The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Complete

by George Meredith

  THE BOSOM OF NOORNA

  Now, while a thousand sparks of fire were bursting on the sight of thetwo divers, and they speeded heels uppermost to the destiny marked outfor them by the premeditations of the All-Wise, lo! Noorna was on themountain in outer Aklis with Koorookh, waiting for the appearance of herbetrothed, Sword in hand. She saw beams from the blazing eye of Aklis,and knew by the redness of it that one, a mortal, was peering on theearth and certain of created things. So she waited awhile in patience forthe return of her betrothed, with the head of Koorookh in her lap,caressing the bird, and teaching it words of our language; and the birdfashioned its bill to the pronouncing of names, such as 'Noorna' and'Feshnavat,' and 'Goorelka'; and it said 'Karaz,' and stuck not at thename 'Shagpat,' and it learnt to say even 'Shagpat shall be shaved!Shagpat shall be shaved!' but no effort of Noorna could teach it to say,'Shibli Bagarag,' the bird calling instead, 'Shiparack, Shiplabarack,Shibblisharack.' And Noorna chid it with her forefinger, crying, 'OKoorookh! wilt thou speak all names but that one of my betrothed?'

  So she said again, 'Shibli Bagarag.' And the bird answered, imitating itsbest, 'Shibberacavarack.' Noorna was wroth with it, crying, 'Oh naughtybird! is the name of my beloved hateful to thee?'

  And she chid Koorookh angrily, he with a heavy eye sulking, and keepingthe sullen feathers close upon his poll. Now, she thought, 'There is inthis a meaning and I will fathom it.' So she counted the letters in thename of her betrothed, that were thirteen, and spelt them backwards,afterwards multiplying them by an equal number, and fashioning words fromthe selection of every third and seventh letter. Then took she the leaffrom a tree and bade Koorookh fly with her to the base of the mountainsloping from Aklis to the sea, and there wrote with a pin's point on theleaf the words fashioned, dipping the leaf in the salt ripple by thebeach, till they were distinctly traced. And it was revealed to her thatShibli Bagarag bore now a name that might be uttered by none, for thatthe bearer of it had peered through the veil of the ferrying figure inAklis. When she knew that, her grief was heavy, and she sat on the coldstones of the beach and among the bright shells, weeping in anguish,loosing her hair, scattering it wildly, exclaiming, 'Awahy! woe on me!Was ever man more tired than he before entering Aklis, he that was inturns abased and beloved and exalted! yet his weakness clingeth to him,even in Aklis and with the Wondrous Sword in his grasp.'

  Then she thought, 'Still he had strength to wield the Sword, for I markedthe flashing of it, and 'twas he that leaned forward the blade to me; andhe possesses the qualities that bring one gloriously to the fruits ofenterprise!' And she thought, 'Of a surety, if Abarak be with him, and asingle of the three slaves of the Sword that I released from the tail ofGarraveen, Ravejoura, Karavejis, and Veejravoosh, he will yet comethrough, and I may revive him in my bosom for the task.' So, thinkingupon that, the sweet crimson surprised her cheeks, and she arose and drewKoorookh with her along the beach till they came to some rocks piledruggedly and the waves breaking over them. She mounted these, and steppedacross them to the entrance of a cavern, where flowed a full waterswiftly to the sea, rolling smooth bulks over and over, and with atranslucent light in each, showing precious pebbles in the bed of thewater below; agates of size, limpid cornelians, plates of polished jet,rubies, diamonds innumerable that were smitten into sheen by slant raysof the level sun, the sun just losing its circle behind lustrous billowsof that Enchanted Sea. She turned to Koorookh a moment, saying, with acoax of smiles, 'Will my bird wait here for me, even at this point?'Koorookh clapped both his wings, and she said again, petting him, 'Hewill keep watch to pluck me from the force of water as I roll past, thatI be not carried to the sea, and lost?'

  Koorookh still clapped his wings, and she entered under the arch of thecavern. It was roofed with crystals, a sight of glory, with golden lampsat intervals, still centres of a thousand beams. Taking the sandal fromher left foot and tucking up the folds of her trousers to the bend of herclear white knee, she advanced, half wading, up the winds of the cavern,and holding by the juts of granite here and there, till she came to along straight lane in the cavern, and at the end of it, far down, a solidpillar of many-coloured water that fell into the current, as it had beenone block of gleaming marble from the roof, without ceasing. Now, shemade toward it, and fixed her eye warily wide on it, and it was bright,flawless in brilliancy; but while she gazed a sudden blot was visible,and she observed in the body of the fall two dark objects plumpingdownward one after the other, like bolts, and they splashed in thecurrent and were carried off by the violence of its full sweep, shootingby her where she stood, rapidly; but she, knotting her garments round thewaist to give her limbs freedom and swiftness, ran a space, and then bentand plunged, catching, as she rose, the foremost to her bosom, andwhirled away under the flashing crystals like a fish scaled withsplendours that hath darted and seized upon a prey, and is bearing itgreedily to some secure corner of the deeps to swallow the quiveringrepast at leisure. Surely, the heart of Noorna was wise of what she boreagainst her bosom; and it beat exulting strokes in the midst of the rushand roar and gurgle of the torrent, and the gulping sounds andmultitudinous outcries of the headlong water. That verse of the poetwould apply to her where he says:

  Lead me to the precipice, And bid me leap the dark abyss: I care not what the danger be, So my beloved, my beauteous vision, Be but the prize I bear with me, For she to Paradise can turn Perdition.

  Praise be to him that planteth love, the worker of this marvel, withinus! Now, she sped in the manner narrated through the mazes of the cavern,coming suddenly to the point at the entrance where perched Koorookhgravely upon one leg, like a bird with an angling beak: he caught at heras she was hurling toward the sea, and drew her to the bank of rock, thatburden on her bosom; and it was Shibli Bagarag, her betrothed, his eyesclosed, his whole countenance colourless. Behind him like a shadowstreamed Abarak, and Noorna kneeled by the waterside and fetched thelittle man from it likewise; he was without a change, as if drawn from afamiliar element; and when he had prostrated himself thrice and called onthe Prophet's name in the form of thanksgiving, he wrung his beard of thewet, and had wit to bless the action of Noorna, that saved him. Then thetwo raised Shibli Bagarag from the rock, and reclined him lengthwiseunder the wings of Koorookh, and Noorna stretched herself there besidehim with one arm about his neck, the fair head of the youth on her bosom.And she said to Abarak, 'He hath dreamed many dreams, my betrothed, butnever one so sweet as that I give him. Already, see, the hue returneth tohis cheek and the dimples of pleasure.' So was it; and she said, 'Mount,O thou of the net and the bar! and stride Koorookh across the neck, forit is nigh the setting of the moon, and by dawn we must be in our middleflight, seen of men, a cloud over them.'

  Said Abarak, 'To hear is to obey!'

  He bestrode the neck of Koorookh and sat with dangling feet, till shecried, 'Rise!' and the bird spread its wings and flapped them wide,rising high in the silver rays, and flying rapidly forward with the threeon him from the mountain in front of Aklis, and the white sea with itsenchanted isles and wonders; flying and soaring till the earth was aswhat might be held in the hollow of the hand, and the kingdoms of theearth a mingled heap of shining dust in the midst.