Halil the Pedlar: A Tale of Old Stambul by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER II.
GUEL-BEJAZE--THE WHITE ROSE.
The booth of Halil Patrona, the pedlar, stood in the bazaar. He soldtobacco, chibooks, and pipe-stems, but his business was not particularlylucrative. He did not keep opium, although that was beginning to be oneof the principal articles of luxury in the Turkish Empire. From the verylook of him one could see that he did not sell the drug. For Halil haddetermined that he would never have any of this soul-benumbing stuff inhis shop, and whenever Halil made any resolution he generally kept it.Oftentimes, sitting in the circle of his neighbours, he would fall todiscoursing on the subject, and would tell them that it was Satan whohad sent this opium stuff to play havoc among the true believers. Itwas, he would insist, the offscouring of the _Jinns_, and yet Mussulmansdid not scruple to put the filth into their mouths and chew and inhaleit! Hence the ruin that was coming upon them and their posterity and thewhole Moslem race. His neighbours let him talk on without contradiction,but they took good care to sell as much opium themselves as possible,because it brought in by far the largest profits. Surely, they arguedamong themselves, because an individual cuts his throat with a knife nowand then, that is no reason why knives in general should not be kept forsale in shops? It was plain to them that Halil was no born trader. Yethe was perfectly satisfied with the little profit he made, and it neveroccurred to him to wish for anything he had not got.
Consequently when he now found himself the possessor of five thousandpiastres, he was very much puzzled as to what he should do with such alarge amount. The things he really desired were far, far away, quite outof his reach in fact. He would have liked to lead fleets upon the seaand armies marshalled in battle array. He would have liked to have builtcities and fortresses. He would have liked to have raised up and castdown pashas, dispensed commands, and domineered generally. But abeggarly five thousand piastres would not go very far in that direction.It was too much from one point of view and too little from another, sothat he really was at a loss what to do with it.
His booth looked out upon that portion of the bazaar where there was avacant space separated from the trading booths by lofty iron railings.This vacant space was a slave-market. Here the lowest class of slaveswere freely offered for sale. Every day Halil saw some ten to twenty ofthese human chattels exhibited in front of his booth. It was no newsight to him.
In this slave-market there were none of those pathetic scenes whichpoets and romance writers are so fond of describing when, for instance,the rich traders of Dirbend offer to the highest bidder miracles ofloveliness, to be the sport of lust and luxury, beautiful Circassian andGeorgian maidens, whose cheeks burn with shame at the bold rude gaze ofthe men, and whose eyes overflow with tears when their new mastersaddress them. There was nothing of the sort in this place. This was butthe depository of used up, chucked aside wares, of useless Jessir, suchas dry and wrinkled old negresses, worn-out, venomous nurses, humanrefuse, so to speak, to whom it was a matter of the most profoundindifference what master they were called upon to serve, who listened tothe slang of the auctioneer with absolute nonchalance as hecircumstantially totted up their years and described their qualities,and allowed their would-be purchasers to examine their teeth andmanipulate their arms and legs as if they were the very last personsconcerned in the business on hand.
On the occasion of the first general auction that had come round afterthe departure of Janaki from Halil, the pedlar was sitting as usualbefore his booth in the bazaar when the public crier appeared in theslave-market, leading by the hand a veiled female slave, and made thefollowing announcement in a loud voice:
"Merciful Mussulmans! Lo! I bring hither from the harem of his Majestythe Sultan, an odalisk, who is to be put up to public auction by commandof the Padishah. The name of this odalisk is Guel-Bejaze; her age isseventeen years, she has all her teeth, her breath is pure, her skin isclean, her hair is thick, she can dance and sing, and do all manner ofwoman's handiwork. His shall she be who makes the highest bid, and thesum obtained is to be divided among the dervishes. Two thousand piastreshave already been promised for her; come hither and examine her--whoevergives the most shall have her."
"Allah preserve us from the thought of purchasing this girl," observedthe wiser of the merchants, "why that would be the same thing aspurchasing the wrath of the Padishah for hard cash," and they wiselywithdrew into the interiors of their booths. They knew well enough whatwas likely to happen to the man who presumed to buy an odalisk who hadbeen expelled from the harem of the Sultan. Anyone daring to do such athing might just as well chalk up the names of the four avenging angelson the walls of his house, or trample on his talisman with his slippersstraight away. It was not the act of a wise man to pick up a flowerwhich the Sultan had thrown away in order to inhale its fragrance.
