The Shaving of Shagpat, Complete

G >> George Meredith >> The Shaving of Shagpat, Complete

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She spoke winningly, sweet words to a luted voice, and the youth fell
upon his knees before her, smitten by her beauty; and he said, 'I
followed thee here as I would follow such loveliness to the gates of
doom, O Princess of Oolb.'

She smiled and said playfully, 'I will read by thy hand whether thou be
one faithful in love.'

She took his hand and sprinkled on it earth and gravel, and commenced
scanning it curiously. As she scanned it her forehead wrinkled up, and a
shot like black lightning travelled across her countenance, withering its
beauty: she cried in a forced voice, 'Aha! it is well, O youth, for thee
and for me that thou lovest me, and art faithful in love.'

The look of the Princess of Oolb and her voice affrighted the soul of
Shibli Bagarag, and he would have turned from her; but she held him, and
went to the Lily, and emptied into the palm of her hand the dew that was
in the Lily, and raised it to the lips of Shibli Bagarag, bidding him
drink as a pledge for her sake and her love, and to appease his thirst.
As he was about to drink, there fell into the palm of the Princess from
above what seemed a bolt of storm scattering the dew; and after he had
blinked with the suddenness of the action he looked and beheld the hawk,
its red eyes inflamed with wrath. And the hawk screamed into the ear of
Shibli Bagarag, 'Pluck up the Lily ere it is too late, O fool!--the dew
was poison! Pluck it by the root with thy right hand!'

So thereat he strode to the Lily, and grasped it, and pulled with his
strength; and the Lily was loosened, and yielded, and came forth
streaming with blood from the bulb of the root; surely the bulb of the
root was a palpitating heart, yet warm, even as that we have within our
bosoms.

Now, from the terror of that sight the Princess hid her eyes, and shrank
away. And the lines of malice, avarice, and envy seemed ageing her at
every breath. Then the hawk pecked at her three pecks, and perched on a
corner of rock, and called shrilly the name 'Karaz!' And the Genie Karaz
came slanting down the night air, like a preying bird, and stood among
them. So the hawk cried, 'See, O Karaz, the freshness of thy Princess of
Oolb'; and the Genie regarded her till loathing curled his lip, for she
grew in ghastliness to the colour of a frog, and a frog's face was hers,
a camel's back, a pelican's throat, the legs of a peacock.

Then the hawk cried, 'Is this how ye meet, ye lovers,--ye that will be
wedded?' And the hawk made his tongue as a thorn to them. At the last it
exclaimed, 'Now let us fight our battle, Karaz!'

But the Genie said, 'Nay, there will come a time for that, traitress!'

The hawk cried, 'Thou delayest, till the phial of Paravid, the hairs of
Garraveen, and this Lily, my three helps, are expended, thinking Aklis,
for which we barter them, striketh but a single blow? That is well! Go,
then, and take thy Princess, and obtain permission of the King of Oolb,
her father, to wed her, O Karaz!'

The hawk whistled with laughter, and the Genie was stung with its
mockeries, and clutched the Princess of Oolb in a bunch, and arose from
the ground with her, slanting up the night-air like fire, till he was
seen high up even as an angry star reddening the seas beneath.

When he was lost to the eye, Shibli Bagarag drew a long breath and cried
aloud, 'The likeness of that Princess of Oolb in her ugliness to Noorna,
my betrothed, is a thing marvellous, if it be not she herself.' And he
reflected, 'Yet she seemed not to recognize and claim me'; and thought,
'I am bound to her by gratitude, and I should have rescued her from
Karaz, but I know not if it be she. Wullahy! I am bewildered; I will ask
counsel of the hawk.' He looked to the corner of the rock where the hawk
had perched, but the hawk was gone; as he searched for it, his eyes fell
upon the bed of earth where the Lily stood ere he plucked it, and lo! in
the place of the Lily, there was a damsel dressed in white shining silks,
fairer than the enchanted flower, straighter than the stalk of it; her
head slightly drooping, like the moon on a border of the night; her bosom
like the swell of the sea in moonlight; her eyes dark, under a low arch
of darker lashes, like stars on the skirts of storm; and she was the very
dream of loveliness, formed to freeze with awe, and to inflame with
passion. So Shibli Bagarag gazed at her with adoration, his hands
stretched half-way to her as if to clasp her, fearing she was a vision
and would fade; and the damsel smiled a sweet smile, and lifted her
antelope eyes, and said, 'Who am I, and to whom might I be likened, O
youth?'

