“Mercy,” cried Mangogul, “three lakes and two forests! What an appetite for a Toy!”
“ ’Tis a mere trifle,” resumed the Toy. “Peace was made, and Thelis accompanied her husband in his embassy to Monomotapa. She gamed, and very fairly lost a hundred thousand sequins in one day, which I won back again in an hour. A minister, whose master’s affairs did not fill up all his time, fell into my clutches; and in three or four months I eat him up a fine landed estate, together with his castle well furnish’d, a park, and equipage, with the little pied horses. A favor of four minutes duration, but well spun out, brought us in feasts, presents and jewels: and the blind or politic Sambuco did not disturb us.
“I shall not bring into the accompt,” added the Toy, “the marquisats, counties, titles, coats of arms, etc. which have been eclipsed at my appearance. Apply to my secretary, who will tell you what is become of them. I have close-pared the horns of the dominions of Biafara, and am in possession of an entire province of Beleguanza. Erguebzed made overtures to me a little before his death.” At these words Mangogul turn’d off his ring, and silenced this gulf: he respected his father’s memory, and would hear nothing that might tarnish the splendor of the great qualities, which he knew were in him.
Returning to the seraglio, he entertained the favorite with the vapored ladies, and with the trial of his ring on Thelis. “You admit this woman,” said he, “to your familiarity: but in all probability you do not know her as well as I.”
“I understand you, sir,” answered the Sultana. “Her Toy has perhaps been foolish enough to give you a narrative of her adventures with the general Micokof, the Emir Feridour, the senator Marsupha, and the great Bramin Ramanadanutio. But pray, who is ignorant, that she keeps young Alamir, and that old Sambuco, who speaks not a word, is as well apprized of it as you.”
“You have not hit the mark,” replied Mangogul. “I have compell’d her Toy to make a full discharge.”
“Had it swallowed anything of yours,” said Mirzoza. “No,” said the Sultan, “but much belonging to my subjects, to the grandees of my empire, to the neighbouring potentates; as estates, provinces, castles, lakes, forests, diamonds, equipages, with the little pied horses.”
“Without reckoning their reputation and virtue, sir,” added Mirzoza. “I cannot tell what benefit you will reap by your ring; but the more you try it, the more odious my sex becomes to me: even those, whom I thought I justly held in some esteem, are not expected. They have thrown me me into such an humor, that I beg your highness will allow me to indulge it alone for some moments.” Mangogul, who knew that the favorite was an enemy to all constraint, kiss’d her right ear thrice, and retired.
XXII
A Sketch of Mangogul’s Moral Philosophy
Mangogul, impatient to see the favorite again, slept little, arose earlier than usual, and was in her apartment before sun-rising. She had already rung the bell: a servant had just opened the curtains, and her women were preparing to dress her. The Sultan look’d narrowly around her, and seeing never a dog, he asked her the reason of this oddity. “I see,” answered Mirzoza, “that you think me singular in this article, but there is nothing in it.”
“I assure you,” replied the Sultan, “that I see dogs about all the women of my court, and you will oblige me in informing me why they have them, or why you have none. Most of them have several, and not one of them but lavishes such caresses on her own, as she seems not to bestow on her lover without some difficulty. How come these beasts to deserve the preference? What use is made of them?”
Mirzoza was puzzled at these questions: however, she made this answer. “To be sure, one keeps a dog as a parrot or a canary bird. It may be ridiculous to set one’s heart on these animals; but there is nothing wonderful in having them: they sometimes amuse, and never injure. If they are caressed, ’tis because such caresses are of no consequence. Besides, do you believe, prince, that a lover is satisfied with a kiss, such as a woman bestows on her pug-dog?”
“Doubtless, I believe it,” says the Sultan. “By Jupiter the man must be very nice, who would not be satisfied.”
One of Mirzoza’s women, who had gain’d the good will of the Sultan and his favorite by sweetness of temper, good parts, and zeal, said: “These animals are inconvenient and nasty: they dirty one’s clothes, spoil the furniture, tear laces, and do more mischief in a quarter of an hour, than would be sufficient to throw the most faithful lady’s woman into disgrace: and yet they are kept.”
“Though, according to madam, they are good for nothing but that,” added the Sultan.
“Prince,” said Mirzoza, “we stick to our fancies, and the keeping of dogs must be one, like many others, which would be no longer fancies, if we could give a reason for them. The reign of monkeys is past, the parrots still support themselves. Dogs fell, and now they rise again. Squirrels have had their time: and it is with animals, as it has successively been with Italian, English, geometry, farthingales, and furbelas.”
“Mirzoza,” replied the Sultan, shaking his head, “has not all the knowledge that may be acquired on this subject; and the Toys—”
“Is not your highness going to imagine,” said the favorite, “that you will be inform’d by Haria’s Toy, why that woman, who saw her son, one of her
