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

that to see them one would fancy in the darkness a fountain of sapphire waters flashed with the sheen of emerald. When they had reached a height loftier than the topmost palace-towers of Aklis, they descended like javelins into the earth, and in a moment reappeared, in the shape of genii when they are charitably disposed to them they visit; not much above the mortal size, nor overbright, save for a certain fire in their eyes when they turned them; and they were clothed each from head to foot in an armour of sapphire plates shot with steely emerald. Surely the dragonfly that darteth all day in the blaze over pools is like what they were. Abarak bit his forefinger and said, “Who be ye, O sons of brilliance?”

They answered, “Karavejis and Veejravoosh, slaves of the Sword.”

Then he said, “Come with us now, O slaves of the Sword, and help us to the mountain of outer Aklis.”

They answered, “O thou, there be but two means for us of quitting Aklis: on the wrist of the Master, or down the blade of the Sword! and from the wrist of the Master we have been loosed, and no one of thy race can tie us to it again.”

Abarak said, “How then shall the Master leave Aklis?”

They answered, “By Allah in Aklis! he can carve a way whither he will with the Sword.”

But Abarak cried, “O Karavejis and Veejravoosh! he hath peered through the veil of the Ferrying Figure.”

Now, when they heard his words, the visages of the genii darkened, and they exclaimed sorrowfully, “Serve we such a one?”

And they looked at Shibli Bagarag a look of anger, so that he, whose wits were in past occurrences, imagined them his enemy and the foe of Noorna split in two, crying, “How? Is Karaz a couple? and do I multiply him with strokes of the Sword?”

Thereupon he drew the Sword from his girdle in wrath, flourishing it; and Karavejis and Veejravoosh felt the might of the Sword, and prostrated themselves to the ground at his feet. And Abarak said, “Arise, and bring us swiftly to the mountain of outer Aklis.”

Then said they, “Seek a passage down yonder brook in the moonbeams; and it is the sole passage for him now.”

Abarak went with them to the brook that was making watery music to itself between banks of splintered rock and over broad slabs of marble, bubbling here and there about the roots of large-leaved water-flowers, and catching the mirrored moon of Aklis in whirls, breaking it in lances. Then they waded into the water knee-deep, and the two genii seized hold of a great slab of marble in the middle of the water, and under was a hollow brimmed with the brook, that the brook partly filled and flowed over. Then the genii said to Abarak, “Plunge!” and they said the same to Shibli Bagarag. The swayer of the Sword replied, as it had been a simple occasion, a common matter, and a thing for the exercise of civility, “With pleasure and all willingness!” Thereupon he tightened his girth, and arrowing his two hands, flung up his heels and disappeared in the depths, Abarak following. Surely, those two went diving downward till it seemed to each there was no bottom in the depth, and they would not cease to feel the rushing of the water in their ears till the time anticipated by mortals.

The Bosom of Noorna

Now, while a thousand sparks of fire were bursting on the sight of the two divers, and they speeded heels uppermost to the destiny marked out for them by the premeditations of the All-Wise, lo! Noorna was on the mountain in outer Aklis with Koorookh, waiting for the appearance of her betrothed, Sword in hand. She saw beams from the blazing eye of Aklis, and knew by the redness of it that one, a mortal, was peering on the Earth and certain of created things. So she waited awhile in patience for the return of her betrothed, with the head of Koorookh in her lap, caressing the bird, and teaching it words of our language; and the bird fashioned its bill to the pronouncing of names, such as “Noorna” and “Feshnavat,” and “Goorelka”; and it said “Karaz,” and stuck not at the name “Shagpat,” and it learnt to say even “Shagpat shall be shaved! Shagpat shall be shaved!” but no effort of Noorna could teach it to say, “Shibli Bagarag,” the bird calling instead, “Shiparack, Shiplabarack, Shibblisharack.” And Noorna chid it with her forefinger, crying, “O Koorookh! wilt thou speak all names but that one of my betrothed?”

So she said again, “Shibli Bagarag.” And the bird answered, imitating its best, “Shibberacavarack.” Noorna was wroth with it, crying, “Oh naughty bird! is the name of my beloved hateful to thee?”

And she chid Koorookh angrily, he with a heavy eye sulking, and keeping the sullen feathers close upon his poll. Now, she thought, “There is in this a meaning and I will fathom it.” So she counted the letters in the name of her betrothed, that were thirteen, and spelt them backwards, afterwards multiplying them by an equal number, and fashioning words from the selection of every third and seventh letter. Then took she the leaf from a tree and bade Koorookh fly with her to the base of the mountain sloping from Aklis to the sea, and there wrote with a pin’s point on the leaf the words fashioned, dipping the leaf in the salt ripple by the beach, till they were distinctly traced. And it was revealed to her that Shibli Bagarag bore now a name that might be uttered by none, for that the bearer of it had peered through the veil of the ferrying figure in Aklis. When she knew that, her grief was heavy, and she sat on the cold stones of the beach and among the bright shells, weeping in anguish, loosing her hair, scattering it wildly, exclaiming, “