initial commit of ebook 4403HEADmain

5 files changed, 2558 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/4403.txt b/4403.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..35b3a22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4403.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2542 @@
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Shaving of Shagpat by Meredith, v3
+#9 in our series by George Meredith
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before distributing this or any other
+Project Gutenberg file.
+
+We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your
+own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future
+readers.  Please do not remove this.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to
+view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission.
+The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the
+information they need to understand what they may and may not
+do with the etext.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and
+further information, is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3)
+organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541
+
+
+
+Title: The Shaving of Shagpat, v3
+
+Author: George Meredith
+
+Release Date: September, 2003 [Etext #4403]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on December 21, 2001]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Shaving of Shagpat by Meredith, v3
+*********This file should be named 4403.txt or 4403.zip********
+
+This etext was produced by Pat Castevans  <Patcat@ctnet.net>
+and David Widger  <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our etexts one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our sites at:
+https://gutenberg.org or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+etexts, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
+
+Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2001 as we release over 50 new Etext
+files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 4000+
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third
+of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts.  We need
+funding, as well as continued efforts by volunteers, to maintain
+or increase our production and reach our goals.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of November, 2001, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware,
+Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
+Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon,
+Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee,
+Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin,
+and Wyoming.
+
+*In Progress
+
+We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+All donations should be made to:
+
+Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+PMB 113
+1739 University Ave.
+Oxford, MS 38655-4109
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fundraising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fundraising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this etext,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart
+and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.]
+[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales
+of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or
+software or any other related product without express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.10/04/01*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Pat Castevans  <Patcat@ctnet.net>
+and David Widger  <widger@cecomet.net>
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SHAVING OF SHAGPAT
+
+By George Meredith
+
+
+
+AN ARABIAN ENTERTAINMENT
+
+1898/1909
+
+
+
+BOOK 3.
+
+Contents:
+
+THE LILY OF THE ENCHANTED SEA
+STORY OF NOORNA BIN NOORKA, THE GENIE KARAZ, AND THE PRINCESS OF OOLB
+THE WILES OF RABESQURAT
+THE PALACE OF AKLIS
+THE SONS OF AKLIS
+THE SWORD OF AKLIS
+
+
+
+
+THE LILY OF THE ENCHANTED SEA
+
+
+Now, after the cockle-shell had skimmed calmly awhile, it began to pitch
+and grew unquiet, and came upon a surging foam, pale, and with
+scintillating bubbles.  The surges increased in volume, and boiled,
+hissing as with anger, like savage animals.  Presently, the cockle-shell
+rose upon one very lofty swell, and Shibli Bagarag lost hold of it, and
+lo! it was overturned and engulfed in the descent of the great mountain
+of water, and the Princess Goorelka was immersed in the depths.  She
+would have sunk, but Shibli Bagarag caught hold of her, and supported her
+to the shore by the strength of his right arm.  The shore was one of sand
+and shells, their wet cheeks sparkling in the moonlight; over it hung a
+promontory, a huge jut of black rock.  Now, the Princess when she landed,
+seeing not him that supported her, delayed not to run beneath the rock,
+and ascended by steps cut from the base of the rock.  And Shibli Bagarag
+followed her by winding paths round the rock, till she came to the
+highest peak commanding the circle of the Enchanted Sea, and glimpses of
+enthralled vessels, and mariners bewitched on board; long paths of
+starlight rippled into the distant gloom, and the reflection of the moon
+opposite was as a wide nuptial sheet of silver on the waters: islands,
+green and white, and with soft music floating from their foliage, sailed
+slowly to and fro.  Surely, to dwell reclining among the slopes of those
+islands a man would forfeit Paradise!  Now, the Princess, as she stood
+upon the peak, knew that she was not alone, and pretended to slip from
+her footing, and Shibli Bagarag called out and ran to her; but she turned
+in the direction of his voice and laughed, and he knew he was outwitted.
+Then, to deceive her, he dropped from the phial twenty drops round her on
+the rock, and those twenty drops became twenty voices, so that she was
+bewildered with their calls, and stopped her ears, and ran from them, and
+descended from the eminence nimbly, slipping over ledges and leaping the
+abysses.  And Shibli Bagarag followed her, clutching at the trailers and
+tearing them with him, letting loose a torrent of stones and earth, till
+on a sudden they stood together above a greenswarded basin of the rock
+opening to the sea; and in the middle of the basin, lo! in stature like a
+maiden of the mountains, and one that droopeth her head pensively
+thinking of her absent lover, the Enchanted Lily.  Wonder knocked at the
+breast of Shibli Bagarag when he saw that queenly flower waving its
+illumined head to the breeze: he could not retain a cry of rapture.  As
+he did this the Princess stretched her hand to where he was and groped a
+moment, and caught him by the silken dress and tore in it a great rent,
+and by the rent he stood revealed to her.  Then said she, 'O youth, thou
+halt done ill to follow me here, and the danger of it is past computing;
+surely, the motive was a deep one, nought other than the love of me.'
+
+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.'
+
+Then I said to him, 'Lov'st thou Goorelka?'
+
+And he answered, 'Yea, though I know my doom in loving her; and that it
+will be the doom of them now piping to her pleasure and denied the
+privilege of laughter.'
+
+So I thought, 'Oh, cruel sorceress! the birds are men!'  And as I mused,
+my breast melted with pity at their desire to laugh, and the little
+restraint they had upon themselves notwithstanding her harshness; for
+could they think of their changed condition and folly without laughter?
+and the folly that sent them fresh mates in misery was indeed matter for
+laughter, fed to fulness by constant meditation on the perch.  Meantime,
+I uncharmed the youth and bade him retire quickly; but as he was going,
+he said, 'Beware of the Genie Karaz!'  Then I held him back, and after
+a parley he told me what he had heard the Princess say, and it was that
+Karaz had seen me and sworn to possess me for my beauty.  'Strangely
+smiled Goorelka when she spake that,' said he.
+
+Now, the City of Oolb fronts the sea, and behind it is a mountain and
+a wood, where the King met Ravaloke on his return victorious over the
+rebels.  So, to escape the eye of the King I parted with Ravaloke, and
+sought to enter the city by a circuitous way; but the paths wound about
+and zigzagged, and my slaves suffered nightfall to surprise us in the
+entanglements of the wood.  I sent them in different directions to strike
+into the main path, retaining Kadrab at the bridle of my mule; but that
+creature now began to address me in a familiar tone, and he said
+something of love for me that enraged me, so that I hit him a blow.  Then
+came from him sounds like the neighing of mares, and lo! he seized me and
+rose with me in the air, and I thought the very heavens were opening to
+that black beast, when on a sudden he paused, and shot down with me from
+heights of the stars to the mouth of a cavern by the Putrid Sea, and
+dragged me into a cavern greatly illuminated, hung like a palace chamber,
+and supported on pillars of shining jasper.  Then I fell upon the floor
+in a swoon, and awaking saw Kadrab no longer, but in his place a Genie.
+O my soul, thou halt seen him!--I thought at once, ''tis Karaz!' and when
+he said to me, 'This is thy abode, O lady! and I he that have sworn to
+possess thee from the hour I saw thee in the chamber of Goorelka,' then
+was I certain 'twas Karaz.  So, collecting the strength of my soul,
+I said, in the words of the poet:
+
+         'Woo not a heart preoccupied!
+          What thorn is like a loathing bride?
+          Mark ye the shrubs how they turn from the sea,
+               The sea's rough whispers shun?
+          But like the sun of heaven be,
+          And every flower will open wide.
+          Woo with the shining patience we
+               Beheld in heaven's sun.'
+
+Then he sang:
+
+          Exquisite lady! name the smart
+               That fills thy heart.
+          Thou art the foot and I the worm:
+               Prescribe the Term.
+
+Finding him compliant, I said, 'O great Genie, truly the search of my
+life has been to discover him that is, my father, and how I was left in
+the wilderness.  There 's no peace for me, nor understanding the word of
+love, till I hear by whom I was left a babe on the bosom of a dead
+mother.'
+
+He exclaimed, and his eyes twinkled, ''Tis that? that shalt thou know in a
+span of time.  O my mistress, hast thou seen the birds of Goorelka?  Thy
+father Feshnavat is among them, perched like a bird.'
+
+So I cried, 'And tell me how he may be disenchanted.'
+
+He said, 'Swear first to be mine unreluctantly.'
+
+Then I said, 'What is thy oath?'
+
+He answered, 'I swear, when I swear, by the Identical.'
+
+Thereupon I questioned him concerning the Identical, what it was; and he,
+not suspecting, revealed to me the mighty hair in his head now in the
+head of Shagpat, even that.  So I swore by that to give myself to the
+possessor of the Identical, and flattered him.  Then said he, 'O lovely
+damsel, I am truly one of the most powerful of the Genii; yet am I in
+bondage to that sorceress Goorelka by reason of a ring she holdeth; and
+could I get that ring from her and be slave to nothing mortal an hour, I
+could light creation as a torch, and broil the inhabitants of earth at
+one fire.'
+
+I thought, 'That ring is known to me!'  And he continued, 'Surely I
+cannot assist thee in this work other than by revealing the means of
+disenchantment, and it is to keep the birds laughing uninterruptedly an
+hour; then are they men again, and take the forms of men that are
+laughers--I know not why.'
+
+So I cried, ''Tis well! carry me back to Oolb.'
+
+Then the Genie lifted me into the air, and ceased not speeding rapidly
+through it, till I was on the roof of the house of Ravaloke.  O sweet
+youth! moon of my soul! from that time to the disenchantment of
+Feshnavat, I pored over my books, trying experiments in magic, dreadful
+ones, hunting for talismans to countervail Goorelka; but her power was
+great, and 'twas not in me to get her away from the birds one hour to
+free them.  On a certain occasion I had stolen to them, and kept them
+laughing with stories of man to within an instant of the hour; and they
+were laughing exultingly with the easy happy laugh of them that perceive
+deliverance sure, when she burst in and beat them even to the door of
+death.  I saw too in her eyes, that glowed like the eyes of wild cats in
+the dark, she suspected me, and I called Allah to aid the just cause
+against the sinful, and prepared to war with her.
