At the close of the year 1578 the slave-markets of Mauritania were
glutted to their uttermost, and for once the price of a male slave was
less than that of a donkey. This overstock of human ware was due to
the thousands of prisoners who had survived the fateful battle fought
in the neighborhood of Al-Kesar Kebir, on the banks of the Elmahassen,
between the invading army of Dom Sebastian, the youthful, overbearing
monarch of Lusitania, and the host of Muley Abd-al-Melek, the
formidable Emir-al-Mumemin, the Commander of the true believers, the
_Seedna_ or lord of the Moorish Empire.[10]
[10] This battle and the fate of Dom Sebastian as narrated in
this tradition agrees with historical fact.
The Moslem's cruelty to his Christian slaves rose in proportion to
the latter's decline as marketable articles, and fanaticism revelled
in the daily spectacle of crusaders doomed to immurement, because of
their refusing to embrace Islam by uttering the _Fatha_. The irony of
the historic whirligig showed itself in the fact that the Catholic
Auto-da-fè had its counterpart in the frightful doom of a king and an
army led by the flower of his nobility, who, barely a hundred miles
from the coast of their kingdom, had to choose between apostasy or
being immured alive for the edification of the vengeful Moor. The
wretches were compelled to prepare their own graves, usually cells in
the city's wall, one Christian bricking up his fellow only to be in
turn entombed alive himself.
A melancholy distinction was reserved for the royal zealot, Dom
Sebastian, who had encountered crushing defeat and humiliation. With
less than half of his smitten chivalry and valiant soldiers he saw
himself in the power of an inexorable foe, himself wounded and in
chains pining in the vile dungeon of Mequinez, one of the Sultan's
capitals, the others being Fez and Morocco. After the obsequies of the
unmourned _Seedna_, who had died on the field of battle, his son and
successor, having been proclaimed Sultan, and crowned in the holy
shrine of Mulai Edris at Fez, proposed to celebrate his coronation by
the entombment alive of the Christian king who had invaded his
father's empire, notwithstanding the warning of the late _Shereef_
that the unjust inroad would surely land the aggressors in ruin. His
Majesty furthermore remembered the treacherous proceeding of
Sebastian, who, at the end of the decisive battle, had caused a white
flag to be displayed, but had broken the truce by throwing himself
with fifty of his knights into the thick of the Moorish ranks, causing
slaughter and consternation, and resulting in the death of the late
Sultan.
But the strongest motive of the young _Shereef's_ dire vengeance was
the unaccountable loss of his sire's priceless crown, which Muley
Abd-al-Melek was in the habit of carrying with him whithersoever he
went, wearing it on solemn occasions. Muley had worn the crown upon
his head while the great battle was being fought, after which that
invaluable symbol of imperial grandeur was not to be found. The crown
was an heirloom traced back to the great Caliphat of Omar, whose
victorious general Saad had acquired it with the enormous treasures of
the Chosroes. It was worn by Chosroes Nushirvan in the throne-hall of
his grand palace in Madayn, the capital of ancient Persia, and its
incalculable value had been further enhanced by a rare jewel which the
Emperor Heraclius had sent Omar as a present.
Such were the cumulative incentives to one of the most cruel
executions devised by human atrocity. And the tortures also inflicted
by order of the new _Seedna_ on his most loyal attendants, such as the
_Mul-el-Ma_, who satisfies His Majesty's thirst when in camp from a
gazelle-skin; the _Mul Attai_, who prepares the royal tea and serves
it; and the most important _Mul M'dul_, the keeper and holder of the
_Shereef's_ red umbrella, left the mystery unsolved.
The inhabitants of Mequinez, who since times immemorial furnished the
bulk of the Emperor's most devoted servitors, tingled with
excitement, and the entire population turned out to witness the burial
of a live Christian monarch. From the portal of the imperial mosque
issued a train of chosen notables, long-bearded _Kadis_ robed in white
flowing raiments, wearing white turbans, red sandals, the _delill_ or
prayer book suspended from the belt by a cord of silk; _talebs_, the
doctors of law; _emins_, the ministers of the mosque; _adools_, the
public notaries; and a train of _fukies_, the all-moving luminaries at
whose feet the rising generation of the faithful drink in truth and
wisdom. They were joined at the city's gate by another cortege,
grotesque and dismal enough to match the gruesome processions of the
Inquisition. This was made up of happy juveniles, who struck tom-toms,
rent the air with the blare of infernal horns, and accompanied the
music with ludicrous grimaces and comical dances, to the great delight
of a sympathetic crowd, who swelled the chorus to the pitch of mad
vociferation. A hideous negro, broad-shouldered, tall and massive, his
frame clothed tightly in black, his eyes blinking dismally from
circles of red, with a pointed hat to add several feet to his unusual
height, impersonated Azrael the angel of death. Behind this caricature
came a donkey whereon was seated the woeful representative of outraged
Christian royalty, bare-headed, dressed in a black _jellab_, holding
in his right hand a human skull,--a picture of terror and anguish.
