But she cried, 'I'll tell thee not here, nor aught of myself and him, and
the Genie held in bondage by me, till thou art proved by adventure, and
we float peacefully on the sea of the Bright Lily: there shalt thou see
me as I am, and hear my story, and marvel at it; for 'tis wondrous, and a
manifestation of the Power that dwelleth unseen.'
So Shibli Bagarag pondered awhile on the strange nature of the things she
hinted, and laughter seized him as he reflected on Shagpat, and the whole
city enchanted by one hair in his head; and he exclaimed, 'O Noorna,
knoweth he, Shagpat, of the might in him?'
She answered, 'Enough for his vain soul that homage is paid to him, and
he careth not for the wherefore!'
Shibli Bagarag fixed his eyes on the deep-flowered carpets of the floor,
as if reading there a matter quaintly written, and smiled, saying, 'What
boldness was mine--the making offer to shear Shagpat, the lion in his
lair, he that holdeth a whole city in enchantment! Wah! 'twas an
instance of daring!'
And Noorna said, 'Not only an entire city, but other cities affected by
him, as witness Oolb, whither thou wilt go; and there be governments and
states, and conditions of men remote, that hang upon him, Shagpat. 'Tis
even so; I swell not his size. When thou hast mastered the Event, and
sent him forth shivering from thy blade like the shorn lamb, 'twill be
known how great a thing has been achieved, and a record for the
generations to come; choice is that historian destined to record it!'
Quoth he, looking eagerly at her, 'O Noorna, what is it in thy speech
affecteth me? Surely it infuseth the vigour of wine, old wine; and I
shiver with desire to shave Shagpat, and spin threads for the historian
to weave in order. I, wullahy! had but dry visions of the greatness
destined for me till now, my betrothed! Shall I master an Event in
shaving him, and be told of to future ages? By Allah and his Prophet
(praise be to that name!), this is greatness! Say, Noorna, hadst thou
foreknowledge of me and my coming to this city?'
So she said, 'I was on the roofs one night among the stars ere moonrise,
O my betrothed, and 'twas close on the rise of this very month's moon.
The star of our enemy, Shagpat, was large and red, mine as it were
menaced by its proximity, nigh swallowed in its haughty beams and the
steady overbearings of its effulgence. 'Twas so as it had long been,
when suddenly, lo! a star from the upper heaven that shot down between
them wildly, and my star took lustre from it; and the star of Shagpat
trembled like a ring on a tightened rope, and waved and flickered, and
seemed to come forward and to retire; and 'twas presently as a comet in
the sky, bright,--a tadpole, with large head and lengthy tail, in the
assembly of the planets. This I saw: and that the stranger star was
stationed by my star, shielding it, and that it drew nearer to my star,
and entered its circle, and that the two stars seemed mixing the
splendour that was theirs. Now, that sight amazed me, and my heart in
its beating quickened with the expectation of things approaching. Surely
I rendered praise, and pressed both hands on my bosom, and watched, and
behold! the comet, the illumined tadpole, was becoming restless beneath
the joint rays of the twain that were dominating him; and he diminished,
and lashed his tail uneasily, half madly, darting as do captured beasts
from the fetters that constrain them. Then went there from thy star--for
I know now 'twas thine--a momentary flash across the head of the tadpole,
and again another and another, rapidly, pertinaciously. And from thy
star there passed repeated flashes across the head of the tadpole, till
his brilliance was as 'twere severed from him, and he, like drossy
silver, a dead shape in the conspicuous heavens. And he became yellow as
the rolling eyes of sick wretches in pain, and shrank in his place like
pale parchment at the touch of flame; dull was he as an animal fascinated
by fear, and deprived of all power to make head against the foe,
darkness, that now beset him, and usurped part of his yet lively tail,
and settled on his head, and coated part of his body. So when this
tadpole, that was once terrible to me, became turbaned, shoed, and
shawled with darkness, and there was little of him remaining visible, lo!
a concluding flash shot from thy star, and he fell heavily down the sky
and below the hills, into the sea, that is the Enchanted Sea, whose Queen
is Rabesqurat, Mistress of Illusions. Now when my soul recovered from
amazement at the marvels seen, I arose and went from the starry roofs to
consult my books of magic, and 'twas revealed to me that one was
wandering to a junction with my destiny, and that by his means the great
aim would of a surety be accomplished--Shagpat Shaved! So my purpose was
to discover him; and I made calculations, and summoned them that serve me
to search for such a youth as thou art; fairly, O my betrothed, did I
preconceive thee. And so it was that I traced a magic line from the
sand-hills to the city, and from the outer hills to the sand-hills; and
whoso approached by that line I knew was he marked out as my champion, my
betrothed,--a youth destined for great things. Was I right? The egg
hatcheth. Thou art already proved by thwackings, seasoned to the
undertaking, and I doubt not thou art he that will finish with that
tadpole Shagpat, and sit in the high seat, thy name an odour in distant
lands, a joy to the historian, the Compiler of Events, thou Master of the
Event, the greatest which time will witness for ages to come.'
When she had spoken Shibli Bagarag considered her words, and the
knowledge that he was selected by destiny as Master of the Event inflated
him; and he was a hawk in eagerness, a peacock in pride, an ostrich in
fulness of chest, crying, 'O Noorna bin Noorka! is't really so? Truly it
must be, for the readers of planets were also busy with me at the time of
my birth, interpreting of me in excessive agitation; and the thing they
foretold is as thou foretellest. I am, wullahy! marked: I walk manifest
in the eye of Providence.'
Thereupon he exulted, and his mind strutted through the future of his
days, and down the ladder of all time, exacting homage from men, his
brethren; and 'twas beyond the art of Noorna to fix him to the present
duties of the enterprise: he was as feathered seed before the breath of
vanity.
Now, while the twain discoursed, she of the preparations for shaving
Shagpat, he of his completion of the deed, and the honours due to him as
Master of the Event, Feshnavat the Vizier returned to them from his
entertainment of the Cadi; and he had bribed him to silence with a mighty
bribe. So he called to them--
'Ho! be ye ready to commence the work? and have ye advised together as to
the beginning? True is that triplet:
"Whatever enterprize man hath,
For waking love or curbing wrath,
'Tis the first step that makes a path."