The leader said, “I vowed I wouldn’t disrespect the former leader’s edicts.”
There was no response.
“The punishment will be inspired by the majestic nature of the Law we have inherited.”
“Will my master punish the pillars of the council too if he ascertains that they hoard the infamous metal?”
“All the desert’s people are equal before the desert’s law.”
“I fear my master may not be able to do this.”
“Watch your tongue!”
“Sorry, but they possess a sovereignty that supersedes my master’s.”
“I don’t know, wretch, from which planet you’ve fetched this conviction.”
“From the planet Earth, master. Everyone knows that the pillars of the council are sovereign masters. If that weren’t so, they wouldn’t have dared to violate the prohibition against hoarding gold in their homes.”
“It’s certain that nothing in this desert stays hidden for long. I’ll learn the truth of what you say in less time than you imagine.”
“Will my master punish them if they’re caught red-handed?”
“I’ll administer to the tribe’s nobles the very same punishment I dispense to the vassals’ son if the accusation is proven against them.”
“What punishment do you wish to dispense to the vassals’ son?”
“The very same punishment we inherited from our forefathers: exile.”
“Exile?”
“The noblest punishment for a nobleman and the harshest for a commoner.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ll understand some day. I mean that you won’t understand exile until you’ve lived it. You’ll depart tomorrow with the first caravan.”
“Does my master mean. … Didn’t my master promise to release me?”
“Is there any release more ultimate than exile?”
“But. …”
“You’ll depart tomorrow with the first caravan.”
Somewhere to the east, from the vicinity of the scarecrow’s eerie figure, they heard a muffled sound: a suppressed, gloating laugh. Or perhaps the opposite: sobs bottled up in a chest or a phrase that had died in the throat turning into a mysterious cry. All sounds resemble each other when restrained. All contradictions resemble each other and harmonize when the subject is confused.
______________
3. Tadrart Acacus and Tassili n’Ajjer, Saharan mountain ranges both recognized as UNESCO World Heritage sites because of the prehistoric rock art found there.
4. In Tuareg folklore, the moon is a representation of the goddess Tanit, and during different phases of the moon and eclipses she is seen as being attacked by enemies.
THE PURSE
1
In the commodities market he watched the man with two veils converse with a merchant from a caravan that had just arrived in the oasis. He asked himself at once, “I wonder what language merchants speak? Are they past masters of the language of circumlocution and indirection like desert people? Does jargon flow from their tongues — as with the people of other professions?” He realized that he had never debated merchants before. It astonished him that he was only discovering this now.
He passed a group of men who were struggling with camels laden with bundles. Livestock were stirring up dust with their hooves. In the air were diffused the smells of spices, camel dung and urine, perfumes, and dried fruit from lands to the south and north. These made him feel dizzy, because he was accustomed to recalling with each scent a murky inspiration, even if it vanished in a flash. The blend of scents today, however, far from awakening any illumination, made him feel nauseous and dizzy.
As the sun sank in the west, the walls’ shadows stretched toward the east. Beyond the walls, the bleating of flocks returning from their pastures could be heard.
He stopped after several paces. The man with two veils faced his companion at times, wagging his index finger, and then bent over a sheet of leather in his other hand, while the piece of linen covering the lower half of his head shook. Then he would nod his head again to return to the animated conversation.
He advanced several steps closer and gestured with a jerk of his head toward the man, who paid no attention. He looked at him without seeing him, like someone with a troubled heart.
He took another step closer and waved at him insistently. Then the man finally stopped his chatter and approached with a troubled gait. He thought he would start with a joke. “I circled the two of you repeatedly and tried to attract your attention several times, but businessmen seem to blot out the rest of the world when together.”
“Merchants can forget the world’s existence but never that of rulers.”
“Do businessmen have such a high regard for rulers?”
“In commerce, there is no place for high regard, master, but merchants venerate the authorities more than anyone else, because they know that commerce can’t exist in a power vacuum.”
“The oasis’s leader is happy to hear this from the chief merchant, but tell me about caravans. Tell me about market conditions.”
They walked west, encountering herds of sheep, goats, and camels with their herdsmen. Trails of dust rose from the twilight horizon, and in the open countryside shepherds’ shouts mingled with the grumbling of choice camels and the bleating of wretched goat kids.
They turned south to avoid the herds and headed toward the fields. The man with two veils said, “Despite our worries, master, commerce is the noblest craft man has devised.”
“Really?”
“I’ll tell you the truth, master. If commerce didn’t exist, death would be a hundred times easier than life.”
“It’s that significant?”
“I often spy on dolts who live quietly. I’m astonished they don’t die of loneliness.”
“If we ask these people about the mercantile life, they’ll express their amazement that you all don’t die from disorientation.”
“They say that, master, because they haven’t experienced commerce’s enchantment.”
“And they say you’re opposed to asceticism because you haven’t experienced the bliss of tranquility.”
“Nonsense, master. They say the ugliest things about us, assuming that we engage in business solely to make money.”
“Is there any point to business besides making money?”
“The fact is that making money is a single loop in a chain seventy yards long.”
“Amazing!”
“The charm of commerce doesn’t reside in the accumulation of profits but in a secret totally distinct from profit, master.”
“Amazing!”
“We compete to reach this secret — not from a desire to achieve the security we imagine we earn by gaining control of a larger stash of treasures.”
“Could I learn something about this secret?”
“If the tongue, master, were capable of disclosing this secret, that would make the matter much easier. Your slave, master, will give you half the riches he has spent decades accumulating, but how impossible. …”
“What can’t the tongue disclose?”
“The tongue, master, is an organ that wasn’t created to disclose information about secret mysteries. It was thrust between our jaws to veil intentions and to hide our secrets in the most remote recesses.”
“I’m hearing this insight for the first time today.”
“Allow me to ask my master why a beautiful woman captivates us? How can beauty rob us not only of our dignity but of our common sense as well? What’s beauty’s secret, master?”
“Don’t expect me to say that it resides in the body, because I’ve seen as many beautiful women in my life as there are pebbles beneath your feet and have embraced half of them. But I only lost my senses when I met the she-jinni for whose sake I fought my comrade, the hero. I discovered in her eyes, and perhaps in her voice, the lethal sign you call a secret.”