The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Complete

by George Meredith

  THE PALACE OF AKLIS

  Now, Shibli Bagarag assured himself of his three spells, and made hisheart 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 thehead of a buffalo, that prostrated himself, and prayed the youthobsequiously to enter the palace with the title of King. So ShibliBagarag held his head erect, and followed him with the footing of aSultan, and passed into a great hall, with fountains in it that werefountains of gems, pearls, chrysolites, thousand-hued jewels, and by themargin of the fountains were shapes of men with the heads ofbeasts-wolves, foxes, lions, bears, oxen, sheep, serpents, asses, thatstretched their hands to the falls, and loaded their vestments withbrilliants, loading them without cessation, so that from the vestments ofeach there was another pouring of the liquid lights. Then he with thebuffalo's head bade Shibli Bagarag help himself from the falls; butShibli Bagarag refused, for his soul was with Noorna, his betrothed; andhe saw her pale on that solitary pillar in the tumult of the sea, andknew 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-headsand the other heads of beasts were lifted up, and lo! they put theirhands to their ears, and tapped their foreheads with the finger ofreflection, as creatures seeking to bring to mind a serious matter. Thenthe fountains rose higher, and flung jets of radiant jewels, and adrenching spray of gems upon them, and new thirst aroused them to renewtheir gulping of the falls, and a look of eagerness was even in the eyesof the ass-heads and the silly sheep-heads; surely, Shibli Bagaraglaughed to see them! Now, when he had pressed his lips to recover hissight from the dazzling of those wondrous fountains, he heard himselfagain addressed by the title of King, and there was before him a loftycock with a man's head. So he resumed the majesty of his march, andfollowed the fine-stepping cock into another hall, spacious, and cloudedwith heavy scents and perfumes burning in censers and urns, musk, myrrh,ambergris, and livelier odours, gladdening the nostril like wine, makingthe soul reel as with a draught of the forbidden drink. Here, before afeast that would prick the dead with appetite, were shapes of beasts withheads of men, asses, elephants, bulls, horses, swine, foxes,river-horses, dromedaries; and they ate and drank as do the famished withmunch and gurgle, clacking their lips joyfully. Shibli Bagarag rememberedthe 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 theman's head, and sit among these merry feeders and pickers ofmouth-watering morsels, when, with the City of Shagpat, lo! he had avision of Shagpat, hairier than at their interview, arrogant inhairiness; his head remote in contemptuous waves and curls and frizzes,and bushy protuberances of hair, lost in it, like an idolatrous temple inimpenetrable thickets. Then the yearning of the Barber seized ShibliBagarag, and desire to shear Shagpat was as a mighty overwhelming wave inhis 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, allof them, from right to left, and kept their jaws from motion, staringstupidly at the dishes; but the dishes began to send forth stealthysteams, insidious whispers to the nose, silver intimations ofsavouriness, so that they on a sudden set up a howl, and Shibli Bagaragpuckered his garments from them as from devouring dogs, and hastened fromthat hall to a third, where at the entrance a damsel stood that smiled tohim, and led him into a vast marbled chamber, forty cubits high, hungwith draperies, and in it a hundred doors; and he was in the midst of avery 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 theycried to him, 'What greeting, O our King?'

  Now, he counted twenty and seven of them, and, fitting his gallantry toverse, 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, sportingwith him; and he thought, 'These be sweet maidens! I will know if they beillusions like Rabesqurat'; so, as they were romping, he slung his rightarm round one, and held the Lily to her, but there was no change in hersave that she winked somewhat and her eyes watered; and it was so withthe others, for when they saw him hold the Lily to one they made him doso to them likewise. Then he took the phial, and touched their lips withthe waters, and lo! they commenced luting and laughing, and singingverses, and prattling, laughing betweenwhiles at each other; and one, anoisy one, with long, black, unquiet tresses, and a curved foot androguish 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 uponher 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 butterflyunder 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 edgedwith 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 cowleisurely cropping the pasture, and shook with jewels amid her black hairand above her brown eyes, and round her white neck and her wrists, and onher 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 herhands, and voiced like the tremulous passionate bulbul in the shadows ofthe 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 isimagined in fairness and ample grace of expression and proportion, lo!she came straight to Shibli Bagarag, and took him by the hand and piercedhim 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 thatthe aim of existence and the summit of ambition now seemed to him thelife 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 theelong to crown thee our King! Thou hast been in some way delayed, Oglorious one!'

  And he answered, 'O fair ones, transcending in affability, I havestumbled upon obstructions in my journey hither, and I have met withadventures, but of this crowning that was to follow them I knew nought.Wullahy, thrice have I been saluted King; I whom fate selecteth for theshaving of Shagpat, and till now it was a beguilement, all emptiness.'

