"Dunsany, Lord - collection - Plays of Gods and Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

and a man perhaps will steal by with a dagger for some
old quarrel's sake, and Skarmi will light up his house
to sell brandy all night long, and men will sit on
benches outside his door playing skabash by the glare
of a small green lantern, while they light great
bubbling pipes and smoke nargroob. O, it is all very
good to watch. And I like to think as I smoke and see
these things that somewhere, far away, the desert has
put up a huge red cloud like a wing so that all the
Arabs know that next day the Siroc will blow, the
accursed breath of Eblis the father of Satan.

Aoob:
Yes, it is pleasant to think of the Siroc when one is
safe in a city, but I do not like to think about it
now, for before the day is out we will be taking
pilgrims to Mecca, and who ever prophesied or knew by
wit what the desert had in store? Going into the
desert is like throwing bone after bone to a dog, some
he will catch and some of them he will drop. He may
catch our bones, or we may go by and come to gleaming
Mecca. O-ho, I would I were a merchant with a little
booth in a frequented street to sit all day and barter.

Bel-Narb:
Aye, it is easier to cheat some lord coming to buy silk
and ornaments in a city than to cheat death in the
desert. Oh, the desert, the desert, I love the
beautiful cities and I hate the desert.

Aoob:
[Pointing off L.]
Who is that?

Bel-Narb:
What? There by the desert's edge where the camels are?

Aoob:
Yes, who is it?

Bel-Narb:
He is staring across the desert the way that the camels
go. They say that the King goes down to the edge of
the desert and often stares across it. He stands there
for a long time of an evening looking towards Mecca.

Aoob:
Of what use is it to the King to look towards Mecca?
He cannot go to Mecca. He cannot go into the desert
for one day. Messengers would run after him and cry