- "I See," Answered The Boy, "I See A
Fair Girl With Golden Hair, Blue Eyes, Pallid Face, Rosy Lips."
THERE Was A Shot!
I shouted out my laughter to the horror of the
wizard, who perceiving the grossness of his failure, declared that
the boy must have known sin (for none but the innocent can see
truth), and accordingly kicked him downstairs.
One or two other boys were tried, but none could "see truth"; they
all made sadly "bad shots."
Notwithstanding the failure of these experiments, I wished to see
what sort of mummery my magician would practise if I called upon
him to show me some performances of a higher order than those which
had been attempted. I therefore entered into a treaty with him, in
virtue of which he was to descend with me into the tombs near the
Pyramids, and there evoke the devil. The negotiation lasted some
time, for Dthemetri, as in duty bound, tried to beat down the
wizard as much as he could, and the wizard, on his part, manfully
stuck up for his price, declaring that to raise the devil was
really no joke, and insinuating that to do so was an awesome crime.
I let Dthemetri have his way in the negotiation, but I felt in
reality very indifferent about the sum to be paid, and for this
reason, namely, that the payment (except a very small present which
I might make or not, as I chose) was to be CONTINGENT ON SUCCESS.
At length the bargain was made, and it was arranged that after a
few days, to be allowed for preparation, the wizard should raise
the devil for two pounds ten, play or pay - no devil, no piastres.
The wizard failed to keep his appointment. I sent to know why the
deuce he had not come to raise the devil. The truth was, that my
Mahomet had gone to the mountain. The plague had seized him, and
he died.
Although the plague had now spread terrible havoc around me, I did
not see very plainly any corresponding change in the looks of the
streets until the seventh day after my arrival. I then first
observed that the city was SILENCED. There were no outward signs
of despair nor of violent terror, but many of the voices that had
swelled the busy hum of men were already hushed in death, and the
survivors, so used to scream and screech in their earnestness
whenever they bought or sold, now showed an unwonted indifference
about the affairs of this world: it was less worth while for men
to haggle and haggle, and crack the sky with noisy bargains, when
the great commander was there, who could "pay all their debts with
the roll of his drum."
At this time I was informed that of twenty-five thousand people at
Alexandria, twelve thousand had died already; the destroyer had
come rather later to Cairo, but there was nothing of weariness in
his strides. The deaths came faster than ever they befell in the
plague of London; but the calmness of Orientals under such
visitations, and the habit of using biers for interment, instead of
burying coffins along with the bodies, rendered it practicable to
dispose of the dead in the usual way, without shocking the people
by any unaccustomed spectacle of horror.
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