a share
back to ZABNOOL.]

A NOTABLE

The Shereef is silent.

[Enter three women R. in single file,
dancing, and carrying baskets full of pink
rose-leaves. They dance across, throwing
down rose-leaves, leaving a path of them
behind them. Exeunt L.]

A NOTABLE

Still he is silent.

MIRALDA

Why do you not speak?

JOHN

I do not wish to speak.

MIRALDA

Why?

[Enter OMAR with his zither.]

OMAR [singing]

Al Shaldomir, Al Shaldomir,
Birds sing thy praises night and day;
The nightingale in every wood,
Blackbirds in fields profound with may;
Birds sing of thee by every way.

Al Shaldomir, Al Shaldomir,
My heart is ringing with thee still
Though far away, O fairy fields,
My soul flies low by every hill
And misses not one daffodil.

Al Shaldomir, Al Shaldomir,
O mother of my roving dreams
Blue is the night above thy spires
And blue by myriads of streams
Paradise through thy gateway gleams.

MIRALDA

Why do you not wish to speak?

JOHN

You desire me to speak?

MIRALDA

No. They all wonder why you do not
speak; that is all.

JOHN

I will speak. They shall hear me.

MIRALDA

O, there is no need to.

JOHN

There is a need. [He rises.] People of
Shaldomir, behold I know your plottings.
I know the murmurings that you murmur
against me. When I sleep in my inner
chamber my ear is in the market, while I sit at
meat I hear men whisper far hence and know
their innermost thoughts. Hope not to
overcome me by your plans nor by any manner of
craftiness. My gods are gods of brass; none
have escaped them. They cannot be
overthrown. Of all men they favour my people.
Their hands reach out to the uttermost ends
of the earth. Take heed, for my gods are
terrible. I am the Shereef; if any dare
withstand me I will call on my gods and they shall
crush him utterly. They shall grind him into
the earth and trample him under, as though
he had not been. The uttermost parts have
feared the gods of the English. They reach
out, they destroy, there is no escape from
them. Be warned; for I do not permit any
to stand against me. The laws that I have
given you, you shall keep; there shall be no
other laws. Whoso murmurs shall know my
wrath and the wrath of my gods. Take heed,
I speak not twice. I spoke once to Hussein.
Hussein heard not; and Hussein is dead, his
ears are closed for ever. Hear, O people.

HAFIZ

O Shereef, we murmur not against you.

JOHN

I know thoughts and hear whispe