THE WILES OF RABESQURAT
Now, when Noorna bin Noorka had made an end of her narration, she foldedher hands and was mute awhile; and to the ear of Shibli Bagarag it seemedas if a sweet instrument had on a sudden ceased luting. So, as he leaned,listening for her voice to recommence, she said quickly, 'See yonder fireon the mountain's height!'
He looked and saw a great light on the summit of a lofty mountain beforethem.
Then said she, 'That is Aklis! and it is ablaze, knowing a visitant near.Tighten now the hairs of Garraveen about thy wrist; touch thy lips withthe waters of Paravid; hold before thee the Lily, and make ready to enterthe mountain. Lo, my betrothed, thou art in possession of the three meansthat melt opposition, and the fault is thine if thou fail.'
He did as she directed; and they were taken on a tide and advancedrapidly to the mountain, so that the waters smacked and crackled beneaththe shell, covering it with silver showering arches of glittering spray.Then the fair beams of the moon became obscured, and the twain reddenedwith the reflection of the fire, and the billows waxed like riotousflames; and presently the shell rose upon the peak of many waves swollento one, and looking below, they saw in the scarlet abyss of waters attheir feet a monstrous fish, with open jaws and one baleful eye; and thefish was lengthy as a caravan winding through the desert, and coveredwith fiery scales. Shibli Bagarag heard the voice of Noorna shriekaffrightedly, 'Karaz!' and as they were sliding on the down slope, shestood upright in the shell, pronouncing rapidly some words in magic; andthe shell closed upon them both, pressing them together, and writingdarkness on their very eyeballs. So, while they were thus, they feltthemselves gulped in, and borne forward with terrible swiftness, theyknew not where, like one that hath a dream of sinking; and outside theshell a rushing, gurgling noise, and a noise as of shouting multitudes,and muffled multitudes muttering complaints and yells and querulouscries, told them they were yet speeding through the body of the depths inthe belly of the fish. Then there came a shock, and the shell was struckwith light, and they were sensible of stillness without motion. Then ablow on the shell shivered it to fragments, and they were blinded withseas of brilliancy on all sides from lamps and tapers and crystals,cornelians and gems of fiery lustre, liquid lights and flashing mirrors,and eyes of crowding damsels, bright ones. So, when they had risen, andcould bear to gaze on the insufferable splendour, they saw sitting on athrone of coral and surrounded by slaves with scimitars, a fair Queen,with black eyes, kindlers of storms, torches in the tempest, and withfloating tresses, crowned with a circlet of green-spiked precious stonesand masses of crimson weed with flaps of pearl; and she was robed with arobe of amber, and had saffron sandals, loose silvery-silken trouserstied in at the ankle, the ankle white as silver; wonderful was thequivering of rays from the jewels upon her when she but moved a finger!Now, as they stood with their hands across their brows, she cried out, 'Oye traversers of my sea! how is this, that I am made to thank Karaz for asight of ye?'
And Noorna bin Noorka answered, 'Surely, O Queen Rabesqurat, the haven ofour voyage was Aklis, and we feared delay, seeing the fire of themountain ablaze with expectations of us.'
Then the Queen cried angrily, ''Tis well thou hadst wit to close theshell, O Noorna, or there would have been delay indeed. Say, is not theroad to Aklis through my palace? And it is the road thousands travel.'
So Noorna bin Noorka said, 'O Queen, this do they; but are they of themthat reach Aklis?'
And the Queen cried violently, purpling with passion, 'This to me! when Ihelped ye to the plucking of the Lily?'