This was Dom Sebastian, riding to his sepulchre, on his right Monkir,
to his left Nakir,--the demons of livid hue, who wake the dead to
question him about his faith, and beat him with clubs if unable to
stand the examination. The rear of this group was occupied by Eblis,
grotesquely attired in red and armed with the implements of hellish
torture. A throng of naked, filthy saints ran along howling and
spitting at the whilom majesty of Portugal, relegating his soul to the
deepest pit, and praying Allah to show no mercy to the Christian dog.
Having passed out of the city's gate, the procession advanced along a
tortuous road, winding among well-fostered gardens, protected by an
outer and much lower wall, toward the spot where a cell about six
feet high, but barely wide enough to enclose a human body, stood open
in the main wall for the death by suffocation and for the dreamless
rest of the fallen king. Too weak to dismount unassisted, Sebastian
was rudely handled by Monkir and Nakir, who raised him from his seat,
lifted him to the level of the cell, and pushed him inside, turning
him with a twist so that the fanatic spectators had a full view of his
face. Three wooden bars held the victim against the dead wall.
All eyes were now turned in the direction of the mosque, whence the
signal for the closing up of the king's grave was to be given by the
firing of a gun and the hoisting of a flag. The ghastly ceremony was
so timed that the bricking up of the living tomb coincided with the
hour of prayer, so that the boom of cannon and the appearance of the
flag streaming to the breeze, was answered by a score of muezzins from
the tops of their minarets, who called; "_Allah akbar, Allah
akbar_,--God is great, and Mohammed is his Prophet!" The multitude
fell prostrate in the dust, sending the _fatha_ eastward to Mecca:
"Praise be to God, the Lord of all creatures, the most merciful, the
King of the Day of Judgment! Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we beg
assistance. Direct us in the right way, in the way of those to whom
Thou hast been gracious, not of those against whom thou art incensed,
nor of those who go astray."
The echoes of the _Sulhama_ having expired in the air, the faithful
rose from their posture of adoration, and the supreme Kadi of the land
read this decree: "Hear me, ye worshippers of the true God! The
Christian there had planned the downfall of our nation and the
uprooting of Islam; but Allah willed it otherwise, decreeing that we
deal with him as he meant to deal with us. Our late Seedna--may Allah
grant him the joys of paradise--died in his coat of mail, combating
that infidel dog, who came as a foe and acted as a traitor, dishonoring
his flag. Therefore did our Emir-al-Mumemin decree that he perish
ignominiously, like the other slaves who would not recite the _fatha_.
May Allah wither the right hand of our Seedna's enemies.--There is no
God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet!"--Slowly bricks and mortar
closed up the open side of the upright tomb. One hour later there was
no cell to be seen, but a plain wall hiding a monarch quickly choking
to death, while the barbarians returned jubilant to the city.
Under the rule of Muley Zidan, a firman, bearing the Grand Vizier's
signature, was placarded in every mosque of his domain, promising him
who should be instrumental in restoring the lost crown to the ruling
dynasty not alone high honors, but the option of leading home as wife
any maiden of the empire, from the daughter of the first Sultana down
to any damsel within the confines of Mauritania, and the assurance was
given that there would be no inquiry as to how the lucky finder had
come into possession of the imperial diadem.
As time lent distance to the disastrous crusade and its tragic
sequels, a spontaneous crop of tales and legends transferred the
former memorable event into the realm of romance. Down to this day the
rustic folk of Lusitania look forward to the return of Dom Sebastian,
whom they believe to dwell among the Moors in the somnolent state of
Barbarossa, while among the tribes of Western Barbary it is popularly
current that, owing to unknown causes, the great battle is
periodically fought over, always at new moon, the phantom armies
engaging each other on the banks of the Elmahassen, and the combat
winding up with the historic rout of the crusaders.