+
+Now, my desire, which was to liberate my father and his fellows in
+tribulation, I knew pure, and had no fear of the sequel, as is declared:
+
+     Fear nought so much as Fear itself; for arm'd with Fear the Foe
+     Finds passage to the vital part, and strikes a double blow.
+
+So one day as I leaned from my casement looking on the garden seaward, I
+saw a strange red and yellow-feathered bird that flew to the branch of a
+citron-tree opposite, with a ring in its beak; and the bird was singing,
+and with every note the ring dropped from its bill, and it descended
+swiftly in an arrowy slant downward, and seized it ere it reached the
+ground, and commenced singing afresh.  When I had marked this to happen
+many times, I thought, 'How like is this bird to an innocent soul
+possessed of magic and using its powers!  Lo, it seeketh still to sing as
+one of the careless, and cannot relinquish the ring and be as the
+careless, and between the two there is neither peace for it nor
+pleasure.'  Now, while my eyes were on the pretty bird, dwelling on it, I
+saw it struck suddenly by an arrow beneath the left wing, and the bird
+fluttered to my bosom and dropped in it the ring from its beak.  Then it
+sprang weakly, and sought to fly and soar, and fluttered; but a blue film
+lodged over its eyes, and its panting was quickly ended.  So I looked at
+the ring and knew it for that one I had noted on the finger of Goorelka.
+Red blushed my bliss, and 'twas revealed to me that the bird was of the
+birds of the Princess that had escaped from her with the ring.  I buried
+the bird, weeping for it, and flew to my books, and as I read a glow
+stole over me.  O my betrothed, eyes of my soul!  I read that the
+possessor of that ring was mistress of the marvellous hair which is a
+magnet to the homage of men, so that they crowd and crush and hunger to
+adore it, even the Identical!  This was the power that peopled the aviary
+of Goorelka, and had well-nigh conquered all the resistance of my craft.
+
+Now, while I read there arose a hubbub and noise in the outer court, and
+shrieks of slaves.  The noise approached with rapid strides, and before I
+could close my books Goorelka burst in upon me, crying, 'Noorna! Noorna!'
+Wild and haggard was her head, and she rushed to my books and saw them
+open at the sign of the ring: then began our combat.  She menaced me as
+never mortal was menaced.  Rapid lightning-flashes were her
+transformations, and she was a serpent, a scorpion, a lizard, a lioness
+in succession, but I leapt perpetually into fresh rings of fire and of
+witched water; and at the fiftieth transformation, she fell on the floor
+exhausted, a shuddering heap.  Seeing that, I ran from her to the aviary
+in her palace, and hurried over a story of men to the birds, that rocked
+them on their perches with chestquakes of irresistible laughter.  Then
+flew I back to the Princess, and she still puffing on the floor,
+commenced wheedling and begging the ring of me, stinting no promises.  At
+last she cried, 'Girl! what is this ring to thee without beauty?  Thy
+beauty is in my keeping.'
+
+And I exclaimed, 'How? how?' smitten to the soul.
+
+She answered, 'Yea; and I can wear it as my own, adding it to my own,
+when thou'rt a hag!'
+
+My betrothed!  I was on the verge of giving her the ring for this secret,
+when a violent remote laughter filled the inner hollow of my ears, and it
+increased, till the Princess heard it; and now the light of my casement
+was darkened with birds, the birds of Goorelka, laughing as on a wind of
+laughter.  So I opened to them, and they darted in, laughing all of them,
+till I could hold out no longer, and the infection of laughter seized me,
+and I rolled with it; and the Princess, she too laughed a hyaena-laugh
+under a cat's grin, and we all of us remained in this wise some minutes,
+laughing the breath out of our bodies, as if death would take us.  Whoso
+in the City of Oolb heard us, the slaves, the people, and the King,
+laughed, knowing not the cause.  This day is still remembered in Oolb as
+the day of laughter.  Now, at a stroke of the hour the laughter ceased,
+and I saw in the chamber a crowd of youths and elders of various ranks;
+but their visages were become long and solemn as that of them that have
+seen a dark experience.  'Tis certain they laughed little in their lives
+from that time, and the muscles of their cheeks had rest.  So I caught
+down my veil, and cried to the Princess, 'My father is among these; point
+him out to me.'
+
+Ere she replied one stepped forth, even Feshnavat, my father, and called
+me by name, and knew me by a spot on the left arm, and made himself known
+to me, and told me the story of my dead mother, how she had missed her
+way from the caravan in the desert, and he searching her was set upon by
+robbers, and borne on their expeditions.  Nothing said he of the
+sorceries of Goorelka, and I, not wishing to provoke the Princess,
+suffered his dread to exist.  So I kissed him, and bowed my head to him,
+and she fled from the sight of innocent happiness.  Then took I the ring,
+and summoned Karaz, and ordered him to reinstate all those princes and
+chiefs and officers in their possessions and powers, on what part of
+earth soever that might be.  Never till I stood as the Lily and thy voice
+sweetened the name of love in my ears, heard I aught of delicate
+delightfulness, like the sound of their gratitude.  Many wooed me to let
+them stay by me and guard me, and do service all their lives to me; but
+this I would not allow, and though they were fair as moons, some of them,
+I responded not to their soft glances, speaking calmly the word of
+farewell, for I was burdened with other thoughts.
+
+Now, when the Genie had done my bidding, he returned to me joyfully.  My
+soul sickened to think myself his by a promise; but I revolved the words
+of my promise, and saw in them a loophole of escape.  So, when he claimed
+me, I said, 'Ay! ay! lay thy head in my lap,' as if my mind treasured it.
+Then he lay there, and revealed to me his plans for the destruction of
+men.  'Or,' said he, 'they shall be our slaves and burden-beasts, for
+there 's now no restraint on me, now thou art mistress of the ring, and
+mine.' Thereupon his imagination swelled, and he saw his evil will
+enthroned, and the hopes of men beneath his heel, crying, 'And the more I
+crush them the thicker they crowd, for the Identical compelleth their
+very souls to adore in spite of distaste.'
+
+Then said I, 'Tell me, O Genie! is the Identical subservient to me in
+another head save thine?'
+
+He answered, 'Nay I in another head 'tis a counteraction to the power of
+the Ring, the Ring powerless over it.'
+
+And I said, 'Must it live in a head, the Identical?'
+
+Cried he, 'Woe to what else holdeth it!'
+
+I whispered in his hairy pointed red ear, 'Sleep! sleep!' and lulled him
+with a song, and he slept, being weary with my commissioning.  Then I
+bade Feshnavat, my father, fetch me one of my books of magic, and read in
+it of the discovery of the Identical by means of the Ring; and I took the
+Ring and hung it on a hair of my own head over the head of the Genie, and
+saw one of the thin lengths begin to twist and dart and writhe, and shift
+lustres as a creature in anguish.  So I put the Ring on my forefinger,
+and turned the hair round and round it, and tugged.  Lo, with a noise
+that stunned me, the hair came out!  O my betrothed, what shrieks and
+roars were those: with which the Genie awoke, finding himself bare of the
+Identical!  Oolb heard them, and the sea foamed like the mouth of
+madness, as the Genie sped thunder-like over it, following me in mid-air.
+Such a flight was that!  Now, I found it not possible to hold the
+Identical, for it twisted and stung, and was nigh slipping from me while
+I flew.  I saw white on a corner of the Desert, a city, and I descended
+on it by the shop of a clothier that sat quietly by his goods and stuffs,
+thinking of fate less than of kabobs and stews and rare seasonings.  That
+city hath now his name.  Wullahy, had I not then sown in his head that
+hair which he weareth yet, how had I escaped Karaz, and met thee?
+Wondrous are the decrees of Providence!  Praise be to Allah for them!  So
+the Genie, when he found himself baffled by me, and Shagpat with the
+mighty hair in his head, the Identical, he yelled, and fetched Shagpat a
+slap that sent him into the middle of the street; but Kadza screamed
+after him, and there was immediately such lamentation in the city about
+Shagpat, and such tearing of hair about him, that I perceived at once the
+virtue that was in the Identical.  As for Karaz, finding his claim as
+possessor of the Identical no more valid, he vanished, and has been my
+rebellious slave since, till thou, O my betrothed, mad'st me spend him in
+curing thy folly on the horse Garraveen, and he escaped from my circles
+beyond the dominion of the Ring; yet had he his revenge, for I that was
+keeper of the Lily, had, I now learned ruefully, a bond of beauty with
+it, and whatever was a stain to one withered the other.  Then that
+sorceress Goorelka stole my beauty from me by sprinkling a blight on the
+petals of the fair flower, and I became as thou first saw'st me.  But
+what am I as I now am?  Blissful! blissful!  Surely I grew humble with
+the loss of beauty, and by humility wise, so that I assisted Feshnavat to
+become Vizier by the Ring, and watched for thy coming to shave Shagpat,
+as a star watcheth; for 'tis written, 'A barber alone shall be shearer of
+the Identical'; and he only, my betrothed, hath power to plant it in
+Aklis, where it groweth as a pillar, bringing due reverence to Aklis.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WILES OF RABESQURAT
+
+Now, when Noorna bin Noorka had made an end of her narration, she folded
+her hands and was mute awhile; and to the ear of Shibli Bagarag it seemed
+as 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 fire on the mountain's height!'
+
+He looked and saw a great light on the summit of a lofty mountain before
+them.
+
+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 with
+the waters of Paravid; hold before thee the Lily, and make ready to enter
+the mountain.  Lo, my betrothed, thou art in possession of the three
+means that melt opposition, and the fault is thine if thou fail.'
+
+He did as she directed; and they were taken on a tide and advanced
+rapidly to the mountain, so that the waters smacked and crackled beneath
+the shell, covering it with silver showering arches of glittering spray.
