'Boy like of backside, in the deed of kind, * She sways, as sways the wand like boughs a-wind.'
An youths, then, were not better and fairer than girls, why should these be likened to them? And know also (Almighty Allah preserve thee!) that a youth is easy to be led, adapting himself to every rede, pleasant of converse and manners, inclining to assent rather than dissent, especially when his side face is newly down'd and his upper lip is first embrowned, and the purple lights of youth on his cheeks abound, so that he is like the full moon sound; and how goodly is the saying of Abu Tamm á m[FN#236],
'The slanderers said 'There's hair upon his cheeks'; * Quoth I, 'Exceed not, that's no blemish there.' When he could bear that haling of his hips * And pearl-beads shaded by mustachio hair;[FN#
