The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate
- Автор: Де Камп Лайон Спрэг
- Год: 1968
- Язык: английский
- Год: Lancer Books
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
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Dragon is probably closest in mood to de Camp's fantasy novels, while Bronze God and Arrows are closer to his science fiction, with their description of engineering problems, and personality clashes among researchers and engineers. Dragon also reflects de Camp's then-recent acquaintance with the Conan stories and other works of Robert E. Howard. Bessas, the huge Persian nobleman, is not only a close match for Conan in physique, but his mood swings, fixation on his mother, and tendency to toss of verses, seems a reflection of Howard himself. (Fortunately, his poems reflect de Camp's verbal dexterity and wit, not Howard's melancholy.)
Shaykh Zayd said: "Let us take Zuhayr and Amr and Shaddad—"
"Not Zuhayr!" cried Salimat. "He is a trouble-making loafer."
"Very well, my dear. You may choose the men. But someone must also go to command them. Naamil—"
"Uncle Naamil is too fat and sleepy, and you are too easy-going. I shall have to go, as I am the only one they really fear."
"Salimat! I am shocked by such an unladylike suggestion!"
"It is the only way, Father, and well you know it. No one else in the clan could do it."
"Then it were better not to undertake this rash journey, and to eat the bitter bread of poverty with the best grace we can muster."
"But Father! Think of the chance you will have of opening new trade routes!"
After a brisk dispute in guttural Arabic, Zayd gave in. He sighed: "But I cannot send you off alone, amid all these lustful men. I shall have to chaperone you, leaving Naamil to rule in my absence." He explained to the others: "You see, sirs, we Arabs are jealous beyond all other men of our women's virtue. Amongst other nations, women leave their proper place in the tent and engage in all kinds of lewd behavior. But not amongst us! With us, the man commands and the woman obeys, as the gods intended!"
"So I see," said Bessas, suppressing a smile.
The old man looked sharply at the Bactrian. "You are not, my young friend, having a quiet laugh at my cost? I will tell you a tale to show you how gravely we badawin take these matters.
"When I was a stripling, I visited a clan allied with ours, the Banu Aqil. The shaykh of this clan was Hira ibn-Kulthûm, a man of firm principles. So strict with his wives was he that he would not let either of them leave the tent by daylight, even for their most imperative needs, lest other men cast lustful eyes upon them.
"Now it happened that one morning I, being a poor nobody, had had no breakfast. As I strolled past the shaykh's tent, there wafted to my nostrils the most heavenly odors of cookery that I had ever known.
"Know that in a desert-dwelling clan, things are more or less owned in common. If a man need food or clothing, he may ask any fellow clansman, and his kinsman will deny him nought in reason. The same applies to guests from allied clans.
"So, thinking only of my ravening appetite, I thrust my head into Shaykh Hira's tent to beg a bite from him. And there he sat, with his wives on either side of him, eating. Then, too late, I remembered his strictness concerning his women.
"The shaykh looked up and uttered a greeting. Amongst us there are many greetings, and to each a certain reply must be given if one would not be known as a mannerless oaf. But so overcome with terror was I that, instead of returning Hira's greeting, I could only cast myself down upon my face and stammer a plea for mercy.
"Ere my heart had given three beats, the men of the Banu Aqil seized me, bound me, and dragged me to another tent, where they mounted guard over me. There I lay all day, commending my soul to Ilâh and Ilât and expecting every instant to be my last.
"But, as the sun was setting, in came the shaykh with orders to loose me. 'O Zayd ibn-Harith,' quoth he, 'long have I pondered this matter. At first I meant to have you slain, as I should have done to one of my own clan for taking such a monstrous liberty. But then, thought I, the fact that you returned not my greeting—albeit I have always known you for a well-mannered youth—gave me to believe that the gods must have taken away your wits. Since it were unjust to hold a madman to account for the deeds of his madness, I pardon you. But, lest another such seizure come upon you, it were better that you return to your own clan.' Needless to say, I acted upon this advice instanter."
They jounced along the desert road to the Fifty-League Oasis. Bessas, his money belt lightened and his temper soured by the bribe extorted from him by Astes, treated Salimat with circumspection. When he spoke to her, it was with all the formal courtesy of an Aryan gentleman; but he saw to it that he seldom had occasion to speak to her.
Myron, wishing to learn Arabic, conversed with the girl at length. As he was already fluent in Aramaic, the related Arabic tongue posed no great difficulty. He found Salimat a ruthlessly practical young woman, brilliantly skilled in the arts of managing a camel caravan. He wondered how many such strong natures the company could acquire before it flew apart from internal dissension.
At last the Fifty-League Oasis rose out of the desert. As Bessas' company neared it, Arabs of the Banu Khalaf ran out of their camel's hair tents and rode in from the desert on their camels to welcome their shaykh. A score of naked Nubian women and children, watched by whip-wielding Arabs, were hewing wood and drawing water. One of these women looked dully up at the company and sighted the Nubian chief, who had come along, riding an ass, to see that all his folk were freed. The woman burst into shrieks. Soon, despite the cracks of Arab whips on their bare black hides, all were screaming.
Shaykh Zayd made his camel kneel. As he got off, his clansmen crowded round to kiss his hand. The din became such that Myron could make out nothing until the shaykh creakily mounted a palm log and cried:
"Ya jama'aya! My good people, I pray you! A little quiet! Now I will tell you what has befallen ..."
The Arabs listened quietly until they learnt that, as part of the deal with Bessas, the satrap, and the Nubian chief, they would have to free their newly acquired slaves. Then an angry murmur ran through the crowd. They turned to one another, gesturing and expostulating. The shaykh called again for quiet, but none heeded him.
Soon fists were shaken and knives were flourished. Burning with indignation, the Banu Khalaf began to scream threats to slay all the Nubae and the foreign dogs as well. The shaykh's tearful protests were drowned out. Myron and Bessas looked at one another, loosened the swords in their scabbards, and gathered their company into a compact knot.
Then Salimat leaped to the log beside her father and cried, in a screech that cut through the hubbub: "Be silent, dogs!"
The noise died.
"What sort of behavior is this?" continued the girl. "Are you a mannerless mob of townsfolk, or true badawin? Why do you welcome us and then act so as to destroy us, and yourselves as well? Listen whilst I tell you how we stand ..."
An hour's shrill harangue turned the Arabs from their purpose. The wretched captives were suffered to depart with their chief. The clansmen came shamefacedly up to Bessas to assure him of the hospitality of the desert and to kiss his hands in gratitude for the liberation of their shaykh. Myron said to Bessas in Greek:
"Isn't it wonderful, old boy, how among these folk the men command and the women obey?"
From the Fifty-League Oasis, Bessas' expedition forged southward. The original company of five men and ten animals was now augmented by the shaykh, his daughter, and six more Arabs of the Banu Khalaf. The Arabs rode and led a force of twenty-two camels bearing fodder and water for the less hardy horses and mules.
They swung back to the Nile only to pick up water at the southernmost point of the southerly bend, near Karutjet. Then they struck southeastward across the desert again. Coming to the Nile twenty leagues above Meroê, they followed the track along the northern side of the river downstream for three days.
Sometimes they jogged along a narrow strip between the river and towering brown cliffs. At other times they looked across wide flat plains, sparsely speckled with shrubbery. A fine dust blew in from the desert and got into everything. As they followed the river northwest, the country became more of a desert, the barren soil being covered by shiny round red and black stones.