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

his name and bring him back to the council-hall or to
the chamber of judgments. If they could not find him
their heads would be struck off and put high up upon
some windy roof: the judges would point at them and
say, "They see better there!"

Bel-Narb:
No, the King cannot go away into the desert. If God
were to make ME King I would go down to the edge of the
desert once, and I would shake the sand out of my
turban and out of my beard and then I would never look
at the desert again. Greedy and parched old parent of
thousands of devils! He might cover the wells with
sand, and blow with his Siroc, year after year and
century after century, and never earn one of my curses
-- if God made ME King.

Aoob:
They say you are like the King.

Bel-Narb:
Yes, I am like the King. Because his father disguised
himself as a camel-driver and came through our
villages. I often say to myself, "God is just. And if
I could disguise myself as the King and drive him out
to be a camel-driver, that would please God for He is
just."

Aoob:
If you did this God would say, "Look at Bel-Narb, whom
I made to be a camel-driver and who has forgotten
this." And then he would forget you, Bel-Narb.

Bel-Narb:
Who knows what God would say?

Aoob:
Who knows? His ways are wonderful.

Bel-Narb:
I would not do this thing, Aoob. I would not do it.
It is only what I say to myself as I smoke, or at night
out in the desert. I say to myself, "Bel-Narb is King
in Thalanna." And then I say, "Chamberlain, bring
Skarmi here with his brandy and his lanterns and boards
to play skabash, and let all the town come and drink
before the palace and magnify my name."

Pilgrims:
[Calling, off.]