Now, the Queen muttered an imprecation, and called the name 'Abarak!' andlo, a door opened in one of the pillars of jasper leading from thethrone, and there came forth a little man, humped, with legs like bows,and arms reaching to his feet; in his hand a net weighted with leadenweights. So the Queen levelled her finger at Noorna, and he spun the netabove her head, and dropped it on her shoulder, and dragged her with himto the pillar. When Shibli Bagarag saw that, the world darkened to him,and he rushed upon Abarak; but Noorna called swiftly in his ear, 'Wait!wait! Thou by thy spells art stronger than all here save Abarak. Be true!Remember the seventh pillar!' Then, with a spurn from the hand of Abarak,the youth fell back senseless at the feet of the Queen.
Now, with the return of consciousness his hearing was bewitched withstrange delicious melodies, the touch of stringed instruments, and othersbreathed into softly as by the breath of love, delicate, tender, alivewith enamoured bashfulness. Surely, the soul that heard them dissolvedlike a sweet in the goblet, mingling with so much ecstasy of sound; andthose melodies filling the white cave of the ear were even at once todrown the soul in delightfulness and buoy it with bliss, as aheavy-leaved flower is withered and refreshed by sun and dews. Surely,the youth ceased not to listen, and oblivion of cares and aught other inthis life, save that hidden luting and piping, pillowed his drowsy head.At last there was a pause, and it seemed every maze of music had beenwandered through. Opening his eyes hurriedly, as with the loss of themusic his own breath had gone likewise, he beheld a garden golden withthe light of lamps hung profusely from branches and twigs of trees by theglowing cheeks of fruits, apple and grape, pomegranate and quince; and hewas reclining on a bank piled with purple cushions, his limbs clad in therichest figured silks, fringed like the ends of clouds round the sun,with amber fringes. He started up, striving to recall the confused memoryof his adventures and what evil had befallen him, and he would havestruggled with the vision of these glories, but it mastered him with thestrength of a potent drug, so that the very name of his betrothed wasforgotten by him, and he knew not whither he would, or the thing hewished for. Now, when he had risen from the soft green bank that was hiscouch, lo, at his feet a damsel weeping! So he lifted her by the hand,and she arose and looked at him, and began plaining of love and itstyrannies, softening him, already softened. Then said she, 'What I sufferthere is another, lovelier than I, suffering; thou the cause of it, Ocruel youth!'
He said, 'How, O damsel? what of my cruelty? Surely, I know nothing ofit.'
But she exclaimed, 'Ah, worse to feign forgetfulness!'
Now, he was bewildered at the words of the damsel, and followed herleading till they entered a dell in the garden canopied with foliage, andbeyond it a green rise, and on the rise a throne. So he looked earnestly,and beheld thereon Queen Rabesqurat, she sobbing, her dark hair pouringin streams from the crown of her head. Seeing him, she cleared her eyes,and advanced to meet him timidly and with hesitating steps; but he shrankfrom her, and the Queen shrieked with grief, crying, 'Is there in thiscold heart no relenting?'
Then she said to him winningly, and in a low voice, 'O youth, my husband,to whom I am a bride!'
He marvelled, saying, 'This is a game, for indeed I am no husband,neither have I a bride . . . yet have I confused memory of some betrothal. . .'
Thereupon she cried, 'Said I not so? and I the betrothed.'
Still he exclaimed, 'I cannot think it! Wullahy, it were a wonder!'
So she said, 'Consider how a poor youth of excellent proportions came toa flourishing Court before one, a widowed Queen, and she cast eyes oflove on him, and gave him rule over her and all that was hers when he hadachieved a task, and they were wedded. Oh, the bliss of it! Knit togetherwith bond and a writing; and these were the dominions, I the Queen, woe'sme!--thou the youth!'
Now, he was roiled by the enchantments of the Queen, caught in the snareof her beguilings; and he let her lead him to a seat beside her on thethrone, and sat there awhile in the midst of feastings, mazed, thinking,'What life have I lived before this, if the matter be as I behold?'thinking, ''Tis true I have had visions of a widowed queen, and I a pooryouth that came to her court, and espoused her, sitting in the vacantseat beside her, ruling a realm; but it was a dream, a dream,--yet, wah!here is she, here am I, yonder my dominions!' Then he thought, 'I willsolve it!' So, on a sudden he said to her beside him, 'O Queen, sovereignof hearts! enlighten me as to a perplexity.'