Indeed the foolhardy invasion would read like the myth of the
Argonauts, had the outcome turned out less crushing to the
adventurers. For a youthful king, in the twenties, and of limited
resources, to embark on a career of conquest remote from his base of
supply, the coveted prize being a warlike empire much larger than the
kingdoms of Spain and Portugal combined, an empire which Christendom
learned to fear, is so daring an adventure that, but for its
unquestioned reality, it could pass as a bit of chivalrous fiction.
And the circumstances under which the last encounter took place, the
death of the Sultan, the loss of the crown, and the terrible fate of
the prisoners, tend much to invest the event with a halo of the mystic
and the ghostly.
However, the legendary evolution of that desperate struggle near
Al-Kesar Kebir may be traced back to the adventures of a student from
Timbuctu, who arrived at Fez at the beginning of the sixteenth
century. That was the time when the Fazzi had good cause to boast of
cherishing one of the greatest centres of learning in the world. From
the valley of the Nile, from the banks of the Congo and the Niger,
from populous Europe, darkest Africa, and farthest Asia, the youth of
the opulent without distinction of creed and race flocked to the halls
of the Kairouin to cull the honey dropping from the lips of
inspiration, especially the dimly revealed arcana that teach how to
read the signs of the stars.
The Kairouin was then, and is in diminished lustre now, four
institutions in one,--the highest school, the largest mosque, the
greatest library, and the most hospitable caravansary in the vast
regions traversed by the Atlas Mountains. Within the precincts of the
Kairouin hundreds of poor students found then not only free shelter
and tuition but also food and garments, the cost being defrayed from
the ample bequest of the philanthropic Fatma, the original
benefactress of that curious university. It embraced a miniature world
of the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the faithful
and the infidel, the good and the bad; was the home of every Moslem
who had none other; and, among its many good things, was distinguished
for an atmosphere of tolerance, peace and cordiality. Even to-day the
president of the Kairouin, the _Mokaddun_, whose office is hereditary,
treats all as equals, the prince and the beggar having the same right,
and that is to take life easy,--very easy. Instances of nervousness
from overwork have never been heard of in the Kairouin. Once
matriculated, the student is not expected to pass examinations, and is
a privileged character, his presence in the city being a source of
revenue to its inhabitants. For it should be remembered that among
those who come to the Kairouin in quest of wisdom are the sons of the
wealthiest _sheykhs_, nobles, and merchants from all the habitable
lands which skirt the sands of the Sahara, young lords wrapped in soft
silks, bestriding Arabian steeds magnificently caparisoned, followed
by retinues of slaves to cater to their physical wants, and harems to
beguile their ennui. Nor is, in the chase of romantic diversion, the
beautiful Fazzi neglected; the people being inclined to connive at the
trivial transgressions of the future pillars of Moslem scholarship.
Thrifty parents know how and when to be absent when the young lords
from Insala, Nubia, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Taradunt, or Timbuctu are
sure to mark their transit through apartments of supposed inviolable
privacy by a trail of gold-sand. Such are the traditions of the
Kairouin, realized down to this day.
But the student of Timbuctu with whom this tale is concerned was in
every way an exception. He disdained luxury, spurned the delights of
the harem, consorted with nobody, had but one aged slave to wait on
him, dwelt in a tent on a rock in the outskirts of the city, and spent
his days among the piles of old books and manuscripts treasured on the
shelves of the Kairouin's subterranean library. In the bazaars he was
known for years as the student who paid for his purchases in silver
or in gold, without ever waiting for the change. He was not handsome.
His most remarkable feature was a face strikingly reminding one of the
owl's, with orange eyeballs which glowed like living topaz stones. He
wore an expression which, once caught, haunted one like an apparition.
