“Then did I learn that for many generations past the people of this wealthy and fortunate realm had paid to the state a fixed tax upon salt, which amounted yearly, upon the average, to the sum I had demanded. It was regularly received; for all the salt of this land came over sea and the toll was levied at the ports of entry. A charter was drawn up by the council in simple terms. It was agreed by my own wish that my name should not be published to the people, lest, perhaps, the odium of receiving tribute should attach to one so recently come among them. But the king assured me, as he signed, that not odium, but gratitude, was my due: he for his part would never cease to believe that I had been moved to make so generous an offer by some particular affection for himself and his people.
“Rooms within the palace were set at my disposal until I should have time to choose some house in the city, and through the importance of my connection with the state I was sworn of the council with the rest.
“As I read my charter through all alone in the privacy of my room I noted with pleasure the short and simple phrasing of this great commercial people:
“ ‘To Mahmoud, his assignees and heirs forever and ever, so long as the state shall last, and the Salt Tax be gathered’
ran the what is called among the mighty ‘The operative clause: the words of power.’ I had them by heart in a moment. I could not forbear to write them down in my own hand more than once, for the pleasure it gave me.
“Here then was my every wish fulfilled! Here was the best of company, the most dignified of position, the most charming of climates, surroundings of wealth, luxury and ease; the culture of a thousand years; all that our religion permits in art and entertainment. Books of every language and climate. Stores of good from every sky under heaven, from every people and of every age. Here, indeed, might I live my life without further adventure or negotiation. What pleased me most was to think that I would be able to escape some little strains I might have to put upon my honour—though not I am glad to say upon my conscience—in the rude struggle of the outer world. No one here knew my humble beginnings, or in too much detail the particular abilities whereby I had so rapidly enriched myself.
“I was now one of the great lords, and very soon the foundation of my fortune would be lost in the mists of time. Men would easily come to believe that my fathers had acquired it, sword in hand, when first the banner of the Prophet was seen upon those hills three hundred years before.
“I will not detain you with the happy disposition of my time, nor with more than the statement of my supreme enjoyment. Scrolls from every land I accumulated in my library, I had about me the most costly stuffs and upon my person and upon those of my attendants the rarest gems. My chief delight was to gather at my table a small, but various, band of intimates; chief of whom was that earnest, intelligent young man of the council whom I noted on my first arrival. Tarib, as I have told you, was his simple name; and I learned how his father had been no more than a respected merchant in offal. Dying, he had left his son a sufficient income, and that son had so added to it by occasions of public service that he had now risen to one of the highest offices of state. It was his special function in the council to represent and to retail to the king whatever popular movement was abroad, for he was known to every class in the city. He was the intermediary between king and people, was regarded in some way as a tribune: or, as his title went, ‘The Doubler,’ which term, already centuries old, some derived from his double function, others from the attitude which etiquette demanded him to assume to monarch and subjects alike. Others again put it down to the emoluments of his post.
“Through him I learned to understand this kindly, industrious and most loyal people. In my walks with him, and by my regular attendance at his public addresses, I grew intimate with that character in the people of Izmat which had led to their great reputation throughout the world.
“It was their pride that they never shook the state by violent change, but with gradual and well-weighed reforms adapted themselves generation by generation to the movement of the world. They thought disdainfully of nationalities controlled by less powerful traditions; for a man of great fortune like myself, it was therefore an ever-pleasing thought—the foundation I might say of my happiness—to consider the peace and solidity all about me. That portion of the populace (about one half) which lay upon the verge of starvation were manfully content with their lot, or, if they showed some beginning of complaint, were at once appeased when they had pointed out to them their superiority over the miserable foreigners of the mainland; while those who (like myself) were possessed of vast revenues and lived in great palaces were far too devoted to the commonwealth to dream of grumbling at their lot. They would, upon the contrary, frequently express their devotion to state and king, and prove it by doing for the common weal, unpaid, as much as three hours’ work in a day; or even four when there was a press of business.
“Thus, one would maintain the magnificent breed of horses by his devotion to the chase; another would support the industry of the goldsmith by his frequent purchase of ornaments; another would, as a local magistrate, condemn the poorest of