She answere
d, 'The voice of my lord is music in the ear of the bride.'
Then said he, in the tone of one doubting realities, 'O fair Queen, isthere truly now such a one as Shagpat in the world?'
She laughed at his speech and the puzzled appearance of his visage,replying, 'Surely there liveth one, Shagpat by name in the world; strangeis the history of him, his friends, and enemies; and it would bearrecital.'
Then he said, 'And one, the daughter of a Vizier, Vizier to the King inthe City of Shagpat?'
Thereat, she shook her head, saying, 'I know nought of that one.'
Now, Shibli Bagarag was mindful of his thwackings; and in this the wisdomof Noorna, is manifest, that the sting of them yet chased away doubts ofillusion regarding their having been, as the poet says,
If thou wouldst fix remembrance--thwack! 'Tis that oblivion controls; I care not if't be on the back, Or on the soles.
He thought, 'Wah! yet feel I the thong, and the hiss of it as of theserpent in the descent, and the smack of it as the mouth of satisfactionin its contact with tender regions. This, wullahy! was no dream.'Nevertheless, he was ashamed to allude thereto before the Queen, and hesaid, 'O my mistress, another question, one only! This Shagpat--is heshaved?'
She said, 'Clean shorn!'
Quoth he, astonished, grief-stricken, with drawn lips, 'By which hand,chosen above men?'
And she exclaimed, 'O thou witty one that feignest not to know! Wullahy!by this hand of thine, O my lord and king, daring that it is; dexterous!surely so! And the shaving of Shagpat was the task achieved,--I the dowerof it, and the rich reward.'
Now, he was meshed yet deeper in the net of her subtleties, and by hercalling him 'lord and king'; and she gave a signal for freshentertainments, exhausting the resources of her art, the mines of herwealth, to fascinate him. Ravishments of design and taste were on everyside, and he was in the lap of abundance, beguiled by magic, caressed bybeauty and a Queen. Marvel not that he was dazzled, and imagined himselfalready come to the great things foretold of him by the readers ofplanets and the casters of nativities in Shiraz. He assisted in beguilinghimself, trusting wilfully to the two witnesses of things visible; as isdeclared by him of wise sayings:
There is in every wizard-net a hole, So the entangler first must blind the soul.
And it is again said by that same teacher:
Ye that the inner spirit's sight would seal, Nought credit but what outward orbs reveal.
And the soul of Shibli Bagarag was blinded by Rabesqurat in the depths ofthe Enchanted Sea. She sang to him, luting deliriously; and he wasintoxicated with the blissfulness of his fortune, and took a lute andsang to her love-verses in praise of her, rhyming his rapture. Then theyhanded the goblet to each other, and drank till they were on fire withthe joy of things, and life blushed beauteousness. Surely, Rabesqurat wasbecoming forgetful of her arts through the strength of those draughts,till her eye marked the Lily by his side, which he grasped constantly,the bright flower, and she started and said, 'One grant, O my King, myhusband!'
So he said courteously, 'All grants are granted to the lovely, thefascinating; and their grief will be lack of aught to ask for?'
Then said she, 'O my husband, my King, I am jealous of that silly flower:laugh at my weakness, but fling it from thee.'
Now, he was about to cast it from him, when a vanity possessed his mind,and he exclaimed, 'See first the thing I will do, a wonder.'
She cried, 'No wonders, my life! I am sated with them.'
And he said, 'I am oblivious, O Queen, of how I came by this flower andthis phial; but thou shalt hear a thing beyond the power of common magic,and see that I am something.'
