in the jasmine and screened by the trails of the roses, here, on this spot stood her chamber of charm for the secret distilling of itr, the silent repeating of ritual, the murmur of musical mantras.
"And none dare to enter since Death lurked unseen in the thickets, and serpents, her kinsmen, slid swift to the threshold to guard it, and watched with still eyes her command.
"'It was witchcraft,' they said, with a shudder, those fortunate women, yet came in the dusk for her charms!
"But she gave them not always, for years brought her wisdom. She learnt the love lore of the flowers, the close starry heart of the jasmine, the open red heart of the rose, told their dream of fair death through the ripening of seed, and her voice would grow bitter with scorn. …
"'Go! find your own lures for your lovers--I work for the seed--for the harvest of men.'
"High perched on the wall of the city the balcony women waxed wroth. It was money to them till the cripple who fought them with flowers prevailed in the battle for life to the world.
"And Narghiza, the chief of them all, felt her youth on the wane. …
"So, one night in the darkness, ere dawning, men crept to the garden where only the women might enter. Men, heated by wine and by lust, inflamed by the balcony lies--yea! the witch who wrought evil to all--who had killed Gulanâr in her prime by a wasting--whose frown was a curse, must be reckoned with, killed, and her devilish chamber destroyed.
"But the sound of the rustling leaves as the snakes slid soft in the darkness made even the wine bibbers think, so that secret and soft as the snakes in the thickets they crept back to safety; till there--in the darkness, the fragrance of flowers, but one man remained, a man who grew old! Beautiful, tired of the life he had squandered, and reckless, yet angered because of the girl who had wasted to death--a girl he had paid for.
"'Cowards!' he said with a smile, and crept on in the dark. A rustle, but not of a snake! In the leaves a faint glimmer of white, and a voice--such a beautiful voice!
"'In this garden of women what seek you, my lord?'
"'I seek you, for your death.' But as swift as his hand with the dagger, around him there rose in a shimmering shelter the wide-hooded curves of the serpents, their still, watchful eyes giving out a cold gleaming that shone like a halo about her.
"'What harm have I done?' Such a beautiful voice! 'Come and see, if you will.'
"On his head fell the spent leaves of roses, the frail stars of jasmine were hers as she dragged herself on, and he followed through darkness and fragrance and flowers. The serpents lay thick on the threshold; she stayed them with this:
"'Wait, friends, till he touches me.'
"Opened the door and said scornfully:
"'There stands my charm.'
"The dim light of the cresset showed emptiness save for yon ball with its legend ('tis scratched, as you see, in the shape of a snake, sahib). She read it aloud, and then turned to him:
"'Yea! that is all! I appeal to the God of the Battle of Life, and I call unto Him to have mercy, have mercy, have mercy--What mercy He chooses----'
"Her voice sank to silence. The cresset's dim light showed the folds of her veiling to him, and to her showed his beauty of face as he knelt to her crippledom.
"'Mercy!'--his voice was a whisper--'have mercy--the charm lies within--let me see it. … '
"His hand sought the folds of her veil and, responsive, the shelter of snakes rose about her.
"'Wait, friends, till he touches me!'
"Swift, with quick fear in it, came the stern warning, and then there was silence.
"Oh! beautiful night with spent stars of the jasmine, spent leaves of the roses, spent life nigh to death 'mid its darkness, its fragrance.
"Oh! beautiful face, free of veiling with spent stars of eyes and spent rose leaves of lips.
"'My beloved!'
"Like a sigh came the whisper, and slowly as stars in the evening their eyes grew to brightness, and closer and closer their lips grew to kisses.
"'Wait, friends, till he touches me.'
"That was her order, and swift to the second, the snakes struck between them.
"Oh, beautiful death by the kiss of a lover! Oh, merciful poison of passion."
The sing-song ceased, and, as if to take its place, the first notes of the Liebestraum waltz sounded from the rose and jasmine thicket in which the band had been concealed.
"That's a mercy of the Lord, anyhow," laughed some young Philistine. "I thought they'd never stop, or the band begin!"
In a moment the listening circle had changed into an eager hurrying of couples towards the dancing floor.
But young Bertram still sat on the pilaster nursing the old bronze ball, his glad young face strangely sober.
"I think this is our dance," said the Paris frock, in a voice of icy allurement which positively rasped my nerves.
Young Bertram sprang to the ground hastily.
"I beg your pardon! By George, what's that?"
He had upset one of the snake charmer's flat baskets, and there was a general stampede as the occupants slid out.
"Don't be alarmed," I cried, "they always have their fangs drawn, and he will get them back in a moment."
Even as I spoke the hollow quavering of the charmer's gourd flute began, and three snakes stayed their flight to sit up on their tails and sway drowsily to the rhythm.
"There was a fourth one, wasn't there?" said young Bertram. "It slipped our way, didn't it?"
He spoke to the Paris frock, which had taken refuge on the opposite pilaster, so that the whole expanse of the wide marble steps now lay between them.
"Huzoor, no!" interrupted the owner of the snakes, hastily, "there were but three--there could only have been three--for see! my serpents obey me."
He was slipping the brutes back to prison again as he spoke, but I noticed his eyes were restless.
"Are you quite sure?" I asked.
He gave me a furtive glance, then carelessly held up a loathsome five-footer. "Cobras like these are very easily counted, Huzoor; besides, as the Presence said, they are all fangless."
The one whose jaws he as carelessly prized open certainly was, and I should have dismissed doubt had not young Bertram at that moment taken up the flute gourd, and with the gay remark, "Let me have a shot at it," commenced--out of fastidiousness as to the mouthpiece, no doubt--to blow into it upside down.
I never saw fear better expressed in any face than on the snake charmer's when he heard the indescribable sound which echoed out into the garden. It grew green as without the
