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

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 halfway 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