THE AMAZON BRIGADE.
It was three days since Azrael had come into the possession of Hassan
Pasha, and in the evening of the third day Haji Baba was sitting in the
prow of his ship and rejoicing in the beautiful moonlight when he saw, a
long way off, in the direction of the Margaret island a skiff, and then
another skiff, and then another, row across the Danube, and heard
heart-rending shrieks which only lasted for a short time.
Presently the skiffs disappeared among the trees on the river bank, the
last hideous cry died away, and from the rose-groves of the castle came
a romantic song which resounded over the Danube through the silent
night. The merchant recognised the voice of the odalisk, and listened
attentively to it for a long time, and it seemed to him as if through
this song those shrieks were passing incessantly.
The next day Yffim Beg came to see him, and the merchant hospitably
welcomed him. He set before him a narghile and little cups of sherbet,
and then they settled down comfortably to their pipes, but neither of
them uttered a word.
Thus a good hour passed away; then at last Haji Baba opened his mouth.
"During the night I saw some skiffs row out towards the island, and I
heard the sound of stifled shrieks."
And then they both continued to pull away at their narghiles, and
another long hour passed away.
Then Yffim Beg arose, pressed the hand of Haji Baba, and said, just as
he was moving off:
"They were the favourite damsels of Hassan Pasha, who had been sewn up
in leathern sacks and flung into the water."
Haji Baba shook his head, which signifies with a Turk: I anticipated
that.
Not long afterwards the whole host began to assemble below Pesth,
encamping on the bank of the Danube; a bridge suddenly sprang into
sight, and across it passed army corps, heavy cannons and wagons. First
there arrived from Belgrade the Vizier Aga, with a bodyguard of nine
thousand men, and pitched their tents on the Rakas; after him followed
Ismail Pasha, with sixteen thousand Janissaries, and their tents covered
the plain. The Tartar Khan's disorderly hordes, which might be computed
at forty thousand, extended over the environs of Vacz; and presently
Prince Ghyka also arrived with six thousand horsemen, and along with him
the picked troops of the Vizier of Buda; the whole army numbered about
one hundred thousand.
So Haji Baba did a roaring trade. There were numerous purchasers among
so many Turkish gentlemen; there was something to suit everyone, for the
prices were graduated; and Haji thought he might perhaps order up a
fresh consignment from his agents at Belgrade, hoping to sell this off
rapidly so long as the camp remained. But he very much wanted to know
how long the concentration would go on, and how many more gentlemen were
still expected to join the host, and with that object he sought out
Yffim Beg.
The Beg answered straightforwardly that nearly everyone who had a mind
to come was there already. The Prince of Transylvania had treacherously
absented himself from the host, and only Kucsuk Pasha and young Feriz
Beg's brigades were still expected; without them the army would move no
farther.
At the mention of these names Haji Baba started.
"You have as good as made me a dead man, sir. I must now go back to
Stambul with my whole consignment."
"Art thou mad?"
"No, but I shall become bankrupt, if I wait for these gentlemen. Never,
sir, can I live in the same part of the world, sir, with those fine
fellows, whom may Allah long preserve for the glory of our nation! I
have two houses on the opposite shores of the Bosphorus, so that when
these noble gentlemen are in Europe I may be in Asia, and when they come
to Asia I may sail over to Europe."
"Thou speakest in riddles."
"Then you have not heard the fame of Feriz Beg?"
"I have heard him mentioned as a valiant warrior."
"And how about the brigade of damsels which is wont to follow him into
battle?"
Yffim Beg burst out laughing at these words.
"It is easy for you to laugh, sir, for you have never dealt in damsels
like me. But you should know that what I tell you is no jest, and Feriz
Beg is as great a danger to every man who trades in women as plague or
small-pox."
"I never heard of this peculiarity of his."
"But I have. I tell you this Feriz Beg is a youth with magic power, in
whose eyes is hidden a talisman, whose forehead is inscribed with magic
letters, and from whose lips flow sorcery and magic spells, so that
whenever he looks upon a woman, or whenever she hears his words even
through a closed door, that woman is lost for ever. Just as he upon whom
the moon shines when he is asleep is obliged to follow the moon from
thenceforth, so, too, this young man draws after him with the moonbeams
of his eyes all the women who look upon him. Ah! many is the great man
who has cursed the hour in which Feriz Beg galloped past his windows and
thereby turned the heads of the most beauteous damsels. Even the Grand
Vizier himself has wept the loss of his favourite bayadere Zaida, who
descended from his windows by a silken cord into the sea, and swam after
the ship which bore along Feriz Beg; and one night my kinsman, Kutub
Alnuma, who is a far greater slave merchant than I am, was, while he
slept, tied hand and foot by his own damsels to whom he heedlessly had
pointed out Feriz Beg, and the whole lot incontinently ran after him."
