reached the age of puberty; so my prickle stood at point, as it were a huge key. Then she threw me on my back and, mounting astraddle on my breast, fell a-wriggling and a-bucking upon me till she had uncovered my yard. When she saw it standing with head erect, she hent it in hand and began rubbing it upon the lips of her little slit 3 outside her petticoat- trousers. Thereat hot lust stirred in me and I threw my arms 'Arab. "Jawish" from Turk. Chawush, Chiaoosh, a sergeant, poursuivant, roytf messenger. I would suggest that this is the word " Shalish " or "Jalish" in Al- Siyuti's History of the Caliphs (p. 501) translated by Carlyle " milites," by Schulteo* " Sagittarius " and by Jarett " picked troops." a this familiarity with blackamoor slave-boys is common in Eygpt and often ends as in the story : Egyptian blood is sufficiently mixed with negro to breed inclination for miscegenation. But here the girl was wickedly neglected by her mother at such an age as ten.
Arab. " Far] "; hence a facetious designation of the other *ex is "Zawi'i-furoj"
(grammatically Zawatu'l-furuj) = habentes rimam, slit ones. VOL. II. D
