OMAR. 4.69 



and exclaimed a thoufand times " t am happy. Fatima, I 

 I have found every thing that was wanting to me in thy 

 arms." Omar rioted thus three months, and rioted till 

 he was furfeited. The old were enlivened in Fatima Y 



, prefence ; Omar forrowfully call his eyes on the ground. . 

 Omar blufhed when fhe touched the hem of his garment ; 

 Omar turned pale when fhe kirTed him. Fatima foon 

 obferved this coldnefs, and was afflicted at it. The law 

 of the prophet permitted him to bury his difguft in th« 

 arms of another ; but he always fuppofed that he caufed 

 a like difguft in Fatima ; he refolved to withdraw from 

 her fight for a year or two. " She wants to fee me no 

 more, fhe wifhes to wean herfelf from me ; fhe will be- 

 come as indifferent to me as I am to her." Omar 

 had two factors, one at Ormus on the Perfian gulf, 

 and the other at Haieb in Syria. He had never neg- 

 lected thefe factors ; but now he wifhed to go in per 

 fon. He went with the caravan to the former place; 

 at his arrival, he afked for the accounts, and found 

 that in three years he had been a gainer of two hundred 

 per cent ; he went to Haleb, and found he had gained 

 a hundred per cent. The Eternal blefTes me wherever 

 I turn my eyes; and yet I pine in mifery. In two' 



~years he returned, and at a day's journey from Bagdat 

 he met a meflehger who acquainted him with the news 

 that Fatima was going to be buried the next day; a 

 fecret forrow having preyed upon her heart during the 

 ab fence of her hufband. For at that time no fuch 

 wife was to be feen in Bagdat. Omar flood ftill with 

 downcaft eyes. " Great prophet," exclaimed he when 

 returned from his illufion, " I am a man who never 

 afflict: any one, and I have been the murderer of the moft 



B h 3 lovely 



