Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

draught. He stood motionless by the side of the lonely pool, and lifted up his eyes, and blessed Allah aloud for his mercy—that he had regard to the desire of his soul.

It was now time to depart, for the sun was setting; its last rays were cast on a city that was not far distant, and thither he bent his steps, first placing next his heart the goblet, and tying his sash tightly over it. In a few days he purchased a house, and hired servants in that city, and bought horses of the purest blood of Yemen. In the close of the day he loved to walk in his garden, and afterwards fair slaves waited on him, for he thought no more of his humble though beautiful wife and his sweet children. But in the town on the sea-shore they did not cease to mourn, and to say, "Azrael has taken from us the light of our eyes;" and their friends also sorrowed with them.

It so happened--for nothing in this world should astonish us-that his neighbour the baker, who had lived on the other side of the street, was seized also with the thirst of riches. His trade was gainful: his loaves were the best and whitest in the whole town, and the sunrise and sunset still found him at the mouth of his oven, smilingly serving his customers, praising his bustling wife, who was ever at his side, and pleasantry on his lips. But now, this slow gathering of wealth no longer satisfied him; he prayed Allah that he would increase it more rapidly. One day he felt something hard in his hand, and, on looking closer, found it was a gold mahmoudie. He put it on the shelf, and, wanting some meat for dinner, went to the butcher's, purchased some, and received the change. What was his surprise, to find the mahmoudie once more in his vest on his return! Again and again he changed it, and still he found that it ever multiplied itself, and would be to him a source of slow, but never-ending affluence. He concealed his emotions, even from the wife of his bosom; and though he followed his business as usual, it was evident to all that his views were elevated beyond it: his carriage was more constrained; and his words and smiles, that used to fall like the dew on the herb, were now few and cold. This secret was like a stifled fire within him; he took his resolution, and, going one night to the port, took passage on board a vessel that sailed quickly after. It so happened that this bark was bound to the same port as the one in which the weaver sailed: unused to the sea, he also prayed to be landed on the nearest shore, and soon found his way to the same city. Here after a time he purchased a house and garden. Oh, how sweet to his soul was the first taste of riches! the mouth of his oven no more waited for him, to prepare bread and cakes for the faithful--no smoke and heat, nor clash of gabbling tongues around. He turned disgusted from the remembrance, and bade his slave bring odours, and fill his goblet to the brim. One day he went to the chief coffee-house in the city: a movement was soon heard in the place; the people who were near him gave way, and a richlydressed man entered, attended by many slaves. He sat down, looked with a princely air around him, and addressed himself to the baker, who was much flattered by his attention. Ere long, however, looking attentively, in spite of the dyed and perfumed beard, that fell black as the raven's wing on his bosom, he recognised his former neighbour the silkThe latter smiled graciously on him, kindly invited him to his house, and told him of the cause of his present splendour. The baker sighed deeply, and said to himself,

weaver.

"Of what avail to me are the gifts of Allah? that wretched weaver, on whom I looked down in our town as a poor drudge, who gained just enough every day to support his wife and children, is now as the princes of the earth; and riches flow unto him as the waves on the shore, while mine are only as the drops of rain on the sand, quickly dried up! When evening came, he dressed himself, to go to the house of his friend: its splendour astonished him; the many lights thrown from gold and silver lamps, made the chambers seem like the day. The owner, seated on a rich divan, pressed his hand with a pleasant smile, and soon after they sat down to the banquet, that consisted of all manner of luxuries. Fixing his eyes on the splendid robe of his host, and then at his own plainer one, "O Allah! Allah!" he said, in a piercing tone, lifting his eyes to the roof, while his hand still clenched the glass; "why didst thou give the stone goblet to this man, and grant me only the poor mahmoudie !" 66 My friend," replied the other kindly, "be not unhappy; all are not the favourites of the Highest; may be thou hast never seen the precious goblet," drawing it forth from his vest; "handle it tenderly; it is not to be touched by every vile and common hand, like a mahmoudie." The baker took it, and pressed it hard in his grasp. "Oh, my head, my eyes, my soul !" he said "blessed source of eternal wealth!" Then changing his tone, "And yet how frail and brittle!-were I to dash it against this marble pavement, thy riches, weaver, are gone for ever!" The latter uttered a loud cry, and sprung to seize the cup: his guest broke into a disdainful laugh: "Take it, take it, slowly and carefully : did I not say, how perishable and uncertain was thy treasure?-a blow, an accident, might destroy it. Thy wealth, O weaver, hangs on a hair!-whereas mine," and he drew forth his mahmoudie, and dashed it violently on the floor, "see," he said, "it is still the same; violence cannot hurt or change it; it is sure-it is unchangeable." "Besotted man!" said the other, replacing anxiously the stone goblet within his bosom, "wilt thou thus compare that wretched solitary coin to my glorious gift? Aye, clasp it closely, 'tis thy only friend !— but, behold, I will put thee to confusion." So saying, he filled the stone cup to the brim with the rich wine of Shiras, and drank it to the bottom; then, taking a handful of the coins that had fallen in his vest, he threw them towards his guest, saying, "Unhappy baker, comfort thy soul!" At these words the other could no longer contain himself; he rose from the divan, and seized him by the throat: "O vile upstart! Allah grant me patience, that I do not slay thee on the spot! Am I not a better man, and of more repute than thee?" "Thou liest!" said the weaver, now wholly enraged, and tearing off the other's turban and vest: "I will make thee bare as one of thy own loaves: thy mahmoudie hath made thee mad!" With that their fury and clamour rose to such a pitch, that the whole house was filled therewith; the attendants and slaves strove in vain to part them, the goldflowered robe of the weaver hung in tatters, and the baker's face and person were more disordered than by the flames of his own oven in the day of the simoom. It so happenedfor the great enemy of men always watches for their downfall-that the Cadi of the city, passing by to his own house from an entertainment, heard the tumult, that grew louder every moment, and, entering with his officers, demanded the cause of it. It was some time before he could obtain a hearing, or pacify the fury of the rival men: from their unguarded words and mutual upbraidings he gathered, however, an insight into their history: they

