IX
Al-Jamal Wa’l-Nakhl, or “Camels and Dates”
When the hour of public execution had arrived the boys came timorously into their rich uncle’s presence, and seating themselves upon the expensive carpet at the feet of his divan, prepared to hear the continuation of his adventures.
That excellent old man began as follows:
“I warn you, my children, that the path to wealth, which (by the Mercy of Allah) I have been allowed to tread, is varied and difficult. Profit by my misadventures! Remain determined to enrich yourselves, even after the worst mishaps! Yea! After wealth and poverty (like mine) renewed wealth and (alas!) renewed poverty never despair. Still hold to gold and still determine your fate. Still thirst for money. But all the while most reverently worship Him the Supreme, the All-compelling, the Giver of Great bags of coin. No talent in the deception of individuals or the gulling of the crowd can of itself bring the great reward. The acquirement of those immense sums which are the chief glory of man, is, like all else, in the Hand of God.
“My brother, your worthy though impecunious father, has sufficiently grounded you in the essentials of our holy religion. You will not repine if you turn out to be one of the ninety-nine who end their lives in the gutter, rather than the blessed hundredth who attains, as I have attained, to the possession of a palace and of innumerable slaves. …”
Having so spoken the aged merchant bent for a moment in silent prayer and then proceeded:
“You will remember that at the conclusion of my last adventure I had reached a position, not of affluence, but at least of tolerable fortune. I was possessed of a train of camels, each heavily laden with two large panniers of dates, and drivers to conduct the whole.
“You will further remember how, on my arrival in Laknes, as I was anxious to make the best of my time I spoke freely to all of my merchandise, extolled its character, described how I intended to put it up for sale next day in the public markets, and spread abroad the name of Ishmaïl-of-Taftah which happened for the moment to be mine.
“The rumour spread (as I had intended it should). I strolled through the narrow streets of the town after sunset, and was glad to hear my arrival discussed, and my wares. I had promise for the morrow. I returned to my men.
“I had already spread out my bed upon the corner of the yard, when there came up a slave magnificently dressed, who bowed to the ground, and approaching my presence asked whether he had the honour and felicity to address the renowned merchant Ishmaïl. He bore an invitation from the greatest merchant in the city, whose name I had already heard half a dozen times in Taftah, and whom all the merchants there revered from afar for his enormous riches: a certain Yusouff ben Ahmed, also called ‘El-Zafari,’ or the Triumphant.
“Late as was the hour I purchased finery; with my last gold I hired a donkey of strange magnificence, and arrived at the palace of Yusouff, dressed in a fashion which I could ill afford, but which I regarded as an investment.
“I had expected to find within this palace that admirable simplicity of manner which is inseparable from really great wealth: Nor was I disappointed. The inner room to which I was led, encrusted everywhere with black marble, boasted no ornament save three white alabaster jars as tall as a man and of immense antiquity. They had formerly been the property of a young noble whom Yusouff had ruined, and he had them of the Sultan. In the midst shone the single pure flame of a massive silver lamp, rifled from the tomb of a saint. It now hung dependent from a chain of the same metal, the height of which was lost in the gloom of the lofty cupola.
“A fountain of scented water—I could not name its odour precisely, but I guessed it to be Fior de Goyim—plashed gently into a basin of porphyry at the end of the apartment.
“Yusouff and two other guests (who alone had been asked to meet me), rose from the exceedingly costly rugs of Persia whereon they had reclined, and gravely saluted me. The master of the house, after the first salutations and an invocation upon my head of the Mercy of Allah, told me that the feast was ready prepared, but that before summoning it he would ask me to honour the house and survey what poor ornaments he might be able to show me.
“I was expressly delighted at his tone. It was that which I had already heard to be native to princes of commerce. He had already acquired, in the few years that had elapsed since he had cleaned the streets for a living, a well-bred restraint of gesture, and when he spoke it was in the tone of one who thought negligible the whole world, including his guest. I prayed fervently, as I accompanied the leisurely steps of my great entertainer, that when I should have achieved a similar fortune I should myself as quickly acquire this distinctive manner of the great. I watched him narrowly in order to imitate (when I should have left his presence) those peculiar little details which mark affluence and are of such service in negotiation. He would often interpose words of his own into the midst of another’s sentence. It pleased him not to answer some repeated question. He would change the conversation at his pleasure without too much regard for what I might have been saying immediately before. He also turned to another guest, while I was addressing him and in every way showed his superiority.
