2023-05-03_The_Camel_Trader_of_Babylon
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00:00:30.000 | "The hungrier one becomes, the clearer one's mind works.
00:00:35.400 | Also, the more sensitive one becomes to the odors of food."
00:00:41.000 | Tarkad, the son of Azur, certainly thought so.
00:00:45.000 | "For two whole days he had tasted no food, except two small figs purloined from over the wall of a garden.
00:00:52.600 | Not another could he grab before the angry woman rushed forth and chased him down the street.
00:00:57.800 | Her shrill cries were still ringing in his ears as he walked through the marketplace.
00:01:02.800 | They helped him to restrain his restless fingers from snatching the tempting fruits from the baskets of the market women.
00:01:10.800 | Never before had he realized how much food was brought to the markets of Babylon, and how good it smelled.
00:01:18.400 | Leaving the market, he walked across to the inn and paced back and forth in front of the eating house.
00:01:24.400 | Perhaps here he might meet someone he knew, someone from whom he could borrow a copper
00:01:29.400 | that would gain him a smile from the unfriendly keeper of the inn, and with it a liberal helping.
00:01:36.400 | Without the copper, he knew all too well how unwelcome he would be.
00:01:42.400 | In his abstraction, he unexpectedly found himself face to face with the one man he wished most to avoid,
00:01:50.400 | the tall, bony figure of Dabasir, the camel trader.
00:01:55.400 | Of all the friends and others from whom he had borrowed small sums, Dabasir made him feel the most uncomfortable
00:02:03.400 | because of his failure to keep his promises to repay promptly.
00:02:08.400 | Dabasir's face lighted up at the sight of him.
00:02:11.400 | "Ha! 'Tis Tarkhad, just the one I have been seeking, that he might repay the two pieces of copper which I lent him a moon ago.
00:02:19.400 | Also, the piece of silver which I lent to him before that. We are well met. I could make good use of the coins this very day. What say, boy, what say?"
00:02:29.400 | Tarkhad stuttered, and his face flushed.
00:02:33.400 | He had not in his empty stomach to nerve him to argue with the outspoken Dabasir.
00:02:38.400 | "I'm sorry, very sorry," he mumbled weakly, "but this day I have neither the copper nor the silver with which I could repay."
00:02:45.400 | "Then get it," Dabasir insisted. "Surely thou canst get hold of a few coppers and a piece of silver to repay the generosity of an old friend of thy father who aided thee whence thou wast in need?
00:02:58.400 | 'Tis because ill fortune does pursue me that I cannot pay."
00:03:02.400 | "Ill fortune? What'st blame the gods for thine own weakness? Ill fortune pursues every man who thinks more of borrowing than of repaying.
00:03:12.400 | Come with me, boy, while I eat. I am hungry, and I would tell thee a tale."
00:03:17.400 | Tarkhad flinched from the brutal frankness of Dabasir, but here at least was an invitation to enter the coveted doorway of the eating-house.
00:03:27.400 | Dabasir pushed him to a far corner of the room where they seated themselves upon small rugs.
00:03:33.400 | When Khaoskor, the proprietor, appeared smiling, Dabasir addressed him with his usual freedom.
00:03:40.400 | "Fat lizard of the desert, bring to me a leg of the goat, very brown, with much juice and bread and all of the vegetables, for I am hungry and want much food.
00:03:52.400 | Do not forget my friend here. Bring to him a jug of water. Have it cooled, for the day is hot."
00:03:59.400 | Tarkhad's heart sank. Must he sit here and drink water while he watched this man devour an entire goat leg?
00:04:09.400 | He said nothing. He thought of nothing he could say.
00:04:13.400 | Dabasir, however, knew no such thing as silence.
00:04:16.400 | Smiling and waving his hand good-naturedly to the other customers, all of whom knew him, he continued,
00:04:22.400 | "I did hear from a traveler just returned from Urfa of a certain rich man who has a piece of stone cut so thin that one can look through it.
00:04:31.400 | He put it in the window of his house to keep out the rains.
00:04:34.400 | It is yellow, so this traveler does relate, and he was permitted to look through it and all the outside world looked strange and not like it really is.
00:04:43.400 | What say you to that, Tarkhad? Thinkest all the world could look to a man a different color from what it is?"
00:04:50.400 | "I dare say," responded the youth, much more interested in the fat leg of goat placed before Dabasir.
00:04:58.400 | "Well, I know it to be true, for I myself have seen the world all of a different color from what it really is,
00:05:04.400 | and the tale I am about to tell relates how I came to see it in its right color once more."
