The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales: With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier PapersHarte, Bret
General
The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales: With Condensed Novels, Spanish and American Legends, and Earlier Papers
Harte, Bret
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.) -- Fiction; Western stories
Now when Prince Bulleboye entered the chief bazaar, where the merchants
of the city were gathered in council, he stood up in his accustomed
place, and all that were there held their breath, for the noble Prince
Bulleboye was much respected. “Let the Brokah whose bond I hold for
fifty thousand sequins stand forth!” said the prince. And the Brokah
stood forth from among the merchants. Then said the prince, “Here is thy
bond for fifty thousand sequins, for which I was to deliver unto thee
one half of my stokh. Know, then, O my brother,—and thou, too, O Aga of
the Brokahs,—that this my stokh which I pledged to thee is worthless.
For my godmother, the Ogress of silver Land, is dying. Thus do I release
thee from thy bond, and from the poverty which might overtake thee, as
it has even me, thy brother, the Prince Bulleboye.” And with that the
noble Prince Bulleboye tore the bond of the Brokah into pieces and
scattered it to the four winds.
Now when the Prince tore up the bond there was a great commotion, and
some said, “Surely the Prince Bulleboye is drunken with wine;”
and others, “He is possessed of an evil spirit;” and his friends
expostulated with him, saying, “What thou hast done is not the custom
of the bazaars,—behold, it is not Biz!” But to all the prince answered
gravely, “It is right; on my own head be it!”
But the oldest and wisest of the merchants, they who had talked with
Prince Badfellah the same morning, whispered together, and gathered
round the Brokah whose bond the Prince Bulleboye had torn up. “Hark ye,”
said they, “our brother the Prince Bulleboye is cunning as a jackal.
What bosh is this about ruining himself to save thee? Such a thing was
never heard before in the bazaars. It is a trick, O thou mooncalf of
a Brokah! Dost thou not see that he has heard good news from his
godmother, the same that was even now told us by the Prince Badfellah,
his confederate, and that he would destroy thy bond for fifty thousand
sequins because his stokh is worth a hundred thousand! Be not deceived,
O too credulous Brokah! for this that our brother the prince doeth is
not in the name of Allah, but of Biz, the only god known in the bazaars
of the city.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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