“When we had sat down to meat I was further edified by the varied information, the extensive culture of my host. He would lead the talk on to some subject which he had recently acquired from his numerous secretaries, and dally upon it at a length which would have been tedious in one of lesser station. But all this was done with such an air of money that it was impossible to feel the slightest tedium, though his minute description of things which we all knew by heart extended more than once to a full quarter of an hour.
“During the progress of this divine repast I noted with pleasure that the distinguished master of the house never once introduced the subject of my affairs.
“I would have you remember, my dear nephews,” said Mahmoud at this point, “that nothing is less pleasing in a merchant, especially in one of approved success, than the introduction of profit and loss at a meal; for profit and loss are of such profound importance that their mere mention must distract from the legitimate pleasures of the table.
“It was not until a late hour, when the two other guests (whose insignificant names I have not attempted to retain) had arisen to depart, that affairs began.
“With the subtle tact of commercial genius my host retained me, gripping my arm. I ventured in the absence of any witness to say a few words upon what was nearest my heart: I asked him ‘How were dates?’
“To my delight he proved affable. He unbent in a degree unworthy of so small an occasion and listened with the greatest attention to my simple tale. I told him frankly that I had with me at the moment but few camels (I was under no necessity to confess that I had not another asset in the world). I suggested by my negligent tone that such a number could hardly be called a caravan and was little more than a distraction with which I amused myself on my travels. I then dropped the fact that I had loaded them—more as a pastime than anything else—with a few dates.
“At this second mention of the word ‘dates’ the face of Yusouff-the-Blessed suddenly changed. He at first cast his eyes down in an expression of real concern. Then, looking up at me anxiously and steadily, he said:
“ ‘This is no affair of mine. … You may resent my interference.’
“I assured him that I desired nothing more than a hint from one so favoured of Heaven. How I had better dispose of my trifling merchandise? I was more anxious to hear his reply than it is possible to say!
“He sighed heavily, shook his head, and answered with a certain familiarity that I could not resent:
“ ‘My poor friend … !’
“He then sighed again and added:
“ ‘I really do not see how I can advise you. … The truth is that dates will from henceforth be almost unsaleable here. There has lately taken place—indeed it was but last week—an extraordinary thing. The mother of our Emir—the dowager—has left by will the whole of her immense date groves in trust to the nation with orders that regular weekly distribution shall be made free to all the citizens. We are bidden praise her generosity and the masses are of course delighted. But it is ruin for the poor merchants whose stock of dates are now so much dross. They cannot sell to our neighbours in the country over the border, for these hold dates to be evil from their effect in giving the toothache. Their new law, called the Date Prohibition Act, is of the most rigorous kind. I have myself (from a sense of public duty) bought up the greater portion at a ruinous loss to prevent the failure of smaller men and to avoid a panic. I have sacrificed myself to the public good.’ He sighed heavily once more and was silent.
“You may imagine, my dear nephews, the effect of this news upon your unfortunate uncle! The panniers of dates (two for each camel) were, save the animals themselves, all that I had in the world. I had traversed the waste at the cost of much labour, infinite privation, and mortal perils, precisely because this district had the reputation of being by far the best market for dates, and here was I, with an enemy left behind me, alone in the world, and my sole venture ruined. … I remembered my dreadful poverty, only so recently past, and I shuddered as I considered those unsaleable dates and my black future! Before me was a country where dates were rigorously forbidden by law; behind me a hue and cry. Despair was in my heart!
“Though I trust I have a sufficient degree of the arts essential to our profession, Yusouff must have guessed my thoughts. Ignoring my former statement that the goods I had with me were but a toy, and that I was indifferent to their fate, he expressed the deepest sympathy with my plight and begged me to bear with him while he reflected within himself how he might be of service.
