John Esten Cooke - "Mohun, or, The Last Days of Lee"

Henry Beam Piper and John Joseph McGuire - "Lone Star Planet"

May Sinclair - "Life and Death of Harriett Frean"

Alice Hegan Rice - "Calvary Alley"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Tancred

B >> Benjamin Disraeli >> Tancred




The stars were shining before they quitted the Arabian tabernacle of
Besso. The air was just as soft as a sweet summer English noon, and
quite as still. The pavilions of the terrace and the surrounding bowers
were illuminated by the varying tints of a thousand lamps. Bright
carpets and rich cushions were thrown about for those who cared to
recline; the brothers Farhi, for example, and indeed most of the men,
smoking inestimable nargilehs. The Consul-General Laurella begged
permission to present Lord Montacute to his daughters Therese and
Sophonisbe, who, resolved to show to him that Damascus was not
altogether so barbarous as he deemed it, began talking of new dances and
the last opera. Tancred would have found great difficulty in sustaining
his part in the conversation, had not the young ladies fortunately been
requested to favour those present with a specimen of the art in which
they excelled, which they did after much solicitation, vowing that they
had no voice to-night, and that it was impossible at all times to sing
except in a chamber.

'For my part,' said Hillel Besso, with an extremely piquant air, 'music
in a chamber is very charming, but I think also in the open air it is
not so bad.'

Tancred took advantage of this movement to approach Eva, who was
conversing, as they took their evening walk, with the soft-eyed
sister of Hillel and Madame Nassim Farhi; a group of women that the
drawing-rooms of Europe and the harems of Asia could perhaps not have
rivalled.

'The Mesdemoiselles Laurella are very accomplished,' said Tancred,
'but at Damascus I am not content to hear anything but sackbuts and
psalteries.'

'But in Europe your finest music is on the subjects of our history,'
said Eva.

'Naturally,' said Tancred, 'music alone can do justice to such themes.
They baffle the uninspired pen.'

'There is a prayer which the Mesdemoiselles Laurella once sang, a prayer
of Moses in Egypt,' said Madame Nassim, somewhat timidly. 'It is very
fine.'

'I wish they would favour us with it,' said Eva; 'I will ask Hillel to
request that kindness;' and she beckoned to Hillel, who sauntered toward
her, and listened to her whispered wish with a smile of supercilious
complacency.

'At present they are going to favour us with Don Pasquale,' he said,
shrugging his shoulders. 'A prayer is a very fine thing, but for my
part, at this hour, I think a serenade is not so bad.'

'And how do you like my father?' said Eva to Tancred in a hesitating
tone, and yet with a glance of blended curiosity and pride.

'He is exactly what Sidonia prepared me for; worthy not only of being
your father, but the father of mankind.'

'The Moslemin say that we are near paradise at Damascus,' said Madame
Nassim, 'and that Adam was fashioned out of our red earth.'

'He much wished to see you,' said Eva, 'and your meeting is as
unexpected as to him it is agreeable.'

'We ought to have met long before,' said Tancred. 'When I first arrived
at Jerusalem, I ought to have hastened to his threshold. The fault and
the misfortune were mine. I scarcely deserved the happiness of knowing
you.'

'I am happy we have all met, and that you now understand us a little.
When you go back to England, you will defend us when we are defamed? You
will not let them persecute us, as they did a few years back, because
they said we crucified their children at the feast of our passover?'

'I shall not go back to England,' said Tancred, colouring; 'and if you
are persecuted, I hope I shall be able to defend you here.'

The glowing sky, the soft mellow atmosphere, the brilliant surroundings,
and the flowers and flashing gems, rich dresses and ravishing music, and
every form of splendour and luxury, combined to create a scene that to
Tancred was startling, as well from its beauty as its novel character.
A rich note of Therese Laurella for an instant arrested their
conversation. They were silent while it lingered on their ear. Then
Tancred said to the soft-eyed sister of Hillel, 'All that we require
here to complete the spell are your beautiful children.'

'They sleep,' said the lady, 'and lose little by not being present,
for, like the Queen of Sheba, I doubt not they are dreaming of music and
flowers.'

'They say that the children of our race are the most beautiful in the
world,' said Eva, 'but that when they grow up, they do not fulfil the
promise of their infancy.'

'That were scarcely possible,' said the soft-eyed mother.

'It is the sense of shame that comes on them and dims their lustre,'
said Eva. 'Instead of joyous-ness and frank hilarity, anxiety and a
shrinking reserve are soon impressed upon the youthful Hebrew visage.
It is the seal of ignominy. The dreadful secret that they are an
expatriated and persecuted race is soon revealed to them, at least
among the humbler classes. The children of our house are bred in noble
thoughts, and taught self-respect. Their countenances will not change.'