Now, she plucked at him to abstain from his action, but he held the phialto the flower. She signed imperiously to some slaves to stay his rightwrist, and they seized on it; but not all of them together could withholdhim from dropping a drop into the petals of the flower, and lo, the Lilyspake, a voice from it like the voice of Noorna, saying, 'Remember theSeventh Pillar.' Thereat, he lifted his eyes to his brows and frownedback memory to his aid, and the scene of Karaz, Rabesqurat, Abarak, andhis betrothed was present to him. So perceiving that, the Queen delayednot while he grasped the phial to take in her hands some water from abasin near, and flung it over him, crying, 'Oblivion!' And while his mindwas straining to bring back images of what had happened, he fell forwardonce more at the feet of Rabesqurat, senseless as a stone falls; such wasthe force of her enchantments.
Now, when he awoke the second time he was in the bosom of darkness, andthe Lily gone from his hand; so he lifted the phial to make certain ofthat, and groped about till he came to what seemed an urn to the touch,and into this he dropped a drop, and asked for the Lily; and a voicesaid, 'I caught a light from it in passing.' And he came in the darknessto a tree, and a bejewelled bank, and other urns, and swinging lampswithout light, and a running water, and a grassy bank, and flowers, and asilver seat, sprinkling each; and they said all in answer to his questionof the Lily, 'I caught a light from it in passing.' At the last hestumbled upon the steps of a palace, and ascended them, endowing thesteps with speech as he went, and they said, 'The light of it went overus.' He groped at the porch of the palace, and gave the door a voice, andit opened on jasper hinges, shrieking, 'The light of it went through me.'Then he entered a spacious hall, scattering drops, and voices exclaimed,'We glow with the light of it.' He passed, groping his way through otherhalls and dusk chambers, scattering drops, and as he advanced the voicesincreased in the fervour of their replies, saying sequently: 'We blushwith the light of it; We beam with the light of it; We burn with thelight of it.' So, presently he found himself in a long low room, sombrelylit, roofed with crystals; and in a corner of the room, lo! a damsel on acouch of purple, she white as silver, spreading radiance. Of suchlustrous beauty was she that beside her, the Princess Goorelka as ShibliBagarag first beheld her, would have paled like a morning moon; evenNoorna had waned as Both a flower in fierce heat; and the Queen ofEnchantments was but the sun behind a sand-storm, in comparison with thateffulgent damsel on the length of the purple couch. Well for him he wiltof the magic which floated through that palace; as is said,
Tempted by extremes, The soul is most secure; Too vivid loveliness blinds with its beams, And eyes turned inward perceive the lure.
Pulling down his turban hastily, he stepped on tiptoe to within arm'sreach of her, and, looking another way, inclined over her soft vermeilmouth the phial slowly till it brimmed the neck, and dropped a drop ofParavid between the bow of those sweet lips. Still not daring to gaze onher, he said then, 'My question is of the Lily, the Lily of the Sea, andwhere is it, O marvel?'
And he heard a voice answer in the tones of a silver bell, clear as awind in strung wires, 'Where I lie, lies the Lily, the Lily of the Sea; Iwith it, it with me.'
Said he, 'O breather of music, tell me how I may lay hand on the flowerof beauty to bear it forth.'
And he heard the voice, 'An equal space betwixt my right side and myleft, and from the shoulder one span and half a span downward.'
Still without power to eye her, he measured the space and the spans, hishand beneath the coverlids of the couch, and at a spot of the bosom hishand sank in, and he felt a fluttering thing, fluttering like a frightedbird in the midst of the fire. And the voice said, 'Quick, seize it, anddraw it out, and tie it to my feet by the twines of red silk about it.'
He seized it and drew it out, and it was a heart--a heart ofblood-streaming with crimson, palpitating. Tears flashed on his sightbeholding it, and pity took the seat of fear, and he turned his eyes fullon her, crying, 'O sad fair thing! O creature of anguish! O painfulbeauty! Oh, what have I done to thee?'