  They marked his bewildered state, and some knelt before him, some heldtheir arms out adoringly, some leaned to him with glistening looks, andhe was fast falling a slave to their flatteries, succumbing to them;imagination fired him with the splendours due to one that was a king, andthe thought of wearing a crown again took possession of his soul, and hecried, 'Crown me, O my handmaidens, and delay not to crown me; for, asthe 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.'

  A
t these words of Shibli Bagarag they arose quickly and clapped theirhands, and danced with the nimble step of gladness, exclaiming, 'O ourKing! pleasant will be the time with him!' And one smoothed his head andpoured oil upon it; one brought him garments of gold and silk inwoven;one fetched him slippers like the sun's beam in brightness; others stoodtogether in clusters, and with lutes and wood-instruments, low-toned,singing odes to him; and lo! one took a needle and threaded it, and gavethe thread into the hands of Shibli Bagarag, and with the point of theneedle she pricked certain letters on his right wrist, and afterwardspricked the same letters on a door in the wall. Then she said to him, 'Isit 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 glowedthe colour of blood and flashed with a report, and it was as if a fieryforked-tongue had darted before them and spake the words written, andthey were, 'This is the crown of him who bath achieved his aim andresteth here.' Thereupon, she stuck the needle in the door, and he pulledthe thread, and the door drew apart, and lo! a small chamber, and on araised cushion of blue satin a glittering crown, thick with jewels as afrost, such as Ambition pineth to wear, and the knees of men weaken andbend beholding, and it lanced lights about it like a living sun. Besidethe cushion was a vacant throne, radiant as morning in the East, ablazewith devices in gold and gems, a seat to fill the meanest soul withsensations of majesty and tempt dervishes to the sitting posture. ShibliBagarag was intoxicated at the sight, and he thought, 'Wah! but if I siton this throne and am a king, with that crown I can command men andthings! and I have but to say, Fetch Noorna, my betrothed, from yonderpillar in the midst of the uproarious sea!--Let the hairy Shagpat beshaved! and behold, slaves, thousands of them, do my bidding! Wullahy,this is greatness!' Now, he made a rush to the throne, but the damselsheld him back, crying, 'Not for thy life till we have crowned thee, ourmaster and lord!'

  Then they took the crown and crowned him with it; and he sat upon thethrone calmly, serenely, like a Sultan of the great race accustomed tosovereignty, tempering the awfulness of his brows with benignant glances.So, while he sat the damsels hid their faces and started some paces fromhim, 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 heheard 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 filledsave the door of the Sword, which maketh the hundredth.' After that heheard the same voice say, 'Leave them, O my sisters!'

  So he listened to the noise of their departing, and knew he had beenduped. Surely his soul cursed him as he sat crowned and throned in thatdarkness! He seized the crown to dash it to the earth, but the crown wasfixed on his forehead and would not come off; neither had he force torise from the throne. Now, the thought of Noorna, his betrothed, whereshe rested waiting for him to deliver her, filled Shibli Bagarag with theextremes of anguish; and he lifted his right arm and dashed it above hishead in the violence of his grief, striking in the motion a hidden gongthat gave forth a burst of thunder and a roll of bellowings, and lo! thedoor opened before him, and the throne as he sat on it moved out of thechamber into the hall where he had seen the damsels that duped him, andon every side of the hall doors opened; and he marvelled to see men, oldand young, beardless and venerable, sitting upon thrones and crowned withcrowns, motionless, with eyes like stones in the recesses. He thought,'These be other dupes! Wallaby! a drop of the waters of Paravid upontheir lips might reveal mysteries, and guide me to the Sword of myseeking.' So, as he considered how to get at them from the seat of histhrone, his gaze fell on a mirror, and he beheld the crown on hisforehead what it was, bejewelled asses' ears stiffened upright, andskulls of monkeys grinning with gems! The sight of that crowning his headconvulsed Shibli Bagarag with laughter, and, as he laughed, his seat uponthe throne was loosened, and he pitched from it, but the crown stuck tohim and was tenacious of its hold as the lion that pounceth upon avictim. He bowed to the burden of necessity, and took the phial, andtouched the lips of one that sat crowned on a throne with the waters inthe phial; and it was a man of exceeding age, whitened with time, and inthe long sweep of his beard like a mountain clad with snow from the peakthat is in the sky to the base that slopeth to the valley. Then headdressed the old man on his throne, saying, 'Tell me, O King! how camestthou here? and in search of what?'

  The old man's lips moved, and he muttered in deep tones, 'When cometh heof 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 reachedthe Sword forget not to flash it in this hall, for the sake ofbrotherhood in adventure.'

  After that he would answer no word to any questioning.