amidst the silent crowd, till they heard voices at the end of the
gallery. Presuming them to proceed from some unhappy beings, who like
themselves were awaiting their final doom, they followed the sound, and
found it to come from a small square chamber, where they discovered
sitting on sofas, five young men of goodly figure, and a lovely female,
who were all holding a melancholy conversation, by the glimmering of a
lonely lamp. Each had a gloomy and forlorn air, and two of them were
embracing each other with great tenderness. On seeing the Caliph and the
daughter of Fakreddin enter they arose, saluted, and gave them place.
Then he who had appeared the most considerable of the group, addressed
himself thus to Vathek:
“Strangers! who doubtless are in the same state of suspense as ourselves,
as you do not yet bear your hand on your heart, if you are come hither to
pass the interval allotted previous to the infliction of our common
punishment, condescend to relate the adventures that have brought you to
this fatal place; and we in return will acquaint you with ours; which
deserves but too well to be heard. We will trace back our crimes to
their source, though we are not permitted to repent. This is the only
employment suited to wretches like us.”
The Caliph and Nouronihar assented to the proposal, and Vathek began, not
without tears and lamentations, a sincere recital of every circumstance
that had passed. When the afflicting narrative was closed, the young man
entered on his own. Each person proceeded in order, and when the fourth
prince had reached the midst of his adventures, a sudden noise
interrupted him, which caused the vault to tremble, and to open.
Immediately a cloud descended, which gradually dissipating, discovered
Carathis, on the back of an Afrit, who grievously complained of his
burden. She, instantly springing to the ground, advanced towards her
son, and said:
“What dost thou here, in this little square chamber? As the Dives are
become subject to thy beck, I expected to have found thee on the throne
of the preadimite kings.”
“Execrable woman!” answered the Caliph; “cursed be the day thou gavest me
birth! Go! follow this Afrit; let him conduct thee to the hall of the
Prophet Soliman; there thou wilt learn to what these palaces are
destined, and how much I ought to abhor the impious knowledge thou hast
taught me.”
“The height of power to which thou art arrived, has certainly turned thy
brain,” answered Carathis; “but I ask no more, than permission to show my
respect for the prophet. It is, however, proper thou shouldst know,
that, as the Afrit has informed me neither of us shall return to Samarah,
I requested his permission to arrange my affairs, and he politely
consented. Availing myself, therefore, of the few moments allowed me, I
set fire to the tower, and consumed in it the mutes, negresses, and
serpents, which have rendered me so much good service; nor should I have
been less kind to Morakanabad, had he not prevented me, by deserting at
last to thy brother. As for Bababalouk, who had the folly to return to
Samarah, and all the good brotherhood to provide husbands for thy wives,
I undoubtedly would have put them to the torture, could I but have
allowed them the time. Being, however, in a hurry, I only hung him,
after having caught him in a snare with thy wives; whilst them I buried
alive by the help of my negresses, who thus spent their last moments,
greatly to their satisfaction. With respect to Dilara, who ever stood
high in my favour, she hath evinced the greatness of her mind, by fixing
herself near, in the service of one of the Magi, and, I think, will soon
be our own.”
Vathek, too much cast down to express the indignation excited by such a
discourse, ordered the Afrit to remove Carathis from his presence, and
continued immersed in thought, which his companions durst not disturb.
Carathis, however, eagerly entered the dome of Soliman, and, without
regarding in the least the groans of the Prophet, undauntedly removed the
covers of the vases, and violently seized on the talismans. Then, with a
voice more loud than had hitherto been heard in these mansions, she
compelled the Dives to disclose to her the most secret treasures, the
most profound stores, which the Afrit himself had not seen. She passed
by rapid descents known only to Eblis and his most favoured Potentates,
and thus penetrated the very entrails of the earth, where breathes the
Sansar, or icy wind of death. Nothing appalled her dauntless soul. She
perceived, however, in all the inmates who bore their hands on their
heart, a little singularity not much to her taste. As she was emerging
from one of the abysses, Eblis stood forth to her view, but,
notwithstanding he displayed the full effulgence of his infernal majesty,
she preserved her countenance unaltered, and even paid her compliments
with considerable firmness.
This superb monarch thus answered:
“PRINCESS, whose knowledge and whose crimes have merited a conspicuous
rank in my empire, thou doest well to employ the leisure that remains,
for the flames and torments which are ready to seize on thy heart, will
not fail to provide thee with full employment.”
He said this, and was lost in the curtains of his tabernacle.
Carathis paused for a moment with surprise, but, resolved to follow the
advice of Eblis, she assembled all the choirs of Genii, and all the
Dives, to pay her homage. Thus marched she in triumph through a vapour
of perfumes, amidst the acclamations of all the malignant spirits; with
most of whom she had formed a previous acquaintance. She even attempted
to dethrone one of the Solimans, for the purpose of usurping his place,
when a voice, proceeding from the Abyss of Death, proclaimed:
“ALL IS ACCOMPLISHED!”
