“ ‘And as to the date?’ I said.
“ ‘The date?’ Once more he consulted another document, then clapped his hands for the slave who sat in his outer apartment, and having asked him a question in some incomprehensible jargon, received an answer no less mysterious. Then he turned to me and said: ‘It will come on at some date after the next New Moon but one.’
“ ‘Cannot I have a precise date?’ said I, for I was thinking anxiously of my diminishing capital and wondering how long I could maintain my poor life before my cash should be completely exhausted.
“ ‘That is obviously impossible,’ he answered with a touch of indignation, which he evidently thought merited. ‘No man can say how long the cases before yours will last, nor in what order it may please His Holiness the Judge to take them. It will probably come, by the way,’ said he, peering at another list, ‘before His Holiness Benshaitan.’
“With that I left him and waited my call to the court.
“The time dragged wearily enough. I ate most sparingly and bought no raiment, nor even any game to pass my time, but my little stock dwindled day by day. My hours were spent gazing upon the busy life of the port, or sometimes standing on the edge of the pier and staring out to sea, as though I could read in the distant mainland beyond the horizon some hopes of a better fortune and a life restored. Daily, as the time approached for my case to be heard, as the second New Moon grew with every evening brighter in the last of its crescent, I consulted officials of the court. I discovered it was customary to give each some small sum of five or six dinars before they would answer a question. It was upon the twelfth day, the moon being nearly full, that the case before mine (which turned upon whether a man without means should owe for a debt or should postpone payment, and had lasted five exciting days,) was concluded. I heard that the precedent created was of the first importance, but would be subject to appeal.
“The sun sank. It was with the morrow that my case was to be called.
“I rose on that eventful day long before dawn. I put on my raiment with the utmost care, after having cleansed it with my own hands to make it as presentable as possible, lest the poverty of my appearance should in some way prejudice me. I had already given notice that I would appear myself; for the fees asked by the pleaders were quite beyond the poor remnant of my purse. I must confess that I had been strongly dissuaded from such action, but I had no choice. I found a great crowd assembled, for my name was familiar to all through the position I had enjoyed in the past; and it is ever of an absorbing interest to watch the miseries of another.
“I took my seat at a place reserved for me immediately opposite the bench. I noted on my right the pleaders chosen by the council, and beyond, among the spectators, not a few of my former colleagues.
“The pleaders were arranged in the vestments proper to their great function, resembling the priests of a religion, and bearing upon their heads, I noticed, what they never showed outside, a strange headgear of mule skin with twisted hair and long, furry ears. The judge, I saw, was clothed in the most magnificent cloth of gold, inscribed with the sacred texts and loaded with furs of such rare animals as the sacred Rat, the white Jackal of Tibet, and the Skunk, and bore upon his head a crown, which he lifted three times as a salute to the court, while all fell prostrate before him, murmuring in a buzz of low, prayerful whispers their praise and incantation to him as the representative of God.
“These ceremonies concluded, there was a bustle of men rising and taking their seats upon the rugs of the court, the judge himself upon a sort of throne overlooking the whole, and the proceedings began.
“A short man stood in front of the judge’s throne, who rose and piped in a shrill voice, ‘Mahmoud claims against the king.’ He then sat down, and from sundry pushes and jerks which I received from my friends, including the scrivener, who was kind enough to accompany me to the court, I saw that I was expected to rise from my carpet and put my case.
“I said: ‘Your Holiness and Voice of God’ (for such is the formula required, as a kind friend had warned me: and if one word be omitted the culprit is not only forbidden to plead but is thrust into a dungeon of the most noisome kind). ‘Your Holiness,’ I opened, ‘and Voice of God. I had from the king and his councillors a charter. It was given me as against one million dinars paid to them in gold by me on such and such a date. I shall show the charter to you, and you will see there the promise that I am to receive, as against the payment I made, the revenue from the Salt Tax forever and ever, so long as the state shall endure and the tax be levied. This tax has been in great part remitted, and by special imposts the remaining part has been wiped out. I claim that this charter gives me the right to the original revenue from the state in full.’ And I then concluded with the magic formula with which my friends had very kindly provided me, ‘and that, Divine One, is my case.’ This formality completed, I sat down.
“I flattered myself I had done well, for all had been told with perfect ease, and, after all, there was nothing more to be said. But
