第18章 THE FISHERMAN AND HIS SOUL(5)

'How shall we meet?'cried the young Fisherman.'Thou wilt not follow me into the depths of the sea?'

'Once every year I will come to this place,and call to thee,'said the Soul.'It may be that thou wilt have need of me.'

'What need should I have of thee?'cried the young Fisherman,'but be it as thou wilt,'and he plunged into the waters and the Tritons blew their horns and the little Mermaid rose up to meet him,and put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth.

And the Soul stood on the lonely beach and watched them.And when they had sunk down into the sea,it went weeping away over the marshes.

And after a year was over the Soul came down to the shore of the sea and called to the young Fisherman,and he rose out of the deep,and said,'Why dost thou call to me?'

And the Soul answered,'Come nearer,that I may speak with thee,for I have seen marvellous things.'

So he came nearer,and couched in the shallow water,and leaned his head upon his hand and listened.

And the Soul said to him,'When I left thee I turned my face to the East and journeyed.From the East cometh everything that is wise.

Six days I journeyed,and on the morning of the seventh day I came to a hill that is in the country of the Tartars.I sat down under the shade of a tamarisk tree to shelter myself from the sun.The land was dry and burnt up with the heat.The people went to and fro over the plain like flies crawling upon a disk of polished copper.

'When it was noon a cloud of red dust rose up from the flat rim of the land.When the Tartars saw it,they strung their painted bows,and having leapt upon their little horses they galloped to meet it.

The women fled screaming to the waggons,and hid themselves behind the felt curtains.

'At twilight the Tartars returned,but five of them were missing,and of those that came back not a few had been wounded.They harnessed their horses to the waggons and drove hastily away.

Three jackals came out of a cave and peered after them.Then they sniffed up the air with their nostrils,and trotted off in the opposite direction.

'When the moon rose I saw a camp-fire burning on the plain,and went towards it.A company of merchants were seated round it on carpets.Their camels were picketed behind them,and the negroes who were their servants were pitching tents of tanned skin upon the sand,and making a high wall of the prickly pear.

'As I came near them,the chief of the merchants rose up and drew his sword,and asked me my business.

'I answered that I was a Prince in my own land,and that I had escaped from the Tartars,who had sought to make me their slave.

The chief smiled,and showed me five heads fixed upon long reeds of bamboo.

'Then he asked me who was the prophet of God,and I answered him Mohammed.

'When he heard the name of the false prophet,he bowed and took me by the hand,and placed me by his side.A negro brought me some mare's milk in a wooden dish,and a piece of lamb's flesh roasted.

'At daybreak we started on our journey.I rode on a red-haired camel by the side of the chief,and a runner ran before us carrying a spear.The men of war were on either hand,and the mules followed with the merchandise.There were forty camels in the caravan,and the mules were twice forty in number.

'We went from the country of the Tartars into the country of those who curse the Moon.We saw the Gryphons guarding their gold on the white rocks,and the scaled Dragons sleeping in their caves.As we passed over the mountains we held our breath lest the snows might fall on us,and each man tied a veil of gauze before his eyes.As we passed through the valleys the Pygmies shot arrows at us from the hollows of the trees,and at night-time we heard the wild men beating on their drums.When we came to the Tower of Apes we set fruits before them,and they did not harm us.When we came to the Tower of Serpents we gave them warm milk in howls of brass,and they let us go by.Three times in our journey we came to the banks of the Oxus.We crossed it on rafts of wood with great bladders of blown hide.The river-horses raged against us and sought to slay us.When the camels saw them they trembled.

'The kings of each city levied tolls on us,but would not suffer us to enter their gates.They threw us bread over the walls,little maize-cakes baked in honey and cakes of fine flour filled with dates.For every hundred baskets we gave them a bead of amber.

'When the dwellers in the villages saw us coming,they poisoned the wells and fled to the hill-summits.We fought with the Magadae who are born old,and grow younger and younger every year,and die when they are little children;and with the Laktroi who say that they are the sons of tigers,and paint themselves yellow and black;and with the Aurantes who bury their dead on the tops of trees,and themselves live in dark caverns lest the Sun,who is their god,should slay them;and with the Krimnians who worship a crocodile,and give it earrings of green glass,and feed it with butter and fresh fowls;and with the Agazonbae,who are dog-faced;and with the Sibans,who have horses'feet,and run more swiftly than horses.A third of our company died in battle,and a third died of want.The rest murmured against me,and said that I had brought them an evil fortune.I took a horned adder from beneath a stone and let it sting me.When they saw that I did not sicken they grew afraid.

'In the fourth month we reached the city of Illel.It was night-time when we came to the grove that is outside the walls,and the air was sultry,for the Moon was travelling in Scorpion.We took the ripe pomegranates from the trees,and brake them,and drank their sweet juices.Then we lay down on our carpets,and waited for the dawn.

'And at dawn we rose and knocked at the gate of the city.It was wrought out of red bronze,and carved with sea-dragons and dragons that have wings.The guards looked down from the battlements and asked us our business.The interpreter of the caravan answered that we had come from the island of Syria with much merchandise.

They took hostages,and told us that they would open the gate to us at noon,and bade us tarry till then.