Nights" or are concerned with the exploits and adventures of one of the
great heroes of Islam. Amir-Hamza for example is a favourite subject of
the imaginative eastern story-teller. Amir-Hamza according to Professor
Dryasdust died before the Prophet, but according to the Troubadours of
Islam was the hero of a thousand stirring deeds by flood and field and
by the might of his right hand converted to the Faith the Davs and the
Peris of Mount Kaf (the Caucasus). You will hear, if you care to, of his
resourceful and trusty squire Umar Ayyar, owner of the magic "zambil" or
satchel which could contain everything, and master of a rude wit, similar
to that of Sancho Panza, which serves as an agreeable contrast to the
somewhat ponderous chivalry of the knight-errant of Islam.

* * * * *

Thus the Dastan-Shah whiles away time until about 8 p.m. when the club
breaks up and the faded Aspasia helps her fractious Pericles down the
rotten staircase and out into the night. Ere the company departs each
member subscribes a pice for the story-teller, who in this way earns about
forty pice a day, no inconsiderable income in truth for the mere retail of
second-hand fables: and then with a word of peace to the landlord the men
troop slowly forth to their homes. As we pass down the rotten staircase,
lit this time for our benefit with a moribund cocoanut oil lamp, we mark
the Maratha labourer still sleeping heavily in his niche, dreaming perhaps
amid the heavy odours of the house of the fresh wind-swept uplands of his
Deccan home.




IX.