Mr. Isaacs | Page 8

awake and lying on the
steps, watching the wondrous ruler of my fate. And as I looked he
glided down from his starry throne with an easy swinging motion, like
a soap-bubble settling to the earth. And the star came and poised
among the branches of the palm-tree over the tank, opalescent,
unearthly, heart shaking. His face was as the face of the prophet, whose
name be blessed, and his limbs were as the limbs of the
Hameshaspenthas of old. Garments he had none, being of heavenly
birth, but he was clothed with light as with a garment, and the crest of
his silver hair was to him a crown of glory. And he spoke with the
tongues of a thousand lutes, sweet strong tones, that rose and fell on the
night air as the song of a lover beneath the lattice of his mistress, the
song of the mighty star wooing the beautiful sleeping earth. And then
he looked on me and said: 'Abdul Hafiz, be of good cheer. I am with

thee and will not forsake thee, even to the day when thou shalt pass
over the burning bridge of death. Thou shalt touch the diamond of the
rivers and the pearl of the sea, and they shall abide with thee, and great
shall be thy wealth. And the sunlight which is in the diamond shall
warm thee and comfort thy heart; and the moonlight which is in the
pearl shall give thee peace in the night-time, and thy children shall be
to thee a garland of roses in the land of the unbeliever.' And the star
floated down from the palm-branches and touched me with his hand,
and breathed upon my lips the cool breath of the outer firmament, and
departed. Then I awoke and saw him again in his place far down the
horizon, and he was alone, for the dawn was in the sky and the lesser
lights were extinguished. And I rose from the stony stairway that
seemed like a bed of flowers for the hopeful dream, and I turned
westward, and praised Allah, and went my way.
"The sun being up, all was life, and the life in me spoke of a most
capacious appetite. So I cast about for a shop where I might buy a little
food with my few coppers, and seeing a confectioner spreading out his
wares, I went near and took stock of the queer balls of flour and sugar,
and strange oily-looking sweetmeats. Having selected what I thought
would be within my modest means, I addressed the shopkeeper to call
his attention, though I knew he would not understand me, and I touched
with my hand the article I wanted, showing with the other some of the
small coins I had. As soon as I touched the sweetmeats the man became
very angry, and bounding from his seat called his neighbours together,
and they all shouted and screamed at me, and called a man I thought to
be a soldier, though he looked more like an ape in his long loose
trousers of dirty black, and his untidy red turban, under which
cumbrous garments his thin and stunted frame seemed even blacker and
more contemptible than nature had made them. I afterwards discovered
him to be one of the Bombay police. He seized me by the arm, and I,
knowing I had done no wrong, and curious to discover, if possible,
what the trouble was, accompanied him whither he led me. After
waiting many hours in a kind of little shed where there were more
policemen, I was brought before an Englishman. Of course all attempts
at explanation were useless. I could speak not a word of anything but
Arabic and Persian, and no one present understood either. At last, when

I was in despair, trying to muster a few words of Greek I had learned in
Istamboul, and failing signally therein, an old man with a long beard
looked curiously in at the door of the crowded court. Some instinct told
me to appeal to him, and I addressed him in Arabic. To my infinite
relief he replied in that tongue, and volunteered to be interpreter. In a
few moments I learned that my crime was that I had touched the
sweetmeats on the counter.
"In India, as you who have lived here doubtless know, it is a criminal
offence, punishable by fine or imprisonment, for a non-Hindu person to
defile the food of even the lowest caste man. To touch one sweetmeat
in a trayful defiles the whole baking, rendering it all unfit for the use of
any Hindu, no matter how mean. Knowing nothing of caste and its
prejudices, it was with the greatest difficulty that the moolah, who was
trying to help me out of