And the countenance from whose beautiful mouth issued those gallant
words, what of that? It was one that might wilder the wisest. Tancred
gazed upon it with serious yet fond abstraction. All heavenly and heroic
thoughts gathered around the image of this woman. From the first moment
of their meeting at Bethany to this hour of sacred festival, all the
passages of his life in which she had been present flashed through
his mind. For a moment he was in the ruins of the Arabian desert, and
recalled her glance of sweet solicitude, when, recovered by her skill
and her devotion, he recognised the fair stranger whose words had, ere
that, touched the recesses of his spirit, and attuned his mind to high
and holiest mysteries. Now again their eyes met; an ineffable expression
suffused the countenance of Lord Monta-cute. He sighed.

At this moment Hillel and Fakredeen advanced with a hurried air of
gaiety. Hillel offered his hand to Eva with jaunty grace, exclaiming
at the same time, 'Ladies, if you like to follow us, you shall see a
casket just arrived from Marseilles, and which Eva will favour me by
carrying to Aleppo. It was chosen for me by the Lady of the Austrian
Internuncio, who is now at Paris. For my part, I do not see much
advantage in the diplomatic corps, if occasionally they do not execute a
commission for one.'

Hillel hurried Eva away, accompanied by his sister and Madame Nassim.
Tancred and Fakredeen remained behind.

'Who is this man?' said Tancred.

''Tis her affianced,' said the Emir; 'the man who has robbed me of my
natural bride. It is to be hoped, however, that, when she is married,
Besso will adopt me as his son, which in a certain sense I am, having
been fostered by his wife. If he do not leave me his fortune, he ought
at least to take up all my bills in Syria. Don't you think so, my
Tancred?'

'What?' said Tancred, with a dreamy look.

There was a burst of laughter in the distance.

'Come, come,' said Fakredeen, 'see how they are all gathering round the
marriage casket. Even Nassim Farhi has risen. I must go and talk to him:
he has impulses, that man, at least compared with his brother; Mourad is
a stone, a precious stone though, and you cannot magnetise him through
his wife, for she has not an idea; but Madame Nassim is immensely
mesmeric. Come, come, Tancred.'

'I follow.'

But instead of following his friend, Tancred entered one of the marble
pavilions that jutted out from each corner of the terraced roof, and
commanded splendid views of the glittering and gardened city. The moon
had risen over that unrivalled landscape; the white minarets sparkled in
its beam, and the vast hoods of the cupolaed mosques were suffused with
its radiancy or reposed in dark shadow, almost as black as the cypress
groves out of which they rose. In the extreme distance, beyond the
fertile plain, was the desert, bright as the line of the sea, while
otherwise around him extended the chains of Lebanon and of the North.

The countenance of Tancred was more than serious, it was sad, as,
leaning against one of the wreathed marble pillars, he sighed and
murmured: 'If I were thou, most beautiful Damascus, Aleppo should not
rob me of such a gem! But I must tear up these thoughts from my heart by
their roots, and remember that I am ordained for other deeds.'




CHAPTER XLIX.

_A Discussion About Scammony_

AFTER taking the bath on his arrival at Damascus, having his beard
arranged by a barber of distinction, and dressing himself in a fresh
white suit, as was his custom when in residence, with his turban of the
same colour arranged a little aside, for Baroni was scrupulous as to his
appearance, he hired a donkey and made his way to the great bazaar.
The part of the city through which he proceeded was very crowded and
bustling: narrow streets, with mats slung across, to shield from the sun
the swarming population beneath. His accustomed step was familiar
with every winding of the emporium of the city; he threaded without
hesitation the complicated mazes of those interminable arcades. Now he
was in the street of the armourers, now among the sellers of shawls;
the prints of Manchester were here unfolded, there the silks of India;
sometimes he sauntered by a range of shops gay with yellow papooshes and
scarlet slippers, and then hurried by the stalls and shelves stored with
the fatal frippery of the East, in which it is said the plague in
some shape or other always lurks and lingers. This locality, however,
indicated that Baroni was already approaching the purlieus of the chief
places; the great population had already much diminished, the brilliancy
of the scene much dimmed; there was no longer the swarm of itinerant
traders who live by promptly satisfying the wants of the visitors to the
bazaar in the shape of a pipe or an ice, a cup of sherbet or of coffee,
or a basket of delicious fruit. The passengers were few, and all seemed
busy: some Armenians, a Hebrew physician and his page, the gliding
phantoms of some winding-sheets, which were in fact women.

Baroni turned into an arcade, well built, spacious, airy, and very
neatly fitted up. This was the bazaar of the dealers in drugs. Here,
too, spices are sold, all sorts of dye-woods, and especially the choice
gums for which Arabia is still celebrated, and which Syria would fain
rival by the aromatic juices of her pistachio and her apricot trees.

Seated on what may be called his counter, smoking a nargileh, in a
mulberry-coloured robe bordered with fur, and a dark turban, was a
middle-aged man of sinister countenance and air, a long hook nose and a
light blue eye.

'Welcome, Effendi,' he said, when he observed Baroni; 'many welcomes!
And how long have you been at Esh Sham?'

'Not too long,' said Baroni; 'and have you been here since my last
visit?'

'Here and there,' said the man, offering him his pipe.