“Having said this he covered his face with his right hand, bowed his head, leant his elbow upon his knee, and for some moments was plunged in what merchants use as thought. When he raised his face I was shocked to see how haggard it had become, and I marvelled that one so circumstanced should care so much for the chance misfortunes of a stranger. But I had read that these Princes of Commerce were often of tenderest heart and that one should never be surprised at any freak of generosity on their part.
“Judge therefore of my delight on hearing Yusouff say in a determined voice that he had concluded upon the only issue and that he would purchase my dates himself!
“ ‘I cannot’ (he frankly added) ‘give you as good a price even as I could have given a day or two ago; the old Queen’s idea of free dates has swamped everything. But I will pay a good quarter of the customary price—which is far more than you now could obtain elsewhere. I am very wealthy. You are a stranger and, as it were, our guest in this town. A good deed is never thrown away. Perhaps some day I shall be glad of your aid also. I have seen you a few hours only, but I think we know each other’s hearts already. Moreover, I do not conceal it from you, I may save much of the loss. I have special correspondents in distant towns, and opportunities of sale which others do not possess. … Come! I’ll do it! I will offer you this price of one-third. It is but a poor price,’ said he, sighing yet again most heavily, ‘but it is far, far better than no price at all.’
“My relief was beyond words. I had seen myself leaving my merchandise unsold or sacrificing it at a ruinous nothing. That which Yusouff offered me was the difference between despair and a shred of hope, and though the loss was severe it left me at least with some capital for a further venture.
“Great men have a sort of simplicity in their dealings. Hardly had Yusouff discovered my gratitude and my immediate acceptance of his gift (for I could call it by no other name), than the princely fellow clapped his hands, sent for his treasurer, and had counted to me upon the spot a hundred pieces of gold. I gave him my writing of delivery, which he handed to another slave with a few words in a low voice. Then he continued to talk to me, for he was determined to detain me far into the night. Indeed it was near dawn before he whom I will now call my friend, and to whom I felt bound for life by the greatest ties of grateful affection, allowed me to pass his gates and to return to my hostelry.
“There I found that my panniers had already been removed and their contents conveyed to the purchaser’s warehouse. I admired the promptitude in business which so often accompanies a generous heart.
“With the early hours of the next day, before the sun had yet acquired too great power, I strolled through the bazaar, not so much cast down at the thought of my loss as cheered by the recollection that I possessed, after all, one hundred good pieces of solid gold.
“With a malicious pleasure I approached the stall of a fruit-seller. Putting down a small copper coin I begged him for a handful of dates.
“ ‘I need not full measure,’ said I, ‘only a handful to munch as I go along.’ For I knew that in the state of the market my penny might have purchased a gallon. I desired to show a neglect for small sums.
“To my surprise the fruit-seller stared at me and said:
“ ‘Dates? From what country do you come that you ask for dates in our town?’
“ ‘Why!’ said I, ‘is there not a glut of these? I am told the place is overflowing with them.’
“ ‘There is One-who-judges,’ said the fruit-seller resignedly. ‘But as for dates—you will not find one in the whole town; our last month’s arrival was pillaged by robbers in the hills. If you will but procure me a single gallon I will readily give in return two pieces of gold, so great is the demand. Of supply there is none whatever, nor, alas! any prospect of such.’
“I was so bewildered that I hardly know what next I said, but at any rate, in reply to it, my new acquaintance told me that there were, indeed, suspected to be certain dates in the possession of Yusouff-the-Triumphant, ‘who’ (he remarked aside) ‘has all the luck.’ He next said it was also rumoured that Yusouff’s slaves had been seen in the last hours of the night going in procession with a great number of panniers laden on mules towards Yusouff’s warehouse, and those who brought the news swore that they could smell the smell of dates.
“ ‘But beyond that smell,’ he ended, ‘we have had nothing of dates in the place for three weeks. And if you understood our habit in the matter of food you would feel for us!’
