He is discovered to be an impostor, loses his wife, and the wide world
is again before him.
I passed a feverish night, and did not fall asleep until the muezzins
from the minarets had announced the break of day. Scarcely had an hour
elapsed, ere I was awoke by an unusual stir, and then was informed by
one of my servants that my wifes brothers, attended by several other
persons, were in the house.
Involuntarily, upon hearing this, I was seized with a trembling, which
at first deprived me of all power of action, and the consequences of
lying now spoke for themselves. Fifty horrors, one more hideous than the
other, rose in my mind, and I began to feel a tingling in the soles
of my feet, which the lapse of years had not been able to dispel, so
impressive had been the lesson received at Meshed. But, after all,
I reflected, Shekerleb is my wife, happen what may; and if I have
pretended to be richer than is really the case, I have only done what
thousands before me have done also. I then turned to my servant, and
said, In the name of the Prophet let them come in; and make ready the
pipes and coffee.
My bed was then rolled up and carried out of the room, and my visitors
one after the other in silent procession walked in, and seated
themselves on my divan. They consisted of my wifes two brothers, of her
late fathers brother, and his son, and of a stern-looking man whom I
had never before seen. These were seated; but, besides, a numerous train
of servants followed, who stood in a row at the end of the room, amongst
whom, standing foremost, were two ruffian-like looking fellows armed
with heavy canes, eyeing me as I thought with peculiar fierceness.
I endeavoured to appear as innocent and undisturbed as possible, and
pretended the greatest delight at seeing them. Having made them every
civil speech which I could devise, to which indeed I received nothing
but monosyllables for answers, I ordered pipes and coffee, at the
partaking of which I hoped to acquire some insight into the object of
their visit.
May your hours be fortunate! said I to the elder brother. Is there
anything at this early time of the day in which I can be of use? If
there is, command me.
Hajji, said he, after an ominous pause, look at me! Do you take us
for animals, without understanding, without common sense? or do you
look upon yourself as the man of his day without compare, specially
privileged to take the beards of humankind into your hand, and to do
what you like with them?
What is this that you say? I replied. O my Aga! I am nobody and
nothing; I am less than an ounce of dust.
Man! said the second brother, in a warmer tone of voice, nobody and
nothing, do you say? then what have you made of us? Are we nothing, that
you should come all this distance from Bagdad to make us dance like apes
at your bidding?
Oh, Allah, great and good! exclaimed I, what is all this? Why do you
speak after this manner? What have I done? Speak, and speak truth!
Ah, Hajji, Hajji! said my wifes uncle, shaking his head and grey
beard at the same time, you have been eating much abomination! Could
a man who has seen the world like you, suppose that others will eat it
with you, and say, thanks be to Allah! No, no--we may eat, but will not
digest your insolence.
But what have I done, O my uncle? said I to him; by my soul, speak!
What have you done? said my wifes cousin. Is lying nothing? is
stealing nothing? is marrying a wife under false pretences nothing? You
must be a rare man without shame to call such acts nothing!
Perhaps, said the eldest brother, you think it a great honour which
the son of an Ispahan barber confers upon one of the richest families of
Constantinople, when he marries their daughter!
And perhaps, said the other, you may look upon a beggarly vender
of pipe-sticks in the light of a merchant, and think him worthy of any
alliance!
But Hajji, praise be to Allah! is a great merchant, said the uncle
ironically: his silks and velvets are now on their way to bring us
lambskins from Bokhara; his shawls are travelling to us from Cashmere,
and his ships are blackening the surface of the seas between China and
Bassorah!
And his parentage, continued his son in the same strain, a barbers
son did you say? forbid it, Allah! No, no; he dates from the Koreish. He
is not even the descendant, but, by the blessing of God, of the ancestry
of the Prophet; and who can come in competition with a Mansouri Arab?
What is all this? again and again did I exclaim, as I saw the storm
gathering about my ears. If you want to kill me, do so; but do not pull
off my skin by inches.