His white-haired attendant was dumb and moved like an automaton of
bronze, leaving one in doubt as to whether he was really a creature of
flesh and blood. All that was known about that strange student was
that he had come with the great caravan from Timbuctu, that his name
was Omeyya, and that he devoted his whole time to researches in works
of the occult sciences, such, for instance, as alchemy and astrology,
supplementing his inquiries with practical experiments, assisted by
his automatic attendant. His was a personality whom the Fazzi liked
much less than they feared. Omeyya was left severely alone, but this
was just the condition which seemed to suit him. His unique appearance
and singular individuality had their origin in his exceptionally
romantic birth, and in a career even stranger than his beginning. He
grew up as the adopted child of the renowned sibyl Kadijah, whose
abode was a cavern near Timbuctu, and who was more shunned than sought
by the people of her quarter. To the simple folk Kadijah was known as
the "owl-witch,"--rarely met, and then usually during the dusky hour
before and after sunset, still more rarely at night; ever in a hurry,
with her hair-covered arms flapping like the wings of a scared
ostrich. She was in very truth like a hairy owl; weazen-faced, the
extremities of her body resembling claws while her face bore every
resemblance to that of the owl, orange eyeballs and a nose so pointed,
hooked, and beak-like that it partly covered the thin curl of her
upper lip. Only in extreme cases of distress did the people of
Timbuctu resort to her for help, and her manner of meeting emergencies
inspired them with awe. Her most potent specific was the likeness of a
long-necked, heron-like bird, crudely drawn with charcoal on a bit of
leather, and hung on the breast of the afflicted patient. The cure was
assured.
In Kadijah's sombre abode Omeyya came to his consciousness of life,
nursed with motherly solicitude, and was later initiated into the
secrets of her dark arts. One day, the boy having risen to mature
youth, the owl-witch startled him by offering to inform him as to the
mystery of his life.
"Thou knowest not who thou art, my son, and my approaching end
requires me to let nothing stand between thee and the truth concerning
thy legitimate parents. In this place Naïma, the daughter of Moadh,
then recognized the strongest arm of Timbuctu, gave thee birth. Thy
father's name was Abu Sofian, the heir of Abu Thaleb, whom Moadh had
slain in a family feud. When of age, and strong enough to avenge his
father's death, Sofian burned to run a steel through Moadh's heart,
vengeance being his only thought and prayer. From the flat roof of his
mother's home Sofian had a clear view of his foe's terraced
habitation, and thither he daily sent his imprecations, determined to
break into it at the first opportunity, and make an end of the fierce
homicide. The outbreak of a fire in the immediate neighborhood of
Moadh's house gave the daring youth his chance. Armed with a deadly
weapon, he succeeded in slipping unnoticed into the _Saalemlik_
(reception room) of the hated man. Missing his object here, the son of
Abu Thaleb made a dash for the _Haremlik_, resolved to strike down the
head of the house in the inviolable seclusion of his wives. His rush
was checked by the appearance of a tiny, jewelled, alabaster hand,
that swept a silken curtain aside,--and there stood revealed above the
frame of a screen a Houri of charms so enchanting that the lad was not
sure that he was awake. 'Comest thou to save me from the flames? They
are out to watch the fire, and my sire commanded me to await his
return; he is a fearful man to be disobeyed,' spoke the girl in
excitement; but her voice melted Sofian's heart, and made his eyes to
swim.
"'Fairy of the sun, disguise thy beauty in a man's _jellab_ and turban
that I may save thee, even if I die in the attempt,' replied Sofian
with great presence of mind; and the girlish figure disappeared, to
return as that of a stately youth.
"'My name is Naïma, and if thou wilt be the light of mine eyes and
the breath of my life, I will be the dust for thy feet to tread upon,'
said the metamorphosed maiden, and, favored by the general confusion,
they gained the street unobserved. Under Sofian's roof the same day
Naïma became his wife; but Timbuctu was too small for Moadh's rage,
grief and shame, and the young lovers guarded their secret so well
that many weeks passed by before the city was in a furor at the news
of the elopement.
"Moadh summoned his kindred to assist him in avenging the outrage; but
Sofian was not to be found napping. An armed force of his kith and kin
guarded his house day and night against an attack by surprise, while
his girl-wife was delivered to my keeping in case of defeat. There was
a siege and an assault, and, in the hand to hand struggle that ensued,
Moadh met his death at the hand of Sofian, who was in turn mortally
stabbed by one of the avengers. The youthful widow remained in my
charge, and here thou wast born, thy mother having had nobody to
return to or appeal to for protection. Sorrow, shame and remorse
caused her to shun the sight of man, so that she would never venture
out in daytime, lest someone recognize her and do her harm; for she
was hated of all her relatives.
