The Hungry Stones | Page 7

to point to something below. There was nothing there, but a
sudden dread froze the blood in my heart-methought I saw there on the
floor at the foot of the screen a terrible negro eunuch dressed in rich
brocade, sitting and dozing with outstretched legs, with a naked sword

on his lap. My fair guide lightly tripped over his legs and held up a
fringe of the screen. I could catch a glimpse of a part of the room
spread with a Persian carpet--some one was sitting inside on a bed--I
could not see her, but only caught a glimpse of two exquisite feet in
gold-embroidered slippers, hanging out from loose saffron-coloured
paijamas and placed idly on the orange-coloured velvet carpet. On one
side there was a bluish crystal tray on which a few apples, pears,
oranges, and bunches of grapes in plenty, two small cups and a gold-
tinted decanter were evidently waiting the guest. A fragrant
intoxicating vapour, issuing from a strange sort of incense that burned
within, almost overpowered my senses.
As with trembling heart I made an attempt to step across the
outstretched legs of the eunuch, he woke up suddenly with a start, and
the sword fell from his lap with a sharp clang on the marble floor. A
terrific scream made me jump, and I saw I was sitting on that camp-
bedstead of mine sweating heavily; and the crescent moon looked pale
in the morning light like a weary sleepless patient at dawn; and our
crazy Meher Ali was crying out, as is his daily custom, "Stand back!
Stand back!!" while he went along the lonely road.
Such was the abrupt close of one of my Arabian Nights; but there were
yet a thousand nights left.
Then followed a great discord between my days and nights. During the
day I would go to my work worn and tired, cursing the bewitching
night and her empty dreams, but as night came my daily life with its
bonds and shackles of work would appear a petty, false, ludicrous
vanity.
After nightfall I was caught and overwhelmed in the snare of a strange
intoxication, I would then be transformed into some unknown
personage of a bygone age, playing my part in unwritten history; and
my short English coat and tight breeches did not suit me in the least.
With a red velvet cap on my head, loose paijamas, an embroidered vest,
a long flowing silk gown, and coloured handkerchiefs scented with
attar, I would complete my elaborate toilet, sit on a high-cushioned
chair, and replace my cigarette with a many-coiled narghileh filled with
rose-water, as if in eager expectation of a strange meeting with the
beloved one.
I have no power to describe the marvellous incidents that unfolded

themselves, as the gloom of the night deepened. I felt as if in the
curious apartments of that vast edifice the fragments of a beautiful story,
which I could follow for some distance, but of which I could never see
the end, flew about in a sudden gust of the vernal breeze. And all the
same I would wander from room to room in pursuit of them the whole
night long.
Amid the eddy of these dream-fragments, amid the smell of henna and
the twanging of the guitar, amid the waves of air charged with fragrant
spray, I would catch like a flash of lightning the momentary glimpse of
a fair damsel. She it was who had saffron-coloured paijamas, white
ruddy soft feet in gold-embroidered slippers with curved toes, a close-
fitting bodice wrought with gold, a red cap, from which a golden frill
fell on her snowy brow and cheeks.
She had maddened me. In pursuit of her I wandered from room to room,
from path to path among the bewildering maze of alleys in the
enchanted dreamland of the nether world of sleep.
Sometimes in the evening, while arraying myself carefully as a prince
of the blood-royal before a large mirror, with a candle burning on either
side, I would see a sudden reflection of the Persian beauty by the side
of my own. A swift turn of her neck, a quick eager glance of intense
passion and pain glowing in her large dark eyes, just a suspicion of
speech on her dainty red lips, her figure, fair and slim crowned with
youth like a blossoming creeper, quickly uplifted in her graceful tilting
gait, a dazzling flash of pain and craving and ecstasy, a smile and a
glance and a blaze of jewels and silk, and she melted away. A wild glist
of wind, laden with all the fragrance of hills and woods, would put out
my light, and I would fling aside my dress and lie down on my bed, my
eyes closed and my body thrilling