The Shaving of Shagpat, George Meredith [popular e readers TXT] 📗

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