The Shaving of Shagpat; an Arabian entertainment — Complete

by George Meredith

  THE SWORD OF AKLIS

  Now, when they had made the passage of many halls, built of differentwoods, filled with divers wonders, they descended a sloping vault, andcame to a narrow way in the earth, hung with black, at the end of it astedfast blaze like a sun, that grew larger as they advanced, and theyheard the sea above them. The noise of it, and its plunging and welteringand its pitilessness, struck on the heart of Shibli Bagarag as with ablow, and he cried, 'Haste, haste, O Princess! perchance she is even nowcalling to me with her tongue, and I not aiding her; delayed by thetemptation 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 drawingnigh, Shibli Bagarag beheld them what they were, angry eyes in the headof a great lion, a model of majesty, and passion was in his mane andpower was in his forepaws; so while he lashed his tail as a tempestwhippeth 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 sapphirehairs and stepped forward to the lion, holding in his right hand the hairof vivid light. The lion crouched, and was in the vigour of the springwhen that hair touched him, and he trembled, tumbling on his knees andletting the twain pass. So they advanced beyond him, and lo! the Cave ofChrysolites irradiate with beams, breaks of brilliance, confluences oflively hues, restless rays, meeting, vanishing, flooding splendours, nowscattered in dazzling joints and spars, now uniting in momentary disks ofradiance. In the centre of the cave glowed a furnace, and round it hedistinguished the seven youths, swarthier and sterner than before, darksweat standing on the brows of each. Their words were brief, and theywore 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 liptightly between his teeth, and thrust his right wrist in the flame of thefurnace. The wrist reddened, and became transparent with heat, but hefelt no pain, only that his whole arm was thrice its natural weight. Thenthe flame of the furnace fell, and the seven youths made him kneel by abrook 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 wasstrengthened to mark the glory of the Sword, where it hung in slings, alittle way from the wall, outshining the lights of the cave, and throwingthem back with its superior force and stedfastness of lustre. Lo! thelength of it was as the length of crimson across the sea when the sun issideways on the wave, and it seemed full a mile long, the whole bladesheening like an arrested lightning from the end to the hilt; the hilttwo large live serpents twined together, with eyes like sombre jewels,and sparkling spotted skins, points of fire in their folds, andreflections of the emerald and topaz and ruby stones, studded in theblood-stained haft. Then the seven young men, sons of Aklis, said toShibli Bagarag, 'Surrender the Lily!' And when he had given into theirhands the Lily, they said, 'Grasp the handle of the Sword!'

  Now, he beheld the Sword and the ripples of violet heat that werebreathing down it, and those two venomous serpents twined together, andthe size of it, its ponderousness; and to essay lifting it appeared tohim a madness, but he concealed his thought, and, setting his soul on thesafety of Noorna, went forward to it boldly, and piercing his right armbetween the twists of the serpents, grasped the jewelled haft. Surely,the Sword moved from the slings as if a giant had swayed it! But whatamazed him was the marvel of the blade, for its sharpness was such thatnothing stood in its way, and it slipped through everything as we passthrough still water, the stone columns, blocks of granite by the walls,the walls of earth, and the thick solidity of the ground beneath hisfeet. They bade him say to the Sword, 'Sleep!' and it was no longer thana knife in the girdle. Likewise, they bade him hiss on the heads of theserpents, and say, 'Wake!' and while he held it lengthwise it shotlengthening out. Then they bade him hold in one hand the sapphire hairthat conquered the lion, and with the edge of the Sword touch one pointof it. So he did that, and it split in half, and the two halves he alsosplit; and he split those four, and those eight, till the hairs were thinas light and not distinguishable from it. When Shibli Bagarag saw thepower of the Sword, he exulted and cried, 'Praise be to the science ofthem that forecast events and the haps of life!' Now, in the meantime hemarked the youths take those hairs of Garraveen that he had split, andtie them round the neck of the Antelope, and empty the contents of thephial down her throat; and they put the bulb of the Lily, that was aheart, in her mouth, and she swallowed it till the flower covered herface. Then they took each a handful of the golden waters of the brookflowing through the cave, and flung the waters over her, exclaiming, 'Bythe three spells that have power in Aklis, and by which these waters area blessing!'

  In the passing of a flash she took her shape, and was a damsel tallerthan the tallest of them that descend from the mountains, a vision ofloveliness, with queenly brows, closed red lips, and large full blackeyes; her hair black, and on it a net of amber strung with pearls. Tolook upon her was to feel the tyranny of love, love's pangs of alarm andhope and anguish; and she was dressed in a dress of white silk, threadedwith gold and sapphire, showing in shadowy beams her rounded figure andthe stateliness that was hers. So she ran to her brothers and embracedthem, calling them by their names, catching their hands, caressing themas one that had been long parted from them. Then, seeing Shibli Bagaragas he stood transfixed with the javelins of loveliness that flew from heron all sides, she cried: 'What, O Master of the Event! halt thou noughtfor the Sword but to gaze before thee in silliness?'

  Then he said, 'O rare in beauty! marvel of Aklis and the world! surelythe 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 notone, a bright one, a miracle in faithfulness, that awaiteth thy rescue onthe pillar?'

  And she repeated the praises he had spoken of Noorna bin Noorka, hisbetrothed. Then he grasped the Sword firmly, remembering the love ofNoorna, 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 withthe word 'Sleep!' and followed them, his heart beating violently.