second essay on the head of Shagpat, and the second time he was shot away
from Shagpat through the crowd and great assemblage to the extreme end of
the hall, where he lay writhing about, abandoned in loathliness; and he
in his despondency, and despite of protestation and the slackness of his
limbs, was pricked again by the scimitars of the guard to a third essay
on the head of Shagpat, the people jeering at him, for they were joyous,
light of heart; and lo! the third time he was shot off violently, and
whirled away like a stone from a sling, even into the outer air and
beyond the city walls, into the distance of waste places. And now a
great cry rose from the people, as it were a song of triumph, for the
Identical stood up wrathfully from the head of Shagpat, burning in
brilliance, blinding to look on, he sitting inanimate beneath it; and it
waxed in size and pierced through the roof of the hall, and was a sight
to the streets of the city; and the horsemen camped without the walls
beheld it, and marvelled, and it was as a pillar of fire to the solitudes
of the Desert afar, and the wild Arab and wandering Bedouins and caravans
of pilgrimage. Distant cities asked the reason of that appearance, and
the cunning fakir interpreted it, and the fervent dervish expounded from
it, and messengers flew from gate to gate and from land to land in
exultation, and barbers hid their heads, and were friendly with the fox
in his earth, because of that light. So the Identical burned on the head
of Shagpat as in wrath, and with exceeding splendour of attraction, three
nights and three days; and the fishes of the sea shoaled to the sea's
surface and stared at it, and the fowls of the air congregated about the
fury of the light with screams and mad flutters, till the streets and
mosques and minarets and bright domes and roofs and cupolas of the City
of Shagpat were blackened with scorched feathers of the vulture and the
eagle and the rook and the raven and the hawk, and other birds, sacred
and obscene; so was the triumph of Shagpat made manifest to men and the
end of the world by the burning of the Identical three days and three