And he answered, 'Who thou art, O young perfection, I know not, if not a
Houri of Paradise; but thou art like the Princess of Oolb, yet lovelier,
oh lovelier! And thy voice is the voice of Noorna, my betrothed; yet
purer, sweeter, younger.'

So the damsel laughed a laugh like a sudden sweeping of wild chords of
music, and said, 'O youth, saw'st thou not the ascent of Noorna, thy
betrothed, gathered in a bunch by Karaz?'

And he answered, 'I saw her; but I knew not, O damsel of beauty; surely I
was bewildered, amazed, without power to contend with the Genie.'

Then she said, 'Wouldst thou release her? So kiss me on the lips, on the
eyes, and on the forehead, three kisses each time; and with the first
say, "By the well of Paravid"; and with the second, "By the strength of
Garraveen!" and with the third, "By the Lily of the Sea!"'

Now, the heart of the youth bounded at her words, and he went to her, and
trembling kissed her all bashfully on the lips, on the eyes, and on the
forehead, saying each time as she directed. Then she took him by the
hand, and stepped from the bed of earth, crying joyfully, 'Thanks be to
Allah and the Prophet! Noorna, is released from the sorceries that held
her, and powerful.'

So, while he was wondering, she said, 'Knowest thou not the woman, thy
betrothed?'

He answered, 'O damsel of beauty, I am charged with many feelings; doubts
and hopes are mixed in me. Say first who thou art, and fill my two ears
with bliss.'

And she said, 'I will leave my name to other lips; surely I am the
daughter of the Vizier Feshnavat, betrothed to a wandering youth,--a
barber, who sickened at the betrothal, and consoled himself with a
proverb when he gave me the kiss of contract, and knew not how with truth
to pay me a compliment.'

Now, Shibli Bagarag saw this was indeed Noorna bin Noorka, his betrothed,
and he fell before her in love and astonishment; but she lifted him to
her neck, and embraced him, saying, 'Said I not truly when I said "I am
that I shall be"? My youth is not as that of Bhanavar the Beautiful,
gained at another's cost, but my own, and stolen from me by wicked
sorceries.' And he cried, 'Tell me, O Noorna, my betrothed, how this
matter came to pass?'

She said, 'On our way to Aklis.'

She bade him grasp the Lily, and follow her; and he followed her down the
rock and over the bright shells upon the sand, admiring her stateliness,
her willowy lightness, her slimness as of the palm-tree. Then she waded
in the water, and began to strike out with her arms, and swim boldly,--he
likewise; and presently they came to a current that hurried them off in
its course, and carried them as weeds, streaming rapidly. He was bearing
witness to his faith as a man that has lost hope of life, when a strong
eddy stayed him, and whirled him from the current into the calm water. So
he looked for Noorna, and saw her safe beside him flinging back the wet
tresses from her face, that was like the full moon growing radiant behind
a dispersing cloud. And she said, 'Ask not for the interpretation of
wonders in this sea, for they cluster like dates on a date branch.
Surely, to be with me is enough?'

And she bewitched him in the midst of the waters, making him oblivious of
all save her, so that he hugged the golden net of her smiles and fair
flatteries, and swam with an exulting stroke, giving his breast broadly
to the low billows, and shouting verses of love and delight to her. And
while they swam sweetly, behold, there was seen a pearly shell of
flashing crimson, amethyst, and emerald, that came scudding over the
waves toward them, raised to the wind, fan-shaped, and in its front two
silver seats. When she saw it, Noorna cried, 'She has sent me this,
Rabesqurat! Perchance is she favourable to my wishes, and this were
well!'

