“It is the sapiency of fools,
To shrink from handling evil tools.”'
Now, while she was speaking, she suddenly inclined her ear as to a
distant noise; but they heard nothing. Then, after again listening, she
cried in a sharp voice, 'Ho! muffle your mouths with both hands, and stir
not from the ring of the circles, as ye value life and its blessings.'
So they did as she bade them, and watched her curiously. Lo! she swathed
the upper and lower part of her face in linen, leaving the lips and eyes
exposed; and she took water from an ewer, and sprinkled it on her head,
and on her arms and her feet, muttering incantations. Then she listened a
third time, and stooped to the floor, and put her lips to it, and called
the name, 'Karaz!' And she called this name seven times loudly, sneezing
between whiles. Then, as it were in answer to her summons, there was a
deep growl of thunder, and the palace rocked, tottering; and the air
became smoky and full of curling vapours. Presently they were aware of
the cry of a Cat, and its miaulings; and the patch of red unguent on the
floor parted and they beheld a tawny Cat with an arched back. So Noorna
bin Noorka frowned fiercely at the Cat, and cried, 'This is thy shape, O
Karaz; change! for it serves not the purpose.'
The Cat changed, and was a Leopard with glowing yellow eyes, crouched for
the spring. So Noorna bin Noorka stamped, and cried again, 'This is thy
shape, O Karaz; change! for it serves not the purpose.'
And the Leopard changed, and was a Serpent with many folds, sleek,
curled, venomous, hissing.
Noorna bin Noorka cried in wrath, 'This is thy shape, O Karaz; change! or
thou'lt be no other till Eblis is accepted in Paradise.'
And the Serpent vanished. Lo! in its place a Genie of terrible aspect,
black as a solitary tree seared by lightning; his forehead ridged and
cloven with red streaks; his hair and ears reddened; his eyes like two
hollow pits dug by the shepherd for the wolf, and the wolf in them. He
shouted, 'What work is it now, thou accursed traitress?'