Chronicles and Characters :: :: University of Virginia Library

Sultàn Mahmùd, son of Sabaktogin,
Swept with his sceptre the hot sands of Zin,
Spread forth his mantle over Palestine,
And made the carpet of his glory shine
From Cufah to Cashmere; and, in his pride
Said “All these lands are mine.”

At last he died.

Then his sons laid him with exceeding state
In a deep tomb. Upon the granite gate
Outside they graved in gold his titles all,
And all the names of kingdoms in his thrall,
And all his glory. And beside his head
They placed a bag of rice, a loaf of bread,
And water in a pitcher. This they did
In order that, if God should haply bid
His servant Death to let this sultan go
Because of his surpassing greatness, so

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He might not come back hungry. But he lay
In his high marble coffin night and day
Motionless, without majesty or will.

Darkness sat down beside him, and was still.

Afterwards, when a hundred years had roll'd,
A certain king, desiring to behold
This famous sultan, gave command to unlock
The granite gate of that sepulchral rock,
And, with a lamp, went down into the tomb,
And all his court.

Out of the nether gloom
There rose a loathsome stench intolerable.
Hard by the marble coffin, on a sill
Of mildew'd stone the earthen pitcher stood,
Untouch'd, untasted. Rats, a ravenous brood,
Had scatter'd all the rice, and gnaw'd the bread.
All that was left upon his marble bed
Of the great Sultan was a little heap
Of yellow bones, and a dry skull, with deep
Eye-sockets. But in those eye-sockets, lo!
Two living eyes were rolling to and fro,
Now left, now right, with never any rest.

Then was the king amazed, and smote his breast
And call'd on God for grace. But not the less

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Those dismal eyes with dreadful restlessness
Continually in their socket-holes
Roll'd right and left, like pain'd and wicked souls.
Then said the king “Call here an Abid, wise
And righteous, to rebuke those wicked eyes
That will not rest.”
And when the Abid came
The king said “O mine Abid, in the name
Of the High God that judges quick and dead,
Speak to those eyes.”

The Abid, trembling, said
“Eyes of Mahmud, why is your rest denied
In death? What seek ye here?”

The eyes replied,
Still rolling in their wither'd sockets there,
“God's curse upon this darkness! Where, O where
Be my possessions? For with fierce endeavour
Ever we seek them, but can find them never.”