THE GENIE KARAZ
Now, when the voice of the Vizier had ceased, Shibli Bagarag exclaimed,'O Vizier, this night, no later, I'll surprise Shagpat, and shave himwhile he sleepeth: and he shall wake shorn beside his spouse. Wullahy!I'll delay no longer, I, Shibli Bagarag.'
Said the Vizier, 'Thou?'
And he replied, 'Surely, O Vizier! thou knowest little of my dexterity.'
So the Vizier laughed, and Noorna bin Noorka laughed, and he was at aloss to interpret the cause of their laughter. Then said Noorna, 'O mybetrothed, there's not a doubt among us of thy dexterity, nor question ofthy willingness; but this shaving of Shagpat, wullahy! 'tis longer workthan what thou makest of it.'
And he cried, 'How? because of the Chief of Identicals planted by thee inhis head?'
She answered, 'Because of that; but 'tis the smallest opposer, that.'
Then the Vizier said, 'Let us consult.'
So Shibli Bagarag gave ear, and the Vizier continued, 'There's first, theChief of Identicals planted by thee in the head of that presumptuousfellow, O my daughter! By what means shall that be overcome?'
She said, 'I rank not that first, O Feshnavat, my father; surely I rankfirst the illusions with which Rabesqurat hath surrounded him, and madeit difficult to know him from his semblances, whenever real dangerthreateneth him.'
The Vizier assented, saying, 'Second, then, the Chief of Identicals?'
She answered, 'Nay, O my father; second, the weakness that's in man, andthe little probability of his finishing with Shagpat at one effort; andthere is but a sole chance for whoso attempteth, and if he faileth, 'tisforever he faileth.'
So the Vizier said, 'Even I knew not 'twas so grave! Third, then, theChief of Identicals?'
She replied, 'Third! which showeth the difficulty of the task. Read yenot, first, how the barber must come upon Shagpat and fix him for hisoperation; second, how the barber must be possessed of more than mortalstrength to master him in so many strokes; third, how the barber musthave a blade like no other blade in this world in sharpness, in temper,in velocity of sweep, that he may reap this crop which flourisheth onShagpat, and with it the magic hair which defieth edge of mortal blades?'
Now, the Vizier sighed at the words, saying, 'Powerful is Shagpat. I knewnot the thing I undertook. I fear his mastery of us, and we shall becontemned--objects for the red finger of scorn.'
Noorna turned to Shibli Bagarag and asked, 'Do the three bonds ofenterprise--vengeance, ambition, and love--shrink in thee from this greatcontest?'
Shibli Bagarag said, ''Tis terrible! on my head be it!'
She gazed at him a moment tenderly, and said, 'Thou art worthy of what isin store for thee, O my betrothed! and I think little of the dangers, incontemplation of the courage in thee. Lo, if vengeance and ambition spurthee so, how will not love when added to the two?'
Then said she, 'As to the enchantments and spells that shall overreachhim, and as to the blade wherewith to shear him?'
Feshnavat exclaimed, 'Yonder 's indeed where we stumble and are trippedat starting.'
But she cried, 'What if I know of a sword that nought on earth or underresisteth, and before the keen edge of which all Illusions and Identicalsare as summer grass to the scythe?'
They both shouted, 'The whereabout of that sword, O Noorna!'
So she said, ''Tis in Aklis, in the mountains of the Koosh; and the sevensons of Aklis sharpen it day and night till the adventurer cometh toclaim it for his occasion. Whoso succeedeth in coming to them they knowto have power over the sword, and 'tis then holiday for them. Many arethe impediments, and they are as holes where the fox haunteth. So theydeliver to his hand the sword till his object is attained, his Eventmastered, smitten through with it; and 'tis called the Sword of Events.Surely, with it the father of the Seven vanquished the mighty Roc,Kroojis, that threatened mankind with ruin, and a stain of the Roc'sblood is yet on the hilt of the sword. How sayest thou, OFeshnavat,--shall we devote ourselves to get possession of that Sword?'
So the Vizier brightened at her words, and said, 'O excellent in wisdomand star of counsel! speak further, and as to the means.'
Noorna bin Noorka continued, 'Thou knowest, O my father, I am proficientin the arts of magic, and I am what I am, and what I shall be, by itsuses. 'Tis known to thee also that I hold a Genie in bondage, and canutter ten spells and one spell in a breath. Surely my services to theyouth in his attainment of the Sword will be beyond price! Now to reachAklis and the Sword there are three things needed--charms: and one is aphial full of the waters of Paravid from the wells in the mountainyon-side the desert; and one, certain hairs that grow in the tail of thehorse Garraveen, he that roameth wild in the meadows of Melistan; andone, that the youth gather and bear to Aklis, for the white antelopeGulrevaz, the Lily of the Lovely Light that groweth in the hollow of thecrags over the Enchanted Sea: with these spells he will command the Swordof Aklis, and nothing can bar him passage. Moreover I will expend in hisaid all my subtleties, my transformations, the stores of my wisdom. Manyseek this Sword, and people the realms of Rabesqurat, or are beasts inAklis, or crowned Apes, or go to feed the Roc, Kroojis, in the abyssbeneath the Roc's-egg bridge; but there's virtue in Shibli Bagarag:wullahy! I am wistful in him of the hand of Destiny, and he will succeedin this undertaking if he dareth it.'
Shibli Bagarag cried, 'At thy bidding, O Noorna! Care I for dangers? I'mon fire to wield the Sword, and master the Event.'