Instantaneously, the haughty forehead of the intrepid princess became
corrugated with agony; she uttered a tremendous yell, and fixed—no more
to be withdrawn—her right hand upon her heart, which was become a
receptacle of eternal fire.
In this delirium, forgetting all ambitious projects, and her thirst for
that knowledge which should ever be hidden from mortals, she overturned
the offerings of the Genii; and, having execrated the hour she was
begotten, and the womb that had borne her, glanced off in a whirl that
rendered her invisible, and continued to revolve without intermission.
At almost the same instant, the same voice announced to the Caliph,
Nouronihar, the five princes, and the princess, the awful and irrevocable
decree. Their hearts immediately took fire, and they at once lost the
most precious of the gifts of heaven—HOPE. These unhappy beings
recoiled, with looks of the most furious distraction. Vathek beheld in
the eyes of Nouronihar nothing but rage and vengeance; nor could she
discern ought in his but aversion and despair. The two princes who were
friends, and till that moment had preserved their attachment, shrunk
back, gnashing their teeth with mutual and unchangeable hatred. Kalilah
and his sister made reciprocal gestures of imprecation; whilst the two
other princes testified their horror for each other by the most ghastly
convulsions, and screams that could not be smothered. All severally
plunged themselves into the accursed multitude, there to wander in an
eternity of unabating anguish.
Such was, and such should be, the punishment of unrestrained passions,
and atrocious actions. Such is, and such should be, the chastisement of
blind ambition, that would transgress those bounds which the Creator hath
prescribed to human knowledge, and by aiming at discoveries reserved for
pure intelligence, acquire that infatuated pride, which perceives not the
condition appointed to man is, TO BE IGNORANT AND HUMBLE.
Thus the CALIPH VATHEK who, for the sake of empty pomp and forbidden
power, hath sullied himself with a thousand crimes, became a prey to
grief without end, and remorse without mitigation; whilst the humble and
despised GULCHENROUZ passed whole ages in undisturbed tranquillity, and
the pure happiness of childhood.
NOTES.
{7a} _Caliph_. This title amongst the Mahometans comprehends the
concrete character of prophet, priest, and king; and is used to signify
_the Vicar of God on earth_.—Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 9.
Herbelot, p. 985.
{7b} _One of his eyes became so terrible_. The author of Nighiaristan
hath preserved a fact that supports this account; and there is no history
of Vathek, in which his _terrible eye_ is not mentioned.
{8a} _Omar Ben Abdalaziz_. This Caliph was eminent above all others for
temperance and self-denial; insomuch, that he is believed to have been
raised to Mahomet’s bosom, as a reward for his abstinence in an age of
corruption. Herbelot, p. 690.
{8b} _Samarah_. A city of the Babylonian Irak, supposed to have stood
on the site where Nimrod erected his tower. Khondemir relates, in his
life of Motassem, that this prince, to terminate the disputes which were
perpetually happening between the inhabitants of Bagdat and his Turkish
slaves, withdrew from thence; and, having fixed on a situation in the
plain of Catoul, there founded Samarah. He is said to have had in the
stables of this city a hundred and thirty thousand pied horses; each of
which carried, by his order, a sack of earth to a place he had chosen.
By this accumulation, an elevation was formed that commanded a view of
all Samarah, and served for the foundation of his magnificent palace.
Herbelot, p. 752, 808, 985. Anecdotes Arabes, p. 413.
{9} _Houris_. The Virgins of Paradise, called, from their large black
eyes, _Hur al oyun_. An intercourse with these, according to the
institution of Mahomet, is to constitute the principal felicity of the
faithful. Not formed of clay, like mortal women, they are deemed in the
highest degree beautiful, and exempt from every inconvenience incident to
the sex. Al Koran; passim.
{10} _Genii_. Genn or Ginn, in the Arabic, signifies a Genius or
Demon—a being of a higher order, and formed of more subtile matter than
man. According to Oriental mythology, the Genii governed the world long
before the creation of Adam. The Mahometans regarded them as an
intermediate race between angels and men, and capable of salvation:
whence Mahomet pretended a commission to convert them. Consonant to
this, we read that, “When the servant of God stood up to invoke him, it
wanted little but that the Genii had pressed on him in crowds, to hear
him rehearse the Koran.” Herbelot, p. 357. Al Koran ch. 72.
{23} _Accursed Giaour_. Dives of this kind are frequently mentioned by
Eastern writers. Consult their tales in general, and especially those of
“The Fisherman,” “Aladdin,” and “The Princess of China.”