+Then the fair beams of the moon became obscured, and the twain reddened
+with the reflection of the fire, and the billows waxed like riotous
+flames; and presently the shell rose upon the peak of many waves swollen
+to one, and looking below, they saw in the scarlet abyss of waters at
+their feet a monstrous fish, with open jaws and one baleful eye; and the
+fish was lengthy as a caravan winding through the desert, and covered
+with fiery scales.  Shibli Bagarag heard the voice of Noorna shriek
+affrightedly, 'Karaz!' and as they were sliding on the down slope, she
+stood upright in the shell, pronouncing rapidly some words in magic; and
+the shell closed upon them both, pressing them together, and writing
+darkness on their very eyeballs.  So, while they were thus, they felt
+themselves gulped in, and borne forward with terrible swiftness, they
+knew not where, like one that hath a dream of sinking; and outside the
+shell a rushing, gurgling noise, and a noise as of shouting multitudes,
+and muffled multitudes muttering complaints and yells and querulous
+cries, told them they were yet speeding through the body of the depths in
+the belly of the fish.  Then there came a shock, and the shell was struck
+with light, and they were sensible of stillness without motion.  Then a
+blow on the shell shivered it to fragments, and they were blinded with
+seas 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, and
+could bear to gaze on the insufferable splendour, they saw sitting on a
+throne of coral and surrounded by slaves with scimitars, a fair Queen,
+with black eyes, kindlers of storms, torches in the tempest, and with
+floating tresses, crowned with a circlet of green-spiked precious stones
+and masses of crimson weed with flaps of pearl; and she was robed with a
+robe of amber, and had saffron sandals, loose silvery-silken trousers
+tied in at the ankle, the ankle white as silver; wonderful was the
+quivering 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, 'O
+ye traversers of my sea!  how is this, that I am made to thank Karaz for
+a sight of ye?'
+
+And Noorna bin Noorka answered, 'Surely, O Queen Rabesqurat, the haven of
+our voyage was Aklis, and we feared delay, seeing the fire of the
+mountain ablaze with expectations of us.'
+
+Then the Queen cried angrily, ''Tis well thou hadst wit to close the
+shell, O Noorna, or there would have been delay indeed.  Say, is not the
+road 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 them
+that reach Aklis?'
+
+And the Queen cried violently, purpling with passion, 'This to me! when I
+helped ye to the plucking of the Lily?'
+
+Now, the Queen muttered an imprecation, and called the name 'Abarak!' and
+lo, a door opened in one of the pillars of jasper leading from the
+throne, 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 leaden
+weights.  So the Queen levelled her finger at Noorna, and he spun the net
+above her head, and dropped it on her shoulder, and dragged her with him
+to 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 with
+strange delicious melodies, the touch of stringed instruments, and others
+breathed into softly as by the breath of love, delicate, tender, alive
+with enamoured bashfulness.  Surely, the soul that heard them dissolved
+like a sweet in the goblet, mingling with so much ecstasy of sound; and
+those melodies filling the white cave of the ear were even at once to
+drown the soul in delightfulness and buoy it with bliss, as a heavy-
+leaved flower is withered and refreshed by sun and dews.  Surely, the
+youth ceased not to listen, and oblivion of cares and aught other in this
+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 been
+wandered through.  Opening his eyes hurriedly, as with the loss of the
+music his own breath had gone likewise, he beheld a garden golden with
+the light of lamps hung profusely from branches and twigs of trees by the
+glowing cheeks of fruits, apple and grape, pomegranate and quince; and he
+was reclining on a bank piled with purple cushions, his limbs clad in the
+richest figured silks, fringed like the ends of clouds round the sun,
+with amber fringes.  He started up, striving to recall the confused
+memory of his adventures and what evil had befallen him, and he would
+have struggled with the vision of these glories, but it mastered him with
+the strength of a potent drug, so that the very name of his betrothed was
+forgotten by him, and he knew not whither he would, or the thing he
+wished for.  Now, when he had risen from the soft green bank that was his
+couch, 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 its
+tyrannies, softening him, already softened.  Then said she, 'What I
+suffer there is another, lovelier than I, suffering; thou the cause
+of it, O cruel youth!'
+
+He said, 'How, O damsel? what of my cruelty?  Surely, I know nothing
+of it.'
+
+But she exclaimed, 'Ah, worse to feign forgetfulness!'
+
+Now, he was bewildered at the words of the damsel, and followed her
+leading till they entered a dell in the garden canopied with foliage,
+and beyond it a green rise, and on the rise a throne.  So he looked
+earnestly, and beheld thereon Queen Rabesqurat, she sobbing, her dark
+hair pouring in 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 shrank from her, and the Queen shrieked with grief, crying,
+'Is there in this cold 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 to
+a flourishing Court before one, a widowed Queen, and she cast eyes of
+love on him, and gave him rule over her and all that was hers when he had
+achieved a task, and they were wedded.  Oh, the bliss of it!  Knit
+together with bond and a writing; and these were the dominions, I the
+Queen, woe's me!--thou the youth!'
+
+Now, he was roiled by the enchantments of the Queen, caught in the snare
+of her beguilings; and he let her lead him to a seat beside her on the
+throne, 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 poor
+youth that came to her court, and espoused her, sitting in the vacant
+seat 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 will
+solve it!'  So, on a sudden he said to her beside him, 'O Queen,
+sovereign of hearts! enlighten me as to a perplexity.'
+
+She answered, '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, is
+there 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; strange
+is the history of him, his friends, and enemies; and it would bear
+recital.'
+
+Then he said, 'And one, the daughter of a Vizier, Vizier to the King in
+the 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 wisdom
+of Noorna, is manifest, that the sting of them yet chased away doubts of
+illusion 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 the
+serpent in the descent, and the smack of it as the mouth of satisfaction
+in its contact with tender regions.  This, wullahy!  was no dream.'
+Nevertheless, he was ashamed to allude thereto before the Queen, and he
+said, 'O my mistress, another question, one only!  This Shagpat--is he
+shaved?'
+
+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
+dower of it, and the rich reward.'
+
+Now, he was meshed yet deeper in the net of her subtleties, and by her
+calling him 'lord and king'; and she gave a signal for fresh
+entertainments, exhausting the resources of her art, the mines of her
+wealth, to fascinate him.  Ravishments of design and taste were on every
+side, and he was in the lap of abundance, beguiled by magic, caressed by
+beauty and a Queen.  Marvel not that he was dazzled, and imagined himself
+already come to the great things foretold of him by the readers of
+planets and the casters of nativities in Shiraz.  He assisted in
+beguiling himself, trusting wilfully to the two witnesses of things
+visible; as is declared 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 of
+the Enchanted Sea.  She sang to him, luting deliriously; and he was
+intoxicated with the blissfulness of his fortune, and took a lute and
+sang to her love-verses in praise of her, rhyming his rapture.  Then they
+handed the goblet to each other, and drank till they were on fire with
+the joy of things, and life blushed beauteousness.  Surely, Rabesqurat
+was becoming 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, my husband!'
+
+So he said courteously, 'All grants are granted to the lovely, the
+fascinating; 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 and
+this 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 phial
+to the flower.  She signed imperiously to some slaves to stay his right
+wrist, and they seized on it; but not all of them together could withhold
+him from dropping a drop into the petals of the flower, and lo, the Lily
+spake, a voice from it like the voice of Noorna, saying, 'Remember the
+Seventh Pillar.' Thereat, he lifted his eyes to his brows and frowned
+back memory to his aid, and the scene of Karaz, Rabesqurat, Abarak, and
+his betrothed was present to him.  So perceiving that, the Queen delayed
+not while he grasped the phial to take in her hands some water from a
+basin near, and flung it over him, crying, 'Oblivion!'  And while his
+mind was straining to bring back images of what had happened, he fell
+forward once more at the feet of Rabesqurat, senseless as a stone falls;
+such was the force of her enchantments.
+
+Now, when he awoke the second time he was in the bosom of darkness, and
+the Lily gone from his hand; so he lifted the phial to make certain of
+that, 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 voice
+said, 'I caught a light from it in passing.'  And he came in the darkness
+to a tree, and a bejewelled bank, and other urns, and swinging lamps
+without light, and a running water, and a grassy bank, and flowers, and a
+silver seat, sprinkling each; and they said all in answer to his question
+of the Lily, 'I caught a light from it in passing.'  At the last he
+stumbled upon the steps of a palace, and ascended them, endowing the
+steps with speech as he went, and they said, 'The light of it went over
+us.'  He groped at the porch of the palace, and gave the door a voice,
+and it 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 other halls and dusk chambers, scattering drops, and as he
+advanced the voices increased in the fervour of their replies, saying
+sequently: 'We blush with the light of it; We beam with the light of it;
+We burn with the light of it.'  So, presently he found himself in a long
+low room, sombrely lit, roofed with crystals; and in a corner of the
+room, lo! a damsel on a couch of purple, she white as silver, spreading
+radiance.  Of such lustrous beauty was she that beside her, the Princess
+Goorelka as Shibli Bagarag first beheld her, would have paled like a
+morning moon; even Noorna had waned as Both a flower in fierce heat; and
+the Queen of Enchantments was but the sun behind a sand-storm, in
+comparison with that effulgent damsel on the length of the purple couch.
+Well for him he wilt of 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's
+reach of her, and, looking another way, inclined over her soft vermeil
+mouth the phial slowly till it brimmed the neck, and dropped a drop of
+Paravid between the bow of those sweet lips.  Still not daring to gaze on
+her, he said then, 'My question is of the Lily, the Lily of the Sea, and
+where is it, O marvel?'
+
+And he heard a voice answer in the tones of a silver bell, clear as a
+wind in strung wires, 'Where I lie, lies the Lily, the Lily of the Sea; I
+with it, it with me.'
+
+Said he, 'O breather of music, tell me how I may lay hand on the flower
+of beauty to bear it forth.'
+
+And he heard the voice, 'An equal space betwixt my right side and my
+left, and from the shoulder one span and half a span downward.'
+
+Still without power to eye her, he measured the space and the spans, his
+hand beneath the coverlids of the couch, and at a spot of the bosom his
+hand sank in, and he felt a fluttering thing, fluttering like a frighted
+bird in the midst of the fire.  And the voice said, 'Quick, seize it, and
+draw 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 of blood-
+streaming with crimson, palpitating.  Tears flashed on his sight
+beholding it, and pity took the seat of fear, and he turned his eyes full
+on her, crying, 'O sad fair thing!  O creature of anguish!  O painful
+beauty!  Oh, what have I done to thee?'
