"'It is now about three months since I was called early one morning to
bleed a man who was reported to be insensible. Now, notwithstanding
all that that fellow asserted in his rage this morning, I am a barber
and the son of a barber, and understand my craft very thoroughly.
Therefore, taking with me whatever I might be likely to require to let
the man blood and restore him to consciousness, I started at once.
"'On arriving at the house, which was a very poor one, to which I had
been summoned, I found the patient an old white-bearded man, and also a
physician whom I knew very well, and who practised in that part of the
town.
"'He had sent for me to bleed the man, but he was evidently puzzled
extremely by many features of the case the like of which he had never
before encountered. The patient was indeed unconscious, yet he
exhibited few or none of the symptoms generally characteristic of that
state. He was not lying down, but sitting up. His face wore the
expression not of one dead or dying, but of a man transfixed with rage
and horror. His eyes wide open were staring upon us with an expression
of impotent rage, as though he were witnessing some outrage which he
was powerless to prevent. His mouth was opened as though uttering a
cry, but no cry came out of his mouth. He did not breathe heavily, he
did not appear to breathe at all. He had the appearance of a man who
in the midst of some violent emotion had suddenly been turned into
stone, or rather into some plastic material possessing very peculiar
properties. For we found that, while every limb yielded readily to
pressure and could be placed easily in any posture we pleased, it did
not on being released fall to the ground, but maintained the attitude
in which it had been placed as though it were modelled in wax or carved
in stone.
"'All this was so surprising that I suppose I ought not to have been
surprised, as certainly I was, when I found that no blood flowed when I
attempted to bleed him. The man seemed to be decidedly not dead--and
yet decidedly not alive. We could make nothing of him. And after a
while the physician being called away to attend to some one else, left
me to watch this strange case, and act as I should see fit.
"'For a long time I sat and vigilantly observed the striking figure
before me, in appearance so full of life and passion, in reality so
completely inert.
"'As you may suppose, I was not alone. The small room was crowded with
the neighbours of the old man, who had long known him, and among whom
he was reported to be a miser, who though living in apparent poverty
was really very rich. I could see that many did not confine their
inquisitive glances to the old man himself, but looked eagerly about
them to discover if possible in some corner of the mean apartment that
store of hidden wealth which they had persuaded themselves that it
contained. After a time these visitors departed one after the other,
perceiving neither any alteration in the condition of the old man nor
any signs of his reputed riches.
"'When they had all left, I still sat looking attentively at him, lost
in astonishment and marvelling what would be the end of so singular and
unheard-of a trance. Without the least warning, so suddenly that I was
not a little startled, the full stream of life seemed to return upon
him in an instant. It had been arrested as suddenly and for many
hours--and now in a moment, before one could swallow one's spittle, it
resumed its course as though the interruption had never taken place.
To the mouth half opened all this time utterance was at length
restored, and suddenly as I sat watching him he cried with a loud
voice--
"'"Seize them! They have it! Ah, wretches! the curse of Allah be upon
ye! To rob an old man! a poor man! Yes, they are gone, the robbers,
the villains! My savings, my savings! The small savings of a long
life. Ah! the cursed villains, the cursed villains! seize them, seize
them!"
"'Thus the old fellow raved on, beating his breast, tearing his hair
and his beard, and speedily recalling by his cries and lamentations all
his neighbours who remained within hearing. Getting some of these to
assist me, again I attempted to bleed him, and this time successfully.
This quieted him, and presently we laid him down much calmer, though
apparently extremely exhausted.
"'We could learn nothing more from him than that three men had entered
his room on the previous evening and had robbed him of all that he
possessed; but what became of them, or how he had fallen into the state
of trance in which he had been discovered, he could not explain.
"'I had now given up much more time than I could afford, and seeing no
chance of getting paid under the circumstances, and there being nothing
further I could do for the unfortunate old creature, I left him in the
hands of his neighbours and took my departure.
"'I had not gone far when I observed lying on the ground a small
camel's-hair brush of very peculiar appearance. It was flat, in
breadth about the width of two fingers, and the hairs of the brush as
long as a man's little finger. I picked it up, wondering for what
purpose it could be used, and thinking it might possibly prove of
service on some future occasion, I carried it home with me.
"'Several days passed, and I had forgotten not only the little brush
that I had picked up, but even the episode of the old man and his
strange trance, when one afternoon a man presented himself to be
shaved, who, after some desultory discourse on passing topics,
mentioned that he had heard of my attendance on the old miser, and
inquired as to the condition in which I had found him, and all the
particulars of the affair.
"'When I had related to him the whole of the circumstances--excepting
only the finding of the little brush as I came away, an incident so
trifling that I no longer remembered it--he inquired, with some
eagerness, I thought, whether I had found anything in the old man's
room. I had picked up the brush not in the room, but outside the
house, and the very fact that I had done so having for the moment
escaped my recollection, I answered at once--"No, I found nothing; and,
in truth, it seemed to me that some people had probably forestalled me,
and left nothing for me or any one else to find." The man laughed at
this, as though it were a very good joke. At that instant, the finding
the little brush occurred to my mind, and I determined now in my turn
to ascertain, if possible, whether it were that he was in search of.