The public crier remained in the middle of the bazaar alone with theslave-girl; the chapmen had not only retired into their shops but barredthe doors behind them. "Much obliged to you; but we would not acceptsuch a piece of good luck even as a gift," they seemed to say.
Only one man still remained in front of his shop, and that was HalilPatrona. He alone had the courage to scrutinise the slave-girlcarefully.
Perchance he felt compassion for this slave. He could not but perceivehow the poor thing was trembling beneath the veil which covered her tothe very heels. Nothing could be seen of her but her eyes, and in thoseeyes a tear was visible.
"Come! bring her into my shop!" said Halil to the public crier; "don'tleave her out in the public square there for everybody to stare at her."
"Impossible!" replied the public crier. "As I value my head I must obeymy orders, and my orders are to take her veil from off her head in theauction-yard, where the ordinary slaves are wont to be offered for sale,and there announce the price set upon her in the sight and hearing ofall men."
"What crime has this slave-girl committed that she should be treated soscurvily?"
"Halil Patrona!" answered the public crier, "it will be all the betterfor my tongue and your ears if I do not answer that question. I simplydo what I have been told to do. I unveil this odalisk, I proclaim whatshe can do, to what use she can be put. I neither belittle her nor do Iexalt her. I advise nobody to buy her and I advise nobody not to buyher. Allah is free to do what He will with us all, and that which hasbeen decreed concerning each of us ages ago must needs befall." And withthese words he whisked away the veil from the head of the odalisk.
"By the Prophet! a beauteous maid indeed! What eyes! A man might fancythey could speak, and if one gazed at them long enough one could findmore to learn there than in all that is written in the Koran! What lipstoo! I would gladly remain outside Paradise if by so doing I might gazeupon those lips for ever. And what a pale face! Well does she deservethe name of Guel-Bejaze! Her cheeks do indeed resemble white roses! Andone can see dewdrops upon them, as is the way with roses!--the dewdropsfrom her eyes! And what must such eyes be like when they laugh? Whatmust that face be like when it blushes? What must that mouth be likewhen it speaks, when it sighs, when it trembles with sweet desire?"
Halil Patrona was quite carried away by his enthusiasm.
"Carry her not any further," he said to the public crier, "and show herto nobody else, for nobody else would dare to buy her. Besides, I'llgive you for her a sum which nobody else would think of offering, I willgive five thousand piastres."
"Be it so!" said the crier, veiling the maid anew; "you have seen her,anyhow, bring your money and take the girl!"
Halil went in for his purse, handed it over to the crier (it held theexact amount to a penny), and took the odalisk by the hand--there shestood alone with him.
Halil Patrona now lost not a moment in locking up his shop, and takingthe odalisk by the hand led her away with him to his poor lonelydwelling-place.
All the way thither the girl never uttered a word.
On reaching the house Halil made the girl sit down by the hearth, andthen addressed her in a tender, kindly voice.
"Here is my house, what
The worthy Mussulman then returned to the bazaar, leaving the girl alonein the house. He did not return home till the evening.
Meanwhile Guel-Bejaze had made the two piastres go as far as they could,and had supper all ready for him. She placed Halil's dish on thereed-mat close beside him, but she herself sat down on the threshold.
"Not there, but come and sit down by my side," said Halil, and seizingthe trembling hand of the odalisk, he made her sit down beside him onthe cushion, piled up the pilaf before her, and invited her with kindand encouraging words to fall to. The odalisk obeyed him. Not a word hadshe yet spoken, but when she had finished eating, she turned towardsHalil and murmured in a scarce audible voice,
"For six days I have eaten nought."
"What!" exclaimed Halil in amazement, "six days! Horrible! And who wasit, pray, that compelled you to endure such torture?"
"It was my own doing, for I wanted to die."
Halil shook his head gravely.
"So young, and yet to desire death! And do you still want to die, eh?"
"Your own eyes can tell you that I do not."
Halil had taken a great fancy to the girl. He had never before knownwhat it was to love any human being; but now as he sat there face toface with the girl, whose dark eyelashes cast shadows upon her palecheeks, and regarded her melancholy, irresponsive features, he fanciedhe saw a peri before him, and felt a new man awakening within himbeneath this strange charm.