+
+But she panted, and gasped short and shorter gasps, pointing with one
+finger to her feet.  Then he took the warm living heart while it yet
+leapt and quivered and sobbed; and he held it with a trembling hand, and
+tied it by the red twines of silk about it to her feet, staining their
+whiteness.  When that was done, his whole soul melted with pity and
+swelled 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 the
+damsel was no longer there, but in her place the Lily of Light.  He
+thought, 'It was a vision, that damsel! a terrible one; one to terrify
+and bewilder! a bitter sweetness!  Oh, the heart, the heart!' Reflecting
+on the heart brought to his lids an overcharging of tears, and he wept
+violently awhile.  Then was he warned by the thought of his betrothed to
+take the Lily and speed with it from the realms of Rabesqurat; and he
+stole along the halls of the palace, and by the plashing fountains, and
+across the magic courts, passing chambers of sleepers, fair dreamers, and
+through ante-rooms crowded with thick-lipped slaves.  Lo, as he held the
+Lily to light him on, and the light of the Lily fell on them that were
+asleep, they paled and shrank, and were such as the death-chill maketh of
+us.  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
+that slept not, but stared at him with fixed eyes, eyes frozen by the
+light of the Lily, and he shunned those, for they were like spectres,
+haunting spirits.  After he had coursed the length of the palace, he came
+to a steep place outside it, a rock with steps cut in stairs, and up
+these he went till he came to a small door in the rock, and lying by it a
+bar; so he seized the bar and smote the door, and the door shivered, for
+on his right wrist were the hairs of Garraveen.  Bending his body, he
+slipped through the opening, and behold, an orchard dropping blossoms and
+ripe golden fruits, streams flowing through it over sands, and brooks
+bounding above glittering gems, and long dewy grasses, profusion of
+scented flowers, shade and sweetness.  So he let himself down to the
+ground, which was an easy leap from the aperture, and walked through the
+garden, holding the Lily behind him, for here it darkened all, and the
+glowing orchard was a desert by its light.  Presently, his eye fell on a
+couch swinging between two almond trees, and advancing to it he beheld
+the black-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 the almond 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 of Queens within the very grasp, swinging to and fro as if to
+taunt backwardness!'  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 lips closed 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 a sight to blacken the world and all bright things with its
+hideousness.  Scarce had he time to thrust the Lily in his robes, when
+the Queen started up and clapped her hands, crying hurriedly, 'Abarak!
+Abarak!' and the little man appeared in a moment at the door by which
+Shibli Bagarag had entered the orchard.  So, she cried still, 'Abarak!'
+and he moved toward her.  Then she said, 'How came this youth here,
+prying in my private walks, my bowers?  Speak!'
+
+He answered, 'By the aid of Garraveen only, O Queen! and there is no
+force resisteth the bar so wielded.'
+
+Rabesqurat looked under her brows at Shibli Bagarag and saw the horror on
+his 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 impatient
+breaths, and in one hand he bore a sack, in the other a tray: so he
+emptied the contents of the sack on the surface of the tray; surely they
+were human eyes!  and the Queen flung aside her tresses, and stood over
+them.  The youth saw her smile at them, and assume tender and taunting
+manners before them, and imperious manners, killing glances, till in each
+of the eyes there was a sparkle.  Then she flung back her head as one
+that feedeth on a mighty triumph, exclaiming, 'Yet am I Rabesqurat! wide
+is my sovereignty.'  Sideways then she regarded Shibli Bagarag, and it
+seemed she was urging Abarak to do a deed beyond his powers, he frowning
+and pointing to the right wrist of the youth.  So she clenched her hands
+an instant with that feeling which knocketh a nail in the coffin of a
+desire not dead, and controlled herself, and went to the youth, breaking
+into beams of beauty; and an enchanting sumptuousness breathed round her,
+so that in spite of himself he suffered her to take him by the hand and
+lead him from that orchard through the shivered door and into the palace
+and the hall of the jasper pillars.  Strange thrills went up his arm from
+the touch of that Queen, and they were as little snakes twisting and
+darting up, biting poison-bites of irritating blissfulness.
+
+Now, the hall was spread for a feast, and it was hung with lamps of
+silver, strewn with great golden goblets, and viands, coloured meats, and
+ordered fruits on shining platters.  Then said she to Shibli Bagarag, 'O
+youth! there shall be no deceit, no guile between us.  Thou art but my
+guest, 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 youth
+to this dish and that dish, from the serving of slaves, caressing him
+with flattering looks to starve aversion and nourish tender fellowship.
+And he was like one that slideth down a hill and can arrest his descent
+with a foot, yet faileth that freewill.  When he had eaten and drunk with
+her, the Queen said, 'O youth, no other than my guest! art thou not a
+prince 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 by
+the readers of planets, a crown hanging for me, and I search a point of
+earth 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 of
+the loneliness of her life, and of one with whom she wished to share her
+state,--such as he.  And at her signal came troops of damsels that stood
+in rings and luted sweetly on the same theme--the Queen's loneliness, her
+love.  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 look
+it not.'  So he took the goblet, and contrived to drop a drop from the
+phial of Paravid therein without her observing him; and he handed her the
+goblet, she him; and they drank.  Surely, the change that came over the
+Queen was an enchantment, and her eyes shot lustre, her tongue was
+loosed, and she laughed like one intoxicated, lolling in her seat, lost
+to majesty and the sway of her magic, crying, 'O Abarak! Abarak! little
+man, 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 not
+nigh fascinated thee?  And thou wilt forfeit those two silly eyes of
+thine to the sack.  And, O Abarak, Abarak! little man, have I flattered
+thee?  So fetter I the strong with my allurements! and I stay the arrow
+in its flight! and I blunt the barb of high intents!  Wah! I have drunk a
+potent stuff; I talk!  Wullahy!  I know there is a danger menacing
+Shagpat, and the eyes of all Genii are fixed on him.  And if he be
+shaved, what changes will follow!  But 'tis in me to delude the barber,
+wullahy! and I will avert the calamity.  I will save Shagpat!'
+
+While the Queen Rabesqurat prated in this wise with flushed face, Shibli
+Bagarag was smitten with the greatness of his task, and reproached his
+soul with neglect of it.  And he thought, 'I am powerful by spells as
+none before me have been, and 'twas by my weakness the Queen sought to
+tangle me.  I will clasp the Seventh Pillar and make an end of it, by
+Allah and his Prophet (praised be the name!), and I will reach Aklis by a
+short path and shave Shagpat with the sword.'
+
+So he looked up, and Abarak was before him, the lifted nostrils of the
+little 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
+me little?--an instigation of the evil one to repute me ugly?'
+
+The promptings of wisdom counselled Shibli Bagarag to say, 'Frightful
+beyond contemplation, O Abarak! one to shame our species!  Surely, there
+is a moon between thy legs, a pear upon thy shoulders, and the cock that
+croweth is no match for thee in measure.'
+
+Abarak cried, 'We be aggrieved, we two!  O youth, son of my uncle, I will
+give thee means of vengeance; give thou me means.'
+
+Shibli Bagarag felt scorn at the Queen, 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 puppet
+of mine! thou! comest thou to seek a second kiss against the compact,
+knowing that I give not the well-favoured of mortals beyond one, a
+second.
+
+Little delayed Abarak at this to put her to the test of the Lily, and he
+held the flower to her, and saw the sight, and staggered back like one
+stricken with a shaft.  When he could get a breath he uttered such a howl
+that Rabesqurat in her drunkenness was fain to save her ears, and the
+hall 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
+the sight, and sickened, rolling their whites.  That done, Abarak gave
+Shibli Bagarag the bar of iron, and bade him smite the pillars, all save
+the seventh; and he smote them strengthily, crumbling them at a blow, and
+bringing 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 no
+delaying in this place now, O youth!  Say, halt thou spells for the
+entering of Aklis?'
+
+He answered, 'Three!'
+
+Then said Abarak, ''Tis well!  Surely now, if thou takest me in thy
+service, 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 that
+myself 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, and
+the waves of the sea bounding toward her where she lay.  Now, they
+descended and ascended flights of slippery steps, and sped together along
+murky passages, in which light never was, and under arches of caves with
+hanging crystals, groping and tumbling on hurriedly, till they came to an
+obstruction, and felt an iron door, frosty to the touch.  Then Abarak
+said to Shibli Bagarag, 'Smite!'  And the youth lifted the bar to his
+right shoulder, and smote; and the door obeyed the blow, and discovered
+an opening into a strange dusky land, as it seemed a valley, on one side
+of which was a ragged copper sun setting low, large as a warrior's
+battered shield, giving deep red lights to a brook that fell, and over a
+flat stream 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 of tawny lions.  Trees with reddened stems stood about the valley,
+scattered and in groups, showing between their leaves the cheeks of
+melancholy fruits swarthily tinged, and toward the centre of the valley a
+shining palace was visible, supported by massive columns of marble
+reddened by that copper sun.  Shibli Bagarag was awed at the stillness
+that hung everywhere, and said to Abarak, 'Where am I, O Abarak? the look
+of this place 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 seventh
+pillar!'
+
+Then the thought of his betrothed Noorna, and her beauty, and the words,
+'Remember the seventh pillar,' struck the heart of Shibli Bagarag, and he
+exclaimed passionately, 'Is she in safety?  Noorna, my companion, my
+betrothed, netted by thee, O Abarak!'
+
+Abarak answered sharply, 'Speak not of betrothals in this place, or the
+sword of Aklis will move without a hand!'
+
+But Shibli Bagarag waxed the colour of the sun that was over them, and
+cried, 'By Allah!  I will smite thee with the bar, if thou swear not to
+her 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 it
+to 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 in
+tumult, and one pillar standing erect in the midst of the sea; and on the
+pillar, above the washing waves, with hair blown back, and flapping
+raiment, pale but smiling still, Noorna, his betrothed!
+
+Now, when he saw her, he made a rush to the door of the passage; but
+Abarak blocked the way, crying, 'Fool! a step backward in Aklis is
+death!'
