ENTITLED _AL-DURAR_, OR THE PEARLS
A week later, at the hour of Public Executions and Beheadings, the
seven boys were again assembled cross-legged at the feet of their
revered uncle, who, when he had refreshed them with cold water, and
himself with a curious concoction of fermented barley, addressed them
as follows:
“You will remember, my lads, how I was left cut off from my dear
home and from all companions, in a strange country, and with no more
than 1,500 dinars with which to face the world. This sum may seem to
you large, but I can assure you that to the operations of commerce”
(and here the merchant yawned) “it is but a drop in the ocean; and
I had already so far advanced during one brief week in my character
of Financier that I gloomily considered how small a sum that 1,500
was wherewith to meet the cunning, the gluttony, and the avarice of
this great world. But a brief sleep (which I took under a Baobab
tree to save the cost of lodging) refreshed at once my body and my
intelligence, and with the next morning I was ready to meet the
world.”
Here the merchant coughed slightly, and addressing his nephews said:
“You have doubtless been instructed at school upon the nature of the
Baobab?”
“We have,” replied his nephews, and they recited in chorus the
descriptions which they had been taught by heart from the text-books
of their Academy.
“I am pleased,” replied their uncle, smiling, “to discover you
thus informed. You will appreciate how ample a roof this singular
vegetable affords.
“Well, I proceeded under the morning sun through a pleasantly wooded
and rising country, considering by what contrivance of usury or
deceit I might next increase my capital, when I saw in the distance
the groves and white buildings of an unwalled town, to which (since
large places, especially if they are not war-like, furnish the best
field for the enterprise of a Captain of Industry) I proceeded; ...
and there, by the Mercy of Allah, there befell me as singular an
adventure as perhaps ever has fallen to the lot of man.
“I had not taken up my place in the local caravanserai for more than
an hour--I had met no likely fool, and my plans for the future were
still vague in my head--when an old gentleman of great dignity,
followed by an obsequious officer and no less than six Ethiopian
slaves, approached me with deep reverence, and profferring me a
leathern pouch, of a foreign kind, the like of which I had never
seen before, asked me whether I were not the young man who had
inadvertently left it upon a prayer-stone at a shrine outside the
city.
“I seized the pouch with an eager air, held it up in transports of
joy, and kissing it again and again said, ‘Oh! my benefactor! How can
I sufficiently thank you! It is my father’s last gift to me and is
all my viaticum as well!’ with which I fell to kissing and fondling
it again, pressing it to my heart and so discovered it to be filled
with coins--as indeed I had suspected it to be.
“Into so active an emotion had I roused myself that my eyes filled
with tears, and the good old man himself was greatly affected. ‘I
must warn you, young stranger,’ he said paternally, ‘against this
thoughtlessness so common in youth! A great loss indeed had it been
for you, if we had not had the good fortune to recover your property.’
“You may imagine my confusion, my dear nephews, at finding that I had
been guilty of so intolerable a fault. I blushed with confusion; I
most heartily thanked the old gentleman, not for his integrity (which
it would have been insulting to mention to one of his great wealth)
but for the pains he had taken to seek out a careless young man and
to prevent his suffering loss.
“‘Nay,’ said that aged gentleman to me with a low and pleasant laugh,
‘you must not thank me. Perhaps had I myself come upon the treasure I
might have thought it too insignificant to restore. But you must know
that I am the Chief Magistrate of this city and that last evening my
officer noticed from some distance a young man, apparently a stranger
to this city, whom he describes as of your height and features, rise
from the prayer-stone, but leave behind him some object which, in the
gathering dusk, he could not distinguish. On his approach he found it
was this purse of yours which some boys had already found and were
quarrelling over, when he took it from them. He brought it to me with
some description of your person: I thought you might well be at this
caravanserai and brought it with me: I had the pleasure of hearing
my officer, who now accompanies me, recognize you as we approached.’
That functionary bowed to me and I to him most ceremoniously, and as
I did so I was rapidly revolving in my head what I had better do if
the real owner should appear. I was torn between two plans: whether
to denounce him as a thief before he could speak, or to run off at
top speed.
“This preoccupation I dismissed lest the anxiety of it should appear
upon my face.
“I again thanked this good old man most warmly and we entered into
a familiar conversation. What was my delight at the close of it
when he bade me without ceremony accept of his hospitality and come
home to take a meal with him in his palace. I was eager for further
adventures, and accompanied him with the greatest joy.
