The movement of the huge crystal was so slow as to be almost
imperceptible, but the kaleidoscope of life and movement it presented
held me spell-bound.
By this strange combination of dactyliomancy with christallomantia, an
effect was produced so amazing and unaccountable that my wondering
vision became riveted upon it, as gradually my mind cleared of the
chaotic impression it had received.
The reflecting surfaces, turned at various angles to my line of sight,
presented in their unsullied transparency a specular inversion of
figures and scenes that, ere they took clearly-delineated shape,
dissolved and faded, to be succeeded by others of a totally different
character. Objects and persons with whom I seemed to have been familiar
in my youth in the far-off Aures passed before my gaze in bewildering
confusion. Ere I could recognise them, however, they disappeared,
phantom-like, giving place to a series of pictures of the terrors of
battle, so vividly portrayed that they held me overawed. The first
showed a beautiful court, evidently the private pavilion of some
potentate, with cool arcades, plashing fountains, tall palms and
trailing vines. But the place had been assaulted and ignominiously
fallen. The courts sacred to the women were full of armed, dark-skinned
men, who, with brutal ruthlessness, were tearing from the "pearls of the
harem" their jewels, and with wanton cruelty massacring them even as I
gazed. Over the pavements of polished jasper, blood flowed, trickling
into the great basin of the fountain, and as one after another the
houris fell and died, a fierce red light shone in the sky, showing that
the barbarous conquerors, intoxicated with blood and loot, had fired the
palace. Then in the dense smoke that curled from out the arcades as
they were enveloped and destroyed, the scene of merciless slaughter and
ruthless destruction was lost, and there gradually evolved scenes of
burning desert, of welcome oases, of great and wonderful cities, all of
which grew slowly and were quickly lost. Just at that moment, however,
a sound behind me caused me to start, and turning, I saw that the dwarf,
who had risen noiselessly, had witnessed the magic pictures as well as
ourselves.
On seeing that his inquisitiveness had been detected, he turned quickly,
rejoined his fellow-slaves, and fell again upon his knees, raising his
voice in the strange incantation the girls continued to repeat.
Apparently Azala did not notice him; too engrossed was she in the
revelations of the prism, for when I again gazed into the crystal,
objects and persons were passing in rapid confusion, and she was vainly
endeavouring to decipher their mysterious import.
For a second we saw the face of a beautiful woman with hair like golden
sheen, and were both amazed to discover that in place of rows of sequins
she wore a single ornament suspended upon her white, unfurrowed brow.
Apparently it was carved from a single diamond of enormous size and
exceeding lustre, but its shape puzzled us; it was fashioned to
represent a curious device of arrow-heads. Quickly the
mysteriously-beautiful face dissolved, and from its remains there came
in rapid succession pictures of a mighty city, of a great plain, of
running water, of a seething populace, and of a cool garden rich in
flowers and fruit. Then there appeared a vision so ghastly and gruesome
that I drew back in horror.
It represented a pavement of polished marble, whereon a woman was
stretched dead, mutilated by the keen scimitar of a black eunuch of
giant stature, who with his foot upon the lifeless body gazed down,
grinning with satisfaction at his own brutality.
The face of the man startled me. The hideous countenance, on which
revenge was so strongly depicted, was that of our mutual enemy, Khazneh,
Chief of the Black Eunuchs of his Imperial Majesty!
"Enough!" cried Azala, horrified at what seemed a revolting augury of
her own end. "See! the brute hath struck off her head!" And
shuddering, she gazed around the apartment with a look of abject terror,
her haggard features in that moment becoming paler and more drawn.
"Heed it not as ill-potent," I said, smoothing her hair tenderly, and
endeavouring to remove from her mind the horrifying thought that she
might fall under the _doka_ of the Grand Eunuch. "The mystic Prism of
Destiny showeth much that is grim, distorted and fantastic. The
eventuality is only resolved so that we may arm ourselves against the
Destroyer."
But, apprehensive of her fate, she shook her head sorrowfully, saying in
low, harsh tones, "When on the previous occasion I gazed into the prism
a similar scene was conjured up before me, only the woman was then at
his knees imploring mercy, while he, with _doka_ uplifted, laughed her
to scorn. Now, see the end! Her head hath fallen!"