“I have already described to you, my dear nephews, my admiration for Yusouff-the-Triumphant. Long before I had seen him his distant reputation had inflamed me. My brief acquaintance with him had exalted that feeling to what I had thought the highest pitch. But now it passed all bounds. A man so subtle in negotiations! So ready in affairs! So rapid and conclusive in a bargain! With so marvellous a command of feature and of tone! A man (in a word) so infinitely my superior in that profession of commerce to which Allah calls all great souls and in which I also was engaged! Such a man I had never thought to meet! Nay—I had never thought such a one to exist upon this poor earth. I could have kissed the ground upon which he walked or have borne upon me forever, as a relic, some thread of his purse.
“ ‘Here,’ I exclaimed, ‘is the true merchant! Here is the model of all that a man of affairs should be! Oh! Mahmoud, you thought yourself something in your trade, but you have met your master, and more than your master! You have met one who is to you as the most holy of saintly men is to the basest of the Kafir. There is none on earth like him. Allah has raised him beyond all others.
“But it is not enough, my dear nephews,” continued the old man, whose eyes were now filled with a sort of sacred light, “it is not enough to admire those who set us great examples. We should also imitate them. I determined after so rare an experience to follow as best I might in the footsteps of one who had shown himself raised high above the level of mortality.
“ ‘Him,’ said I to myself, ‘him will I copy! He shall be my guide! His manner and his tone, on that unforgettable evening, shall be my exact model! Then perhaps in time I shall do as he has done and accumulate so great a store of money as shall put me among the greatest of mankind.’
“I hastened to summon my slaves. I paid my score for the stabling, and as I looked at my small capital and surveyed my beasts I hesitated what I should do. Yusouff-the-Triumphant had, by God’s special grace overshadowing him, got hold of my substance. Nothing was left me but the camels. In such a strait I abandoned the thought of men and turned at once to heaven. I lifted up my heart to my Maker and prayed for guidance. He that has never for very long abandoned His servant answered my prayer with singular alacrity, for even as I prayed I heard two men who passed me muttering one to the other.
“The first, as they hurried along, was saying in fearful undertones:
“ ‘They have not yet a camel among them! Yet camels they must have or the terrible sentence will be pronounced!’
“ ‘Yes!’ returned his companion in a horrified whisper, ‘I fear greatly for my relatives in that town, and I am proceeding there to make certain that they shall have at least one camel in so terrible a time! For if a sufficiency of camels is not there by tomorrow noon I hear they are all to be impaled!’
“So speaking in subdued accents of terror, little knowing they were overheard, they walked on while I followed and noted every word.
“My mind was immediately made up. I continued, with stealthy feet, to follow these two anxious beings who were so engrossed in the coming misfortunes of their native place. At last, when we had come to an empty space where three streets met, I caught them up and faced them. Accosting them I said:
“ ‘Sirs, are you bound for such and such a place?’ (naming a town of which they could never have heard—for indeed it did not exist).
“They stopped and looked at me in surprise.
“ ‘No, sir,’ they answered me together, ‘we are bound in all haste for our native place which is threatened with a great calamity. Its name is Mawur, but, alas, it is far distant from us—a matter of some twenty leagues—the desert lies between, and we shall hardly reach it within the day that remains. For we are poor men, and only with fast camels’ (at this word they glanced at each other and shuddered) ‘could the journey be accomplished in the time.’
“I thanked them politely, regretted that I had disturbed them for so little, proceeded with the utmost haste to my caravan, inquired the road for Mawur (the track for which lay plain through the scrub and across the sand), and hastened with the utmost dispatch all that burning day and all the succeeding night without repose, until at dawn I passed with my exhausted train through the gates of the city. I had covered in twenty hours twice as many leagues.
“Five of my beasts I left upon the road; and some few of my slaves—how many I had not yet counted—had fallen out and would presumably die in the desert. But there was a good remainder.
“Unfortunately I was not alone in my venture, for I discovered that early as was the hour another man had arrived already with two camels and was standing with them under the dawn in the marketplace. Poor beasts they were, and bearing every mark of fatigue. But I was determined upon a monopoly. I had hoped from the conversation I had overheard that not a single camel would be present in the place. I would secure myself against even the slightest competition. I approached the leader of the two sorry camels and asked him there and then what he would take for his cattle. He stared at me for a moment, but to my astonishment when I offered him for a beginning the derisory price of ten pieces of gold, he accepted at once, put the coins into his pouch, smiled evilly, and moved off at a great pace.