But she panted, and gasped short and shorter gasps, pointing with onefinger to her feet. Then he took the warm living heart while it yet leaptand quivered and sobbed; and he held it with a trembling hand, and tiedit by the red twines of silk about it to her feet, staining theirwhiteness. When that was do
ne, his whole soul melted with pity andswelled with sorrow, and ere he could meet her eyes a swoon overcame him.Surely, when the world dawned to him a third time in those regions thedamsel was no longer there, but in her place the Lily of Light. Hethought, 'It was a vision, that damsel! a terrible one; one to terrifyand bewilder! a bitter sweetness! Oh, the heart, the heart!' Reflectingon the heart brought to his lids an overcharging of tears, and he weptviolently awhile. Then was he warned by the thought of his betrothed totake the Lily and speed with it from the realms of Rabesqurat; and hestole along the halls of the palace, and by the plashing fountains, andacross the magic courts, passing chambers of sleepers, fair dreamers, andthrough ante-rooms crowded with thick-lipped slaves. Lo, as he held theLily to light him on, and the light of the Lily fell on them that wereasleep, they paled and shrank, and were such as the death-chill maketh ofus. So he called upon his head the protection of Allah, and went swifter,to chase from his limbs the shudder of awe; and there were some thatslept not, but stared at him with fixed eyes, eyes frozen by the light ofthe Lily, and he shunned those, for they were like spectres, hauntingspirits. After he had coursed the length of the palace, he came to asteep place outside it, a rock with steps cut in stairs, and up these hewent till he came to a small door in the rock, and lying by it a bar; sohe seized the bar and smote the door, and the door shivered, for on hisright wrist were the hairs of Garraveen. Bending his body, he slippedthrough the opening, and behold, an orchard dropping blossoms and ripegolden fruits, streams flowing through it over sands, and brooks boundingabove glittering gems, and long dewy grasses, profusion of scentedflowers, shade and sweetness. So he let himself down to the ground, whichwas an easy leap from the aperture, and walked through the garden,holding the Lily behind him, for here it darkened all, and the glowingorchard was a desert by its light. Presently, his eye fell on a couchswinging between two almond trees, and advancing to it he beheld theblack-eyed Queen gathered up, folded temptingly, like a swaying fruit;she with the gold circlet on her head, and she was fair as blossom of thealmond in a breeze of the wafted rose-leaf. Sweetly was she gathered up,folded temptingly, and Shibli Bagarag refrained from using the Lily,thinking, ''Tis like the great things foretold of me, this having ofQueens within the very grasp, swinging to and fro as if to tauntbackwardness!' Then he thought, ''Tis an enchantress! I will yet try her.'So he made a motion of flourishing the Lily once or twice, but forbore,fascinated, for she had on her fair face the softness of sleep, her lipsclosed in dimples, and the wicked fire shut from beneath her lids.Mastering his mind, the youth at last held the Lily to her, and saw asight to blacken the world and all bright things with its hideousness.Scarce had he time to thrust the Lily in his robes, when the Queenstarted up and clapped her hands, crying hurriedly, 'Abarak! Abarak!' andthe little man appeared in a moment at the door by which Shibli Bagaraghad entered the orchard. So, she cried still, 'Abarak!' and he movedtoward her. Then she said, 'How came this youth here, prying in myprivate walks, my bowers? Speak!'
He answered, 'By the aid of Garraveen only, O Queen! and there is noforce resisteth the bar so wielded.'