Thereupon, Noorna bin Noorka arose instantly, and took him by the cheeksa tender pinch, and praised him. Then drew she round him a circle withher forefinger that left a mark like the shimmering of evanescent greenflame, saying, 'White was the day I set eyes on thee!' Round the Vizier,her father, she drew a like circle; and she took an unguent, and tracedwith it characters on the two circles, and letters of strange form,arrowy, lance-like, like leaning sheaves, and crouching baboons, andkicking jackasses, and cocks a-crow, and lutes slack-strung; and sheknelt and mumbled over and over words of magic, like the drone of a beeto hear, and as a roll of water, nothing distinguishable. After that shesought for an unguent of a red colour, and smeared it on a part of thefloor by the corner of the room, and wrote on it in silver fluid a wordthat was the word 'Eblis,' and over that likewise she droned awhile.Presently she arose with a white-heated face, the sweat on her brow, andsaid to Shibli Bagarag and Feshnavat hurriedly and in a harsh tone, 'How?have ye fear?'
They answered, 'Our faith is in Allah, our confidence in thee.'
Said she then, 'I summon the Genie I hold in bondage. He will bewrathful; but ye are secure from him. He's this moment in the farthestregion of earth, doing ill, as is his wont, and the wont of the stock ofEblis.'
So the Vizier said, 'He'll be no true helper, this Genie, and I care notfor his company.'
She answered, 'O my father! leave thou that to me. What says the poet?--
"It is the sapiency of fools, To shrink from handling evil tools."'
Now, while she was speaking, she suddenly inclined her ear as to adistant noise; but they heard nothing. Then, after again listening, shecried in a sharp voice, 'Ho! muffle your mouths with both hands, and stirnot from the ring of the circles, as ye value life and its blessings.'
So they did as she bade them, and watched her curiously. Lo! she swathedthe upper and lower part of her face in linen, leaving the lips and eyesexposed; and she took water from an ewer, and sprinkled it on her head,and on her arms and her feet, muttering incantations. Then she listened athird time, and stooped to the floor, and put her lips to it, and calledthe name, 'Karaz!' And she called this name seven times loudly, sneezingbetween whiles. Then, as it were in answer to her summons, there was adeep growl of thunder, and the palace rocked, tottering; and the airbecame smoky and full of curling vapours. Presently they were aware ofthe cry of a Cat, and its miaulings; and the patch of red unguent on thefloor parted and they beheld a tawny Cat with an arched back. So Noornabin Noorka frowned fiercely at the Cat, and cried, 'This is thy shape, OKaraz; change! for it
serves not the purpose.'
The Cat changed, and was a Leopard with glowing yellow eyes, crouched forthe spring. So Noorna bin Noorka stamped, and cried again, 'This is thyshape, O Karaz; change! for it serves not the purpose.'
And the Leopard changed, and was a Serpent with many folds, sleek,curled, venomous, hissing.
Noorna bin Noorka cried in wrath, 'This is thy shape, O Karaz; change! orthou'lt be no other till Eblis is accepted in Paradise.'
And the Serpent vanished. Lo! in its place a Genie of terrible aspect,black as a solitary tree seared by lightning; his forehead ridged andcloven with red streaks; his hair and ears reddened; his eyes like twohollow pits dug by the shepherd for the wolf, and the wolf in them. Heshouted, 'What work is it now, thou accursed traitress?'
Noorna replied, 'I've need of thee!'
He said, 'What shape?'
She answered, 'The shape of an Ass that will carry two on its back, thouPerversity!'
Upon that, he cried, 'O faithless woman, how long shall I be the slave ofthy plotting? Now, but for that hair of my head, plucked by thy handwhile I slept, I were free, no doer of thy tasks. Say, who be these thatmark us?'
She answered, 'One, the Vizier Feshnavat; and one, Shibli Bagarag ofShiraz, he that's destined to shave Shagpat, the son of Shimpoor, the sonof Shoolpi, the son of Shullum; and the youth is my betrothed.'
Now, at her words the whole Genie became as live coal with anger, and hepanted black and bright, and made a stride toward Shibli Bagarag, andstretched his arm out to seize him; but Noorna, blew quickly on thecircles she had drawn, and the circles rose up in a white flame high asthe heads of those present, and the Genie shrank hastily back from theflame, and was seized with fits of sneezing. Then she said in scorn,'Easily, O Karaz, is a woman outwitted! Surely I could not guess whatwould be thy action! and I was wanting in foresight and insight! and I ama woman bearing the weight of my power as a woodman staggereth under thelogs he hath felled!'
So she taunted him, and he still sneezing and bent double with the mightof the sneeze. Then said Noorna in a stern voice, 'No more altercationbetween us! Wait thou here till I reappear, Karaz!'
Thereupon, she went from them; and the two, Feshnavat and Shibli Bagarag,feared greatly being left with the Genie, for he became all colours, andloured on them each time that he ceased sneezing. He was clearly menacingthem when Noorna returned, and in her hand a saddle made of hide, tracedover with mystic characters and gold stripes.
So she cried, 'Take this!' Then, seeing he hesitated, she unclosed fromher left palm a powder, and scattered
it over him; and he grew meek, and the bending knee of obedience was his,and he took the saddle. So she said, ''Tis well! Go now, and wait outsidethe city in the shape of an Ass, with this saddle on thy back.'
The Genie groaned, and said, 'To hear is to obey!' And he departed withthose words, for she held him in bondage. Then she calmed down the whiteflames of the circles that enclosed Shibli Bagarag and the VizierFeshnavat, and they stepped forth, marvelling at the greatness of hersorceries that held such a Genie in bondage.