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Updated: May 20, 2025
Here," continued he, "slave Mahoud, inflict fifty lashes on that obdurate female." I took the chabouc from Bennaskar, and began, with trembling, my cruel office, lamenting my own blind compliance in promising to obey a monster whom I had mistaken for a friend.
All appearances are to Mahoud alike; and the severer the trial, the more shall I commend thy friendship." "Then," said Bennaskar, pulling out a pot of black ointment, "thou must suffer me to disguise thy face with this ointment: to-night thou must personate a black slave." "Is such a trifle," said I, "the test of friendship? Give me the ointment, and furnish me with the habit of a slave."
"The hard-hearted and the cruel," said Hemjunah, faintly, "are the last to win the soft affections of a female heart: rather let me die than be the property of the vile Bennaskar." "If so," said he, coming from the closet, "die: for the present I resign my power. Let Macoma hide thee again in the dust of the earth."
I answered that I had ever been sincere, even to those who were undeserving, and that I would rather die than betray my friend. "If what you say is true," said Bennaskar, "I will try you. Go in, and my servants shall clothe you, and you shall live with me. I only ask in return, that you never disclose to any one what you hear or see transacted in my house."
The Cadi there passed sentence upon me, that I should be burnt alive the next day unless I delivered up Mahoud and the Princess of Cassimir. Finding it vain to repeat my declarations that I was the real Mahoud, and that I suffered through the vile enchantments of Bennaskar, I remained silent; but this was construed into surliness, and I was ordered five hundred bastinadoes to make me speak.
Saying this, he spat in my face, and threw me on the ground, and then flew out of the closet, shutting the door forcibly after him. I remained for some moments stupefied by my fall; but after a time arose, and opening the closet, I was surprised to see neither the Princess of Cassimir nor the magician Bennaskar.
The friends of Bennaskar then surrounded their lord, and each confusedly offered their services to him. "No," said the young man, "though I appear unthoughtful in your eyes, O, servile race of flatterers! yet know, to your confusion, that I have tried you all, and find you trifling and insincere.
"Ill-fated Princess! thy tyrant genius hath now hidden thee a month from my sight, while thy friends, Ulin and Bennaskar, seek to restore thee to light and to life: say but, therefore, thou wilt be mine, and the enchantments of Macoma will be destroyed."
Taken by the crafty dissimulation of Bennaskar, thy easy soul gave in to his snares, and thy prudence was decoyed by the voice of his mouth. Thou hast promised, at all events, not to reveal the secrets of his house, and thou hast, unknowingly, joined thyself in the fellowship of the wicked.
"Now," said he, "Mahoud, enter that closet which is opposite to us, and put on the slave's dress which you will find there, and anoint thy face and hands with this black ointment." I immediately obeyed, and in a short time came forth arrayed as a slave. "Kind Mahoud," said Bennaskar, "thou art excellently disguised; now obey with silence, and stand as a mute before his lord."
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