ENTITLED _AL-JAMAL WA’L-NAKHL_, OR CAMELS AND DATES
When the hour of public execution had arrived the boys came
timorously into their rich uncle’s presence, and seating themselves
upon the expensive carpet at the feet of his divan, prepared to hear
the continuation of his adventures.
That excellent old man began as follows:
“I warn you, my children, that the path to wealth, which (by
the Mercy of Allah) I have been allowed to tread, is varied and
difficult. Profit by my misadventures! Remain determined to enrich
yourselves, even after the worst mishaps! Yea! After wealth and
poverty (like mine) renewed wealth and (alas!) renewed poverty never
despair. Still hold to gold and still determine your fate. Still
thirst for money. But all the while most reverently worship Him the
Supreme, the All-compelling, the Giver of Great bags of coin. No
talent in the deception of individuals or the gulling of the crowd
can of itself bring the great reward. The acquirement of those
immense sums which are the chief glory of man, is, like all else, in
the Hand of God.
“My brother, your worthy though impecunious father, has sufficiently
grounded you in the essentials of our holy religion. You will not
repine if you turn out to be one of the ninety-nine who end their
lives in the gutter, rather than the blessed hundredth who attains,
as I have attained, to the possession of a palace and of innumerable
slaves....”
Having so spoken the aged merchant bent for a moment in silent prayer
and then proceeded:
“You will remember that at the conclusion of my last adventure I
had reached a position, not of affluence, but at least of tolerable
fortune. I was possessed of a train of camels, each heavily laden
with two large panniers of dates, and drivers to conduct the whole.
“You will further remember how, on my arrival in Laknes, as I was
anxious to make the best of my time I spoke freely to all of my
merchandise, extolled its character, described how I intended to put
it up for sale next day in the public markets, and spread abroad the
name of Ishmaïl-of-Taftah which happened for the moment to be mine.
“The rumour spread (as I had intended it should). I strolled through
the narrow streets of the town after sunset, and was glad to hear
my arrival discussed, and my wares. I had promise for the morrow. I
returned to my men.
“I had already spread out my bed upon the corner of the yard, when
there came up a slave magnificently dressed, who bowed to the
ground, and approaching my presence asked whether he had the honour
and felicity to address the renowned merchant Ishmaïl. He bore an
invitation from the greatest merchant in the city, whose name I
had already heard half a dozen times in Taftah, and whom all the
merchants there revered from afar for his enormous riches: a certain
Yusouff ben Ahmed, also called ‘El-Zafari,’ or the Triumphant.
“Late as was the hour I purchased finery; with my last gold I hired a
donkey of strange magnificence, and arrived at the palace of Yusouff,
dressed in a fashion which I could ill afford, but which I regarded
as an investment.
“I had expected to find within this palace that admirable simplicity
of manner which is inseparable from really great wealth: Nor was I
disappointed. The inner room to which I was led, encrusted everywhere
with black marble, boasted no ornament save three white alabaster
jars as tall as a man and of immense antiquity. They had formerly
been the property of a young noble whom Yusouff had ruined, and _he_
had them of the Sultan. In the midst shone the single pure flame of
a massive silver lamp, rifled from the tomb of a saint. It now hung
dependent from a chain of the same metal, the height of which was
lost in the gloom of the lofty cupola.
“A fountain of scented water--I could not name its odour precisely,
but I guessed it to be Fior de Goyim--plashed gently into a basin of
porphyry at the end of the apartment.
“Yusouff and two other guests (who alone had been asked to meet me),
rose from the exceedingly costly rugs of Persia whereon they had
reclined, and gravely saluted me. The master of the house, after the
first salutations and an invocation upon my head of the Mercy of
Allah, told me that the feast was ready prepared, but that before
summoning it he would ask me to honour the house and survey what
poor ornaments he might be able to show me.
“I was expressly delighted at his tone. It was that which I had
already heard to be native to princes of commerce. He had already
acquired, in the few years that had elapsed since he had cleaned the
streets for a living, a well-bred restraint of gesture, and when he
spoke it was in the tone of one who thought negligible the whole
world, including his guest. I prayed fervently, as I accompanied the
leisurely steps of my great entertainer, that when I should have
achieved a similar fortune I should myself as quickly acquire this
distinctive manner of the great. I watched him narrowly in order to
imitate (when I should have left his presence) those peculiar little
details which mark affluence and are of such service in negotiation.