00:05:10.400 | "Dabasir will tell a tale," whispered a neighboring diner to his neighbor and dragged his rug close.
00:05:16.400 | Other diners brought their food and crowded in a semicircle.
00:05:20.400 | They crunched noisily in the ears of Tarkhad and brushed him with their meaty bones.
00:05:26.400 | He alone was without food.
00:05:29.400 | Dabasir did not offer to share with him, nor even motion him to a small corner of the hard bread that was broken off and had fallen from the platter to the floor.
00:05:38.400 | "The tale that I am about to tell," began Dabasir, pausing to bite a goodly chunk from the goat leg,
00:05:45.400 | "relates to my early life and how I came to be a camel trader.
00:05:50.400 | Didst anyone know that I once was a slave in Syria?" A murmur of surprise ran through the audience, to which Dabasir listened with satisfaction.
00:06:00.400 | "When I was a young man," continued Dabasir, after another vicious onslaught on the goat leg,
00:06:06.400 | "I learned the trade of my father, the making of saddles.
00:06:10.400 | I worked with him in his shop and took to myself a wife.
00:06:13.400 | Being young and not greatly skilled, I could earn but little, just enough to support my excellent wife in a modest way.
00:06:21.400 | I craved good things which I could not afford.
00:06:24.400 | Soon I found that the shopkeepers would trust me to pay later, even though I could not pay at the time.
00:06:31.400 | Being young and without experience, I did not know that he who spends more than he earns
00:06:37.400 | is sowing the winds of needless self-indulgence, from which he is sure to reap the whirlwinds of trouble and humiliation.
00:06:46.400 | So I indulged my whims for fine raiment and bought luxuries for my good wife and our home beyond our means.
00:06:55.400 | I paid as I could, and for a while all went well.
00:06:59.400 | But in time I discovered I could not use my earnings both to live upon and to pay my debts.
00:07:05.400 | Creditors began to pursue me to pay for my extravagant purchases, and my life became miserable.
00:07:12.400 | I borrowed from my friends but could not repay them either.
00:07:15.400 | Things went from bad to worse.
00:07:17.400 | My wife returned to her father, and I decided to leave Babylon and seek another city, where a young man might have better chances.
00:07:26.400 | For two years I had a restless and unsuccessful life, working for caravan traders.
00:07:32.400 | To this I fell in with a set of likable robbers, who scoured the desert for unarmed caravans.
00:07:39.400 | Such deeds were unworthy of the son of my father, but I was seeing the world through a colored stone,
00:07:46.400 | and did not realize to what degradation I had fallen.
00:07:50.400 | We met with success on our first trip, capturing a rich haul of gold and silks and valuable merchandise.
00:07:57.400 | This loot we took to Ginear and squandered.
00:08:01.400 | The second time we were not so fortunate.
00:08:04.400 | Just after we had made our capture, we were attacked by the spearsmen of a native chief to whom the caravans paid for protection.
00:08:12.400 | Our two leaders were killed, and the rest of us were taken to Damascus, where we were stripped of our clothing and sold as slaves.
00:08:19.400 | I was purchased for two pieces of silver by a Syrian desert chief.
00:08:24.400 | With my hair shorn and but a loincloth to wear, I was not so different from the other slaves.
00:08:30.400 | Being a reckless youth, I thought it merely an adventure,
00:08:34.400 | until my master took me before his four wives and told them they could have me for a eunuch.
00:08:41.400 | Then indeed did I realize the hopelessness of my situation.
00:08:44.400 | These men of the desert were fierce and warlike.
00:08:48.400 | I was subject to their will without weapons or means of escape.
00:08:53.400 | Fearful I stood as those four women looked me over.
00:08:58.400 | I wondered if I could expect pity from them.
00:09:01.400 | Syrah, the first wife, was older than the others.
00:09:04.400 | Her face was impassive as she looked upon me.
00:09:07.400 | I turned from her with little consolation.
00:09:11.400 | The next was a contemptuous beauty who gazed at me as indifferently as if I had been a worm of the earth.
00:09:18.400 | The two younger ones tittered as though it were all an exciting joke.
00:09:23.400 | It seemed an age that I stood waiting sentence.
00:09:27.400 | Each woman appeared willing for the others to decide.
00:09:30.400 | Finally, Syrah spoke up in a cold voice.
00:09:34.400 | "Of eunuchs we have plenty, but of camel-tenders we have few, and they are a worthless lot.