"And what does the youth do with all these women?"
"Oh, sir, that is the most marvellous part of the whole story. For if he
culled all the fairest flowers of earth for the sake of love, I would
say that he was a wise man, who tasted the joys of Paradise beforehand.
But it is quite another thing, sir. You will be horrified when I tell
you that he at whose feet all the beauties of earth fling themselves,
never so much as greets one of them with a kiss."
"Is he sick, then, or mad?"
"He loves another damsel, a Christian girl, who is far from here, and
for whom he has pined from the days of his childhood. At the time of his
first battle he saw this girl for the first time, and as often as he has
gone to war since, it is always with her name upon his lips that he
draws his sword."
"And what happens to the girls he takes away?"
"When the first of these flung themselves at his feet, offering him
their hearts and their very lives and imploring him to kill them if he
would not requite their love, to them he replied: 'You have not been
taught to love as I love. Your love awoke in the shadows of rose-bushes,
mine amidst the flashing of swords; you love sweet songs, and the voice
of the nightingale, I love the sound of the trumpet. If you would love
me, love as I do; if you would be with me, come whither I go; and if
Allah wills it, die where I die.' Ah, sir, there is an accursed charm on
the lips of this young man. He destroys the hearts of the damsels with
his words so that they forget that Allah gave them to men as playthings
and delightful toys, and they gird swords upon their tender thighs,
fasten cuirasses of mail round their bosoms, and expose their fair faces
to deadly swords."
"And do these women really fight, or is it all a fable?"
"They do wonders, sir. No one has ever seen them fly before the foe, and
frequently they are victorious; and if they have less strength in their
arms than men, they have ten times more fire in their hearts. And if at
any one point the fight is most dogged, and the enemy collecting
together his most valiant bands has tired out the hardly-pressed spahis
and timariots, then the youth draws his sword and plunges into the
blackest of mortal peril. And then the wretched women all plunge blindly
after him, and each one of them tries to get nearest to him, for they
know that every weapon is directed against him, and they ward off with
their bosoms the bullets which were meant for him. And so long as the
youth remains there, or presses forward, they never leave him, the whole
battalion perishes first. And at last, if he wins the fight and remains
master of the field, the youth dismounts from his horse, collects the
bodies of the slain who have fallen fighting beside him, kisses them one
by one on their foreheads, sheds tears on their pale faces, and with his
own hands lays them in the grave. And, believe me, sir, these bewitched,
enchanted damsels are mad after that kiss, and their only wish is to
gain it as soon as possible."
"And is there none to put an end to this scandal? Have the generals no
authority to abolish this abomination? Do not the outraged owners demand
back their slave-girls?"
"You must know, sir, that Feriz Beg stands high in the favour of the
Sultan. He is never prominent anywhere but on the battlefield, but there
he gives a good account of himself; and if anybody who came to his
tents to try and recover his slave-girls by force, he might easily be
sent about his business minus his nose and ears. Besides, who could say
that these warriors of Feriz are women? Do they not dispense thrusts and
slashes instead of kisses? Do you ever hear them sing or see them dance
and smile so long as they are under canvas? Oh, sir, I assure you that
you would do well if you told all those who buy slave-girls from me to
guard the damsels from the enchanting dark eyes of this man, for there
is a talisman concealed in them. And, in particular, forget not to tell
your master to conceal his damsel, for you know not what might happen if
a magician caused a female Iblis[15] to enter into her. If an enamoured
woman is terrible, what would an enamoured she-devil be? You bought her,
take care that she does not sell you! The day before yesterday you threw
his favourite women into the water, the day after to-morrow you
might----but Allah guard my tongue, I will not say what I would. Watch
carefully, that's all I'll say. Yet to keep a watch upon women is the
most difficult of sciences. If you want to get into a beleagured
fortress, hide an enamoured woman in it, and she'll very soon show you
the way in. Take heed to what I say, sir, for if you forget my words but
for half an hour, I would not give my little finger-nail for your head."
[Footnote 15: Evil spirit.]
Whereupon Yffim Beg arose without saying a word and withdrew, deeply
pondering the words of the slave-dealer. But Haji Baba that same night
drew up his anchors, and at dawn he had vanished from the Danube, none
knew whither.