Having sung with a
great deal of passion and action, she said to lovely Amine, Pray
take it, sister, for I can do no more; my voice fails me; oblige
the company with a tune and song in my room. Very willingly,
replied Amine, who, taking the lute from her sister Safie, sat
down in her place.
Amine, after a small trial to see whether the instrument was in
tune, played and sung almost as long upon the same subject, but
with so much vehemency, and was so much affected, or rather
transported, by the words of the song, that her strength failed
her as she made an end of it.
Zobeide, willing to testify her satisfaction, said, Sister, you
have done wonders, and we may easily see that you have a feeling
of the grief you have expressed so much to the life. Amine was
prevented from answering this civility, her heart being so
sensibly touched at the same moment, that she was obliged, for
air, to uncover her neck and breast, which did not appear so fair
as might have been expected from such a lady; but, on the
contrary, black and full of scars, which frightened all the
spectators. This, however, gave her no ease, but she fell into a
fit.
While Zobeide and Safie ran to help their sister, one of the
calenders could not forbear to say, We had better have slept in
the streets than have come hither, had we thought to have seen
such spectacles.
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