[ocr errors]

were ordered to appear before him in judgment on the following day, in order that he might decide their quarrel. They came soon after sunrise: the Cadi, with a solemn and severe aspect, inquired into the cause of their enmity, that had thus disturbed the peace of the town and its people. When the baker told, in bitter agony of soul, of the power of the stone drinking-cup, the looks of the judge were troubled: he desired to behold it; and when the weaver took it fondly from his breast, and held it solemnly in his sight, the Cadi grasped it greedily, and opened his heavy eyes wildly, and a strange fire was in them. And then he desired to see the mahmoudie of the baker: and he gazed on them in long and speechless emotion. "O true belivers," he said, "there is nothing so delightful in the Prophet's eye as peace! It is a lovely thing, and I should sin deeply if I allowed the causes of this strife still to exist, and thereby stir up the ashes of misery day and night, to the destruction of your souls. Therefore I will keep these things, and guard them in care and secresy." A sudden gloom and horror fell on the countenances of the two men; they trembled exceedingly, their lips moved in many an effort to speak, but no utterance came forth for it is a fearful thing to see wealth and splendour passing away from us like a dream; and poverty, like an armed man, waiting for his prey. At last the baker found words, "Return me my mahmoudie, O return it to me, excellent and righteous judge !-so shall Allah bless thee above all men." The weaver, whose loss was tenfold greater, cried out with a wild and bitter cry, and beat his breast, as if words were too small for anguish such as his. Then growing desperate, they menaced the Cadi, declared they would instantly lay their complaint before the Sultan, who would see justice done them. The judge, in his turn, gave way to wrath, or appeared to do so-ordered them to prison, said that in the mean-time he would himself denounce them to his master, as dealers in magical arts;-for how could such gifts as the cup and mahmoudie be possessed otherwise? and by the Koran the punishment of magic was death. They were instantly conveyed to the prison of the city, and confined in a gloomy chamber, whose light was dim, and floor and walls cold and dreary. The remainder of the day was passed in sighs and groans: and when night came, they thought of their rich couches, and those who shared them. The light of the moon dropped through the bars on their haggard faces. There is nothing like exquisite misery for reconciling quarrels, and laying the soul open to itself: the two ancient friends sat stupified for someʼmoments, tearing their garments, and heaping ashes on their heads— then they looked eagerly and kindly, threw themselves into each other's arms, and wept. Their enemies as well as lovers were passed away: evening came down on the silent prison, and they thought of their distant home. "O holy Prophet," exclaimed the weaver, “give me once more to behold the face of my wife and children. She was a lovely and a loving woman." "Comrou," said the other, "could I but eat at this moment of one of the white loaves of my oven, it would nourish my famishing soul: thou hast often eat of them, were they not delicious? I dreamt last night I was once more in my shop; it was filled with people all waiting anxiously and with hungry looks; and they asked one of another, "Where is Alib, our baker? My wife stood weeping beside the oven, the wife of my youth; the flames crackled: O Allah! restore, restore me to my home, and I will bless the hand that has humbled me."