00:09:41.400 | Even this day I would visit my mother who is sick with the fever,
00:09:45.400 | and there is no slave I would trust to lead my camel.
00:09:48.400 | Ask this slave if he can lead a camel."
00:09:52.400 | My master thereupon questioned me.
00:09:54.400 | "What know you of camels?"
00:09:57.400 | Striving to conceal my eagerness, I replied,
00:09:59.400 | "I can make them kneel, I can load them, I can lead them on long trips without tiring.
00:10:04.400 | If need be, I can repair their trappings."
00:10:07.400 | "The slave speaks forward enough," observed my master.
00:10:11.400 | "If thou so desire, Syrah, take this man for thy camel-tender."
00:10:16.400 | So I was turned over to Syrah, and that day I led her camel upon a long journey to her sick mother.
00:10:23.400 | I took the occasion to thank her for her intercession,
00:10:26.400 | and also to tell her that I was not a slave by birth,
00:10:30.400 | but the son of a free man, an honorable saddle-maker of Babylon.
00:10:35.400 | I also told her much of my story.
00:10:37.400 | Her comments were disconcerting to me as I pondered much afterwards on what she said.
00:10:43.400 | "How can you call yourself a free man when your weakness has brought you to this?
00:10:48.400 | If a man has in himself the soul of a slave,
00:10:52.400 | will he not become one no matter what his birth, even as water seeks its level?
00:10:57.400 | If a man has within him the soul of a free man,
00:11:01.400 | will he not become respected and honored in his own city in spite of his misfortune?"
00:11:09.400 | For over a year I was a slave and lived with the slaves,
00:11:13.400 | but I could not become as one of them.
00:11:15.400 | One day Syrah asked me, "In the even time when the other slaves can mingle and enjoy the society of each other,
00:11:22.400 | why dost thou sit in thy tent alone?"
00:11:24.400 | To which I responded, "I am pondering what you have said to me.
00:11:28.400 | I wonder if I have the soul of a slave.
00:11:31.400 | I cannot join them, so I must sit apart."
00:11:35.400 | "I too must sit apart," she confided.
00:11:39.400 | "My dowry was large and my lord married me because of it.
00:11:42.400 | Yet he does not desire me.
00:11:44.400 | What every woman longs for is to be desired.
00:11:48.400 | Because of this and because I am barren and have neither son nor daughter, must I sit apart?
00:11:55.400 | Were I a man, I would rather die than be such a slave,
00:11:58.400 | but the conventions of our tribe make slaves of women."
00:12:02.400 | "What think thou of me by this time?" I asked her suddenly.
00:12:06.400 | "Have I the soul of a man or have I the soul of a slave?
00:12:09.400 | Have you a desire to repay the just debts you owe in Babylon?"
00:12:14.400 | She parried.
00:12:15.400 | "Yes, I have the desire, but I see no way."
00:12:18.400 | "If thou contentedly let the years slip by and make no effort to repay,
00:12:24.400 | then thou hast but the contemptible soul of a slave.
00:12:28.400 | No man is otherwise who cannot respect himself,
00:12:31.400 | and no man can respect himself who does not repay honest debts."
00:12:36.400 | "But what can I do, who am a slave in Syria?"
00:12:40.400 | "Stay a slave in Syria, thou weakling."
00:12:43.400 | "I am not a weakling," I denied hotly.
00:12:46.400 | "Then prove it."
00:12:48.400 | "How?"
00:12:49.400 | "Does not thy great king fight his enemies in every way he can and with every force he has?
00:12:55.400 | Thy debts are thy enemies.
00:12:58.400 | They ran thee out of Babylon.
00:13:00.400 | You left them alone and they grew too strong for thee.
00:13:03.400 | Hadst thou fought them as a man, thou couldst have conquered them
00:13:07.400 | and been one honored among the townspeople.
00:13:10.400 | But thou had not the soul to fight them,
00:13:13.400 | and behold thy pride has gone down until thou art a slave in Syria."
00:13:19.400 | Much I thought over her unkind accusations
00:13:22.400 | and many defensive phrases I worded to prove myself not a slave at heart,
00:13:26.400 | but I was not to have the chance to use them.
00:13:29.400 | Three days later the maid of Syrah took me to her mistress.
00:13:33.400 | "My mother is again very sick," she said.
00:13:36.400 | "Saddle the two best camels in my husband's herd.
00:13:39.400 | Tie on water skins and saddlebags for a long journey.
00:13:43.400 | The maid will give thee food at the kitchen tent."