"She did not remain long in my keeping. In an evil hour she left her
safe refuge to bask in the morning sun, only to fall an easy prey to
the rapacity of marauding Bedouins who, having attacked and plundered
the city, lighted on her as they passed this way. My arts could not
rescue her, Omeyya, and the daughter of Moadh has changed hands many
times since,--a slave or a mistress, just as it suits her master's
fancy. This happened nineteen years ago, when thou hadst become my
charge, yea, and my comfort.
"In my youth I was loved by a man of the black arts, and of him I
inherited the secret of Egypt's great mystery, the land of his birth.
He knew much, but not enough to escape death, the inexorable reaper,
whose approach I also now feel. To-morrow I shall be no more, and this
hollow shall be my sepulchre. Bury me as a son would his
mother.--Under that stone thou wilt find gold to sustain thee for the
length of thy days. Yet shalt thou depart hence to seek a brighter
life, greater wealth, higher station, and the happiness of love,--yea,
and thy mother,--in the famous city on the River of Pearls, provided
thou wilt act as thou art bidden. This unlighted hole, Omeyya, hides
Egypt's great mystery, which is hereafter to be in thy trust.--Take
this rod from my hand and describe in mid-air the sign of the crescent
from right to left toward the eastern wall," commanded the witch.
Omeyya did as he was bidden. In answer the silvery crescent loomed up
on the bleak rock, with its horns gradually lengthening downward until
it completed the shape of an oval door opening to an arched space,
brilliant with dazzling light. In the heart of the vault thus revealed
there stood, perched on a block of onyx, a large heron, white as snow
from its crop down, the rest of the plumage sky-blue traversed by
lines of hieroglyphics in relief set in jewels of every hue with a
predominance of the ruby and the amethyst. The scintillant
hieroglyphics were irregularly scattered over the body of the mystic
bird, thicker along the wings and thickest around the breast and the
gracefully elongated neck; the eyes in the beautiful head were of
topaz, and the long bill of burnished gold, pointed with black
diamonds. Of a deep lapis-lazuli color was the heron's tail, spreading
to the dimensions of the peacock's and furnishing a field for
star-like configurations set in sparkling pearls, emeralds, sapphires,
beryls, chrysolites, carbuncles, sards, and a variety of the jasper
and the ligure, while the black of his legs was likewise relieved by
kabbalistic lines in rare gems.
"By the genii of Amenti, the masters who fashioned thee in the
beginning to be the symbol and oracle of Osiris, O, Phoenix! I adjure
thee to accept this youth in my stead as thy favorite, and to answer
his call as soon as he shall decipher the emblems that move the
spirits of thy mystery," screamed the sibyl, vociferously.
Omeyya's eyes dilated in amazement. The bird's inanimate form gave
signs of life. Ruffling his great plumes, he displayed a blaze of
variegated gems, flashing like so many brilliant stars. From his
feather train issued a haze of golden orange, changed into a flame of
carmine, which consumed the bird and left the place to its previous
dinginess.
"Mark me well, for death is upon me!--The rod in thy hand holds the
key to the mystery thou art to unriddle in Fatma's great school,
during a period of strict abstinence from carnal pleasures. For
thirty-seven months thou shalt drink the dew of the morning, shalt
bathe at new moon in the River of Pearls, sleep within canvas-walls,
so that thy nature be untainted and thou worthy of the power the
revealed arcana insure for thee," exclaimed the sibyl, never to speak
again. With the last word her shrivelled frame fell lifeless to the
ground.
Omeyya suspected that the rod contained something to be studied. On
examining it in full light he found the upper end, looking like a
carved handle, to be a closing stopple removable by a turn. From the
hollow of the rod he pulled forth a rolled up papyrus. The unrolling
of the document proved it to be much larger than it at first
appeared, and Omeyya looked with concentrated attention at the
life-like picture of the phoenix it represented, the shining
hieroglyphics being startlingly reproduced. Having reverently buried
his foster-mother and possessed himself of the hoard, Omeyya abandoned
the gloomy abode of his boyhood, earnestly resolved to comply most
scrupulously with the directions of the sibyl.
When we meet Omeyya at the Kairouin of Fez he is at the close of his
probationary period, and we need not be surprised to see him one new
moon's eve on the bank of Elmahassen, rod in hand, ready to test the
occult science acquired during years of assiduous application.