+
+And when he had wrestled with him and reined him, Abarak said, 'Haste to
+reach 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 that
+floated slowly toward them; and when it was near, he and Abarak entered
+it, and saw one, a veiled figure, sitting in the stern, who neither moved
+to them nor spake, but steered the boat to a certain point of land across
+the stream, where stood an elephant ready girt for travellers to mount
+him; and the elephant kneeled among the reeds as they approached, that
+they 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 upon
+his knees again, and the two slid off his back, and were among black
+slaves that bowed to the ground before them, and led them to the shining
+gates of the palace in silence.  Now, on the first marble step of the
+palace there sat an old white-headed man dressed like a dervish, who held
+out at arm's length a branch of gold with golden singing-birds between
+its leaves, saying, 'This for the strongest of ye!'
+
+Abarak exclaimed, 'I am that one'; and he held forth his hand for the
+branch.
+
+But Shibli Bagarag cried, 'Nay, 'tis mine.  Wullahy, what has not the
+strength of this hand overthrown?'
+
+Then the brows of Abarak twisted; his limbs twitched, and he bawled, 'To
+the proof!' waking all the echoes of Aklis.  Shibli Bagarag was tempted
+in his desire for the golden branch to lift the iron bar upon Abarak,
+when lo! the phial of Paravid fell from his vest, and he took it, and
+sprinkled a portion of the waters over the singing birds, and in a moment
+they burst into a sweet union of voices, singing, in the words of the
+poet:
+
+          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 old
+man, and the beard of the old man shrivelled; he waxed in size, and flew
+up in a blaze and with a baffled shout bearing the branch; surely, his
+features were those of Karaz, and Shibli Bagarag knew him by the length
+of his limbs, his stiff ears, and copper skin.  Then he laughed a loud
+laugh, but Abarak sobbed, saying, 'By this know I that I never should
+have seized the Sword, even though I had vanquished the illusions of
+Rabesqurat, which held me fast half-way.'
+
+So Shibli Bagarag stared at him, and said, 'Wert thou also a searcher, O
+Abarak?'
+
+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 is
+within thy grip, and they await thee up yonder steps.  Go! go! and look
+for me here on thy return.'
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PALACE OF AKLIS
+
+Now, Shibli Bagarag assured himself of his three spells, and made his
+heart resolute, and hastened up the reddened marble steps of the Palace;
+and when he was on the topmost step, lo! one with a man's body and the
+head of a buffalo, that prostrated himself, and prayed the youth
+obsequiously to enter the palace with the title of King.  So Shibli
+Bagarag held his head erect, and followed him with the footing of a
+Sultan, and passed into a great hall, with fountains in it that were
+fountains of gems, pearls, chrysolites, thousand-hued jewels, and by the
+margin of the fountains were shapes of men with the heads of beasts-
+wolves, foxes, lions, bears, oxen, sheep, serpents, asses, that stretched
+their hands to the falls, and loaded their vestments with brilliants,
+loading them without cessation, so that from the vestments of each there
+was another pouring of the liquid lights.  Then he with the buffalo's
+head bade Shibli Bagarag help himself from the falls; but Shibli Bagarag
+refused, for his soul was with Noorna, his betrothed; and he saw her pale
+on that solitary pillar in the tumult of the sea, and knew her safety
+depended on his faithfulness.
+
+He cried, 'The Sword of Aklis! nought save the Sword!'
+
+Now, at these words the fox-heads and the sheep-heads and the ass-heads
+and the other heads of beasts were lifted up, and lo!  they put their
+hands to their ears, and tapped their foreheads with the finger of
+reflection, as creatures seeking to bring to mind a serious matter.  Then
+the fountains rose higher, and flung jets of radiant jewels, and a
+drenching spray of gems upon them, and new thirst aroused them to renew
+their gulping of the falls, and a look of eagerness was even in the eyes
+of the ass-heads and the silly sheep-heads; surely, Shibli Bagarag
+laughed to see them!  Now, when he had pressed his lips to recover his
+sight from the dazzling of those wondrous fountains, he heard himself
+again addressed by the title of King, and there was before him a lofty
+cock with a man's head.  So he resumed the majesty of his march, and
+followed the fine-stepping cock into another hall, spacious, and clouded
+with heavy scents and perfumes burning in censers and urns, musk, myrrh,
+ambergris, and livelier odours, gladdening the nostril like wine, making
+the soul reel as with a draught of the forbidden drink.  Here, before a
+feast that would prick the dead with appetite, were shapes of beasts with
+heads of men, asses, elephants, bulls, horses, swine, foxes, river-
+horses, dromedaries; and they ate and drank as do the famished with munch
+and gurgle, clacking their lips joyfully.  Shibli Bagarag remembered the
+condition of his frame when first he looked upon the City of Shagpat, and
+was incited to eat and accede to the invitation of the cock with the
+man's head, and sit among these merry feeders and pickers of mouth-
+watering morsels, when, with the City of Shagpat, lo! he had a vision of
+Shagpat, hairier than at their interview, arrogant in hairiness; his head
+remote in contemptuous waves and curls and frizzes, and bushy
+protuberances of hair, lost in it, like an idolatrous temple in
+impenetrable thickets.  Then the yearning of the Barber seized Shibli
+Bagarag, and desire to shear Shagpat was as a mighty overwhelming wave in
+his bosom, and he shouted, 'The Sword of Aklis! nought save the Sword!'
+
+Now, at these words the beasts with men's heads wagged their tails, all
+of them, from right to left, and kept their jaws from motion, staring
+stupidly at the dishes; but the dishes began to send forth stealthy
+steams, insidious whispers to the nose, silver intimations of
+savouriness, so that they on a sudden set up a howl, and Shibli Bagarag
+puckered his garments from them as from devouring dogs, and hastened from
+that hall to a third, where at the entrance a damsel stood that smiled to
+him, and led him into a vast marbled chamber, forty cubits high, hung
+with draperies, and in it a hundred doors; and he was in the midst of a
+very rose-garden of young beauties, such as the Blest behold in Paradise,
+robed in the colours of the rising and setting sun; plump, with long,
+black, languishing, almond-shaped eyes, and undulating figures.  So they
+cried to him, 'What greeting, O our King?'
+
+Now, he counted twenty and seven of them, and, fitting his gallantry to
+verse, answered:
+
+          Poor are the heavens that have not ye
+            To swell their glowing plenty;
+          Up there but one bright moon I see,
+            Here mark I seven-and-twenty.
+
+The damsels laughed and flung back their locks at his flattery, sporting
+with him; and he thought, 'These be sweet maidens!  I will know if they
+be illusions like Rabesqurat'; so, as they were romping, he slung his
+right arm round one, and held the Lily to her, but there was no change in
+her save that she winked somewhat and her eyes watered; and it was so
+with the others, for when they saw him hold the Lily to one they made him
+do so to them likewise.  Then he took the phial, and touched their lips
+with the waters, and lo! they commenced luting and laughing, and singing
+verses, and prattling, laughing betweenwhiles at each other; and one, a
+noisy one, with long, black, unquiet tresses, and a curved foot and
+roguish ankle, sang as she twirled:
+
+          My heart is another's, I cannot be tender;
+          Yet if thou storm it, I fain must surrender.
+
+And another, a fresh-cheeked, fair-haired, full-eyed damsel, strong upon
+her instep and stately in the bearing of her shoulders, sang shrilly:
+
+          I'm of the mountains, and he that comes to me
+          Like eagle must win, and like hurricane woo me.
+
+And another, reclining on a couch buried in dusky silks, like a butterfly
+under the leaves, a soft ball of beauty, sang moaningly:
+
+          Here like a fruit on the branch am I swaying;
+          Snatch ere I fall, love! there's death in delaying.
+
+And another, light as an antelope on the hills, with antelope eyes edged
+with kohl, and timid, graceful movements, and small, white, rounded ears,
+sang clearly:
+
+          Swiftness is mine, and I fly from the sordid;
+          Follow me, follow! and you'll be rewarded.
+
+And another, with large limbs and massive mould, that stepped like a cow
+leisurely cropping the pasture, and shook with jewels amid her black hair
+and above her brown eyes, and round her white neck and her wrists, and on
+her waist, even to her ankle, sang as with a kiss upon every word:
+
+          Sweet 'tis in stillness and bliss to be basking!
+          He who would have me, may have for the asking.
+
+And another, with eyebrows like a bow, and arrows of fire in her eyes,
+and two rosebuds her full moist parted pouting lips, sang, clasping her
+hands, and voiced like the tremulous passionate bulbul in the shadows of
+the moon:
+
+          Love is my life, and with love I live only;
+          Give me life, lover, and leave me not lonely.
+
+And a seventh, a very beam of beauty, and the perfection of all that is
+imagined in fairness and ample grace of expression and proportion, lo!
+she came straight to Shibli Bagarag, and took him by the hand and pierced
+him with lightning glances, singing:
+
+          Were we not destined to meet by one planet?
+          Can a fate sever us?--can it, ah! can it?
+
+And she sang tender songs to him, mazing him with blandishments, so that
+the aim of existence and the summit of ambition now seemed to him the
+life of a king in that palace among the damsels; and he thought, 'Wah!
+these be no illusions, and they speak the thing that is in them.
+Wullahy, loveliness is their portion; they call me King.'
+
+Then she that had sung to him said, 'Surely we have been waiting thee
+long to crown thee our King!  Thou hast been in some way delayed, O
+glorious one!'
+
+And he answered, 'O fair ones, transcending in affability, I have
+stumbled upon obstructions in my journey hither, and I have met with
+adventures, but of this crowning that was to follow them I knew nought.
+Wullahy, thrice have I been saluted King; I whom fate selecteth for the
+shaving of Shagpat, and till now it was a beguilement, all emptiness.'
+
+They marked his bewildered state, and some knelt before him, some held
+their arms out adoringly, some leaned to him with glistening looks, and
+he was fast falling a slave to their flatteries, succumbing to them;
+imagination fired him with the splendours due to one that was a king, and
+the thought of wearing a crown again took possession of his soul, and he
+cried, 'Crown me, O my handmaidens, and delay not to crown me; for, as
+the poet says:
+
+              "The king without his crown
+               Hath a forehead like the clown";
+
+and the circle of my head itcheth for the symbols of majesty.'