00:13:46.400 | I packed the camels, wondering much at the quantity of provisions the maid provided,
00:13:50.400 | for the mother dwelt less than a day's journey away.
00:13:53.400 | The maid rode the rear camel which followed, and I led the camel of my mistress.
00:13:58.400 | When we reached her mother's house it was just dark.
00:14:01.400 | Syrah dismissed the maid and said to me,
00:14:04.400 | "Davasir, hast thou the soul of a free man, or the soul of a slave?"
00:14:10.400 | "The soul of a free man," I insisted.
00:14:13.400 | "Now is thy chance to prove it.
00:14:15.400 | Thy master hath imbibed deeply, and his chiefs are in a stupor.
00:14:20.400 | Take then these camels and make thy escape.
00:14:23.400 | Here in this bag is raiment of thy master's to disguise thee.
00:14:26.400 | I will say thou stole the camels and ran away while I visited my sick mother."
00:14:31.400 | "Thou hast the soul of a queen," I told her.
00:14:34.400 | "Much do I wish that I might lead thee to happiness."
00:14:38.400 | "Happiness," she responded,
00:14:40.400 | "awaits not the runaway wife who seeks it in far lands among strange people.
00:14:45.400 | Go thy own way, and may the gods of the desert protect thee,
00:14:49.400 | for the way is far and barren of food or water."
00:14:53.400 | I needed no further urging, but thanked her warmly and was away into the night.
00:14:59.400 | I knew not this strange country,
00:15:01.400 | and had only a dim idea of the direction in which lay Babylon,
00:15:05.400 | but struck out bravely across the desert toward the hills.
00:15:09.400 | One camel I rode, and the other I led.
00:15:12.400 | All that night I traveled, and all the next day,
00:15:15.400 | urged on by the knowledge of the terrible fate that was meted out to slaves
00:15:19.400 | who stole their master's property and tried to escape.
00:15:23.400 | Late that afternoon I reached a rough country as uninhabitable as the desert.
00:15:28.400 | The sharp rocks bruised the feet of my faithful camels,
00:15:32.400 | and soon they were picking their way slowly and painfully along.
00:15:36.400 | I met neither man nor beast,
00:15:39.400 | and could well understand why they shunned this inhospitable land.
00:15:44.400 | It was such a journey from then on as few men live to tell of.
00:15:48.400 | Day after day we plotted along.
00:15:51.400 | Food and water gave out.
00:15:53.400 | The heat of the sun was merciless.
00:15:56.400 | At the end of the ninth day I slid from the back of my mount
00:15:59.400 | with the feeling that I was too weak to ever remount,
00:16:02.400 | and I would surely die, lost in this abandoned country.
00:16:06.400 | I stretched out upon the ground and slept,
00:16:09.400 | not waking until the first gleam of daylight.
00:16:13.400 | I sat up and looked about me.
00:16:15.400 | There was a coolness in the morning air.
00:16:18.400 | My camels lay dejected not far away.
00:16:22.400 | About me was a vast waste of broken country,
00:16:25.400 | covered with rock and sand and thorny things,
00:16:28.400 | no sign of water, not to eat for man or camels.
00:16:34.400 | Could it be that in this peaceful quiet I faced my end?
00:16:38.400 | My mind was clearer than it had ever been before.
00:16:41.400 | My body now seemed of little importance.
00:16:44.400 | My parched and bleeding lips, my dry and swollen tongue,
00:16:49.400 | my empty stomach, all had lost their supreme agonies of the day before.
00:16:54.400 | I looked across into the uninviting distance
00:16:57.400 | and once again came to me the question,
00:17:00.400 | "Have I the soul of a slave or the soul of a free man?"
00:17:04.400 | Then, with clearness, I realized that if I had the soul of a slave,
00:17:10.400 | I should give up, lie down in the desert, and die,
00:17:14.400 | a fitting end for a runaway slave.
00:17:18.400 | But if I had the soul of a free man, what then?
00:17:22.400 | Surely I would force my way back to Babylon,
00:17:25.400 | repay the people who had trusted me,
00:17:27.400 | bring happiness to my wife who truly loved me,
00:17:30.400 | and bring peace and contentment to my parents.
00:17:33.400 | "Thy debts are thine enemies who have run thee out of Babylon,"
00:17:36.400 | Syrah had said. Yes, it was so.
00:17:39.400 | Why had I refused to stand my ground like a man?
00:17:43.400 | Why had I permitted my wife to go back to her father?
00:17:47.400 | Then a strange thing happened.