Then she swayed in the water sideways, and drew the shell to her, and the
twain climbed into it, and sat each on one of the silver seats, folded
together. In its lightness it was as a foam-bubble before the wind on the
blue water, and bore them onward airily. At his feet Shibli Bagarag
beheld a stool of carved topaz, and above his head the arch of the shell
was inlaid with wreaths of gems: never was vessel fairer than that.

Now, while they were speeding over the water, Noorna said, 'The end of
this fair sea is Aklis, and beyond it is the Koosh. So while the wind is
our helmsman, and we go circled by the quiet of this sea, I'll tell thee
of myself, if thou carest to hear.'

And he cried with the ardour of love, 'Surely, I would hear of nought
save thyself, Noorna, and the music of the happy garden compareth not in
sweetness with it. I long for the freshness of thy voice, as the desert
camel for the green spring, O my betrothed!'

So she said, 'And now give ear to the following':--

AND THIS IS THE STORY OF NOORNA BIN NOORKA, THE GENIE KARAZ, AND THE
PRINCESS OF OOLB

Know, that when I was a babe, I lay on my mother's bosom in the
wilderness, and it was the bosom of death. Surely, I slept and smiled,
and dreamed the infant's dream, and knew not the coldness of the thing I
touched. So were we even as two dead creatures lying there; but life was
in me, and I awoke with hunger at the time of feeding, and turned to my
mother, and put up my little mouth to her for nourishment, and sucked
her, but nothing came. I cried, and commenced chiding her, and after a
while it was as decreed, that certain horsemen of a troop passing through
the wilderness beheld me, and seeing my distress and the helpless being I
was, their hearts were stirred, and they were mindful of what the poet
says concerning succour given to the poor, helpless, and innocent of this
world, and took me up, and mixed for me camel's milk and water from the
bags, and comforted me, and bore me with them, after they had paid
funeral rites to the body of my mother.

Now, the rose-bud showeth if the rose-tree be of the wilds or of the
garden, and the chief of that troop seeing me born to the uses of
gentleness, carried me in his arms with him to his wife, and persuaded
her that was childless to make me the child of their adoption. So I abode
with them during the period of infancy and childhood, caressed and cared
for, as is said:

The flower a stranger's hand may gather,
Strikes root into the stranger's breast;
Affection is our mother, father,
Friend, and of cherishers the best.

And I loved them as their own child, witting not but that I was their
child, till on a day while I played among some children of my years, the
daughter of the King of Oolb passed by us on a mule, with her slaves and
drawn swords, and called to me, 'Thou little castaway!' and had me
brought to her, and peered upon my face in a manner that frightened me,
for I was young. Then she put me down from the neck of her mule where she
had seated me, saying, 'Child of a dead mother and a runaway father, what
need I fear from thy like, and the dreams of a love-sick Genie?' So she
departed, but I forgot not her words, and dwelt upon them, and grew
fevered with them, and drooped. Now, when he saw my bloom of health gone,
heaviness on my feet, the light hollowed from my eyes, my benefactor,
Ravaloke--he that I had thought my father--took me between his knees, and
asked me what it was and the cause of my ailing; and I told him.

Then said he, 'This is so: thou art not my child; but I love thee as
mine, O my little Desert-flower; and why the Princess should fancy fear
of thee I like not to think; but fear thou her, for she is a mask of
wiles and a vine trailing over pitfalls; such a sorceress the world
knoweth not as Goorelka of Oolb.'

Now, I was penetrated by what he said, and ceased to be a companion to
them that loved childish games and romps, and meditated by myself in
gardens and closets, feigning sleep when the elder ones discoursed, that
I might learn something of this mystery, and all that was spoken
perplexed me more, as the sage declareth:

Who in a labyrinth wandereth without clue,
More that he wandereth doth himself undo.

Though I was quick as the quick-eyed falcon, I discovered nought, flying
ever at false game,--

A follower of misleading beams,
A cheated soul, the mock of dreams.