66

"Blessed be that hand," said Comrou, in a solemn tone: "we pined for riches, till our soul and body fainted with the desire. He gave them to our prayer. Baker, did not a curse come with them? These gloomy walls and bars—these ministers of cruelty !---and then the dreadful end that hangs over us, should the Cadi prevail! My wife! shall I never see you again? The night that I fled like a traitor, my youngest born lay on its mother's bosom; her rich tresses drooped over it; her dark and beautiful eye was lifted to the father, and then bent on the sleeping one; and her lips were murmuring blessings. Curse me not, forsaken one," he added, in an agony of remorse, "curse me not, my child!" At that moment the door opened, and the Cadi stood before them: a soldier, with a drawn scimetar was on each side. He came, he said gloomily-and by the lamplight they saw death in his face-he came to tell them of the mandate received from the Sultan, that if they had practised magic they should die. It was clear, he said, that they had done this; but he would have mercy: therefore they might go forth from prison, and make their way to the nearest sea-port, where a vessel waited to convey them to their distant homes. A cry of joy was the return for these words. They made no delay, no hesitation, even for a moment. It was night, yet they hastened forth from the prisonwalls; with the guard, they passed through the streets with a hurried and eager step: they came to the port, and embarked. At the end of three days their native hills appeared in view; then the minarets of the town: day was declining in extreme beauty on the shore. As the vessel drew nigh, two forms were seen to stand on the beach-youthful and agitated forms: they stretched out their hands, they called on the names of the men; in a few moments they were folded in the embraces of their wives. They made no reproach or complaint, but led them exultingly to their homes, where their friends were waiting to receive them.

As soon as the morrow broke on the hills around, they rose with a glad and eager heart to pursue their work, and never more did a murmur fall from their lips. Years passed on, and found the men still contented and happy in the lot God had given them; and the thirst of riches entered their hearts no more.

PORT OF BEIROUT.

How welcome, how beautiful, was the return to Beirout from Balbec, as we caught, from the barren heights afar off, the first view of its groves and gardens, its glowing shores and bay, the lively green of its declivities and plains! We had been long absent, and now remembered the happy hours passed in its social roofs, in its solitary walks to vale and river, to the declivities and hamlets of Lebanon. It was the only place in Syria in which we had resided long without weariness: a few weeks at Damascus were sufficient, even to satiety: but we came again to the quiet and varied attractions of the environs of Beirout, its olive groves, and verdant lanes, that look so like English ones; and found again the welcome, the kindness, that received us when we came as strangers to the land. Friendship, society, sympathy of feeling and thought-what magic is cast around you in an Eastern scene! After taking its fill of landscapes and ruins, the spirit turns to you as to its rest! The wanderer at first lives only in the excitements of the way; but after many months in towns, and deserts, and tents, in which he is regarded only as a being of a day, for whom no man cares, he feels a desolation creeping over his heart; and, "like a well of water in a thirsty land," is the familiar face, the language of interest and attachment; and here also is the Sabbath-bell, the hymn breathed to heaven, the words of truth and life, like long-lost sounds.

The view in the plate is taken a little to the south of the town; the two old castles are seen, one behind the other; beyond, on the little promontory, an old tower, which is said to be near the field where St. George killed the dragon. The first ranges of Lebanon, which appear behind, are covered with mulberry plantations and woods; convents are seen on the declivities; about two-thirds of the way, on the left, is the gorge of the Nahr-el-Kelb: the high square-topped mountain, tinged with snow, is remarkable from the whole neighbourhood; the Kesrouan mountains, as the summits are called, stretch away to the left. The highest point of Lebanon, as measured by Colonel Chesney while at Beirout, is nine thousand three hundred feet high: Taurus is ten thousand feet; Mount Casius, seven thousand.

water.

The quay is partly composed of ancient granite pillars; great numbers are seen along the shore at ebb-tide. Several of the consulate houses are visible on the right, near the Beirout is the entrepôt of the commerce of the Druses and Maronites, whence they export their cottons and silks, and receive in return rice, tobacco, and money, which they exchange for the corn of the plains of the Bekaa and Haouran. Raw silk is the staple article, which, with cottons, olives, and figs, is exported to Cairo, Damascus, and Aleppo: the commercial activity of the town increases every year. The harbour is perhaps the best on the coast, and the anchorage tolerably safe. The neighbourhood has lately tempted the speculation and enterprise of manufacturers from Europe. Many merchants are settled here, who live in a plentiful style, in comfortable dwellings: for the houses lately built by Europeans are substantial and good; the slighter-built villas of the

« AnteriorContinuar »