It was then the close of the night, and, Abou Hassan awaking, and hearing the sounds of the lutes and tambourines and flutes, and the singing of the slave-girls, cried out, "O my mother! " Whereupon the slave-girls answered, "At thy service, O Prince of the Faithful! " When he heard this, he reflected upon all that had happened to him with his mother, and how he had beaten her, and how he had been taken into the madhouse, and he saw the marks of the beating that he had suffered there. Then, looking at the scene that surrounded him, he said, "These are all of them of the genii, in the shapes of human beings! I commit my affair unto Allah ! " Looking towards a servant by his side, he said to him, " Bite my ear, that I may know if I be asleep or awake. " The servant said, " How shall I bite thine ear, when thou art the Prince of the Faithful?" But Abou Hassan answered, " Do as I have commanded thee, or I will strike off thy head. " So he bit it until his teeth met together, and Abou Hassan uttered a loud shriek.
Al-Raschid (who was behind a curtain in a closet) and all who were present fell down with laughter, and they said to the servant, " Art thou mad, that thou bitest the ear of the Caliph?"Abou Hassan said to them, " Is it not enough, O ye wretches ofgenii, that hath befallen me? But ye are not in fault: the fault is your chief"s, who transformed you from the shapes of genii into the shapes of human beings. I implore help against you. "Upon this al-Raschid exclaimed from behind the curtain, "Thou hast killed us, O Abou Hassan ! "And Abou Hassan recognized him, and kissed the ground before him, greeting him with a prayer for the increase of his glory and the prolongation of his life. Al-Raschid then clad him in a rich dress, gave him a thousand pieces of gold, and made him one of his chief boon companions.
From The Arabian Nights" Entertainments
Author.-The Arabian Nights" Entertainments is a famous collection of Eastern tales by various authors-Indian, Persian, and Arabian. Many of the stories tell of Bagdad and the Caliph Haroun al-Raschid (Aaron the Wise). Readers will remember the tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor.
General.-Note the steps or divisions of the story-Abou"s early extravagance, his repentance, his first meeting with the Caliph, the feast, the trick, the awakening, the progress of the deception, the madhouse, the second meeting with the Caliph, the happy ending. Note the old- fashioned phrasing, the dignity of some of the speeches, the use of "thou," the religious allusions. Bhang is a sleepy intoxicant made from hemp, an imam is a priest in a Mohammedan mosque, Allah is the Almighty, the genii were powerful spirits, the Verse of the Throne refers to a portion of the Koran, or Mohammedan scriptures.
Lesson 39
CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW
I had written him a letter, which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan,years ago;
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,Just "on spec. " addressed as follows, "Clancy, of TheOverflow. "
And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)"Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it :
"Clancy"s gone to Queensland droving, and we don"t know where he are. "In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of ClancyGone a-droving "down the Cooper, " where the Western drovers go;As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,For the drover"s life has pleasures that the townsfolk neverknow.
Drawn by John Rowell
The Drover
And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet himIn the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars, And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.
******
I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingyRay of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,And the fetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city,Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.
And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattleOf the tramways and the "buses making hurry down the street,And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp offeet.
And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt meAs they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,For townsfolk have no time to grow-they have no time to waste.
And I somehow rather fancy that I"d like to change with Clancy,Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,While he faced the round eternal of the cash-book and thejournal-
But I doubt he"d suit the office, Clancy, of The Overflow.
Andrew Barton Paterson
Author.-Andrew Barton Paterson ( "Banjo ") was born in New South Wales in 1864 and became a lawyer and journalist. He served in the South African War and as a remount officer in Egypt. He wrote for the Sydney Bulletin many stirring bush ballads, which were afterwards published in book form-The Man From Snowy River, Rio Grande"s Last Race, Sallbush Bill, Old Bush Songs (edited), as well as prose works-A n Outback Marriage, Three Elephant Power, etc. His people were pastoralists. "He is the poet of the man who rides, as Lawson is of the man who walks. "General.-Describe the character of Clancy as revealed in the poem. What do these mean- " on spec, " " verbatim "? Find the Lachlan and the Cooper on the map. Argue the point whether the writer"s life in the city was or was not preferable to Clancy"s in the open. Is it generally true that townsfolk have pallid faces, stunted forms, greenly eyes, and jangled nerves?
Lesson 40
ROUND THE COMPASS IN AUSTRALIA