“Reclining at table, where there was served (as I need hardly inform
my dear nephews) lamb stuffed with pistachio nuts, the old man asked
me whence I had come, what was my trade, and whither I was proceeding.
“I answered (as I thought, prudently) that I had come from Aleppo,
that I had been entrusted by my father with the sum in the purse he
had so kindly restored to me, in order to purchase pearls, and that
when the purchase was completed I had instructions to sell them in
India in a market where my father was assured that pearls were rare
and fetched the highest prices.
“‘This is indeed well found!’ exclaimed the old man, with enthusiasm.
‘I am myself seeking for some one to whom I may sell a magnificent
collection of pearls inherited from my great-grandmother, an Indian
Begum. The old woman,’ he added nonchalantly enough, ‘was a miser;
she kept the drops higgledy-piggledy in an old cedarwood box, and
I confess myself quite ignorant of their value. Moreover, as I have
taken a liking to you, I shall let you fix your own price, for I
should much like to remember when my time comes that I had helped
a friendless man in his first step to fortune; only, I am a little
ashamed to appear to be making money out of an heirloom!’
“While the old gentleman so spoke I was rapidly revolving in my mind
what motive he could have for such an affection of indifference to
wealth, when I recollected that he was the Chief Magistrate of the
city, and immediately concluded that these pearls, being the property
of local people, and obtained by him for nothing by way of bribes and
other legal channels, he would both desire to have them sold at a
distance and would let them go cheap.
“‘Nay,’ continued he, seeing that I hesitated as these thoughts
occurred to me, ‘I will take no denial. For me it is but a mere
riddance, and for you a most excellent bargain. Come, I trust your
honest face and youthful candour. You shall take them at your own
price! And I will even advise you of the city of India where you will
find your best market.’
“Put thus, the offer, I will confess, attracted me; but I had already
learned the wickedness of mankind (though not as yet, I am glad to
say, my dear nephews, at my own expense), and I said that I would
at least so far meet him as to take the jewels to a local merchant,
invent some tale, as though they were my own, and see what sum might
be offered for them. Only when I thus had some measure of their
value could I honourably make an offer. I continued at some length
in this strain, expressing a humble inability to judge, and the fear
lest my capital might not be sufficient (which he pooh-poohed). I
stipulated, for a reason you will soon perceive, that a slave of his
should accompany me--if only as a matter of routine--for (said I) I
was very jealous of my honour. He agreed, though he was good enough
to call it a pure formality.
“I left the aged magistrate with many thanks and, accompanied by the
slave, proceeded with the pearls to the jewel merchants’ quarter in
the Bazaar. I stopped before one of the richest and most reputed
booths, and spreading the pearls before the merchant told him that
I was compelled to sell these under order from authority as the end
of a family dispute, to pay the dowry of my sister; that I therefore
was in haste to settle and would take the least price he might choose
to mention within reason. I was, said I, wholly in his hands. It
was urgent for me that the bargain should be quickly completed, but
before I could receive his cash I must hear the lowest figure he
would name.
“While I thus spoke the slave stood respectfully behind me and
listened to our conversation. The jewel merchant said that no class
of merchandise was more distasteful to him than pearls; there was at
this moment no market for them. It was impossible to purchase them
save properly set and in regular sizes; and finally it was well known
that pearls were the most unlucky of gems. It was quite impossible
for him to offer more than 10,000 dinars, and even so he would
doubtless be the loser by the transaction.
“When I heard this I rapidly wrote upon a slip of paper the following
words:
“‘MY LORD,--The chief merchant in this city estimates your jewels
at 10,000 dinars. I cannot, alas, provide that sum, and therefore
I cannot honestly make an offer myself as I had hoped; if you
desire to have them sold here I will faithfully execute your
commission, but if you prefer that I should return them to you
send me word. Meanwhile, I will still bargain here awaiting your
reply.’
“I sent this note by the slave and begged him to give it to his
master and to bring me an answer. The slave went off, and when
I judged him to be well out of hearing I turned and said to the
merchant, sighing: ‘Well, since you offer no more I must take what
you offer; the slave whom you saw me despatch carried the news to
my family; I burn when I think of how their scorn will mock my
humiliation. I therefore said nothing true of the price. Indeed, I
have set it down in that note as something much higher. But I submit,
for, as I told you, I am pressed. Come, count me the money, and I
will away.’
