The Shaving of Shagpat | Page 6

noteworthy of thy race, thou, Shibli Bagarag, even thou!
and thou wilt be Master of the Event, so named in anecdotes and
histories and records, to all succeeding generations.'
At her words the breast of Shibli Bagarag took in a great wind, and he
hung his head a moment to ponder them; and he thought, 'There's
provokingness in the speech of this old woman, and she's one that
instigateth keenly. She called me by my name! Heard I that? 'Tis a
mystery!' And he thought, 'Peradventure she is a Genie, one of an ill
tribe, and she's luring me to my perdition in this city! How if that be
so?' And again he thought, 'It cannot be! She's probably the Genie that
presided over my birth, and promised me dower of great things through
the mouths of the readers of planets.'
Now, when Shibli Bagarag had so deliberated, he lifted his sight, and lo,
the old woman was no longer before him! He stared, and rubbed his
eyes, but she was clean gone. Then ran he to the knolls and eminences
that were scattered about, to command a view, but she was nowhere
visible. So he thought, ''Twas a dream!' and he was composing himself
to despair upon the scant herbage of one of those knolls, when as he
chanced to gaze down the city below, he saw there a commotion and a
crowd of people flocking one way; he thought, ''Twas surely no dream?
come not Genii, and go they not, in the fashion of that old woman? I'll
even descend on yonder city, and try my tackle on Shagpat, inquiring

for him, and if he is there, I shall know I have had to do with a potent
spirit. Allah protect me!'
So, having shut together the clasps of resolve, he arose and made for
the gates of the city, and entered it by the principal entrance. It was a
fair city, the fairest and chief of that country; prosperous, powerful; a
mart for numerous commodities, handicrafts, wares; round it a wild
country and a waste of sand, ruled by the lion in his wrath, and in it the
tiger, the camelopard, the antelope, and other animals. Hither, in
caravans, came the people of Oolb and the people of Damascus, and the
people of Vatz, and they of Bagdad, and the Ringheez, great traders,
and others, trading; and there was constant flow of intercourse between
them and the city of Shagpat. Now as Shibli Bagarag paced up one of
the streets of the city, he beheld a multitude in procession following
one that was crowned after the manner of kings, with a glittering crown,
clad in the yellow girdled robes, and he sporting a fine profusion of hair,
unequalled by all around him, save by one that was a little behind,
shadowed by his presence. So Shibli Bagarag thought, 'Is one of this
twain Shagpat? for never till now have I seen such rare growths, and
'twere indeed a bliss to slip the blade between them and those masses of
darkness that hang from them.' Then he stepped before the King, and
made himself prominent in his path, humbling himself; and it was as he
anticipated, the King prevented his removal by the slaves that would
have dragged him away, and desired a hearing as to his business, and
what brought him to the city, a stranger.
Thereupon Shibli Bagarag prostrated himself and cried, 'O great King,
Sovereign of the Time! surely I am one to be looked on with the eye of
grace; and I am nephew to Baba Mustapha, renowned in Shiraz, a
barber;--I a barber, and it is my prayer, O King of the Age, that thou
take me under thy protection and the shield of thy fair will, while I
perform good work in this city by operating on the unshorn.'
When he had spoken, the King made a point of his eyebrows, and
exclaimed, 'Shiraz? So they hold out against Shagpat yet, aha? Shiraz!
that nest of them! that reptile's nest!' Then he turned to his Vizier
beside him, and said, 'What shall be done with this fellow?'

So the Vizier replied, ''Twere well, O King, he be summoned to a sense
of the loathsomeness of his craft by the agency of fifty stripes.'
The King said, ''Tis commanded!'
Then he passed forward in his majesty, and Shibli Bagarag was ware of
the power of five slaves upon him, and he was hurried at a quick pace
through the streets and before the eyes of the people, even to the
common receptacle of felons, and there received from each slave
severally ten thwacks with a thong: 'tis certain that at every thwack the
thong took an airing before it descended upon him. Then loosed they