Rabesqurat looked under her brows at Shibli Bagarag and saw the horror onhis face, and she cried out to Abarak in an agony, 'Fetch me the mirror!'Then Abarak ran, and returned ere the Queen had drawn seven impatientbreaths, and in one hand he bore a sack, in the other a tray: so heemptied the contents of the sack on the surface of the tray; surely theywere human eyes! and the Queen flung aside her tresses, and stood overthem. The youth saw her smile at them, and assume tender and tauntingmanners before them, and imperious manners, killing glances, till in eachof the eyes there was a sparkle. Then she flung back her head as one thatfeedeth on a mighty triumph, exclaiming, 'Yet am I Rabesqurat! wide is mysovereignty.' Sideways then she regarded Shibli Bagarag, and it seemedshe was urging Abarak to do a deed beyond his powers, he frowning andpointing to the right wrist of the youth. So she clenched her hands aninstant with that feeling which knocketh a nail in the coffin of a desirenot dead, and controlled herself, and went to the youth, breaking intobeams of beauty; and an enchanting sumptuousness breathed round her, sothat in spite of himself he suffered her to take him by the hand and leadhim from that orchard through the shivered door and into the palace andthe hall of the jasper pillars. Strange thrills went up his arm from thetouch of that Queen, and they were as little snakes twisting and dartingup, biting poison-bites of irritating blissfulness.
Now, the hall was spread for a feast, and it was hung with lamps ofsilver, strewn with great golden goblets, and viands, coloured meats, andordered fruits on shining platters. Then said she to Shibli Bagarag, 'Oyouth! there shall be no deceit, no guile between us. Thou art but myguest, I no bride to thee, so take the place of the guest beside me.'
He took his seat beside her, Abarak standing by, and she helped the youthto this dish and that dish, from the serving of slaves, caressing himwith flattering looks to starve aversion and nourish tender fellowship.And he was like one that slideth down a hill and can arrest his descentwith a foot, yet faileth that freewill. When he had eaten and drunk withher, the Queen said, 'O youth, no other than my guest! art thou not aprince in the country thou comest from?'
In a moment the pride of the barber forsook him, and he equivocated,saying, 'O Queen! there is among the stars somewhere, as was divined bythe readers of planets, a crown hanging for me, and I search a point ofearth to intercept its fall.'
She marked him beguiled by vanity, and put sweetmeats to his mouth,exclaiming, 'Thy manners be those of a prince!' Then she sang to him ofthe loneliness of her life, and of one with whom she wished to share herstate,--such as he. And at her signal came troops of damsels that stoodin rings and luted sweetly on the same theme--the Queen's loneliness, herlove. And he said to the Queen, 'Is this so?'
She answered, 'Too truly so!'
Now, he thought, 'She shall at least speak the thing that is, if she lookit not.' So he took the goblet, and contrived to drop a drop from thephial of Paravid therein without her observing him; and he handed her thegoblet, she him; and they drank. Surely, the change that came over theQueen was an enchantment, and her eyes shot lustre, her tongue wasloosed, and she laughed like one intoxicated, lolling in her seat, lostto majesty and the sway of her magic, crying, 'O Abarak! Abarak! littleman, long my slave and my tool; ugly little man! And O Shibli Bagarag!nephew of the barber! weak youth! small prince of the tackle! have I notnigh fascinated thee? And thou wilt forfeit those two silly eyes of thineto the sack. And, O Abarak, Abarak! little man, have I flattered thee? Sofetter I the strong with my allurements! and I stay the arrow in itsflight! and I blunt the barb of high intents! Wah! I have drunk a potentstuff; I talk! Wullahy! I know there is a danger menacing Shagpat, andthe eyes of all Genii are fixed on him. And if he be shaved, what changeswill follow! But 'tis in me to delude the barber, wullahy! and I willavert the calamity. I will save Shagpat!'
While the Queen Rabesqurat prated in this wise with flushed face, ShibliBagarag was smitten with the greatness of his task, and reproached hissoul with neglect of it. And he thought, 'I am powerful by spells as nonebefore me have been, and 'twas by my weakness the Queen sought to tangleme. I will clasp the Seventh Pillar and make an end of it, by Allah andhis Prophet (praised be the name!), and I will reach Aklis by a shortpath and shave Shagpat with the sword.'