He would often interpose words of his own into the midst of another’s
sentence. It pleased him not to answer some repeated question. He
would change the conversation at his pleasure without too much regard
for what I might have been saying immediately before. He also turned
to another guest, while I was addressing him and in every way showed
his superiority.
“When we had sat down to meat I was further edified by the varied
information, the extensive culture of my host. He would lead the talk
on to some subject which he had recently acquired from his numerous
secretaries, and dally upon it at a length which would have been
tedious in one of lesser station. But all this was done with such an
air of _money_ that it was impossible to feel the slightest tedium,
though his minute description of things which we all knew by heart
extended more than once to a full quarter of an hour.
“During the progress of this divine repast I noted with pleasure
that the distinguished master of the house never once introduced the
subject of my affairs.
“I would have you remember, my dear nephews,” said Mahmoud at this
point, “that nothing is less pleasing in a merchant, especially in
one of approved success, than the introduction of profit and loss
at a meal; for profit and loss are of such profound importance that
their mere mention must distract from the legitimate pleasures of the
table.
“It was not until a late hour, when the two other guests (whose
insignificant names I have not attempted to retain) had arisen to
depart, that affairs began.
“With the subtle tact of commercial genius my host retained me,
gripping my arm. I ventured in the absence of any witness to say a
few words upon what was nearest my heart: I asked him ‘_How were
dates?_’
“To my delight he proved affable. He unbent in a degree unworthy of
so small an occasion and listened with the greatest attention to my
simple tale. I told him frankly that I had with me at the moment
but few camels (I was under no necessity to confess that I had not
another asset in the world). I suggested by my negligent tone that
such a number could hardly be called a caravan and was little more
than a distraction with which I amused myself on my travels. I then
dropped the fact that I had loaded them--more as a pastime than
anything else--with a few _dates_.
“At this second mention of the word ‘_dates_’ the face of
Yusouff-the-Blessed suddenly changed. He at first cast his eyes down
in an expression of real concern. Then, looking up at me anxiously
and steadily, he said:
“‘This is no affair of mine.... You may resent my interference.’
“I assured him that I desired nothing more than a hint from one
so favoured of Heaven. How I had better dispose of my trifling
merchandise? I was more anxious to hear his reply than it is possible
to say!
“He sighed heavily, shook his head, and answered with a certain
familiarity that I could not resent:
“‘My poor friend...!’
“He then sighed again and added:
“‘I really do not see how I can advise you.... The truth is that
dates will from henceforth be almost unsaleable here. There has
lately taken place--indeed it was but last week--an extraordinary
thing. The mother of our Emir--the dowager--has left by will the
whole of her immense date groves in trust to the nation with orders
that regular weekly distribution shall be made _free_ to all the
citizens. We are bidden praise her generosity and the masses are of
course delighted. But it is ruin for the poor merchants whose stock
of dates are now so much dross. They cannot sell to our neighbours
in the country over the border, for these hold dates to be evil from
their effect in giving the toothache. Their new law, called the Date
Prohibition Act, is of the most rigorous kind. I have myself (from a
sense of public duty) bought up the greater portion at a ruinous loss
to prevent the failure of smaller men and to avoid a panic. I have
sacrificed myself to the public good.’ He sighed heavily once more
and was silent.
“You may imagine, my dear nephews, the effect of this news upon your
unfortunate uncle! The panniers of dates (two for each camel) were,
save the animals themselves, all that I had in the world. I had
traversed the waste at the cost of much labour, infinite privation,
and mortal perils, precisely because this district had the reputation
of being by far the best market for dates, and here was I, with
an enemy left behind me, alone in the world, and my sole venture
ruined.... I remembered my dreadful poverty, only so recently past,
and I shuddered as I considered those unsaleable dates and my black
future! Before me was a country where dates were rigorously forbidden
by law; behind me a hue and cry. Despair was in my heart!
“Though I trust I have a sufficient degree of the arts essential
to our profession, Yusouff must have guessed my thoughts. Ignoring
my former statement that the goods I had with me were but a toy,
and that I was indifferent to their fate, he expressed the deepest
sympathy with my plight and begged me to bear with him while he
reflected within himself how he might be of service.
