第20章 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL(7)

And the Soul said to him,'When I left thee,I turned my face to the South and journeyed.From the South cometh everything that is precious.Six days I journeyed along the highways that lead to the city of Ashter,along the dusty red-dyed highways by which the pilgrims are wont to go did I journey,and on the morning of the seventh day I lifted up my eyes,and lo!the city lay at my feet,for it is in a valley.

'There are nine gates to this city,and in front of each gate stands a bronze horse that neighs when the Bedouins come down from the mountains.The walls are cased with copper,and the watch-towers on the walls are roofed with brass.In every tower stands an archer with a bow in his hand.At sunrise he strikes with an arrow on a gong,and at sunset he blows through a horn of horn.

'When I sought to enter,the guards stopped me and asked of me who I was.I made answer that I was a Dervish and on my way to the city of Mecca,where there was a green veil on which the Koran was embroidered in silver letters by the hands of the angels.They were filled with wonder,and entreated me to pass in.

'Inside it is even as a bazaar.Surely thou shouldst have been with me.Across the narrow streets the gay lanterns of paper flutter like large butterflies.When the wind blows over the roofs they rise and fall as painted bubbles do.In front of their booths sit the merchants on silken carpets.They have straight black beards,and their turbans are covered with golden sequins,and long strings of amber and carved peach-stones glide through their cool fingers.Some of them sell galbanum and nard,and curious perfumes from the islands of the Indian Sea,and the thick oil of red roses,and myrrh and little nail-shaped cloves.When one stops to speak to them,they throw pinches of frankincense upon a charcoal brazier and make the air sweet.I saw a Syrian who held in his hands a thin rod like a reed.Grey threads of smoke came from it,and its odour as it burned was as the odour of the pink almond in spring.

Others sell silver bracelets embossed all over with creamy blue turquoise stones,and anklets of brass wire fringed with little pearls,and tigers'claws set in gold,and the claws of that gilt cat,the leopard,set in gold also,and earrings of pierced emerald,and finger-rings of hollowed jade.From the tea-houses comes the sound of the guitar,and the opium-smokers with their white smiling faces look out at the passers-by.

'Of a truth thou shouldst have been with me.The wine-sellers elbow their way through the crowd with great black skins on their shoulders.Most of them sell the wine of Schiraz,which is as sweet as honey.They serve it in little metal cups and strew rose leaves upon it.In the market-place stand the fruitsellers,who sell all kinds of fruit:ripe figs,with their bruised purple flesh,melons,smelling of musk and yellow as topazes,citrons and rose-apples and clusters of white grapes,round red-gold oranges,and oval lemons of green gold.Once I saw an elephant go by.Its trunk was painted with vermilion and turmeric,and over its ears it had a net of crimson silk cord.It stopped opposite one of the booths and began eating the oranges,and the man only laughed.

Thou canst not think how strange a people they are.When they are glad they go to the bird-sellers and buy of them a caged bird,and set it free that their joy may be greater,and when they are sad they scourge themselves with thorns that their sorrow may not grow less.

'One evening I met some negroes carrying a heavy palanquin through the bazaar.It was made of gilded bamboo,and the poles were of vermilion lacquer studded with brass peacocks.Across the windows hung thin curtains of muslin embroidered with beetles'wings and with tiny seed-pearls,and as it passed by a pale-faced Circassian looked out and smiled at me.I followed behind,and the negroes hurried their steps and scowled.But I did not care.I felt a great curiosity come over me.

'At last they stopped at a square white house.There were no windows to it,only a little door like the door of a tomb.They set down the palanquin and knocked three times with a copper hammer.An Armenian in a caftan of green leather peered through the wicket,and when he saw them he opened,and spread a carpet on the ground,and the woman stepped out.As she went in,she turned round and smiled at me again.I had never seen any one so pale.

'When the moon rose I returned to the same place and sought for the house,but it was no longer there.When I saw that,I knew who the woman was,and wherefore she had smiled at me.

'Certainly thou shouldst have been with me.On the feast of the New Moon the young Emperor came forth from his palace and went into the mosque to pray.His hair and beard were dyed with rose-leaves,and his cheeks were powdered with a fine gold dust.The palms of his feet and hands were yellow with saffron.

'At sunrise he went forth from his palace in a robe of silver,and at sunset he returned to it again in a robe of gold.The people flung themselves on the ground and hid their faces,but I would not do so.I stood by the stall of a seller of dates and waited.When the Emperor saw me,he raised his painted eyebrows and stopped.Istood quite still,and made him no obeisance.The people marvelled at my boldness,and counselled me to flee from the city.I paid no heed to them,but went and sat with the sellers of strange gods,who by reason of their craft are abominated.When I told them what I had done,each of them gave me a god and prayed me to leave them.

'That night,as I lay on a cushion in the tea-house that is in the Street of Pomegranates,the guards of the Emperor entered and led me to the palace.As I went in they closed each door behind me,and put a chain across it.Inside was a great court with an arcade running all round.The walls were of white alabaster,set here and there with blue and green tiles.The pillars were of green marble,and the pavement of a kind of peach-blossom marble.I had never seen anything like it before.