The Shaving of Shagpat - George Meredith (bookreader TXT) 📗

single drop of it, the flowers, the herbage, the very stones and desert sands, with a tongue to articulate intelligible talk?”

Said he, “Is it so?”

She answered, “Even so.”

Ere Shibli Bagarag could question her further she embraced him, and blew upon his eyes, and he was blinded by her breath, and saw not her departure, groping for a seat on the rocks, and thinking her still by him. Sight returned not to him till long after weariness had brought the balm of sleep upon his eyelids.

The Talking Hawk

Now, when he awoke he found himself alone in that place, the moon shining over the low meadows and flower-cups fair with night-dew. Odours of night-flowers were abroad, filling the cool air with deliciousness, and he heard in the gardens below songs of the bulbul: it was like a dream to his soul, and he lay somewhile contemplating the rich loveliness of the scene, that showed no moving thing. Then rose he and bethought him of the words of Noorna, and of the City of Oolb, and the phial of the waters of Paravid in his vest; and he drew it forth, and dropped a drop of it on the rock where he had reclined. A deep harmony seemed suddenly to awake inside the rock, and to his interrogation as to the direction of Oolb, he heard, “The path of the shadows of the moon.”

Thereupon he advanced to a prominent part of the rocks above the meadows, and beheld the shadows of the moon thrown forward into dimness across a waste of sand. And he stepped downward to the level of sand, and went the way of the shadows till it was dawn. Then dropped he a drop of the waters of the phial on a spike of lavender, and there was a voice said to him in reply to what he questioned, “The path of the shadows of the sun.”

The shadows of the sun were thrown forward across the same waste of sand, and he turned and pursued his way, resting at noon beneath a date-tree, and refreshing himself at a clear spring beside it. Surely he was joyful as he went, and elated with high prospects, singing:

“Sun and moon with their bright fingers
Point the hero’s path;

If in his great work he lingers,
Well may they be wroth.”

Now, the extent of the duration of his travel was four days and an equal number of nights; and it was on the fifth morn that he entered the gates of a city by the sea, even at that hour when the inhabitants were rising from sleep: fair was the sea beyond it, and the harbour was crowded with vessels, ships stored with merchandise⁠—silks, dates, diamonds, Damascus steel, huge bales piled on the decks for the land of Roum and other lands. Shibli Bagarag thought, “There’s scarce a doubt but that one of those sails will set for Oolb shortly. Wullahy! if I knew which, I’d board her and win a berth in her.” Presently he thought, “I’ll go to the public fountain and question it with the speech-winning waters.” Thereupon he passed down the streets of the city and came to an open space, where stood the fountain, and sprinkled it with Paravid; and the fountain spake, saying, “Where men are, question not dumb things.”

Cried he, “Faileth Paravid in its power? Have I done aught to baffle myself?”

Then he thought, “ ’Twere nevertheless well to do as the fountain directeth, and question men while I see them.” And he walked about among the people, and came to the quays of the harbour where the ships lay close in, many of them an easy leap from shore, and considered whom to address. So, as he loitered about the quays, meditating on the means at the disposal of the All-Wise, and marking the vessels wistfully, behold, there advanced to him one at a quick pace, in the garb of a sailor. He observed Shibli Bagarag attentively a moment, and exclaimed as it were in the plenitude of respect and with the manner of one that is abashed, “Surely, thou art Shibli Bagarag, the nephew of the barber, him we watch for.”

So Shibli Bagarag marvelled at this recognition, and answered, “Am I then already famous to that extent?”

And he that accosted him said, “ ’Tis certain the trumpet was blown before thy steps, and there is not a man in this city but knoweth of thy destination to the City of Oolb, and that thou art upon the track of great things, one chosen to bring about imminent changes.”

Then said Shibli Bagarag, “For this I praise Noorna bin Noorka, daughter of Feshnavat, Vizier of the King that ruleth in the city of Shagpat! She saw me, that I was marked for greatness. Wullahy, the eagle knoweth me from afar, and proclaimeth me; the antelope of the hills scenteth the coming of one not as other men, and telleth his tidings; the wind of the desert shapeth its gust to a meaning, so that the stranger may wot Shibli Bagarag is at hand!”

He puffed his chest, and straightened his legs like the cock, and was as a man upon whom the Sultan has bestowed a dress of honour, even as the plumed peacock. Then the other said:

“Know that I am captain of yonder vessel, that stands farthest out from the harbour with her sails slackened; and she is laden with figs and fruits which I exchange for silks, spices, and other merchandise, with the people of Oolb. Now, what says the poet?⁠—

“ ‘Delay in thine undertaking
Is disaster of thy own making’;

“and he says also:

“ ‘Greatness is solely for them that succeed;
’Tis a rotten applause that gives earlier meed.’

“Therefore it is advisable for thee to follow me on board without loss of time, and we will sail this very night for the City of Oolb.”

Now, Shibli Bagarag was ruled by the words of the captain albeit he desired to stay