“Having said this he covered his face with his right hand, bowed his
head, leant his elbow upon his knee, and for some moments was plunged
in what merchants use as thought. When he raised his face I was
shocked to see how haggard it had become, and I marvelled that one
so circumstanced should care so much for the chance misfortunes of a
stranger. But I had read that these Princes of Commerce were often of
tenderest heart and that one should never be surprised at any freak
of generosity on their part.
“Judge therefore of my delight on hearing Yusouff say in a determined
voice that he had concluded upon the only issue and that he would
purchase my dates himself!
“‘I cannot’ (he frankly added) ‘give you as good a price even as
I could have given a day or two ago; the old Queen’s idea of free
dates has swamped everything. But I will pay a good quarter of
the customary price--which is far more than you now could obtain
elsewhere. I am very wealthy. You are a stranger and, as it were, our
guest in this town. A good deed is never thrown away. Perhaps some
day I shall be glad of your aid also. I have seen you a few hours
only, but I think we know each other’s hearts already. Moreover, I
do not conceal it from you, I _may_ save much of the loss. I have
special correspondents in distant towns, and opportunities of sale
which others do not possess.... Come! I’ll do it! I will offer you
this price of one-third. It is but a poor price,’ said he, sighing
yet again most heavily, ‘but it is far, far better than no price at
all.’
“My relief was beyond words. I had seen myself leaving my merchandise
unsold or sacrificing it at a ruinous nothing. That which Yusouff
offered me was the difference between despair and a shred of hope,
and though the loss was severe it left me at least with some capital
for a further venture.
“Great men have a sort of simplicity in their dealings. Hardly had
Yusouff discovered my gratitude and my immediate acceptance of his
gift (for I could call it by no other name), than the princely fellow
clapped his hands, sent for his treasurer, and had counted to me upon
the spot a hundred pieces of gold. I gave him my writing of delivery,
which he handed to another slave with a few words in a low voice.
Then he continued to talk to me, for he was determined to detain me
far into the night. Indeed it was near dawn before he whom I will now
call my friend, and to whom I felt bound for life by the greatest
ties of grateful affection, allowed me to pass his gates and to
return to my hostelry.
“There I found that my panniers had already been removed and their
contents conveyed to the purchaser’s warehouse. I admired the
promptitude in business which so often accompanies a generous heart.
* * * * *
“With the early hours of the next day, before the sun had yet
acquired too great power, I strolled through the bazaar, not so much
cast down at the thought of my loss as cheered by the recollection
that I possessed, after all, one hundred good pieces of solid gold.
“With a malicious pleasure I approached the stall of a fruit-seller.
Putting down a small copper coin I begged him for a handful of dates.
“‘I need not full measure,’ said I, ‘only a handful to munch as I go
along.’ For I knew that in the state of the market my penny might
have purchased a gallon. I desired to show a neglect for small sums.
To my surprise the fruit-seller stared at me and said:
“‘Dates? From what country do you come that you ask for _dates_ in
our town?’
“‘Why!’ said I, ‘is there not a glut of these? I am told the place is
overflowing with them.’
“‘There is One-who-judges,’ said the fruit-seller resignedly. ‘But as
for dates--you will not find one in the whole town; our last month’s
arrival was pillaged by robbers in the hills. If you will but procure
me a single gallon I will readily give in return two pieces of gold,
so great is the demand. Of supply there is none whatever, nor, alas!
any prospect of such.’
“I was so bewildered that I hardly know what next I said, but at
any rate, in reply to it, my new acquaintance told me that there
were, indeed, _suspected_ to be certain dates in the possession of
Yusouff-the-Triumphant, ‘who’ (he remarked aside) ‘has all the luck.’
He next said it was also rumoured that Yusouff’s slaves had been
seen in the last hours of the night going in procession with a great
number of panniers laden on mules towards Yusouff’s warehouse, and
those who brought the news swore that they could smell the smell of
dates.
“‘But beyond that smell,’ he ended, ‘we have had nothing of dates in
the place for three weeks. And if you understood our habit in the
matter of food you would feel for us!’