{26a} _Bababalouk_, _the Chief of his Eunuchs_. As it was the
employment of the black eunuchs to wait upon, and guard the sultanas, to
the general superintendence of the Harem was particularly committed to
their chief. Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 155–6.
{26b} _The Divan_. This was both the supreme council, and court of
justice, at which the Caliphs of the race of the Abassides assisted in
person to redress the injuries of every appellant. Herbelot, p. 298.
{27} _The Prime Vizier_. Vazir, Vezir, or as we express it, Vizier,
literally signifies a porter; and by metaphor, the minister who bears the
principal burden of the state.
{50} _Gian Ben Gian_. By this appellation was distinguished the monarch
of that species of beings, whom the Arabians denominate _Gian_ or _Ginn_,
that is, _Genii_; and the Tarik Thabari, _Peres_, _Feez_, or _Faeries_.
{51} _Rocnabad_. The stream thus denominated flows near the city of
Schiraz. Its waters are uncommonly pure and limpid, and their banks
swarded with the finest verdure.
{53} _Moullahs_. Those among the Mahometans who were bred to the law
had this title; and from their order the judges of cities and provinces
were taken.
{55} _Bababalouk almost sunk with confusion_, _whilst_, _etc._ The
heinousness of Vathek’s profanation can only be judged of by an orthodox
Mussulman; or one who recollects the ablution and prayer indispensably
required on the exoneration of nature. Sale’s Prelim. Disc. p. 139. Al
Koran, ch. 4. Habesci’s State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 93.
{67a} _Horrible Kaf_. This mountain, which in reality is no other than
Caucasus, was supposed to surround the earth, like a ring encompassing a
finger. The sun was believed to rise from one of its eminences (as over
Octa, by the Latin poets) and to set on the opposite; whence “from Kaf to
Kaf,” signified from one extremity of the earth to the other.
{67b} _The Simurgh_. This is that wonderful bird of the East concerning
which so many marvels are told. It was not only endowed with reason, but
possessed also the knowledge of every language. This creature relates of
itself, that it had seen the great revolution of seven thousand years,
twelve times, commence and close; and, that in its duration, the world
had been seven times void of inhabitants, and as often replenished. The
Simurgh is represented as a great friend to the race of Adam, and not
less inimical to the Dives.
{67c} _Afrits_. These were a kind of Medusa, or Lamia, supposed to be
the most terrible and cruel of all the orders of the Dives. Herbelot, p.
66.
{68} _Deggial_. This word signifies properly a liar and imposter, but
is applied by Mahometan writers to their Antichrist. He is described as
having but one eye and eyebrow, and on his forehead the radicals of
_cafer_, or infidel, are said to be impressed.
{79a} _Calenders_. These were a sort of men amongst the Mahometans who
abandoned father and mother, wife and children, relations and
possessions, to wander through the world, under a pretence of religion,
entirely subsisting on the fortuitous bounty of those they had the
address to dupe. Herbelot, Suppl. p. 204.
{79b} _Santons_. A body of religionists who were also called _Abdals_,
and pretended to be inspired with the most enthusiastic raptures of
divine love. They were regarded by the vulgar as saints. Olearius, Tom.
I. p. 971. Herbelot, p. 5.
{79c} _Dervises_. The term _dervise_ signifies a poor man, and is the
general appellation by which a religious sect amongst the Mahometans is
named.
{79d} _Brahmins_. These constituted the principal caste of the Indians,
according to whose doctrines Brahma, from whom they are called, is the
first of the three created beings by whom the world was made. This
Brahma is said to have communicated to the Indians four books, in which
all the sciences and ceremonies of their religion are comprised.
{79e} _Faquirs_. This sect were a kind of religious anchorites, who
spent their whole lives in the severest austerities and mortification.
{82} _Peries_. The word Peri, in the Persian language, signifies that
beautiful race of creatures which constitutes the link between angels and
men.
{134} _Balkis_. This was the Arabian name of the Queen of Sheba, who
went from the South to hear the wisdom and admire the glory of Solomon.
The Koran represents her as a worshipper of fire. Solomon is said not
only to have entertained her with the greatest magnificence, but also to
have raised her to his bed and his throne. Al Koran, ch. 27, and Sale’s
notes. Herbelot, p. 182.
{140} _Ouranabad_. This monster is represented as a fierce flying
hydra, and belongs to the same class with the _Rakshe_, whose ordinary
food was serpents and dragons; the _Soham_, which had the head of a
horse, with four eyes, and the body of a flame-coloured dragon; the
_Syl_, a basilisk with a face resembling the human, but so tremendous
that no mortal could bear to behold it; the _Ejder_, and others. See
these respective titles in Richardson’s Dictionary, Persian, Arabic and
English.