Asia -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, English
I don't know how many times this didn't happen during the night. But
towards morning White began to grow very weak. He moaned perpetually.
Then he began to be troubled by the flesh. As dawn showed grey in the
east, he was suddenly shaken by convulsions horrible to see. He
screamed for someone to bring him a woman, and, as he screamed, his
head fell back: he was dead. I cut the cords quickly in a terror of
haste, and covered the horror of the face. Robson was sitting in a
heap in his chair: he was sobbing, his face in his hands.
At that moment I was told I was wanted on the shore. I went quickly.
The sea looked cold and grey under the faint light from the East. A
cold little wind just ruffled the surface of the water. A solitary
boat stood out black against the sky, just throbbing slowly up and
down on the water close in shore. They had a dead Arab on board, he
had died suddenly while diving, they wanted my permission to bring
the body ashore. Four men waded out to the boat: the corpse was lifted
out and placed upon their shoulders. They waded back slowly: the feet
of the dead man stuck out, toes pointing up, very stark, over the
shoulders of the men in front. The body was laid on the sand. The
bearded face of the dead man looked very calm, very dignified in the
faint light. An Arab, his brother, sat down upon the sand near his
head. He covered himself with sackcloth. I heard him weeping. It
was very silent, very cold and still on the shore in the early dawn.
A tall figure stepped forward, it was the Arab sheik, the leader of
the boat. He laid his hand on the head of the weeping man and spoke
to him calmly, eloquently, compassionately. I didn't understand Arabic,
but I could understand what he was saying. The dead man had lived, had
worked, had died. He had died working, without suffering, as men should
desire to die. He had left a son behind him. The speech went on calmly,
eloquently, I heard continually the word Khallas--all is over,
finished. I watched the figures outlined against the grey sky--the
long lean outline of the corpse with the toes sticking up so straight
and stark, the crouching huddled figure of the weeping man and the
tall upright sheik standing by his side. They were motionless, sombre,
mysterious, part of the grey sea, of the grey sky.
Suddenly the dawn broke red in the sky. The sheik stopped, motioned
silently to the four men. They lifted the dead man on to their
shoulders. They moved away down the shore by the side of the sea
which began to stir under the cold wind. By their side walked the
sheik, his hand laid gently on the brother's arm. I watched them
move away, silent, dignified. And over the shoulders of the men I
saw the feet of the dead man with the toes sticking up straight
and stark.
Then I moved away too, to make arrangements for White's burial:
it had to be done at once.
* * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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