“I have already described to you, my dear nephews, my admiration
for Yusouff-the-Triumphant. Long before I had seen him his distant
reputation had inflamed me. My brief acquaintance with him had
exalted that feeling to what I had thought the highest pitch. But
now it passed all bounds. A man so subtle in negotiations! So ready
in affairs! So rapid and conclusive in a bargain! With so marvellous
a command of feature and of tone! A man (in a word) so infinitely
my superior in that profession of commerce to which Allah calls all
great souls and in which I also was engaged! Such a man I had never
thought to meet! Nay--I had never thought such a one to exist upon
this poor earth. I could have kissed the ground upon which he walked
or have borne upon me for ever, as a relic, some thread of his purse.
“‘Here,’ I exclaimed, ‘is the true merchant! Here is the model of all
that a man of affairs should be! Oh! Mahmoud, you thought yourself
something in your trade, but you have met your master, and more than
your master! You have met one who is to you as the most holy of
saintly men is to the basest of the Kafir. There is _none_ on earth
like him. Allah has raised him beyond all others.
“But it is not enough, my dear nephews,” continued the old man, whose
eyes were now filled with a sort of sacred light, “it is not enough
to admire those who set us great examples. We should also imitate
them. I determined after so rare an experience to follow as best I
might in the footsteps of one who had shown himself raised high above
the level of mortality.
“‘Him,’ said I to myself, ‘him will I copy! _He_ shall be my guide!
_His_ manner and his tone, on that unforgettable evening, shall
be my exact model! Then perhaps in time I shall do as he has done
and accumulate so great a store of money as shall put me among the
greatest of mankind.’
“I hastened to summon my slaves. I paid my score for the stabling,
and as I looked at my small capital and surveyed my beasts I
hesitated what I should do. Yusouff-the-Triumphant had, by God’s
special grace overshadowing him, got hold of my substance. Nothing
was left me but the camels. In such a strait I abandoned the thought
of men and turned at once to heaven. I lifted up my heart to my Maker
and prayed for guidance. He that has never for very long abandoned
His servant answered my prayer with singular alacrity, for even as I
prayed I heard two men who passed me muttering one to the other.
“The first, as they hurried along, was saying in fearful undertones:
“‘They have not yet a camel among them! Yet camels they must have or
the terrible sentence will be pronounced!’
“‘Yes!’ returned his companion in a horrified whisper, ‘I fear
greatly for my relatives in that town, and I am proceeding there to
make certain that they shall have at least _one_ camel in so terrible
a time! For if a sufficiency of camels is not there by to-morrow noon
I hear they are all to be impaled!’
“So speaking in subdued accents of terror, little knowing they were
overheard, they walked on while I followed and noted every word.
“My mind was immediately made up. I continued, with stealthy feet, to
follow these two anxious beings who were so engrossed in the coming
misfortunes of their native place. At last, when we had come to an
empty space where three streets met, I caught them up and faced them.
Accosting them I said:
“‘Sirs, are you bound for such and such a place?’ (naming a town of
which they could never have heard--for indeed it did not exist).
“They stopped and looked at me in surprise.
“‘No, sir,’ they answered me together, ‘we are bound in all haste
for our native place which is threatened with a great calamity. Its
name is Mawur, but, alas, it is far distant from us--a matter of some
twenty leagues--the desert lies between, and we shall hardly reach it
within the day that remains. For we are poor men, and only with fast
_camels_’ (at this word they glanced at each other and shuddered)
‘could the journey be accomplished in the time.’
‘I thanked them politely, regretted that I had disturbed them for
so little, proceeded with the utmost haste to my caravan, inquired
the road for Mawur (the track for which lay plain through the scrub
and across the sand), and hastened with the utmost dispatch all that
burning day and all the succeeding night without repose, until at
dawn I passed with my exhausted train through the gates of the city.
I had covered in twenty hours twice as many leagues.
“Five of my beasts I left upon the road; and some few of my
slaves--how many I had not yet counted--had fallen out and would
presumably die in the desert. But there was a good remainder.
“Unfortunately I was not alone in my venture, for I discovered that
early as was the hour another man had arrived already with two camels
and was standing with them under the dawn in the market-place. Poor
beasts they were, and bearing every mark of fatigue. But I was
determined upon a monopoly. I had hoped from the conversation I had
overheard that not a single camel would be present in the place.