It is a cloudy night, and Omeyya strains his eyes to catch a glimpse
of the tiny crescent. "Spirit of Kadijah, assist me," prayed Omeyya,
and his rod described an imaginary crescent in face of the real one,
now gleaming through a fleecy cloud. Like the flash of a search-light,
there broke forth a radiance in the crown of a cedar-tree, focussing
upon a nest upon which sat the shining phoenix.
"Bird of Osiris,--worship of Heliopolis! if I am as worthy of thy
masters' favor as I have been successful in fathoming the mystic lore
which commands thy presence, then let me see the encounter of those
armies which years and years ago fought their last battle in this
valley, so that I may learn what has become of Abd-al-Melek's crown,"
spoke the student of Timbuctu, circumscribing the area by a sweep of
his rod.
A prolonged scream was the bird's response, and its thousandfold echo
a rumbling and stamping, a tramping and clattering, like that of heavy
cavalry and artillery, followed by muffled hurrahs, and the neighing
of horses. In the hazy twilight of the new-born moon Omeyya surveyed
from a convenient elevation the inrushing of column after column, on
horse, on foot, accompanied by trains of ammunition. It was a foreign
army in the act of occupying strategic points. Wild cheers rent the
air at the sight of a royal train that emerged from the distance, a
youthful king at the head of a compact force of mounted cavaliers
armed to the teeth. No sooner had the kingly commander surveyed the
ground than he ordered a bridge of boats to be thrown across the
river. The bulk of the army formed into two divisions, one fortifying
the position occupied while the other hurried across the water to do
likewise on the other side. It was a scene of feverish activity.
During the precipitous preparations in this part of the valley, a
Moslem host burst forth from the shades of the groves, gardens and
thickets up and down the stream, bore up with the speed of the wind,
deployed into frowning lines of battle--having caused a force of
horsemen to ford the stream--and faced the foe on both sides of the
water. Surrounded by a formidable bodyguard, appeared the Commander of
the true faithful, whose pavilion was pitched at the foot of the hill
on which Omeyya stood, in the midst of the minor pavilions of His
Majesty's ministers. The soul of Moslem inspiration was the Shereef
Abd-al-Melek, mounted on a white horse, his crown showing him to be
the imperial centre of force. At a motion of his hand the Court's Emin
gave the signal for battle by the cry: "_La illaha il Allah!_" But
before the echoes answered the call, a dashing body of Portuguese
cavalry broke into the advance lines of the Moors, and the fierce
onslaught was backed up by a discharge of artillery, which mowed down
great numbers of the true believers.
"Hamdillah!--Destroy the enemy of the faithful!" thundered the Sultan,
and the rush of his host was like the roar of the forest swept by the
storm. Outnumbered three to one, Dom Sebastian's lines were broken
into upon every side. Yet the brave Christians not only held their
ground, but threw their entire phalanx of foot soldiery against the
enemy's left wing with such an impetus as drove it back toward the
royal pavilion, spreading consternation and confusion. Abd-al-Melek,
who had watched the action with intense concern, on seeing his forces
hurled backward raved like a madman, smote with his scimitar whoever
came within its reach, cursed his men, and wound up by tearing the
crown from his head and flinging it into the tide of the river. For a
moment the issue was doubtful, but the Christians fell as grass
struck by the scythe. Presently a white flag was raised in Sebastian's
quarter, which induced the Moors to slacken their fury, when the
desperate king dashed against their ranks with as many of his knights
as were yet alive. The enraged Moslems made short work of the king's
devoted band, slaughtered as traitors, and the victory was proclaimed
by the Emin from a pile built of Christian heads. From this unique
minaret the _Sulhama_ stirred the echoes of the valley: "_Allah akbar!
Allah akbar!_" Prostrate on their faces the host offered up prayer;
all except the _Shereef_, whose head sank until the chin touched his
breast, and when assistance came it was too late. Abd-al-Melek was
dead; and dead night ruled, the phantom hosts dissolving as they had
come. Omeyya's heart throbbed in hope and suspense. What will day
reveal to him in the river's tide?
Early dawn found the student on the spot he had held during the
eventful night. "_Bismillah! Arrahmani! Arrahimi!_" exclaimed Omeyya,
blessing the "all-merciful God" for his wonderful success. For in the
slime of the bed, about four feet under the surface of the eddying
current, his eye distinctly discerned the precious object. In a moment
Omeyya plunged into the water and emerged therefrom with the tiara of
Abd-al-Melek. The achievement was dazzling enough to turn a young
head, but Omeyya had passed through a probation which left him in full
control of his passions.
