I am not as other women are, O Allan, who having conquered the secrets of Nature," here I felt an intense desire to ask what secrets, but remembered and held my tongue, "to my sorrow have preserved my youth and beauty through many ages.

Moreover in the past, perhaps in payment for my sins, I have lived other lives of which some memory remains with me.
"By my last birth I am an Arab lady of royal blood, a descendant of the Kings of the East.

There I dwelt in the wilderness and ruled a people, and at night I gathered wisdom from the stars and the spirits of the earth and air.

At length I wearied of it all and my people too wearied of me and besought me to depart, for, Allan, I would have naught to do with men, yet men went mad because of my beauty and slew each other out of jealousy.

Moreover other peoples made war upon my people, hoping to take me captive that I might be a wife to their kings.