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KING ARGIMENES How did they beat you because of the King's dog? ZARB They beat me because I spoke to him without making obeisance. He was coming dancing alone over the slave-fields and I spoke to him. He was a friendly great dog, and I spoke to him and patted his head, and did not make obeisance. KING ARGIMENES And they saw you do it? ZARB Yes, the slave-guard saw me.
ZARB No, Argimenes. KING ARGIMENES Why would they not follow me? ZARB Because you look like a slave. They will never follow a slave, because they are slaves themselves, and know how mean a creature is a slave. If you looked like a king they would follow you. KING ARGIMENES But I am a king. They know that I am a king. ZARB It is better to look like a king. It is looks that they would go by.
Look at your digging. KING ARGIMENES How do the guards know we are speaking because we look at one another? ZARB You are very witless. Of course they know. KING ARGIMENES Zarb. ZARB What is it? KING ARGIMENES How many guards are there in sight? ZARB There are six of them over there. They are watching us. KING ARGIMENES Are there other guards in sight of these six guards? ZARB No.
When the "gnat's wing" is mentioned, the reference is to Nimrod who, for boasting that he was lord of all, was tortured during four hundred years by a gnat sent by Allah up his ear or nostril. It is called "Zarb al-Ram!" The Nights speak of a "Takht Raml" or a board, like a schoolboy's slate, upon which the dots are inked instead of points in sand.
Bones. ZARB Yes. That is what I hope for. And have you no other hope? Do you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace gateway? KING ARGIMENES No. I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised us and took me sleeping.
SECOND SLAVE Look! It moves. ZARB The evening is too dark, I cannot see. They raise themselves on their knees and crane their necks. Nobody speaks. Then from their lips and from others further off goes up a long deep Oh! I said: 'I will arise now and see Babbulkund, City of Marvel. She is of one age with the earth; the stars are her sisters.
ZARB I wish I were you, Argimenes. KING ARGIMENES I am not to be envied any longer. I have eaten up my bone. ZARB I wish I were you, because you have been a King. Because men have prostrated themselves before your feet. Because you have ridden a horse and worn a crown and have been called Majesty. KING ARGIMENES When I remember that I have been a king it is very terrible.
King Argimenes and Zarb pick up their spades at once, and the old slaves at the back of the stage go down on their knees immediately and grub in the soil with their hands. The white beard of the oldest trails in the dirt as he works. KING ARGIMENES What is the name of that song that we always sing? I like the song. ZARB It has no name. It is our song. There is no other song.
I did not say we were worms, but we are like worms, and if they have the King when he is dead, why then KING ARGIMENES Tell me more of the King's dog. Are there big bones on him? ZARB Ay, he is a big dog a high, big, black one. KING ARGIMENES You know him then? ZARB O yes, I know him. I know him well. I was beaten once because of him, twenty-five strokes from the treble whips, two men beating me.
Yes, he will give you a sword. SLAVE A sword! No, no, I must not; the King would kill me if he found that I had a sword. ZARB I think that they are playing at dice again. FIRST SLAVE I do not see Argimenes. ZARB No, because he was crouching as he walked. The slave-guard is on the sky-line. SECOND SLAVE What is that dark shadow behind the slave-guard? ZARB It is too still to be Argimenes.
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