At times I thought that it was the King of Oolb was my father, and
plotted to come in his path; and there were kings and princes of far
countries whom I sought to encounter, that they might claim me; but none
claimed me. O my betrothed, few gave me love beside Ravaloke, and when
the wife that he cherished died, he solely, for I was lost in waywardness
and the slave of moody imaginings. 'Tis said:

If thou the love of the world for thyself wouldst gain,
mould thy breast
Liker the world to become, for its like the world loveth best;

and this was not I then.

Now, the sons and daughters of men are used to celebrate the days of
their birth with gifts and rejoicings, but I could only celebrate that
day which delivered me from death into the hands of Ravaloke, as none
knew my birth-hour. When it was the twelfth return of this event,
Ravaloke, my heart's father, called me to him and pressed in my hand a
glittering coin, telling me to buy with it in the bazaars what I would.
So I went forth, attended by a black slave, after the mid-noon, for I was
eager to expend my store, and cared not for the great heat. Scarcely had
we passed the cheese-market and were hurrying on to shops of the
goldsmiths and jewellers, when I saw an old man, a beggar, in a dirty
yellow turban and pieced particoloured cloth-stuff, and linen in rags his
other gear. So lean was he, and looked so weak that I wondered he did
other than lay his length on the ground; and as he asked me for alms his
voice had a piteousness that made me to weep, and I punished my slave for
seeking to drive him away, and gave my one piece of gold into his hand.
Then he asked me what I required of him in exchange, and I said, 'What
can a poor old man that is a beggar give?' He laughed, and asked me then
what I had intended to buy with that piece of money. So, beginning to
regret the power that was gone from me of commanding with my gold piece
this and that fine thing, I mused, and said, 'Truly, a blue dress
embroidered with gold, and a gold crown, and gold bracelets set with
turquoise stones,--these, and toys; but could I buy in this city a book
of magic, that were my purchase.'

The old fellow smiled, and said to my black slave, 'And thou, hadst thou
this coin, what were thy purchase therewith?'

He, scoffing the old beggar, answered, 'A plaister for sores as broad as
my back, and a camel's hump, O thou old villain!'

The old man grunted in his chest, and said, 'Thou art but a camel
thyself, to hinder a true Mussulman from passing in peace down a street
of Oolb; so 'twere a good purchase and a fitting: know'st thou what is
said of the blessing given by them that receive a charity?

"'Tis the fertilizing dew that streameth after the sun,
Strong as the breath of Allah to bless life well begun."

So is my blessing on the little damsel, and she shall have her wish,
wullahy, thou black face! and thou thine.'

This spake the old man, and hobbled off while my slave was jeering him.
So I strolled through the bazaars and thought no more of the old man's
words, and longed to purchase a hundred fineries, and came to the
confectioner's, and smelt the smell of his musk-scented sweetmeats and
lemon sweets and sugared pistachios that are delicious to crunch between
the teeth. My mouth watered, and I said to my slave, 'O Kadrab, a coin,
though 'twere small, would give us privilege in yonder shop to select,
and feast, and approve the skill of the confectioner.'

He grinned, and displayed in his black fist a petty coin of exchange, but
would not let me have it till I had sworn to give no more away to
beggars. So even as we were hurrying into the shop, another old beggar
wretcheder than the first fronted me, and I was moved, and forgot my
promise to Kadrab, and gave him the money. Then was Kadrab wroth, and
kicked the old beggar with his fore-foot, lifting him high in air, and
lo! he did not alight, but rose over the roofs of the houses and beyond
the city, till he was but a speck in the blue of the sky above. So Kadrab
bit his forefinger amazed, and glanced at his foot, and at what was
visible of the old beggarman, and again at his foot, thinking but of what
he had done with it, and the might manifested in that kick, fool that he
was! All the way homeward he kept scanning the sky and lifting his foot
aloft, and I saw him bewildered with a strange conceit, as the poet has
exclaimed in his scorn:

Oh, world diseased! oh, race empirical!
Where fools are the fathers of every miracle!