"'I asked him, therefore, whether he had heard of any valuable being
missed from the old man's room, as he had questioned me about it.
"'"Not exactly that," he said. "A good deal of valuable property might
have been taken, he supposed," and again he laughed, "from the old
man's room, but he was not concerned about that."
"'"No," thought I, "for you probably know where to find it."
"'"What I wish to recover," continued the man, "is not an article of
value at all, only a little brush that a friend of mine dropped in the
confusion, and which he is very anxious to get again, because it
belonged to his father and his grandfather before him."
"'"I fear," answered I, "that you will not find it in the old man's
room, because I looked about the place, and I noticed a good many other
keen eyes doing the same, and nothing of any kind was to be seen."
"'"No, there is no brush there now," said he; "you may be sure I have
ascertained that for myself before applying to you. If you did not see
it, I fear it is lost beyond recovery, and I would pay handsomely for
it too, if I could find it."
"'"Why," said I, "as to that, you need make but little fuss over the
loss of a little brush; a single dinar will buy you five score of them."
"'"True," said he, "but the little brush I am in search of was of a
special make, such as men in these days know not how to fashion."
"'"After all," said I, "it is but a matter of shape and fancy, for
there can be no great difference in value between two brushes of the
same size."
"'"However that may be," said the man, "if by talking with your
customers you can discover this little brush, and procure it for me, I
will give you a good price for it."
"'"What do you call a good price?" I inquired.
"'"I will give you," he said, "ten dinars for it."
"'He looked at me very hard, to observe what effect this offer would
produce, for no doubt, in spite of my denial, he suspected that I had
picked up the brush. But I reflected that the brush must have some
very special value, or he would not so readily have offered ten dinars
for it. If I held back, by and by he would offer twenty.
"'I therefore answered quietly--"It is a large sum for a small brush,
if I should hear of it I will let you know."
"'"In a week or ten days I will come again," he said, "perhaps by that
time you may be able to find it."
"'He probably named a week or ten days in order not to appear too
eager, and also to give me time to pretend to have succeeded in my
search.
"'A week passed and a fortnight, and still he did not return. Indeed
he never came back, and whether he was captured by the police--for I
have no doubt he was one of the thieves who had robbed the old
miser--or whether he and his gang had been obliged on account of some
other crime to fly from Bagdad, I do not know; one thing only is
certain, I have never seen him again.
"'Nearly three months had elapsed, and I had almost ceased to expect
the reappearance of the man, and even to regret that I did not accept
his offer of ten dinars for the brush at the time he made it, when one
afternoon, a few days ago, a man came to me suffering from a growth or
wen on the back of his neck, close to the spinal cord. He desired that
I should paint this with a certain remedy or lotion I have for such
tumours. Finding the lotion, which I had not used for some time, but
not the brush with which I was accustomed to apply it, I took hold of
the little brush which I had picked up, and made use of that. The
hairs of this brush were so much longer than those in my old brush,
that I had not proceeded far before I happened accidentally to pass the
wet brush across the spine. Immediately the man became fixed in the
attitude in which he happened to be as I was operating upon him. His
features retained the expression precisely which they wore at the
moment the wet brush had touched the spine, and, in short, the man was
in a trance exactly similar to that in which I had found the old miser
three months before.
"'I had discovered the virtues of the brush. At first I was a good
deal frightened, not knowing how long the trance might continue.
However, after the lapse of twelve hours, the man recovered
consciousness again, and the complete use of all his faculties just as
suddenly as the old miser had done three months previously.
"'I persuaded the man that he had fallen asleep during the operation of
anointing his tumour, and that I had housed him for the night out of
kindness. For this he thanked me sincerely, allowed me to bleed him
for the good of his health, and to wash and shave him, and paying me
handsomely for all I had done for him, departed with much satisfaction.
"'This morning, therefore, when I happened to give utterance to that
rash boast of being able to shave successfully any living thing--a
boast you so cleverly turned against me--I determined to make good my
words by virtue of the camel's-hair brush.'"
"And what," asked Haroun of Sidi ibn Thalabi, "what has become of the
brush? did you not buy it of the barber?"
"I endeavoured to do so," answered he, "but the barber declared that
unless the Caliph himself seated upon his throne should demand it, he
would never part with it on any terms to any man."
"I think, friend Sidi ibn Thalabi," said Haroun, "that the barber is
right. But now that I have heard the story of the barber, which is a
very strange story, and has interested me greatly, I must for the
present leave you, and return to my house where my people will be
anxiously awaiting me. I hope, however, to have the pleasure very
shortly of receiving you in my own house, and till then I bid you
farewell."
[1] The Caliph was commonly so designated by the vulgar.
[2] A common Arab practice.