+
+At these words of Shibli Bagarag they arose quickly and clapped their
+hands, and danced with the nimble step of gladness, exclaiming, 'O our
+King!  pleasant will be the time with him!' And one smoothed his head and
+poured oil upon it; one brought him garments of gold and silk inwoven;
+one fetched him slippers like the sun's beam in brightness; others stood
+together in clusters, and with lutes and wood-instruments, low-toned,
+singing odes to him; and lo!  one took a needle and threaded it, and gave
+the thread into the hands of Shibli Bagarag, and with the point of the
+needle she pricked certain letters on his right wrist, and afterwards
+pricked the same letters on a door in the wall.  Then she said to him,
+'Is it in thy power to make those letters speak?'
+
+He answered, 'We will prove how that may be.'
+
+So he flung some drops from the phial over the letters, and they glowed
+the colour of blood and flashed with a report, and it was as if a fiery
+forked-tongue had darted before them and spake the words written, and
+they were, 'This is the crown of him who bath achieved his aim and
+resteth here.'  Thereupon, she stuck the needle in the door, and he
+pulled the thread, and the door drew apart, and lo! a small chamber, and
+on a raised cushion of blue satin a glittering crown, thick with jewels
+as a frost, such as Ambition pineth to wear, and the knees of men weaken
+and bend beholding, and it lanced lights about it like a living sun.
+Beside the cushion was a vacant throne, radiant as morning in the East,
+ablaze with devices in gold and gems, a seat to fill the meanest soul
+with sensations of majesty and tempt dervishes to the sitting posture.
+Shibli Bagarag was intoxicated at the sight, and he thought, 'Wah! but if
+I sit on this throne and am a king, with that crown I can command men and
+things! and I have but to say, Fetch Noorna, my betrothed, from yonder
+pillar in the midst of the uproarious sea!--Let the hairy Shagpat be
+shaved!  and behold, slaves, thousands of them, do my bidding!  Wullahy,
+this is greatness!'  Now, he made a rush to the throne, but the damsels
+held him back, crying, 'Not for thy life till we have crowned thee, our
+master and lord!'
+
+Then they took the crown and crowned him with it; and he sat upon the
+throne calmly, serenely, like a Sultan of the great race accustomed to
+sovereignty, tempering the awfulness of his brows with benignant glances.
+So, while he sat the damsels hid their faces and started some paces from
+him, as unable to bear the splendour of his presence, and in a moment,
+lo! the door closed between him and them, and he was in darkness.  Then
+he heard a voice of the damsels cry in the hall, 'The ninety and ninth!
+Peace now for us and blissfulness with our lords, for now all are filled
+save the door of the Sword, which maketh the hundredth.' After that he
+heard the same voice say, 'Leave them, O my sisters!'
+
+So he listened to the noise of their departing, and knew he had been
+duped.  Surely his soul cursed him as he sat crowned and throned in that
+darkness!  He seized the crown to dash it to the earth, but the crown was
+fixed on his forehead and would not come off; neither had he force to
+rise from the throne.  Now, the thought of Noorna, his betrothed, where
+she rested waiting for him to deliver her, filled Shibli Bagarag with the
+extremes of anguish; and he lifted his right arm and dashed it above his
+head in the violence of his grief, striking in the motion a hidden gong
+that gave forth a burst of thunder and a roll of bellowings, and lo! the
+door opened before him, and the throne as he sat on it moved out of the
+chamber into the hall where he had seen the damsels that duped him, and
+on every side of the hall doors opened; and he marvelled to see men, old
+and young, beardless and venerable, sitting upon thrones and crowned with
+crowns, motionless, with eyes like stones in the recesses.  He thought,
+'These be other dupes!  Wallaby! a drop of the waters of Paravid upon
+their lips might reveal mysteries, and guide me to the Sword of my
+seeking.'  So, as he considered how to get at them from the seat of his
+throne, his gaze fell on a mirror, and he beheld the crown on his
+forehead what it was, bejewelled asses' ears stiffened upright, and
+skulls of monkeys grinning with gems!  The sight of that crowning his
+head convulsed Shibli Bagarag with laughter, and, as he laughed, his seat
+upon the throne was loosened, and he pitched from it, but the crown stuck
+to him and was tenacious of its hold as the lion that pounceth upon a
+victim.  He bowed to the burden of necessity, and took the phial, and
+touched the lips of one that sat crowned on a throne with the waters in
+the phial; and it was a man of exceeding age, whitened with time, and in
+the long sweep of his beard like a mountain clad with snow from the peak
+that is in the sky to the base that slopeth to the valley.  Then he
+addressed the old man on his throne, saying, 'Tell me, O King! how camest
+thou here? and in search of what?'
+
+The old man's lips moved, and he muttered in deep tones, 'When cometh he
+of the ninety-and-ninth door?'
+
+So Shibli Bagarag cried, 'Surely he is before thee, in Aklis.'
+
+And the old man said, 'Let him ask no secrets; but when he hath reached
+the Sword forget not to flash it in this hall, for the sake of
+brotherhood in adventure.'
+
+After that he would answer no word to any questioning.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SONS OF AKLIS
+
+Now, Shibli Bagarag thought, 'The poet is right in Aklis as elsewhere, in
+his words:
+
+         "The cunning of our oft-neglected wit
+          Doth best the keyhole of occasion fit";
+
+and whoso looketh for help from others looketh the wrong way in an
+undertaking.  Wah! I will be bold and batter at the hundredth door, which
+is the door of the Sword.'  So he advanced straightway to the door, which
+was one of solid silver, charactered with silver letters, and knocked
+against it three knocks; and a voice within said, 'What spells?'
+
+He answered, 'Paravid; Garraveen; and the Lily of the Sea!'
+
+Upon that the voice said, 'Enter by virtue of the spells!' and the silver
+door swung open, discovering a deep pit, lightened by a torch, and across
+it, bridging it, a string of enormous eggs, rocs' eggs, hollowed, and so
+large that a man might walk through them without stooping.  At the side
+of each egg three lamps were suspended from a claw, and the shell passage
+was illumined with them from end to end.  Shibli Bagarag thought, 'These
+eggs are of a surety the eggs of the Roc mastered by Aklis with his
+sword!' Now, as the sight of Shibli Bagarag grew familiar to the place,
+he beheld at the bottom of the pit a fluttering mass of blackness and two
+sickly eyes that glittered below.
+
+Then thought he, 'Wah! if that be the Roc, and it not dead, will the bird
+suffer one to defile its eggs with other than the sole of the foot,
+naked?'  He undid his sandals and kicked off the slippers given him by
+the damsels that had duped him, and went into the first egg over the
+abyss, and into the second, and into the third, and into the fourth, and
+into the fifth.  Surely the eggs swung with him, and bent; and the fear
+of their breaking and he falling into the maw of the terrible bird made
+him walk unevenly.  When he had come to the seventh egg, which was the
+last, it shook and swung violently, and he heard underneath the flapping
+of the wings of the Roc, as with eagerness expecting a victim to prey
+upon.  He sustained his soul with the firmness of resolve and darted
+himself lengthwise to the landing, clutching a hold with his right hand;
+as he did so, the bridge of eggs broke, and he heard the feathers of the
+bird in agitation, and the bird screaming a scream of disappointment as
+he scrambled up the sides of the pit.
+
+Now, Shibli Bagarag failed not to perform two prostrations to Allah, and
+raised the song of gratitude for his preservation when he found himself
+in safety.  Then he looked up, and lo! behind a curtain, steps leading to
+an anteroom, and beyond that a chamber like the chamber of kings where
+they sit in state dispensing judgements, like the sun at noon in
+splendour; and in the chamber seven youths, tall and comely young men,
+calm as princes in their port, each one dressed in flowing robes, and
+with a large glowing pearl in the front of their turbans.  They advanced
+to meet him, saying, 'Welcome to Aklis, thou that art proved worthy!
+'Tis holiday now with us'; and they took him by the hand and led him with
+them in silence past fountain-jets and porphyry pillars to where a
+service with refreshments was spread, meats, fowls with rice, sweetmeats,
+preserves, palateable mixtures, and monuments of the cook's art, goblets
+of wine like liquid rubies.  Then one of the youths said to Shibli
+Bagarag, 'Thou hast come to us crowned, O our guest!  Now, it is not our
+custom to pay homage, but thou shalt presently behold them that will, so
+let not thy kingliness droop with us, but feast royally.'
+
+And Shibli Bagarag said, 'O my princes, surely it is a silly matter to
+crown a mouse!  Humility hath depressed my stature!  Wullahy, I have had
+warning in the sticking of this crown to my brows, and it sticketh like
+an abomination.'
+
+They laughed at him, saying, 'It was the heaviness of that crown which
+overweighted thee in the bridge of the abyss, and few be they that bear
+it and go not to feed the Roc.'
+
+Now, they feasted together, interchanging civilities, offering to each
+other choice morsels, dainties.  And the anecdotes of Shibli Bagarag, his
+simplicity and his honesty, and his vanity and his airiness, and the
+betraying tongue of the barber, diverted the youths; and they plied him
+with old wine till his stores of merriment broke forth and were as a
+river swollen by torrents of the mountain; and the seven youths laughed
+at him, spluttering with laughter, lurching with it.  Surely, he
+described to them the loquacity of Baba Mustapha his uncle, and they
+laughed so that their chins were uppermost; but at his mention of Shagpat
+greater gravity was theirs, and they smoothed their faces solemnly, and
+the sun of their merriment was darkened for awhile.  Then they took to
+flinging about pellets of a sugared preparation, and reciting verses in
+praise of jovial living, challenging to drink this one and that one,
+passing the cup with a stanza.  Shibli Bagarag thought, 'What a life is
+this led by these youths! a fair one!  'Tis they that be the sons of
+Aklis who sharpen the Sword of Events; yet live they in jollity, skimming
+from the profusion of abundance that which floateth!'
+
+Now, marking him contemplative, one of the youths shouted, 'The King
+lacketh homage!'
+
+And another called, 'Admittance for his people!'
+
+Then the seven arose and placed Shibli Bagarag on an elevation in the
+midst of them, and lo! a troop of black slaves leading by the collar,
+asses, and by a string, monkeys.  Now, for the asses they brayed to the
+Evil One, and the monkeys were prankish, pulling against the string, till
+they caught sight of Shibli Bagarag.  Then was it as if they had been
+awestricken; and they came forward to him with docile steps, eyeing the
+crown on his head, and prostrated themselves, the asses and the monkeys,
+like creatures in whom glowed the lamp of reason and the gift of
+intelligence.  So Shibli Bagarag drooped his jaw and was ashamed, and he
+cried, 'my princes! am I a King of these?'