“The merchant, after I had handed over the pearls, counted me the
money into yet another large leathern bag, which I shouldered, and
with rapid steps bore out of the Bazaar and soon out of the town
itself, by a gate called the Bab-el-Jaffur, that is, the gate of
innocence.
“Beyond the town walls was a long roll of dusty sloping land set
here and there with dusty stunted bushes and having beyond it a high
range of desert hills. A track led roughly rising across it, away
from the town.
“I followed this track for one hour and then sat down (for my new
fortune was heavy) and rested.
“As I thought it probable that my good old friend himself would
return speedily with his slave to the Bazaar, and as the complication
of the affair might embroil me, I hid during the remainder of the
day squeezed in a jackal’s earth beneath a bank. Before nightfall
I ventured out and gazed about me, leaving my original pouch, my
windfall and my big leathern bag of 10,000 dinars in the jackal’s
earth while I surveyed the track.
“It was the hour I love above all others.
“The sun had just set beyond the distant ocean towards which my face
was turned, and between me and which, upon the plain below--for I
had come to the rise of the mountain side--lay the beautiful city I
had just left. The fragrant smoke of cedarwood rose from some of its
roofs as the evening fell. There was still hanging in the air the
coloured dust of evening above the roads of entry, and there came
faintly through the distance the cry of the Muezzin.
“I was not so entranced by the natural beauty of the scene as to
neglect the duty which this sound recalled. I fell immediately upon
my knees and was careful to add to the accustomed prayers of that
hour my heart-felt thanks for the Guidance and the Grace which had so
singularly increased my fortunes in the last few hours.
“As I rose from these devotions I heard upon my right a low wailing
sound and was astonished to discover there, seated hopelessly beneath
a small shrub and waving his hands in grief, a young man of much my
own height and appearance: but I flatter myself that not even in my
most careful assumptions of innocence have I ever worn such a booby
face.
“He was swaying slowly from side to side, and as he did so moaning a
ceaseless plaint, the words of which I caught and which touched me to
the heart. Over and over again he recited his irreparable loss. He
had but that small sum! It was his patrimony! His sole security! How
should he answer for it? who should now support him? or what should
he do?
“So he wailed to himself in miserable monotone till I could bear it
no longer, for I saw that I had by a singular coincidence come upon
that poor young man whose pouch I had been given in error by the
magistrate of the city.
“I bowed before him. He noticed me listlessly enough and asked me
what I would. I told him I thought I could give him comfort. Was it
not he, said I, who had left a certain pouch (I carefully described
it) containing sundry coins upon a prayer-stone outside the city
at this very same sunset hour of the day before? His despair was
succeeded by a startling eagerness. He leapt to his feet, seized my
arm, rose feverishly and implored me to tell him further.
“‘Alas,’ I said, ‘what I have to tell you is but little! I fear to
raise your hopes too high--but at any rate I can put you upon the
track of your property.’
“‘Sir,’ said he, resuming his hopeless tone for a moment, ‘I have
already done my best. I went to the Chief Magistrate of the city to
claim it and was met by an officer of his who told me that the purse
had already been delivered to its owner, suspected my claim and bade
me return. But how shall I prove that it is mine, or how, indeed,
receive it, since the abominable thief who took possession of it must
by now be already far away?’
“‘You do him an injustice,’ said I. ‘It is precisely of him whom you
uncharitably call a thief that I would speak to you. You think that
he is far away, whereas he is really at your hand whenever you choose
to act, for this is the message that I bring you. He awaits you even
now, and if you will present yourself to him he will restore your
property.’
“‘How can you know this?’ said the young man, gazing at me
doubtfully. ‘By what coincidence have you any knowledge of the
affair?’
“‘It is simple enough,’ said I. ‘This person to whom your purse
was given, and I, were in the same inn. We fell to talking of our
adventures along the road, for he also was a stranger, and he told me
the singular tale how he had recovered from the authorities a purse
which he honestly thought his own, for it was very like one which he
himself possessed; but that on finding his own purse later on in his
wallet he was overwhelmed with regret at the thought of the loss he
had occasioned; at the same time he made me his confidant, telling
me that he intended to restore it this very evening at sunset to the
authorities and that any one claiming it after that hour and proving
it was his could recover it at the public offices. But he warned me
of one thing: the officers (he told me) were convinced (from what
indication I know not, perhaps from the presence of something in the
purse, or perhaps from something they had heard) that the owner dealt
in _pearls_.’