I would secure myself against even the slightest competition. I
approached the leader of the two sorry camels and asked him there
and then what he would take for his cattle. He stared at me for a
moment, but to my astonishment when I offered him for a beginning the
derisory price of ten pieces of gold, he accepted at once, put the
coins into his pouch, smiled evilly, and moved off at a great pace.
“To my chagrin there approached within a very few moments yet another
peasant, leading this time but one camel, a rather finer beast than
the others. I hoped, I believed, he would be the last. I made haste
to follow the same tactics with him as with the first. Like the first
he took the five gold pieces without so much as bargaining, but he
looked me up and down strangely before shrugging his shoulders and
taking himself off hastily down a side lane.
“And then (the people beginning to drift into the street as the day
rose) appeared a man leading not less than ten camels in a file. I
was seriously alarmed, but I bethought me of my reading: how all
great fortunes had been acquired by speculation, how caution and
other petty virtues were the bane of true trade. I boldly approached
him and offered him my remaining gold for the whole bunch. Instead
of meeting my offer with a higher claim, he asked to look narrowly
at the pieces, and then looked as narrowly into my face. He took
one of the gold pieces and bit it. He stooped and rang it upon the
cobble-stones. He determined apparently that it was good, and without
another word took my gold, appealed to those around us as witnesses
to the transaction, handed me the leading cord, and with a burst of
laughter ran off at top speed.
“Here, then, was I with my thirteen new camels and what was left of
my original caravan. I will not deny that I was somewhat disturbed
in mind; but I could only trust in Allah. I did so with the utmost
fervour, and implored Him to consider His servant, and to see to it
that not another camel should reach the town before I began to sell.
“But what is man? What is he that he should order the movements of
the Most High?
“I lifted up my eyes and saw approaching down the narrowness of the
street a file of certainly not less than one hundred camels led by
a great company of ragged men and walking with that insolent and
foolish air which this beast affects and which at such a moment
provoked me to rage.
“Then a slave, trembling lest he should give me offence, bade me come
apart with him where steps led up the city wall. These I climbed, and
from the summit I saw a sight that broke my heart.
“For there, across the plain that surrounded the city, came such a
mass of camels as I hardly thought the universe contained. They came
in batches of twenty, fifty, two hundred, herds and flocks of camels,
driven, led, ridden, conducted in every shape from one direction and
another, through the desert and cultivated land, from track and path,
a very foison and cataract of camels. It was as though all the camels
of Arabia, India, Bactria, and Syria had been summoned to this one
place.
“And, alas, so they had! or at least as many as the King of that
region could command....
“For this was the explanation....”
Here the old man’s eyes grew dim with tears, his voice faltered, and
in spite of his present riches he broke down at the recollection of
his past ill-fortune.
“Oh, my dear nephews,” he said in broken accents, “hardly will you
believe the magnitude of my misfortune! For it turned out, as I
eagerly questioned the people of the place, that a war having broken
out against their King on account of the Date Prohibition of which I
have told you, that ruthless monarch had ordered them to collect as
best they might so many thousands of camels to be present within the
walls by noon of that day, or suffer massacre. If the full tale were
not present every man, woman, and child would be killed. For he had
been suddenly alarmed by this declaration of war and caught with an
insufficient provision of sumpter beasts. His Emirs had advised him
that his salvation lay in seizing without payment every beast for
leagues around.
“In proportion as my soul sank so did the hearts of the townsmen
rise, to see the number gradually fulfilled. By noon all was well
for them--but very ill for me! The officers of the king arrived, the
beasts were counted and set apart, with not an ounce of copper to
pay for any one of them! All seized! And my poor herd, alone and in
that vast multitude, suffered the fate of all the rest, and, what was
worse, every one of my slaves--all were taken off to serve as drivers.
“There in a far land, alone, I stood, with not a gold piece left
in my pouch and not a head of cattle to my name; once more quite
destitute.
“I spent the remainder of that day debating whether to hang myself
on a beam or throw myself from a minaret. The arguments in favour of
either course were so evenly balanced that the sun set before I could
decide between them, and even at sunset there appeared, through the
Mercy of Allah, a new relief.”
“There did?” said the second of the nephews eagerly, but before his
uncle could reply the intolerable noise of the Muezzin was heard and
the boys, rising at the signal, bowed low to their uncle and were
gone.
الحصان
AL-HISĀN
That is:
THE HORSE