So he looked up, and Abarak was before him, the lifted nostrils of thelittle man wide with the flame of anger. And Abarak said, 'O youth,regard me with the eyes of judgement! Now, is it not frightful to rate melittle?--an instigation of the evil one to repute me ugly?'
The promptings of wisdom counselled Shibli Bagarag to say, 'Frightfulbeyond contemplation, O Abarak! one to shame our species! Surely, thereis a moon between thy legs, a pear upon thy shoulders, and the cock thatcroweth is no match for thee in measure.'
Abarak cried, 'We be aggrieved, we two! O youth, son of my uncle, I willgive thee means of vengeance; give thou me means.'
Shibli Bagarag felt scorn at the Que
en, and her hollowness, and he said,''Tis well; take this Lily and hold it to her.'
Now, the Queen jeered Abarak, and as he approached her she shouted,'What! thou small of build! mite of creation! sour mixture! thou puppetof mine! thou! comest thou to seek a second kiss against the compact,knowing that I give not the well-favoured of mortals beyond one, asecond.
Little delayed Abarak at this to put her to the test of the Lily, and heheld the flower to her, and saw the sight, and staggered back like onestricken with a shaft. When he could get a breath he uttered such a howlthat Rabesqurat in her drunkenness was fain to save her ears, and thehall echoed as with the bellows of a thousand beasts of the forest. Then,to glut his revenge he ran for the sack, and emptied the contents of it,the Queen's mirror, before her; and the sackful of eyes, they saw thesight, and sickened, rolling their whites. That done, Abarak gave ShibliBagarag the bar of iron, and bade him smite the pillars, all save theseventh; and he smote them strengthily, crumbling them at a blow, andbringing down the great hall and its groves, and glasses and gems, lamps,traceries, devices, a heap of ruin, the seventh pillar alone standing.Then, while he pumped back breath into his body, Abarak said, 'There's nodelaying in this place now, O youth! Say, halt thou spells for theentering of Aklis?'
He answered, 'Three!'
Then said Abarak, ''Tis well! Surely now, if thou takest me in thyservice, I'll help thee to master the Event, and serve thee faithfully,requiring nought from thee save a sight of the Event, and 'tis I thatmyself missed one, wiled by Rabesqurat.'
Quoth Shibli Bagarag, 'Thou?'
He answered, 'No word of it now. Is't agreed?'
So Shibli Bagarag cried, 'Even so.'
Thereupon, the twain entered the pillar, leaving Rabesqurat prone, andthe waves of the sea bounding toward her where she lay. Now, theydescended and ascended flights of slippery steps, and sped together alongmurky passages, in which light never was, and under arches of caves withhanging crystals, groping and tumbling on hurriedly, till they came to anobstruction, and felt an iron door, frosty to the touch. Then Abarak saidto Shibli Bagarag, 'Smite!' And the youth lifted the bar to his rightshoulder, and smote; and the door obeyed the blow, and discovered anopening into a strange dusky land, as it seemed a valley, on one side ofwhich was a ragged copper sun setting low, large as a warrior's batteredshield, giving deep red lights to a brook that fell, and over a flatstream a red reflection, and to the sides of the hills a dark red glow.The sky was a brown colour; the earth a deeper brown, like the skins oftawny lions. Trees with reddened stems stood about the valley, scatteredand in groups, showing between their leaves the cheeks of melancholyfruits swarthily tinged, and toward the centre of the valley a shiningpalace was visible, supported by massive columns of marble reddened bythat copper sun. Shibli Bagarag was awed at the stillness that hungeverywhere, and said to Abarak, 'Where am I, O Abarak? the look of thisplace is fearful!'
And the little man answered, 'Where, but beneath the mountains in Aklis?Wullahy! I should know it, I that keep the passage of the seventhpillar!'
Then the thought of his betrothed Noorna, and her beauty, and the words,'Remember the seventh pillar,' struck the heart of Shibli Bagarag, and heexclaimed passionately, 'Is she in safety? Noorna, my companion, mybetrothed, netted by thee, O Abarak!'