Although successful beyond his most sanguine expectations, Omeyya
returned to Fez in a mood of profound sadness, having nobody on earth
to share with him the golden anticipations inseparable from the
treasure in his trust, and the incalculable possibilities latent in
the potency of his magic rod. Though sobered by the earnest researches
of years, Omeyya's thoughts involuntarily reverted to the prize to
which his find entitled him. He had a claim on the _Seedna's_ own
daughter, but it behooved him to ascertain whether the first maiden of
the empire was a covetable acquisition; secondly, whether, considering
the _Shereef's_ chronic inclination to silence annoying pretenders by
putting them out of the way, it were prudent to proceed without
adequate safeguards.
Full of golden reveries, the youthful wizard drifted the following day
into the enclosed bazaar where the Fazzi, after the yearly arrival of
the _Akabah_, or the great caravan from Timbuctu, gathered to take a
look at the exhibited wares of fair human flesh. It was the
slave-dealer's paradise. The square market-place had but one gate and
embraced many concerns within its confines, but the chief business was
the disposition of slaves by auction or by private bargain. Under a
roof of rough boards supported by rude posts, men, women and children
were being stripped of their clothing and examined like
cattle,--teeth, eyes, mouth, nostrils, chest, arms and legs. The
agility of the slaves was tested by a free application of the whip,
making them jump high, and their strength by the lifting of heavy
weights. Handsome females were treated with more consideration. Bids
were made, accepted, or declined. The most of the human chattels were
black, and dressed to set off their forms to advantage.
Among the few whites there was a woman for whom the owner asked a
fabulous price, and scornfully rejected a bid of twenty-five
doubloons, although that was the highest amount that had ever been
offered for a slave above thirty years of age. She was not on open
exhibition like the others who shared her fate, but screened by a
canvas stretched before her in a corner, behind which the prospective
purchaser was allowed to make his examination. The one who had last
availed himself of this privilege and had just come out from behind
the partition, was a negroid Moslem, whose green caftan of silk
bespoke his descent from the Prophet, while the soft rich folds of his
satin shawl gracefully wound around his upper frame, like his
capacious girth, suggested the enjoyment of an ample revenue, with
little work and less worry. He was likewise a student at the Kairouin,
but his researches were entirely confined to the mystery centred in
woman, and the bags of gold-sand he had brought along from Tafilet
enabled him to pursue his ardent work with much assiduity.
"What is the age of thy gazelle?" inquired the lineal descendant of
Mohammed.
"It is a gazelle from Jannat al Ferdaws, who are ever young and sweet,
like the blossoms of the Tuba-tree," replied the slave-dealer volubly.
"If she were a virgin thy comparison would pass, but she has been
somebody's love, and must have seen at least thirty Ramazans,"
observed the holy connoisseur of the fair sex.
"She will see thirty more years and yet be more beautiful than one of
twenty. She is worth her weight in gold," asserted the slave-dealer.
"Will a pound of gold-sand buy her?" asked the scion of the Prophet.
"One hundred doubloons will take Naïma," cried the master of the
slave.
"Naïma!" echoed a voice nearby. "Naïma--is that thy slave's name?"
asked Omeyya eagerly, who had been a witness of the progressing
transaction.
"That is her name, Cid, as sweet as herself," returned the cunning
dealer.
"I will pay the price if thou canst satisfy me as to her place of
birth, her pedigree, and her antecedents," promised Omeyya without
hesitation.
"What thou askest of me I cannot do. We buy and exchange slaves as we
trade in other things, never bothering our heads as to whence they
come, or who they are. What matters it? I traded for Naïma in Tenduf;
she might have come thither from Timbuctu by Tandeng, an oasis in the
desert, rich in salt, and fertilized by wholesome springs," said the
merchant hypothetically.
"She is mine; let the _taleb_ write out the legal transfer," said
Omeyya, without so much as a look at the object of his purchase. A
murmur of surprise passed around among the onlookers. The saint of the
green caftan departed in disgust. In a few minutes the document was
produced and signed, the price paid, and Omeyya, trembling all over,
led off the slave, whom he felt must be his mother. Brought to his
tent, he caused her to remove her _kaik_ or face cover, made her sit
on a pillow, threw himself on his knees before her, looked into her
beautiful countenance, then kissed her hands and spoke: "Let thy
first answer to my first question be plain and brief.--If thy father's
name was Moadh of Timbuctu; if thy husband was Sofian the son of Abu
Thaleb of the same city; if thy friend was the owl-witch Kadijah; if a
child was born to thee in her cave and his name was Omeyya,--then
speak the word that I may praise Allah's great mercy."