+
+They answered, 'A King in mightiness!  Sultan of a race!'
+
+So he said, 'It is certain I shall need physic to support such a
+sovereignty!  And I must be excused liberal allowances of old wine to sit
+in state among them.  Wullahy! they were best gone for awhile.  Send them
+from me, O my princes!  I sicken.'
+
+And he called to the animals, 'Away! begone!' frowning.
+
+Then said the youths, 'Well commanded! and like a King!  See, they troop
+from thy presence obediently.'
+
+Now the animals fled from before the brows of Shibli Bagarag, and when
+the chamber was empty of them the seven young men said, 'Of a surety thou
+wert flattered to observe the aspect of these animals at beholding thee.'
+
+But he cried, 'Not so, O my princes; there is nought flattering in the
+homage of asses and monkeys.'
+
+Then they said, 'O Sultan of asses, ruler of monkeys, better that than
+thyself an ass and an ape!  As was said by Shah Kasirwan, "I prefer being
+king of beasts worshipped by beasts, rather than a crowned beast
+worshipped by men"; and it was well said.  Wullahy!  the kings of Roum
+quote it.'
+
+Now Shibli Bagarag was not rendered oblivious of the Sword of his quest
+by the humour of these youths, or the wine-bibbings, and he exclaimed
+while they were turning up the heels of their cups, 'O ye sons of Aklis,
+know that I have come hither for the Sword sharpened by your hands, for
+the releasing of my betrothed, Noorna bin Noorka, daughter of the Vizier
+Feshnavat, and for the shaving of Shagpat.'
+
+While he was proceeding to recount the story of his search for the Sword,
+they said, 'Enough, O potentate of the braying class and of the
+scratching tribe! we have seen thee through the eye of Aklis since the
+time of thy first thwacking.  What says the poet?
+
+         "A day for toil and a day for rest
+          Gives labour zeal, and pleasure zest."
+
+So, of thy seeking let us hear to-morrow; but now drink with us, and make
+merry, and touch the springs of memory; spout forth verses, quaint ones,
+suitable to the hour and the entertainment.  Wullahy! drink with us!
+taste life!  Let the humours flow.'
+
+Then they made a motion to some slaves, and presently a clattering of
+anklets struck the ear of Shibli Bagarag: and he beheld dancing-girls,
+moons of beauty and elegance, and they danced wild dances, and dances
+graceful and leopard-like and serpent-like in movement; and the youths
+flung flowers at them, applauding them.  Then came other sets of dancers
+even lovelier, more languishing; and again others with tambourines and
+musical instruments, that sang ravishingly.  So the senses of Shibli
+Bagarag were all taken with what he saw and heard, and ate and drank; and
+by degrees a mist came before his eyes, and the sweet sounds and voices
+of the girls grew distant, and it was with difficulty he kept his back
+from the length of the cushions that were about him.  Then he thought of
+Noorna, and that she sang to him and danced, and when he rose to embrace
+her she was Rabesqurat by the light of the Lily!  And he thought of
+Shagpat, and that in shaving him the blade was checked in its rapid
+sweep, and blunted by a stumpy twine of hair that waxed in size and
+became the head of Karaz that gulped at him a wide devouring gulp, and
+took him in, and flew up with him, leaving Shagpat half sheared.  Then he
+thought himself struggling halfway down the throat of the monstrous Roc,
+and that, when he was wholly inside the Roc, he was in a wide-arched
+passage crowded with lamps, and at the end of the passage Noorna in the
+clutch of Karaz, she shouting, 'The Sword, the Sword!'
+
+Now, while he felt for the Sword wherewith to release her from the Genie,
+his eyes opened, and he saw day through a casement, and that he had
+reposed on an embroidered couch in the corner of a stately room
+ornamented with carvings of blue and gold.  So while he wondered and
+yawned, gaping, slaves started up from the floor and led him to a bath of
+coloured marble, and bathed him in perfumed waters, and dressed him in a
+dress of yellow silk, rich and ample.  Then they paraded before him
+through lesser apartments and across terraces, till they came to a great
+hall; loftier and more spacious than any he had yet beheld, with
+fountains at the two ends, and in the centre a tree with golden spreading
+branches and leaves of gold; among the leaves gold-feathered birds, and
+fruits of all seasons and every description--the drooping grape and the
+pleasant-smelling quince, and the blood-red pomegranate, and the apricot,
+and the green and rosy apple, and the gummy date, and the oily pistachio-
+nut, and peaches, and citrons, and oranges, and the plum, and the fig.
+Surely, they were countless in number, melting with ripeness, soft, full
+to bursting; and the birds darted among them like sun-flashes.  Now,
+Shibli Bagarag thought, 'This is a wondrous tree!  Wullahy! there is
+nought like it save the tree in the hall of the Prophet in Paradise,
+feeding the faithful!'  As he regarded it he heard his name spoken in the
+hall, and turning he beheld seven youths in royal garments, that were
+like the youths he had feasted with, and yet unlike them, pale, and stern
+in their manners, their courtesy as the courtesy of kings.  They said,
+'Sit with us and eat the morning's meal, O our guest!'
+
+So he sat with them under the low branches of the tree; and they whistled
+the tune of one bird and of another bird, and of another, and lo! those
+different birds flew down with golden baskets hanging from their bills,
+and in the baskets fruits and viands and sweetmeats, and cool drinks.
+And Shibli Bagarag ate from the baskets of the birds, watching the action
+of the seven youths and the difference that was in them.  He sought to
+make them recognise him and acknowledge their carouse of the evening that
+was past, but they stared at him strangely and seemed offended at the
+allusion, neither would they hear mention of the Sword of his seeking.
+Presently, one of the youths stood upon his feet and cried, "The time for
+kings to sit in judgement!"
+
+And the youths arose and led Shibli Bagarag to a hall of ebony, and
+seated him on the upper seat, themselves standing about him; and lo!
+asses and monkeys came before him, complaining of the injustice of men
+and their fellows, in brays and bellows and hoots.  Now, at the sight of
+them again Shibli Bagarag was enraged, and he said to the youths, 'How!
+do ye not mock me, O masters of Aklis!'
+
+But they said only, 'The burden of his crown is for the King.'
+
+He cooled, thinking, 'I will use a spell.'  So he touched the lips of an
+animal with the waters of Paravid, and the animal prated volubly in our
+language of the kick this ass had given him, and the jibe of that monkey,
+and of his desire of litigation with such and such a beast for pasture;
+and the others when they spake had the same complaints to make.  Shibli
+Bagarag listened to them gravely, and it was revealed to him that he who
+ruleth over men hath a labour and duties of hearing and judging and
+dispensing judgement similar to those of him who ruleth over apes and
+asses.  Then said he, 'O youths, my princes! methinks the sitting in this
+seat giveth a key to secret sources of wisdom; and I see what it is, the
+glory and the exaltation coveted by men.'  Now, he took from the asses
+and the monkeys one, and said to it, 'Be my chief Vizier,' and to
+another, 'Be my Chamberlain!' and to another, 'Be my Treasurer!' and so
+on, till a dispute arose between the animals, and jealousy of each other
+was visible in their glances, and they appealed to him clamorously.  So
+he said, 'What am I to ye?'
+
+They answered, 'Our King!'
+
+And he said, 'How so?'
+
+They answered, 'By the crowning of the brides of Aklis.'
+
+Then he said, 'What be ye, O my subjects?'
+
+They answered, 'Men that were searchers of the Sword and plunged into the
+tank of temptation.'
+
+And he said, 'How that?'
+
+They answered, 'By the lures of vanity, the blinding of ambition, and
+tasting the gall of the Roc.'
+
+So Shibli Bagarag leaned to the seven youths, saying, 'O my princes, but
+for not tasting the gall of the Roc I might be as one of these.  Wullahy!
+I the King am warned by base creatures.' Then he said to the animals,
+'Have ye still a longing for the crown?'
+
+And they cried, all of them, 'O light of the astonished earth, we care
+for nought other than it.'
+
+So he said, 'And is it known to ye how to dispossess the wearer of his
+burden?'
+
+They answered, 'By a touch of the gall of the Roc on his forehead.'
+
+Then he lifted his arms, crying, 'Hie out of my presence! and whoso of ye
+fetcheth a drop of the gall, with that one will I exchange the crown.'
+
+At these words some moved hastily, but the most faltered, as doubting and
+incredulous that he would propose such an exchange; and one, an old
+monkey, sat down and crossed his legs, and made a study of Shibli
+Bagarag, as of a sovereign that held forth a deceiving bargain.  But he
+cried again, 'Hie and haste! as my head is now cased I think it not the
+honoured part.'
+
+Then the old monkey arose with a puzzled look, half scornful, and made
+for the door slowly, turning his head toward Shibli Bagarag betweenwhiles
+as he went, and scratching his lower limbs with the mute reflectiveness
+of age and extreme caution.
+
+Now, when they were gone, Shibli Bagarag looked in the eyes of the seven
+youths, and saw they were content with him, and his countenance was
+brightened with approval.  So he descended from his seat, and went with
+them from the hall of ebony to a court where horses were waiting saddled,
+and slaves with hawks on their wrists stood in readiness; and they
+mounted each a horse, but he loitered.  The seven youths divined his
+feeling, and cried impatiently, 'Come! no lingering in Aklis!'  So he
+mounted likewise, and they emerged from the palace, and entered the hills
+that glowed under the copper sun, and started a milk-white antelope with
+ruby spots, and chased it from its cover over the sand-hills, a hawk
+being let loose to worry it and distress its timid beaming eyes.  When
+the creature was quite overcome, one of the youths struck his heel into
+his horse's side and flung a noose over the head of the quarry, and drew
+it with them, gently petting it the way home to the palace.  At the gates
+of the palace it was released, and lo! it went up the steps, and passed
+through the halls as one familiar with them.  Now, when they were all
+assembled in the anteroom of the hall, where Shibli Bagarag had first
+seen the seven youths, sons of Aklis, in their jollity, one of them said
+to the Antelope, 'We have need of thee to speak a word with Aklis, O our
+sister!'