“To my chagrin there approached within a very few moments yet another peasant, leading this time but one camel, a rather finer beast than the others. I hoped, I believed, he would be the last. I made haste to follow the same tactics with him as with the first. Like the first he took the five gold pieces without so much as bargaining, but he looked me up and down strangely before shrugging his shoulders and taking himself off hastily down a side lane.
“And then (the people beginning to drift into the street as the day rose) appeared a man leading not less than ten camels in a file. I was seriously alarmed, but I bethought me of my reading: how all great fortunes had been acquired by speculation, how caution and other petty virtues were the bane of true trade. I boldly approached him and offered him my remaining gold for the whole bunch. Instead of meeting my offer with a higher claim, he asked to look narrowly at the pieces, and then looked as narrowly into my face. He took one of the gold pieces and bit it. He stooped and rang it upon the cobblestones. He determined apparently that it was good, and without another word took my gold, appealed to those around us as witnesses to the transaction, handed me the leading cord, and with a burst of laughter ran off at top speed.
“Here, then, was I with my thirteen new camels and what was left of my original caravan. I will not deny that I was somewhat disturbed in mind; but I could only trust in Allah. I did so with the utmost fervour, and implored Him to consider His servant, and to see to it that not another camel should reach the town before I began to sell.
“But what is man? What is he that he should order the movements of the Most High?
“I lifted up my eyes and saw approaching down the narrowness of the street a file of certainly not less than one hundred camels led by a great company of ragged men and walking with that insolent and foolish air which this beast affects and which at such a moment provoked me to rage.
“Then a slave, trembling lest he should give me offence, bade me come apart with him where steps led up the city wall. These I climbed, and from the summit I saw a sight that broke my heart.
“For there, across the plain that surrounded the city, came such a mass of camels as I hardly thought the universe contained. They came in batches of twenty, fifty, two hundred, herds and flocks of camels, driven, led, ridden, conducted in every shape from one direction and another, through the desert and cultivated land, from track and path, a very foison and cataract of camels. It was as though all the camels of Arabia, India, Bactria, and Syria had been summoned to this one place.
“And, alas, so they had! or at least as many as the king of that region could command. …
“For this was the explanation. …”
Here the old man’s eyes grew dim with tears, his voice faltered, and in spite of his present riches he broke down at the recollection of his past ill-fortune.
“Oh, my dear nephews,” he said in broken accents, “hardly will you believe the magnitude of my misfortune! For it turned out, as I eagerly questioned the people of the place, that a war having broken out against their king on account of the Date Prohibition of which I have told you, that ruthless monarch had ordered them to collect as best they might so many thousands of camels to be present within the walls by noon of that day, or suffer massacre. If the full tale were not present every man, woman, and child would be killed. For he had been suddenly alarmed by this declaration of war and caught with an insufficient provision of sumpter beasts. His Emirs had advised him that his salvation lay in seizing without payment every beast for leagues around.
“In proportion as my soul sank so did the hearts of the townsmen rise, to see the number gradually fulfilled. By noon all was well for them—but very ill for me! The officers of the king arrived, the beasts were counted and set apart, with not an ounce of copper to pay for any one of them! All seized! And my poor herd, alone and in that vast multitude, suffered the fate of all the rest, and, what was worse, every one of my slaves—all were taken off to serve as drivers.
“There in a far land, alone, I stood, with not a gold piece left in my pouch and not a head of cattle to my name; once more quite destitute.
“I spent the remainder of that day debating whether to hang myself on a beam or throw myself from a minaret. The arguments in favour of either course were so evenly balanced that the sun set before I could decide between them, and even at sunset there appeared, through the Mercy of Allah, a new relief.”
“There did?” said the second of the nephews eagerly, but before his uncle could reply the intolerable noise of the muezzin was heard and the boys, rising at the signal, bowed low to their uncle and were gone.