Khaled, A Tale of Arabia Part 18

'It is said openly in the city that you are a s.h.i.+yah and a Persian, having been a robber before you came here, and that you are plotting to deliver over Nejed to the Persians. Look to this, Khaled, for they say that you are no Bedouin since no one knows your descent nor the name of your father.'

'Do you believe this of me, Zehowah?' Khaled asked.

'Do I believe that the sun is black and the night as white as the sun?

But it is true that I do not know your father's name.'

Then Khaled was troubled, for he saw that it would be a hard matter to explain, and that without explanation his safety might be endangered.

Zehowah sat still beside him, holding his hand and looking into his face, as though expecting an answer.

'Have I done wisely in telling you?' she asked at last. 'You are troubled. I should have said nothing.'

'You have done wisely,' he answered. 'For I will go and speak to them, and if they believe me, the matter is finished, but if not I have lost nothing.'

'It will be well to give the chief men presents, and to distribute something among the people, for gifts are great persuaders of unbelief.'

'Shall I give them presents because they have believed evil of me?'

asked Khaled, laughing. 'Rather would I give you the treasures of the whole earth because you have not believed it.'

'If I had the wealth of the whole world I would give it to them rather than that they should hurt a hair of your head,' Zehowah answered.

'Am I more dear to you than so much gold, Zehowah?'

'What is gold that it should be weighed in the balance with the life of a man? You are dearer to me than gold.'

'Is this love, Zehowah?' Khaled asked, in a low voice.

'I do not know whether it be love or not.'

'The wing of night is lifted for a moment, and the false dawn is seen, and afterwards it is night again. But the true dawn will come by and by, when night folds her wings before the day.'

'You speak in a riddle, Khaled.'

'It is no matter. I will neither make a speech to the people, nor give them gifts. What is it to me? Let them chatter from the first call to prayer until the lights are put out in the evening. My fate is about my neck, and I cannot change it, any more than I can make you love me.

Allah is great. I will wait and see what happens.'

'Everything is undoubtedly in Allah's hand,' said Zehowah. 'But if a man, having meat set before him, will not raise his right hand to thrust it into the dish, he will die of hunger.'

'And do you think that Allah does not know before whether the man will stretch out his hand or not?'

'Undoubtedly Allah knows. And he also knows that if you will not sift this matter and stop the mouths of the liars, I will, though I am but a woman, for otherwise we may both perish.'

'If they destroy me, yet they cannot take the kingdom from you, nor hurt you,' said Khaled. 'How then are you in danger? If I am slain you will then choose a husband, whose father's name is known to them. They will be satisfied and you will be no worse off than before and possibly better. This is truth. I will therefore wait for the end.'

'Who has put these words into your mouth, Khaled? For the thought is not in your heart. Moreover, if the tribes should rise up and overthrow you, they would not spare me, for I would fight against them with my hands and they would kill me.'

'Why should you fight for me, since you do not love me? But this is folly. No one ever heard of a woman taking arms and fighting.'

'I have heard of such deeds. And if I had not heard of them, others should through me, for I would be the first to do them.'

'I think that so long as Khaled lives, Zehowah need not bear arms,' said Khaled. 'I will therefore go and call the chief men together and speak to them.'

And so he did. When the princ.i.p.al officers who had remained in the city during the winter season were a.s.sembled in the kahwah, and had hung up their swords on the pegs and partaken of a refreshment, Khaled sent the slaves away, and spoke in a few words as was his manner.

'Men of Riad, Aared and all Nejed,' he said, 'I regret that more of you are not present here, but a great number of sheikhs are still in the desert, and it cannot be helped. I desire to tell you that I have heard of a tale concerning me which is circulated from mouth to ear throughout Riad and the whole kingdom. This tale is untrue, a lie such as no honest man repeats even to his own wife at home in the harem. For it is said that I am not called Khaled, but perhaps Ali Ha.s.san, or perhaps Ali Hussein, that I am a s.h.i.+yah, a wine-bibber and an idolatrous one who prays for the intercession of Ali, besides being a Persian and a robber.

It is also said that I plot to deliver over the kingdom of Nejed to the Persians, though how this could be done I do not know, seeing that the Persians are a meal-faced people of white jackals who do not know how to ride a camel. These are all lies. I swear by Allah.'

When the men heard these words, they looked stealthily one at another, to see who would answer Khaled, for they had all heard the story and most of them were inclined to believe it. Peace is the mother of evil-speaking, as garbage breeds flies in a corner, which afterwards fly into clean houses and men ask whence they come. But none of the chief men found anything to say at first, so that Khaled sat in silence a long time, waiting for some one to speak. He therefore turned to the one nearest to him, and addressed him.