Again I turned to ascertain what next might be shown in the revolving
crystal, the mystery of which was ever-increasing, but it had ceased to
move. Eagerly I bent, gazing into its green, transparent depths in
order to discover whether the strange scenes were mere optical
illusions. Only for a second was I permitted to gaze, but in that brief
moment suspicion seized me that I had been imposed upon. Whether Azala
actually believed that forecasts of the future could be witnessed in the
crystal, or whether she was only striving to impress me by regaling me
with an exhibition of the mystical, in which all women of her race
delight, I know not; but I was sceptical and became convinced that the
pictures had been conjured up by mechanical contrivance, and that the
illusions--probably the stock-in-trade of some court necromancer--were
performed by ingenious but hidden paintings or tableaux.
By this discovery I was much perturbed, for it was remarkable that, on
witnessing the scenes, Azala's surprise and agitation were natural and
unfeigned, and this act led me to the conclusion that, believing in
spells and amulets, she was also ready to place faith in any
extraordinary marvel that she might gaze upon.
It was common knowledge, I remembered, that the women of Sokoto were
extremely superstitious, believing as implicitly in the sayings of their
astrologers as we, of the North, believe in the efficacy of
representations of the hand of Fathma of Algiers nailed over our doors
to avert the Evil Eye. Was this chamber the sanctum of some seer whose
duty it was to forecast the good or evil fortune of the doves of the
harem?
I turned, and was about to address to her some question directed towards
fathoming the secrets of this cunningly-contrived instrument of
psychomancy, when suddenly she drew aside the curtain from a lattice
near, uttering an exclamation of mingled surprise and dismay.
Rushing towards her, I looked out, and the sight riveted my gaze in
abject amazement.
The dawn had already spread with delicate tints of pink and rose, but in
the northern sky a strange, inverted picture was presented with such
clearness and vividness of outline that every detail is still as fresh
in my mind as it was at the moment I witnessed it.
The picture was produced not by the chicanery of any necromancer, but by
Nature herself. It was that strange, puzzling illusion--the mirage. So
weird and wonderful was it that, even though I had seen many similar
pictures in the heavens during my journeys over the plains, I gave an
involuntary exclamation of amazement.
As we gazed away beyond the city, across the sandy desert, the aerial
tableaux mirrored above appeared to be the reflection of a flat, black
rock of colossal dimensions, rising high and inaccessible like a wall,
and descending sheer into dark, deep water, upon the surface of which
its gloomy image was reflected as in a mirror. The spot, weird and
lonely, was devoid of every vestige of herbage or any living thing, and
as I looked upon it in wonderment, impressed by its weirdness, Azala
suddenly grasped my arm, exclaiming excitedly,--
"Behold! that black pool! See, it is the Lake of the Accursed! Many
times hath its image been revealed unto us in the sky. Remark it
carefully, for of a verity am I convinced that in this vision we have a
key to the Secret. At that spot must thou search if thou desirest to
fathom the mystery."
My eyes took in every detail of the ineffably dismal picture, the great,
inhospitable face of dark granite seemingly so smooth that an eagle
could scarce obtain a foothold, its rugged summit with one pointed crag,
like a man's forefinger, pointing higher than the rest towards the dark,
lowering clouds that seemed to hang about it, and the Stygian blackness
of the stagnant water at its gigantic base. But its sight told me
nothing, for it was the reflected image of a scene I had never before
gazed upon, a scene so unutterably dismal and dispiriting that I doubted
whether any clue could there be found.
Cloud-pictures are of such frequent occurrence at Kano that it is known
among the desert tribes as "The City of the Mirage."
For a few moments the sky remained the mirror of this mystic picture;
then gradually it faded into air. When it had entirely disappeared,
Azala, uttering no word, drew the curtain again before the lattice as at
the same instant Tiamo and the two slaves rose, bowing before their
mistress. With quick, impatient gesture she motioned to them to leave,
and I, marvelling greatly at the strange religio-magic and extraordinary
mirage I had witnessed, followed her through the open curtain and up the
stairs back to her own sweetly perfumed apartment.
But in that moment there occurred to me the solemn declaration I had so
often heard in the mosque: "Whoso taketh Eblis for his patron beside
Allah, shall surely perish with a manifest destruction."