Now, when I was in my chamber, what saw I there but a dress of very
costly blue raiment with gold-work broidery and a lovely circlet of gold,
and gold bracelets set with stones of turquoise, and a basket of gold
woven wire, wherein were toys, wondrous ones--soldiers that cut off each
other's heads and put them on again, springing antelopes, palm-trees that
turned to fountains, and others; and lo! a book in red binding, with
figures on it and clasps of gold, a great book! So I clapped my hands
joyfully, crying, 'The old beggar has done it!' and robed myself in the
dress, and ran forth to tell Ravaloke. As I ran by a window looking on
the inner court, I saw below a crowd of all the slaves of Ravaloke round
one that was seeking to escape from them, and 'twas Kadrab with a camel's
hump on his back, and a broad brown plaister over it, the wretch howling,
peering across his shoulder, and trying to bolt from his burden, as a
horse that would run from his rider. Then I saw that Kadrab also had his
wish, his camel's hump, and thought, 'The old beggar, what was he but a
Genie?' Surely Ravaloke caressed me when he heard of the adventure, and
what had befallen Kadrab was the jest of the city; but for me I spared
little time away from that book, and studied in it incessantly the ways
and windings of magic, till I could hold communication with Genii, and
wield charms to summon them, and utter spells that subdue them,
discovering the haunts of talismans that enthral Afrites and are powerful
among men. There was that Kadrab coming to me daily to call out in the
air for the old beggarman to rid him of his hump; and he would waste
hours looking up into the sky moodily for him, and cursing the five toes
of his foot, for he doubted not the two beggars were one, and that he was
punished for the kick, and lamented it direly, saying in the thick of his
whimperings, 'I'd give the foot that did it to be released from my hump,
O my fair mistress.' So I pitied him, and made a powder and a spell, and
my first experiment in magic was to relieve Kadrab of his hump, and I
succeeded in loosening it, and it came away from him, and sank into the
ground of the garden where we stood. So I told Kadrab to say nothing of
this, but the idle-pated fellow blabbed it over the city, and it came to
the ears of Goorelka. Then she sent for me to visit her, and by the
advice of Ravaloke I went, and she fondled me, and sought to get at the
depth of my knowledge by a spell that tieth every faculty save the
tongue, and it is the spell of vain longing. Now, because I baffled her
arts she knew me more cunning than I seemed, and as night advanced she
affected to be possessed with pleasure in me, and took me in her arms and
sought to fascinate me, and I heard her mutter once, 'Shall I doubt the
warning of Karaz?' So presently she said, 'Come with me'; and I went with
her under the curtain of that apartment into another, a long saloon,
wherein were couches round a fountain, and beyond it an aviary lit with
lamps: when we were there she whistled, and immediately there was a
concert of birds, a wondrous accord of exquisite piping, and she leaned
on a couch and took me by her to listen; sweet and passionate was the
harmony of the birds; but I let not my faculties lull, and observed that
round the throat of every bird was a ringed mark of gold and stamps of
divers gems similar in colour to a ring on the forefinger of her right
hand, which she dazzled my sight with as she flashed it. When we had
listened a long hour to this music, the Princess gazed on me as if to
mark the effect of a charm, and I saw disappointment on her lovely face,
and she bit her lip and looked spiteful, saying, 'Thou art far gone in
the use of magic, and wary, O girl!' Then she laughed unnaturally, and
called slaves to bring in sweet drinks to us, and I drank with her, and
became less wary, and she fondled me more, calling me tender names,
heaping endearments on me; and as the hour of the middle-night approached
I was losing all suspicion in deep languor, and sighed at the song of the
birds, the long love-song, and dozed awake with eyes half shut. I felt
her steal from me, and continued still motionless without alarm: so was I
mastered. What hour it was or what time had passed I cannot say, when a
bird that was chained on a perch before me--a very quaint bird, with a
topknot awry, and black, heavy bill, and ragged gorgeousness of
plumage--the only object between my lids and darkness, suddenly, in the
midst of the singing, let loose a hoarse laugh that was followed by peals
of laughter from the other birds. Thereat I started up, and beheld the
Princess standing over a brazier, and she seized a slipper from her foot
and flung it at the bird that had first laughed, and struck him off his
perch, and went to him and seized him and shook him, crying, 'Dare to
laugh again!' and he kept clearing his throat and trying to catch the
tune he had lost, pitching a high note and a low note; but the marvel of
this laughter of the bird wakened me thoroughly, and I thanked the bird
in my soul, and said to Goorelka, 'More wondrous than their singing, this
laughter, O Princess!'

