Mika Waltari - The Wanderer

I was fighting a hard battle with myself. Although I had promised to give my dog to Prince Jehangir only in the event of my death, I could not take Rael back, were my life to be spared, without deeply grieving the boy. It was clear that I must part with Rael in any event, and indeed the dog could have no better master than this solemn child. Here he would lack for nothing, while in my heart I knew it was only a matter of time before Giulia lost all patience with him. She would begin to ill treat him, and perhaps even do away with him altogether. I too was now very sorrowful; tears rose to my eyes as I recalled the adventures of my past life and I knew that never should I find a better or more faithful friend than my dog Rael.

The soothing medicine allowed the monkey to fall into a deep sleep; I laid her in the gilt cage and covered her warmly over. I then ordered my dog to keep watch beside her, and promised the Prince that I would come again next morning. The eunuchs led me away. Red and gold clouds hung over the Sea of Marmara and the air was crystal clear, as it so often is after a long spell of rain. The heavy scent of hyacinths lay over the gardens. As my guards led me toward the copper gates, I was filled with inexpressible sadness; everything seemed strangely unreal, as if I were walking by my own side and watching my journey through an incomprehensible world. At that moment I had no fear of death. The will of Allah was guiding me from cradle to grave; my life was an insignificant thread in his infinite web, whose pattern I could not see.

When we reached the Sultan’s court the unarmed white eunuchs took charge of me and led me to their bathhouse where I was given a steam bath, massaged severely, and rubbed with sweet-smelling ointments. In the dressing room I was arrayed in fine new linen garments and a respectable kaftan. Hardly was I dressed when the hour of evening prayer had come, and I could perform my devotions after complete ablution and in the best possible frame of mind. I was then taken without delay to the Kislar-Aga’s reception room where I found Solomon the physician and three long-bearded and short-sighted tselebs. Solomon had seated himself at a respectful distance from these ancient scholars. In a corner of the room sat the tselebs’ scribe, with writing materials on his knee. A number of lamps suspended from the ceiling shed a clear light over the room.

Having saluted the tselebs with veneration, I was invited to sit on a low leather cushion before them, and Solomon made a long speech in my honor. Despite my youth, he told them, I had studied medicine at the foremost universities of Christendom; then, having found the true path, I had taken the turban and so been enabled to acquire valuable knowledge from ancient Arabian writings. He declared that I admired above all that school founded by Moses ben-Maimon and his pupils; but because of my imperfect knowledge of the language I needed help in displaying my talents, though I was well able to read Arabic texts. On the recommendation of the noble Kislar-Aga, an exception had been made in my favor and I was to be allowed to answer the examiners through an interpreter.

It was of course most gratifying to hear the high opinion the learned doctor had formed of my attainments after so short a conversation. The tselebs listened attentively, nodded, and regarded me with benevolence. Each in turn put questions to me, to which I replied by a jumble of Latin. Solomon appeared to pay careful attention to what I was saying, after which he repeated appropriate passages by heart from the works of Avicenna and Moses ben-Maimon.

Several times in the course of the examination the tselebs disputed animatedly among themselves and plunged into far-reaching dissertations to display their own learning and profundity of thought. And having thus passed an agreeable hour they declared with one voice that I had given satisfactory proof of my competence in medicine. The scribe had already engrossed my diploma in a fair hand, and all three tselebs now signed this and pressed their inked thumbs upon the parchment. Solomon gratefully kissed their hands and gave each of them a leather purse in reward for their trouble, while the Kislar-Aga sent them a delicious meal from his own kitchen. I was not allowed to leave the Seraglio, however, and slept that night behind bolts and bars.

Immediately after the morning prayer the eunuchs led me back to Sultana Khurrem’s pavilion, and the gleaming copper gates seemed as familiar to me as if I had been a daily visitor to the forbidden gardens. Prince Jehangir lay in a deep sleep on his bed beside the monkey’s cage, and his plain little face bore traces of tears. The dog lay with his head across the boy’s legs and wagged his tail in greeting as I approached.

But Koko had had a hemorrhage during the night, and her little heart was so worn out with fever that she had barely strength to hold my finger. A faint moan came, then a convulsion, and she was dead. What should I have done now, I reflected, if little Jehangir had been my own son? First I dressed the dead monkey in its fine clothes, drew the bedcover over it and carried it, bed and all, out into the garden. The eunuchs kept close beside me. I ordered an old gardener who was working there to dig a grave at the foot of the big plane tree. He obeyed, and having laid my burden in it I filled the hole, raised a little mound above it and told the gardener to plant a flowering shrub there before Prince Jehangir awoke. I then returned to the Prince’s room and sat cross legged on the floor beside his bed. Only once did the Sultana appear in the doorway, signing to the eunuchs to let Prince Jehangir have his sleep out. I sat immersed in thought until my legs grew numb and time began to drag interminably. But Prince Jehangir, having been awake until very late the night before, was exhausted with grief and slept long and soundly, to the delight of his servants.

He awoke about noon, and as he rubbed his eyes with his thin hands the dog with wagging tail crept up to lick his fingers. A faint smile overspread the boy’s face. Then he started and looked toward the cage, to find it empty. His face twisted, and fearing another outbreak of weeping I said hastily, “Noble Prince Jehangir, you’re the Sultan’s son. Face like a man that One who severs the bonds of friendship forever, for gentle death has freed your friend the monkey from pain and fever. Think of Koko as setting forth now upon a journey to a far country. Just as we have a Paradise, so I think have little monkeys and faithful dogs-a Paradise with rippling water brooks.”

Prince Jehangir in his sorrow listened to my words as to a beautiful story, and pressed Rael to his breast. I went on, “My dog was a good playfellow for your monkey, and though today you’ve lost one friend you have gained another. I think Rael will serve you well, though just at first, like the faithful beast he is, he may miss me.”

While I was speaking Prince Jehangir allowed himself to be washed and dressed, after which the servants brought in many delicate dishes and set them before him. He refused to eat, and the slave girls were beginning to weep for fear when I said to him, “You must feed your new friend and eat with him, that he may know you for his master.”

The pampered Prince looked at me suspiciously, but I began at once to hand him such morsels as I knew my dog would like. The boy obediently bit a piece from each and gave the rest to Rael, and Rael understood that from now on he would be fed by Prince Jehangir instead of me. He looked at me in wonder, but ate avidly of the good food; and if the truth must be told I tasted a few of the dishes myself, for they were indeed excellent and I was hungry. So Prince Jehangir, Rael, and I shared that meal, while the slave women laughed and clapped their hands, blessing me in the name of Allah because the Prince wept no longer and ate like a man.