+
+So the same youth requested the use of the phial of Paravid, and Shibli
+Bagarag applied it carefully, tenderly, to the mouth of the Antelope.
+Then the Antelope spake in a silver-ringing voice, saying, 'What is it, O
+my brothers?'
+
+They answered, 'Thou knowest we dare not attempt interchange of speech
+with Aklis, seeing that we disobeyed him in visiting the kingdoms of the
+earth: so it is for thee to question him as to the object of this youth,
+and it is the Shaving of Shagpat.'
+
+So she said, ''Tis well; I wot of it.'
+
+Then she advanced to the curtain concealing the abyss of the Roc and the
+bridge of its eggs, and went behind it.  There was a pause, and they
+heard her say presently in a grave voice, toned with reverence, 'How is
+it, O our father? is it a good thing that thy Sword be in use at this
+season?'
+
+And they heard the Voice answer from a depth, ''Twere well it rust not!'
+
+They heard her say, 'O our father Aklis, and we wish to know if  be held
+in favour by thee, and thou sanction it with thy Sword.'
+
+And they heard the Voice answer, 'The Shaving of Shagpat is my Sword
+alone equal to, and he that shaveth him performeth a service to mankind
+ranking next my vanquishing of the Roc.'
+
+Then they heard her say, 'And it is thy will we teach him the mysteries
+of the Sword, and that which may be done with it?'
+
+And they heard the Voice answer, 'Even so!'
+
+After that the Voice was still, and soon the Antelope returned from
+behind the curtain, and the youths caressed her with brotherly caresses,
+and took a circle of hands about her, and so moved to the great Hall of
+the gorgeous Tree, and fed her from the branches.  Now, while they were
+there, Shibli Bagarag advanced to the Antelope, and knelt at her feet,
+and said, 'O Princess of Aklis, surely I am betrothed to one constant as
+a fixed star, and brighter; a mistress of magic, and innocent as the
+bleating lamb; and she is now on a pillar, chained there, in the midst of
+the white wrathful sea, wailing for me to deliver her with this Sword of
+my seeking.  So, now, I pray thee help me to the Sword swiftly, that I
+may deliver her.'
+
+The youths, her brothers, clamoured and interposed, saying, 'Take thy
+shape ere that, O Gulrevaz, our sister!'
+
+But she cried, 'He is betrothed! not till he graspeth the Sword.  Tell
+him, the youth, our conditions, and for what exchange the Sword is
+yielded.'
+
+And they said, 'The conditions are, thou part with thy spells, all of
+them, O youth!'
+
+And he said, 'There is no condition harsh that exchangeth the Sword; O ye
+Seven, I agree!'
+
+Then she said, ''Tis well! nobility is in the soul of this youth.  Go
+before us now to the Cave of Chrysolites, O my brothers.'
+
+So these departed before, and she in her antelope form followed footing
+gracefully, and made Shibli Bagarag repeat the story of his betrothal as
+they went.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE SWORD OF AKLIS
+
+Now, when they had made the passage of many halls, built of different
+woods, filled with divers wonders, they descended a sloping vault, and
+came to a narrow way in the earth, hung with black, at the end of it a
+stedfast blaze like a sun, that grew larger as they advanced, and they
+heard the sea above them.  The noise of it, and its plunging and
+weltering and its pitilessness, struck on the heart of Shibli Bagarag as
+with a blow, and he cried, 'Haste, haste, O Princess! perchance she is
+even now calling to me with her tongue, and I not aiding her; delayed by
+the temptation of this crown and the guile of the Brides.'
+
+She checked him, and said, 'In Aklis no haste!' Then she said, 'Look!'
+And lo, fronting them the single blaze became two fires; and drawing
+nigh, Shibli Bagarag beheld them what they were, angry eyes in the head
+of a great lion, a model of majesty, and passion was in his mane and
+power was in his forepaws; so while he lashed his tail as a tempest
+whippeth the tawny billows at night, and was lifting himself for a roar,
+she said, 'A hair of Garraveen, and touch him with it!'
+
+Shibli Bagarag pushed up his sleeve and broke one of the three sapphire
+hairs and stepped forward to the lion, holding in his right hand the hair
+of vivid light.  The lion crouched, and was in the vigour of the spring
+when that hair touched him, and he trembled, tumbling on his knees and
+letting the twain pass.  So they advanced beyond him, and lo! the Cave of
+Chrysolites irradiate with beams, breaks of brilliance, confluences of
+lively hues, restless rays, meeting, vanishing, flooding splendours, now
+scattered in dazzling joints and spars, now uniting in momentary disks of
+radiance.  In the centre of the cave glowed a furnace, and round it he
+distinguished the seven youths, swarthier and sterner than before, dark
+sweat standing on the brows of each.  Their words were brief, and they
+wore each a terrible frown, saying to him, without further salutation,
+'Thrust in the flame of this furnace thy right wrist.'
+
+At the same moment, the Antelope said in his ear, 'Do thou their bidding,
+and be not backward!  In Aklis fear is ruin, and hesitation a destroyer.'
+
+He fixed his mind on the devotedness of Noorna, and held his nether lip
+tightly between his teeth, and thrust his right wrist in the flame of the
+furnace.  The wrist reddened, and became transparent with heat, but he
+felt no pain, only that his whole arm was thrice its natural weight.
+Then the flame of the furnace fell, and the seven youths made him kneel
+by a brook of golden waters and dip his forehead up to his eyes in the
+waters.  Then they took him to the other side of the cave, and his sight
+was strengthened to mark the glory of the Sword, where it hung in slings,
+a little way from the wall, outshining the lights of the cave, and
+throwing them back with its superior force and stedfastness of lustre.
+Lo! the length of it was as the length of crimson across the sea when the
+sun is sideways on the wave, and it seemed full a mile long, the whole
+blade sheening like an arrested lightning from the end to the hilt; the
+hilt two large live serpents twined together, with eyes like sombre
+jewels, and sparkling spotted skins, points of fire in their folds, and
+reflections of the emerald and topaz and ruby stones, studded in the
+blood-stained haft.  Then the seven young men, sons of Aklis, said to
+Shibli Bagarag, 'Surrender the Lily!'  And when he had given into their
+hands the Lily, they said, 'Grasp the handle of the Sword!'
+
+Now, he beheld the Sword and the ripples of violet heat that were
+breathing down it, and those two venomous serpents twined together, and
+the size of it, its ponderousness; and to essay lifting it appeared to
+him a madness, but he concealed his thought, and, setting his soul on the
+safety of Noorna, went forward to it boldly, and piercing his right arm
+between the twists of the serpents, grasped the jewelled haft.  Surely,
+the Sword moved from the slings as if a giant had swayed it!  But what
+amazed him was the marvel of the blade, for its sharpness was such that
+nothing stood in its way, and it slipped through everything as we pass
+through still water, the stone columns, blocks of granite by the walls,
+the walls of earth, and the thick solidity of the ground beneath his
+feet.  They bade him say to the Sword, 'Sleep!' and it was no longer than
+a knife in the girdle.  Likewise, they bade him hiss on the heads of the
+serpents, and say, 'Wake!' and while he held it lengthwise it shot
+lengthening out.  Then they bade him hold in one hand the sapphire hair
+that conquered the lion, and with the edge of the Sword touch one point
+of it.  So he did that, and it split in half, and the two halves he also
+split; and he split those four, and those eight, till the hairs were thin
+as light and not distinguishable from it.  When Shibli Bagarag saw the
+power of the Sword, he exulted and cried, 'Praise be to the science of
+them that forecast events and the haps of life!'  Now, in the meantime he
+marked the youths take those hairs of Garraveen that he had split, and
+tie them round the neck of the Antelope, and empty the contents of the
+phial down her throat; and they put the bulb of the Lily, that was a
+heart, in her mouth, and she swallowed it till the flower covered her
+face.  Then they took each a handful of the golden waters of the brook
+flowing through the cave, and flung the waters over her, exclaiming, 'By
+the three spells that have power in Aklis, and by which these waters are
+a blessing!'
+
+In the passing of a flash she took her shape, and was a damsel taller
+than the tallest of them that descend from the mountains, a vision of
+loveliness, with queenly brows, closed red lips, and large full black
+eyes; her hair black, and on it a net of amber strung with pearls.  To
+look upon her was to feel the tyranny of love, love's pangs of alarm and
+hope and anguish; and she was dressed in a dress of white silk, threaded
+with gold and sapphire, showing in shadowy beams her rounded figure and
+the stateliness that was hers.  So she ran to her brothers and embraced
+them, calling them by their names, catching their hands, caressing them
+as one that had been long parted from them.  Then, seeing Shibli Bagarag
+as he stood transfixed with the javelins of loveliness that flew from her
+on all sides, she cried: 'What, O Master of the Event! halt thou nought
+for the Sword but to gaze before thee in silliness?'
+
+Then he said, 'O rare in beauty! marvel of Aklis and the world!  surely
+the paradise of eyes is thy figure and the glory of thy face!'
+
+But she shouted, 'To work with the Sword!  Shame on thee! is there not
+one, a bright one, a miracle in faithfulness, that awaiteth thy rescue on
+the pillar?'
+
+And she repeated the praises he had spoken of Noorna bin Noorka, his
+betrothed.  Then he grasped the Sword firmly, remembering the love of
+Noorna, and crying, 'Lead me from this, O ye sons of Aklis, and thou,
+Princess Gulrevaz, lead me, that I may come to her.'
+
+So they said, 'Follow us!' and he sheathed the Sword in his girdle with
+the word 'Sleep!' and followed them, his heart beating violently.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Arm'd with Fear the Foe finds passage to the vital part
+Fear nought so much as Fear itself
+If thou wouldst fix remembrance--thwack!
+Nought credit but what outward orbs reveal
+The overwise themselves hoodwink
+The king without his crown hath a forehead like the clown
+Vanity maketh the strongest most weak
+Where fools are the fathers of every miracle
+Who in a labyrinth wandereth without clue
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of The Shaving of Shagpat, v3
+by George Meredith
+
diff --git a/4403.zip b/4403.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..98dcbfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/4403.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee2c4f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #4403 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4403)