'Have you heard this tale?' he inquired. 'And if you have heard it do you believe it?'

'I think, indeed, that I have heard something of the kind,' answered the man. 'But it was as the chattering of an uncertain vision in a dream, which rings in the ears for a moment while it is yet dark in the morning, but is forgotten when the sun rises. By the instrumentality of a just mind Allah caused that which entered at one ear to run out from the other as the rinsing of a water-skin.'

'Good,' answered Khaled. 'Yet it is not well to rinse the brains with falsehoods. And you?' he inquired, turning to the next. 'Have you heard it also?'

'Just lord, I have heard,' replied this one. 'But if I have believed, may my head be shaved with a red-hot razor having a jagged edge.'

'This is well,' Khaled said, and he questioned a third.

'O Khaled!' cried the man. 'Is the milk sour, because the slave has imagined a lie saying, "I will say it is bad and then it will be given to me to drink"? Or is honey bitter because the cook has put salt in the sweetmeats? Or is it night because the woman has shut the door and the window, to keep out the sun?'

The next also found an answer, having collected his thoughts while the others were speaking.

'A certain man,' said he, 'kept sheep in Tabal Shammar, and the dog was with the sheep in the fold. Then two foxes came to the fold in the evening and one of them said to the man: "All dogs are wolves, for we have seen their like in the mountains, and your dog is also a wolf and will eat up your sheep. Make haste to kill him therefore and cast out his carca.s.s." And to the sheep the other fox said: "How many sheep hang by the heels at the butcher's! And how many dogs live in sheepfolds!

This is an evil world for innocent people." And the sheep were at first persuaded, but presently the dog ran out and caught one of the foxes and broke his neck, and the man threw a stone at the other and hit him, so that he also died. Then the sheep said one to another: "The foxes have suffered justly, for they were liars and robbers and the dog and our master have protected us against them, which they would not have done had they desired our destruction." And so are the people, O Khaled. For if you let the liars go unhurt the people will believe them, but if you destroy them the faith of the mult.i.tude will be turned again to you.'

'This is a fable,' said Khaled, 'and it is not without truth. I am the sheep-dog and the people are the sheep. But in the name of Allah, which are the foxes?'

Then he turned to another, an old man who was the Kadi, celebrated for his wisdom and for his religious teaching in the chief mosque.

'I ask you last of all,' said Khaled, 'because you are the wisest, and when the wisest words are heard last they are most easily remembered.

For we first put water into the lamp, and then oil to float upon the surface, and next the wick, and last of all we take a torch and light the lamp and the darkness disappears. Light our lamp, therefore, O Kadi, and let us see clearly.'

'O Khaled,' replied the Kadi, 'I am old and have seen the world. You cannot destroy the tree by cutting off one or two of its branches. It is necessary to strike at the root. Now the root of this tree of lies which has grown up is this. Neither we nor the people know whence you are, nor what was your father's name, and though I for my part do not impiously ask whence Allah takes the good gifts which he gives to men, there are many who are not satisfied, and who will go about in jealousy to make trouble until their questioning is answered. If you ask counsel of me, I say, tell us here present of what tribe you are, for we believe you a pure Bedouin like the best of us, and tell us your father's name, and peace be upon him. We are men in authority and will speak to the people, and I will address them from the pulpit of the great mosque, and they will believe us. Then all will be ended, and the lies will be extinguished as the coals of an evening fire go out when the night frost descends upon the camp in winter. But if you will not tell us, yet I, for one, do not believe ill of you; and moreover you are lord, and we are va.s.sals, so long as you are King and hold good and evil in your hand.'

'So long as I am King,' Khaled repeated. 'And you think that if I do not tell my father's name, I shall not be where I am for a long time.'

'Allah is wise, and knows,' answered the Kadi, but he would say nothing more.

'This is plain speaking,' said Khaled, 'such as I like. But I might plainly take advantage of it. You desire to know my father's name and whence I come. Then is it not easy for me to say that I come from a distant part of the Great Dahna? Is there a man in Nejed who has crossed the Red Desert? And if I say that my father was Mohammed ibn Abd el Hamid ibn Abd el Latif, and so on to our father Ismal, upon whom be peace, shall any one deny that I speak truth? This is a very easy matter.'

'So much the more will it be easy for us to satisfy the people,'

answered the Kadi.

'No doubt. I will think of what you have said. And now, I pray you, partake of another refreshment and go in peace.'

At this all the chief men looked one at the other again, for they saw that Khaled would not tell them what they wished to know. And those of them who had doubted the story before now began to believe it. But they held their peace, and presently made their salutation and took their swords from the wall and departed.

Khaled then left the kahwah and returned to Zehowah in the harem.