"What spirit imparted to thee the tale of my woe, master?" cried the
woman, in a thrilling tone; "thou must be a descendant of the
all-knowing Prophet!"
"No! Is it not enough that I am thy child?" answered Omeyya, with an
outburst of tears; and there was a pathetic moment beyond the reach of
words.
It is again new-moon. Naïma is mistress of an elegant home, is waited
on by slaves, moves among hangings of silk, on the softest of Moorish
rugs; her eyelids are painted with kohl, her finger nails with henna;
her harem opens on a courtyard pervaded by the odoriferous scent of
the mandragora and the blossom of the orange, cooled by the splash
and play of fountains, and animated by storks, who are sacred birds
in Morocco as elsewhere. Mother and son have by this time unbosomed
themselves to each other, and both are confident that the culmination
of things will be equal to their expectations.
Once more Omeyya is alone in the dead of voiceless night, under
cloud-obscured stars. He has been waiting since before the sun had
withdrawn his last beam from the picturesque panorama afforded by the
sight of the Western Mecca and its wreath of groves and gardens,
spreading on the slopes of the valley through which flows the
Wad-el-Jubar. Omeyya stood on the height crowned by Mulai Ismael's
bastion, whence the view of Fez is as perfect as that of the palace
grounds. As night closed over the city and the green tops of Mulai
Edris--the famous mosque, striking because of its all-overtopping
golden globe,--faded in deepening twilight, Omeyya heard the
nightingale at her best, and his soul was well attuned for the amorous
cadence. Now the crescent soared in relief on heaven's mystic
tapestry, but a later hour was to evolve the vision of Egypt's
mystery. At the right moment the potency of Omeyya's rod raised up the
bird. Over court and palace broke a white radiance, and in its core
hung the heron on wing in mid-heaven.
[Illustration: "There sprung, like Iris from the clouds, a smiling
Hebe."
Page 323.]
"Bird of Osiris, worship of Heliopolis! by the invisible masters who
fashioned thee I demand to let me behold her whom destiny has decreed
to be my consort."
Omeyya was frightened on seeing the phoenix fade, as if offended by
his command; but in its stead there sprung, like Iris from the clouds,
a smiling Hebe; back of her rose in imperial majesty Muley Zidan and
his foremost Sultana.--"_Hamdillah!_" cried Omeyya, falling on his
face to praise Allah "the most merciful, the King of the Day of
Judgment!" When he rose there were the stars above him and the silvery
crescent, while the valley of the River of Pearls rang with the trill
of a thousand nightingales.
The next morning the streets of Fez were filled with the cries of the
Sultan's heralds, calling on him, who was entitled to the great prize,
to come forth and obtain it.--"Bring the crown and obtain thy
reward!" was the cry heard in street and bazaar, no one knowing what
it meant.
But Omeyya suspected that something had happened in the palace, and he
felt that his triumph was assured. What he learned later was this.
That same night the _Shereef_, the _Shereefa_, and their daughter
Rehamina, had a vision which they imparted to each other the following
morning. They had all seen the same thing, and the coincidence could
only be explained in one way. Abd-al-Melek's crown had been found. The
Sultan's criers were sent out to assure the happy finder of his prize.
Thus doubly reassured, Omeyya presented himself before the
Emir-al-Mumemin who, it need hardly be told, was greatly impressed by
the student's tale.
"What thou hast seen, son, is not the phoenix of Osiris, but the image
of Allah's dazzling cock, who each morning chants to delight the ear
of the true God, when all the fowls of his kind join in his melodious
praise. By no less a miracle than the help of the bird, whom our
Prophet saw in the skies, could the crown of Abd-al-Melek be
restored," concluded the Seedna, piously.
In the presence of the great _Divan_, Omeyya produced the crown; and
here in the throne-hall his betrothal to Rehamina was solemnly
confirmed. In due time there was a royal wedding, after which Muley
Zidan found Omeyya not only to be worthy of his lovely daughter, but
of his highest esteem and fullest confidence as the wisest counselor
in his _Divan_.