Halil could never remember the time when his heart had actually throbbedfor joy, but now that he was sitting down by the side of this beautifulmaid it really began to beat furiously. Ah! how truly sang the poet whenhe said: "Two worlds there are, one beneath the sun and the other in theheart of a maid."
For a long time he gazed rapturously on the beauteous slave, admiring inturn her fair countenance, her voluptuous bosom, and her houri-likefigure. How lovely, how divinely lovely it all was! And then hebethought him that all this loveliness was his own; that he was themaster, the possessor of this girl, at whose command she would fall uponhis bosom, envelop him with the pavilion, dark as night, of her flowingtresses, and embrace him with arms of soft velvet. Ah! and those lipswere not only red but sweet; and that breast was not only snow-whitebut throbbing and ardent--and at the thought his brain began to swim forjoy and rapture.
And yet he did not even know what to call her! He had never had aslave-girl before, and hardly knew how to address her. His own tonguewas not wont to employ tender, caressing words; he knew not what to sayto a woman to make her love him.
"Guel-Bejaze!" he murmured hoarsely.
"I await your commands, my master!"
"My name is Halil--call me so!"
"Halil, I await your commands!"
"Say nothing about commanding. Sit down beside me here! Come, sitcloser, I say!"
The girl sat down beside him. She was quite close to him now.
But the worst of it was that, even now, Halil had not the remotest ideawhat to say to her.
The maid was sad and apathetic, she did not weep as slave-girls are wontto do. Halil would so much have liked the girl to talk and tell him herhistory, and the cause of her melancholy, then perhaps it would havebeen easier for him to talk too. He would then have been able to haveconsoled her, and after consolation would have come love.
"Tell me, Guel-Bejaze!" said he, "how was it that the Sultan had youoffered for sale in the bazaar."
The girl looked at Halil with those large black eyes of hers. When sheraised her long black lashes it was as though he gazed into a night litup by two black suns, and thus she continued gazing at him for a longtime fixedly and sadly.
"That also you will learn to know, Halil," she murmured.
And Halil felt his heart grow hotter and hotter the nearer he drew tothis burning, kindling flame; his eyes flashed sparks at the sight of somuch beauty, he seized the girl's hand and pressed it to his lips. Howcold that hand was! All the more reason for warming it on his lips andon his bosom; but, for all his caressing, the little hand remained cold,as cold as the hand of a corpse.
Surely that throbbing breast, those provocative lips, are not as cold?
Halil, intoxicated with passion, embraced the girl, and as he drew herto his breast, as he pressed her to him, the girl murmured toherself--it sounded like a gentle long-drawn-out sigh:
"Blessed Mary!"
And then the girl's long black hair streamed over her face, and whenHalil smoothed it aside from the fair countenance to see if it had notgrown redder beneath his embrace--behold! it was whiter than ever. Alltrace of life had fled from it, the eyes were cast down, the lipsclosed and bluish. Dead, dead--a corpse lay before him!
But Halil would not believe it. He fancied that the girl was onlypretending. He put his hand on her fair bosom--but he could not hear thebeating of the heart. The girl had lost all sense of feeling. He couldhave done with her what he would. A dead body lay in his bosom.
An ice-cold feeling of horror penetrated Halil's heart, altogetherextinguishing the burning flame of passion. All tremulously he releasedthe girl and laid her down. Then he whispered full of fear:
"Awake! I will not hurt you, I will not hurt you."
Her light kaftan had glided down from her bosom; he restored it to itsplace and, awe-struck, he continued gazing at the features of the lovelycorpse.
After a few moments the girl opened her lips and sighed heavily, andpresently her large black eyes also opened once more, her lips resumedtheir former deep red hue, her eyes their enchanting radiance, her facethe delicate freshness of a white rose, once more her bosom began torise and fall.
She arose from the carpet on which Halil had laid her, and set to workremoving and re-arranging the scattered dishes and platters. Only aftera few moments had elapsed did she whisper to Halil, who could notrestrain his astonishment:
"And now you know why the Padishah ordered me to be sold like a commonslave in the bazaar. The instant a man embraces me I become as dead, andremain so until he lets me go again, and his lips grow cold upon mineand his heart abhors me. My name is not Guel-Bejaze, the White Rose, butGuel-Olue, the Dead Rose."