She would not speak till she had beaten every bird in the aviary, and
then said in the words of the poet:

Shall they that deal in magic match degrees of wonder?
From the bosom of one cloud comes the lightning and the thunder.

Then said she, 'O Noorna! I'll tell thee truly my intent, which was to
enchant thee; but I find thee wise, so let us join our powers, and thou
shah become mighty as a sorceress.'

Now, Ravaloke had said to me, 'Her friendship is fire, her enmity frost;
so be cold to the former, to the latter hot,' and I dissembled and
replied, 'Teach me, O Princess!'

So she asked me what I could do. Could I plant a mountain in the sea and
people it? could I anchor a purple cloud under the sun and live there a
year with them I delighted in? could I fix the eyes of the world upon one
head and make the nations bow to it; change men to birds, fishes to men;
and so on--a hundred sorceries that I had never attempted and dreamed not
of my betrothed! I had never offended Allah by a misuse of my powers.
When I told her, she cried, 'Thou art then of a surety she that's fitted
for the custody of the Lily of the Light, so come with me.'

Now, I had heard of the Lily, even this thou holdest may its influence be
unwithering!--and desired to see it. So she led me from the palace to the
shore of the sea, and flung a cockleshell on the waters, and seated
herself in it with me in her lap; and we scudded over the waters, and
entered this Enchanted Sea, and stood by the Lily. Then, I that loved
flowers undertook the custody of this one, knowing not the consequences
and the depth of her wiles. 'Tis truly said:

The overwise themselves hoodwink,
For simple eyesight is a modest thing:
They on the black abysm's brink
Smile, and but when they fall bitterly think,
What difference 'twixt the fool and me, Creation's King?

Nevertheless for awhile nothing evil resulted, and I had great joy in the
flower, and tended it with exceeding watchfulness, and loved it, so that
I was brought in my heart to thank the Princess and think well of her.

Now, one summer eve as Ravaloke rested under the shade of his garden
palm, and I studied beside him great volumes of magic, it happened that
after I had read certain pages I closed one of the books marked on the
cover 'Alif,' and shut the clasp louder than I intended, so that he who
was dozing started up, and his head was in the sloped sun in an instant,
and I observed the shadow of his head lengthen out along the grass-plot
towards the mossed wall, and it shot up the wall, darkening it--then
drawing back and lessening, then darting forth like a beast of darkness
irritable for prey. I was troubled, for whatso is seen while the volume
Alif is in use hath a portent; but the discovery of what this might be
baffled me. So I determined to watch events, and it was not many days ere
Ravaloke, who was the leader of the armies of the King of Oolb, was
called forth to subdue certain revolted tributaries of the King, and at
my entreaty took me with him, and I saw battles and encounters lasting a
day's length. Once we were encamped in a fruitful country by a brook
running with a bright eye between green banks, and I that had freedom and
the password of the camp wandered down to it, and refreshed my forehead
with its coolness. So, as I looked under the falling drops, lo! on the
opposite bank the old beggar that had given me such fair return for my
alms and Kadrab his hump! I heard him call, 'This night is the key to the
mystery,' and he was gone. Every incantation I uttered was insufficient
to bring him back. Surely, I hurried to the tents and took no sleep,
watching zealously by the tent of Ravaloke, crouched in its shadow. About
the time of the setting of the moon I heard footsteps approach the tent
within the circle of the guard, and it was a youth that held in his hand
naked steel. When he was by the threshold of the tent, I rose before him
and beheld the favourite of Ravaloke, even the youth he had destined to
espouse me; so I reproached him, and he wept, denying not the intention
he had to assassinate Ravaloke, and when his soul was softened he
confessed to me, ''Twas that I might win the Princess Goorelka, and she
urged me to it, promising the King would promote me to the vacant post of
Ravaloke.'

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