00:17:49.400 | All the world seemed to be of a different color,
00:17:52.400 | as though I had been looking at it through a colored stone
00:17:54.400 | which had suddenly been removed.
00:17:57.400 | At last, I saw the true values in life.
00:18:00.400 | Die in the desert? Not I.
00:18:03.400 | With a new vision, I saw the things I must do.
00:18:06.400 | First, I would go back to Babylon and face every man
00:18:09.400 | to whom I owed an unpaid debt.
00:18:12.400 | I should tell them that after years of wandering and misfortune,
00:18:16.400 | I had come back to pay my debts as fast as the gods would permit.
00:18:20.400 | Next, I should make a home for my wife
00:18:22.400 | and become a citizen of whom my parents should be proud.
00:18:26.400 | My debts were my enemies, but the men I owed were my friends,
00:18:31.400 | for they had trusted me and believed in me.
00:18:35.400 | I staggered weakly to my feet.
00:18:37.400 | What mattered, hunger? What mattered, thirst?
00:18:41.400 | They were but incidents on the road to Babylon.
00:18:44.400 | Within me surged the soul of a free man
00:18:47.400 | going back to conquer his enemies and reward his friends.
00:18:51.400 | I thrilled with a great resolve.
00:18:54.400 | The glazed eyes of my camels brightened at the new note in my husky voice.
00:18:59.400 | With great effort, after many attempts, they gained their feet.
00:19:03.400 | With pitiful perseverance, they pushed on toward the north,
00:19:06.400 | where something within me said we would find Babylon.
00:19:10.400 | We found water.
00:19:12.400 | We passed into a more fertile country, where were grass and fruit.
00:19:17.400 | We found the trail to Babylon, because the soul of a free man
00:19:21.400 | looks at life as a series of problems to be solved and solves them,
00:19:26.400 | while the soul of a slave whines, "What can I do, who am but a slave?"
00:19:33.400 | How about thee, Tarkhad?
00:19:35.400 | Dost thy empty stomach make thy head exceedingly clear?
00:19:38.400 | Art ready to take the road that leads back to self-respect?
00:19:42.400 | Canst thou see the world in its true color?
00:19:45.400 | Hast thou the desire to pay thy honest debts, however many they may be,
00:19:51.400 | and once again be a man respected in Babylon?
00:19:55.400 | Moisture came to the eyes of the youth.
00:19:57.400 | He rose eagerly to his knees.
00:20:00.400 | Thou hast shown me a vision already.
00:20:02.400 | I feel the soul of a free man surge within me.
00:20:05.400 | "But how fared you upon your return?" questioned an interested listener.
00:20:10.400 | "Where the determination is, the way can be found," Dabasir replied.
00:20:16.400 | I now had the determination, so I set out to find a way.
00:20:21.400 | First, I visited every man to whom I was indebted,
00:20:25.400 | and begged his indulgence until I could earn that with which to repay.
00:20:29.400 | Most of them met me gladly.
00:20:32.400 | Several reviled me, but others offered to help me.
00:20:36.400 | One indeed did give me the very help I needed.
00:20:38.400 | It was Maithon, the goldlender.
00:20:41.400 | Learning that I had been a camel tender in Syria,
00:20:44.400 | he sent me to old Nebatur, the camel trader,
00:20:47.400 | just commissioned by our good king to purchase many herds of sound camels for the great expedition.
00:20:52.400 | With him, my knowledge of camels I put to good use.
00:20:56.400 | Gradually, I was able to repay every copper and every piece of silver.
00:21:01.400 | Then at last I could hold up my head and feel that I was an honorable man among men.
00:21:06.400 | Again, Dabasir turned to his food.
00:21:09.400 | "Cowsgore, thou snail!" he called loudly to be heard in the kitchen.
00:21:14.400 | "The food is cold! Bring me more meat, fresh from the roasting.
00:21:18.400 | Bring thou also a very large portion for Tarkhad,
00:21:22.400 | the son of my old friend who is hungry, and shall eat with me."
00:21:27.400 | So ended the tale of Dabasir, the camel trader of old Babylon.
00:21:32.400 | He found his own soul when he realized a great truth,
00:21:36.400 | a truth that had been known and used by wise men long before his time.
00:21:41.400 | It has led men of all ages out of difficulties and into success,
00:21:45.400 | and it will continue to do so for those who have the wisdom to understand its magic power.
00:21:50.400 | It is for any man to use who reads these lines.
00:21:55.400 | Where the determination is, the way can be found.
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