“Here the young man interrupted me, and assured me he had never
bought or sold pearls in his life, nor thought of doing so.
“I answered that no doubt this was so. But that when the authorities
had a whim it was well to humour them. He would therefore do well to
approach the officer who guarded the gate of the Chief Magistrate’s
house, with the simple words, ‘I am the Seller of Pearls,’ on hearing
which his path would be made smooth for him, and he would receive his
belongings.
“The young man thanked me heartily; he even warmly embraced me for
the good news I had given him, and felt, I fear, that his purse and
his small fortune were already restored to him. It was a gallant
sight to see him in the last of the light swinging down the mountain
side with a new life in him, and I sincerely regretted from my heart
the necessity under which I was to imperil his liberty and life. But
you will agree with me, my dear nephews, that I could not possibly
afford to have him at large.
“When he had gone and when it was fully night, there being no moon
and only the stars in the warm dark sky, I rapidly took my burdens
from their hiding-place and proceeded, though with some difficulty,
up the mountain side, staggering under such a weight, and deviating
from the track so that there should be less chance of finding myself
interrupted.
“I slept for a few hours. I awoke at dawn. I counted my total
fortune, and found that it was just about 12,000 dinars, the most of
it in silver.
“Carefully concealing it again, I left its hiding-place and glided
round the mountain until I came to a place where a new track began to
appear, which led to a neighbouring village. Here I bought an ass,
and returning with it to my hiding-place and setting my treasure upon
it I went off at random to spend the day in travelling as rapidly as
I might away from the neighbourhood by the most deserted regions.
“I came, a little before sunset, upon a hermit’s cave, where I was
hospitably entertained and the tenant of which refused all reward,
asking me only to pray for him, as he was certain that the prayers of
youth and innocence would merit him a high place in Heaven.
“With this holy man I remained for some four or five days, passing my
time at leisure in his retreat among the mountains, and feeding my
donkey upon the dried grasses which I brought in by armfuls at dusk
from the woodlands. Upon the fifth day of this concealment the hermit
came in pensive and sad, and said to me:
“‘My son, with every day the wickedness of this world increases,
and the judgment of God will surely fall upon it in a devastating
fire! I have but just heard that the Chief Magistrate of our capital
city, using as a dupe an innocent stranger, sold to one of the great
jewellers of the place for no less than 10,000 dinars a quantity of
pearls, every one of which now turns out to be false and valueless!
Nay, I am told that the largest are made of nothing but wax! And,
what is worse, not content with this first wickedness, the magistrate
under the plea that the young stranger had disappeared confiscated
the gems again and had the poor merchant most severely beaten!
But--worse and worse! the poor youth having innocently returned
that very night to the city, was seized by the guard and beheaded.
Ya, ya,’ said the good old man, throwing up his hands, ‘the days
increase, and their evil increases with them!’”
At this moment the hoarse and discordant voice of the Public Crier
croaked its first note from the neighbouring turret, and the nephews,
who had sat enraptured at their uncle’s tale, knew that it was time
to disperse. The eldest brother therefore said:
“O uncle; before we go let me express the thanks of all of us for
your enrapturing story. But let me also express our bewilderment at
the absence of all plan in your singular adventures. For though we
have listened minutely to all you have said, we cannot discover what
art you showed in the achievement of any purpose. For instance, how
could you know that the pearls were false?”
“I did not know it, my dear nephew,” replied the great Merchant with
beautiful simplicity, “and the whole was the Mercy of Allah!... But
come, the hour of prayer is announced, and we must, following the
invariable custom of the Faithful, make yet another joint in my
singular tale. Come, therefore, on this day week, shortly after the
last of the public executions of the vulgar, and I will tell you of
my further fortunes: for you must understand that the 12,000 dinars
of which my story now leaves me possessed are”--and here the honest
old man yawned again and waved his hand--“but a flea-bite to a man
like me.”
His seven little nephews bowed repeatedly, and, walking backwards
without a trip, disappeared through the costly tapestries of their
uncle’s apartments.
الطواجن
AL-TAWAJIN
That is:
THE PIPKINS