I tell you what is it, man without faith, said the stern man, who
hitherto had remained immovable; you are a wretch who deserves not
to live! and if you do not immediately give up all pretensions to your
wife, and leave this house and everything that belongs to it, without
a moments delay, do you see those men (pointing to the two ruffians
before mentioned); they will just make your soul take leave of your
body as easy as they would knock the tobacco out of their pipes. I have
spoken, and you are master to act as you please.
Then the whole of the assembly, as if excited by this speech, unloosed
their tongues at once, and, without reserve of words or action, told me
a great number of disagreeable truths.
This storm, which I permitted to rage without opening my lips, gave me
time for reflection, and I determined to try what a little resistance
would do.
And who are you, said I to the stern man, who dares come into my
house, and treat me as your dog? As for these, pointing to my wifes
relations, the house is theirs, and they are welcome; but you, who
are neither her father, her brother, nor her uncle, what have you to do
here? I neither married your daughter, nor your sister, and therefore
what can it be to you who I am?
All this while he seemed swelling with rage. He and his ruffians were
curling up their mustachios to the corners of their eyes, and eyeing me,
as the lion does the hind, before he pounces upon it.
Who am I? said he with a voice of anger. If you want to know, ask
those who brought me here. I and my men act from authority, which if you
dispute, it will be the worse for you.
But, said I, softening my tone, for I now found that they were
officers of the police, but if you insist upon separating me from my
wife, to whom I have been lawfully married, give me time to consult the
men of the law. Every son of Islâm has the blessed Koran as his refuge,
and ye would not be such infidels as to deprive me of that? Besides, I
have not been told yet that she agrees to what you propose. She first
sought me out; I did not seek her. She wooed me for my own sake, not for
any worldly interest; and when I accepted her I knew her not, neither
had I any tidings of either her wealth or her family. The whole has been
the business of predestination, and if ye are Mussulmans, will ye dare
to oppose that?
As to the wishes of Shekerleb upon the subject, said the eldest
brother, make your mind easy. She desires a separation more even than
we do.
Yes, yes, in the name of the Prophet, yes, let him go in peace. For the
sake of Allah, let us be free, and fifty other such exclamations, all
at once struck my ear; and on looking to the door which led into the
womens apartments, from whence the sound came, I beheld my women
veiled, headed by my wife, who had been conducted there on purpose to
give evidence against me, and who all seemed possessed by so many evil
spirits, shouting and wailing out their lamentations and entreaties for
my dismissal, as if I were the wicked one in person to be exorcised from
the house.
Finding that all was over with me, that it was in vain to contend
against a power I could not withstand, stranger and unprotected as I
was in a foreign land, I put the best face I could upon my forlorn
situation, and getting up from my seat, I exclaimed, If it is so, be
it so. I neither want Shekerleb nor her money, nor her brothers, nor her
uncle, nor anything that belongs to them, since they do not want me; but
this I will say, that they have treated me in a manner unworthy of the
creed and name of Mussulmans. Had I been a dog among the unbelievers, I
should have been treated better. From the bottom of my heart I believe
that the same punishment which shall be inflicted, on the last day,
upon those who reject our Holy Prophet, shall be inflicted upon my
oppressors. I then, with great emphasis, pronounced the following
sentence against them, as near as my memory would serve me, from the
blessed Koran:--They shall have garments of living fire, fitted tight
upon them; boiling water shall be poured over them; their bowels and
skins shall be dissolved, and, in this state, they be beaten with red
hot maces of iron, and flogged with whips, whose lashes are made of
lightnings, and the noise of which shall be claps of thunder.
Upon this, roused and excited as I was with the speech I had made, I
stood in the middle of the room, and divested myself of every part of
my dress which had belonged to my wife, or which I might have purchased
with her money. Throwing down every article from me, as if it had been
abomination, and then calling for an old cloak which had originally
belonged to me, I threw it over my shoulders and made my exit,
denouncing a curse upon the staring assembly I left behind me.