Abarak answered sharply, 'Speak not of betrothals in this place, or thesword of Aklis will move without a hand!'
But Shibli Bagarag waxed the colour of the sun that was over them, andcried, 'By Allah! I will smite thee with the bar, if thou swear not toher safety, and point not out to me where she now is.'
Then said Abarak, 'Thou wilt make a better use of the bar by lifting itto my shoulder, and poising it, and peering through it.'
Shibli Bagarag lifted the bar to the shoulder of Abarak, and poised it,and peered through the length of it, and lo! there was a sea tossing intumult, and one pillar standing erect in the midst of the sea; and on thepillar, above the washing waves, with hair blown back, and flappingraiment, pale but smiling still, Noorna, his betrothed!
Now, when he saw her, he made a rush to the door of the passage; butAbarak blocked the way, crying, 'Fool! a step backward in Aklis isdeath!'
And when he had wrestled with him and reined him, Abarak said, 'Haste toreach the Sword from the sons of Aklis, if thou wouldst save her.'
He drew him to the brink of the stream, and whistled a parrot's whistle;and Shibli Bagarag beheld a boat draped with drooping white lotuses thatfloated slowly toward them; and when it was near, he and Abarak enteredit, and saw one, a veiled figure, sitting in the stern, who neither movedto them nor spake, but steered the boat to a certain point of land acrossthe stream, where stood an elephant ready girt for travellers to mounthim; and the elephant kneeled among the reeds as they approached, thatthey might mount him, and when they had each taken a seat, moved off,waving his trunk. Presently the elephant came to a halt, and went uponhis knees again, and the two slid off his back, and were among blackslaves that bowed to the ground before them, and led them to the shininggates of the palace in silence. Now, on the first marble step of thepalace there sat an old white-headed man dressed like a dervish, who heldout at arm's length a branch of gold with golden singing-birds betweenits leaves, saying, 'This for the strongest of ye!'
Abarak exclaimed, 'I am that one'; and he held forth his hand for thebranch.
But Shibli Bagarag cried, 'Nay, 'tis mine. Wullahy, what has not thestrength of this hand overthrown?'
Then the brows of Abarak twisted; his limbs twitched, and he bawled, 'Tothe proof!' waking all the echoes of Aklis. Shibli Bagarag was tempted inhis desire for the golden branch to lift the iron bar upon Abarak, whenlo! the phial of Paravid fell from his vest, and he took it, andsprinkled a portion of the waters over the singing birds, and in a momentthey burst into a sweet union of voices, singing, in the words of thepoet:
When for one serpent were two asses match? How shall one foe but with wiles master double? So let the strong keep for ever good watch, Lest their strength prove a snare, and themselves a mere bubble; For vanity maketh the strongest most weak, As lions and men totter after the struggle. Ye heroes, be modest! while combats ye seek, The cunning one trippeth ye both with a juggle.
Now, at this verse of the birds Shibli Bagarag fixed his eye on the oldman, and the beard of the old man shrivelled; he waxed in size, and flewup in a blaze and with a baffled shout bearing the branch; surely, hisfeatures were those of Karaz, and Shibli Bagarag knew him by the lengthof his limbs, his stiff ears, and copper skin. Then he laughed a loudlaugh, but Abarak sobbed, saying, 'By this know I that I never shouldhave seized the Sword, even though I had vanquished the illusions ofRabesqurat, which held me fast half-way.'
So Shibli Bagarag stared at him, and said, 'Wert thou also a searcher, OAbarak?'
But Abarak cried, 'Rouse not the talkative tongue of the past, O youth!Wullahy! relinquish the bar that is my bar, won by me, for the Sword iswithin thy grip, and they await thee up yonder steps. Go! go! and lookfor me here on thy return.'
The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Complete Page 12