Читать книгу COMMODUS & THE WOOING OF MALKATOON (Illustrated) - Lew Wallace - Страница 11

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"And home again, from good

Sheik Ertoghrul our Othman had a gift

Of hill-lands rich with groves of terebinth,

And brooks which, flitting down by tangled glades,

And babbling over beds of marble float,

Did often pause in open pools to mock

The skies above with bluer skies below.

And there in one dowar, most like a town

Of many brown-black tents, he drew his Tribe,

That' they might learn how pleasant are the ways

Of peace, and that an hundred spears may gain,

And safely keep, what ten were sure to lose.

"And next he built a Mosque of unhewn stone,

But with a tall and stately minaret;

Then with the help of holy men he taught

His children of the Wilderness the creed—

Allah-il-Allah —simple to the ear,

Yet deep in meaning—deeper than the earth

Hangs swinging 'neath the amethystine floor

Of Paradise. And shortly they could give

The Fah-hat, word and rik-rath, and salute

With hand on brow and breast; then in their midst

He pitched two greater tents.

"'For whom are these ?'

The tribesmen asked.

"'This one is for the poor;

And comes a stranger hungry, or pursued

By night or enemies, it is for him.

This other'—and his voice sank low and shook

With sudden eagerness—' is Malkatoon's.'

"'And who is Malkatoon?'

"'A benison Withheld by Allah until my trial day

Is done—a Spirit out of Paradise—

And this way comes an Angel leading her,

For in the distance I have heard him cry,

Be ready.' "

Here the high Sultana paused

To closer clasp and kiss the little lord

Upon her breast for pride, and then again

For love o'erbrimming. "Oh, my Mahommed!

'Tis love that makes the bread and pours the wine,

And is in turn the bread and wine for love."

The words were dark, and yet, as morning falls

On struggling mist, the look she gave him saved

The meaning of the thought. Then, to the tale

Returning, she, "And so the Tribe was cared

For by the Sheik, with everything of theirs,

The winged and hoofed, the speaking and the dumb;

The dogs had meat, the cattle pasturage;

Even the camels shed their foxen shag,

And ere long rounded into comeliness

Of health and strength. And when at last

There was no charity or duty more

To others owing, he arose, and up

To Allah's gate despatched his patient soul

In ihram white and seamless, there to sit,

And watch and pray the breaking of the sign

The Dervish asked of him.