'And how are our friends in the mountains?' said Baroni, touching the
tube with his lips and returning it.

'They live,' said the man.

'That's something,' said Baroni.

'Have you been in the land of the Franks?' said the man.

'I am always in the land of the Franks,' said Baroni, 'and about.'

'You don't know any one who wants a parcel of scammony?' said the man.

'I don't know that I don't,' said Baroni, mysteriously.

'I have a very fine parcel,' said the man; 'it is very scarce.'

'No starch or myrrh in it?' asked Baroni.

'Do you think I am a Jew?' said the man.

'I never could make out what you were, friend Darkush; but as for
scammony, I could throw a good deal of business in your way at this
moment, to say nothing of galls and tragacanth.'

'As for tragacanth,' said Darkush, 'it is known that no one in Esh Sham
has pure tragacanth except me; as for galls, every foundling in Syria
thinks he can deal in afis, but is it afis of Moussoul, Effendi?'

'What you say are the words of truth, good Darkush; I could recommend
you with a safe conscience. I dreamt last night that there would many
piastres pass between us this visit.'

'What is the use of friends unless they help you in the hour of
adversity?' exclaimed Darkush.

'You speak ever the words of truth. I am myself in a valley of dark
shadows. I am travelling with a young English capitani, a prince of many
tails, and he has declared that he will entirely extinguish my existence
unless he pays a visit to the Queen of the Ansarey.'

'Let him first pay a visit to King Soliman in the cities of the Gin,'
said Darkush, doggedly.

'I am not sure that he will not, some time or other,' replied Baroni,
'for he is a man who will not take nay. But now let us talk of
scammony,' he added, vaulting on the counter, and seating himself by
the side of Darkush; 'one might get more by arranging this visit to your
mountains than by enjoying an appalto of all its gums, friend Darkush;
but if it cannot be, it cannot be.'

'It cannot be.'

'Let us talk, then, of scammony. You remember my old master, Darkush?'

'There are many things that are forgotten, but he is not one.'

'This capitani with whom I travel, this prince of many tails, is his
friend. If you serve me now, you serve also him who served you.'

'There are things that can be done, and there are things that cannot be
done.'

'Let us talk, then, of scammony. But fifteen years ago, when we first
met, friend Darkush, you did not say nay to M. de Sidonia. It was the
plague alone that stopped us.'

'The snow on the mountain is not the same snow as fifteen years ago,
Effendi. All things change!'

'Let us talk, then, of scammony. The Ansarey have friends in other
lands, but if they will not listen to them, many kind words will be
lost. Things also might happen which would make everybody's shadow
longer, but if there be no sun, their shadows cannot be seen.'

Darkush shrugged his shoulders.

'If the sun of friendship does not illumine me,' resumed Baroni, 'I
am entirely lost in the bottomless vale. Truly, I would give a thousand
piastres if I could save my head by taking the capitani to your
mountains.'

'The princes of Franguestan cannot take off heads,' observed Darkush.
'All they can do is to banish you to islands inhabited by demons.'

'But the capitani of whom I speak is prince of many tails, is the
brother of queens. Even the great Queen of the English, they say, is his
sister.'

'He who serves queens may expect backsheesh.'

'And you serve a queen, Darkush?'

'Which is the reason I cannot give you a pass for the mountains, as I
would have done, fifteen years ago, in the time of her father.'

'Are her commands, then, so strict?'

'That she should see neither Moslem nor Christian. She is at war with
both, and will be for ever, for the quarrel between them is beyond the
power of man to remove.'

'And what may it be?'

'That you can learn only in the mountains of the Ansarey,' said Darkush,
with a malignant smile.

Baroni fell into a musing mood. After a few moments' thought, he
looked up, and said: 'What you have told me, friend Darkush, is very
interesting, and throws light on many things. This young prince, whom I
serve, is a friend to your race, and knows well why you are at war both
with Moslem and Christian, for he is so himself. But he is a man sparing
of words, dark in thought, and terrible to deal with. Why he wishes to
visit your people I dared not inquire, but now I guess, from what you
have let fall, that he is an Ansarey himself. He has come from a far
land merely to visit his race, a man who is a prince among the people,
to whom piastres are as water. I doubt not he has much to say to your
Queen: things might have happened that would have lengthened all our
shadows; but never mind, what cannot be, cannot be: let us talk, then,
of scammony.'

'You think he is one?' said Darkush, in a lower tone, and looking very
inquiringly.

'I do,' said Baroni.

'And what do you mean by one?' said Darkush.

'That is exactly the secret which I never could penetrate.'

'I cannot give a pass to the mountains,' said Darkush, 'but the sympathy
of friends is a river flowing in a fair garden. If this prince, whose
words and thoughts are dark, should indeed be one---- Could I see him,
Effendi?'

'It is a subject on which I dare not speak to him,' said Baroni. 'I
hinted at his coming here: his brow was the brow of Eblis, his eye
flashed like the red lightning of the Kamsin: it is impossible! What
cannot be done, cannot be done. He must return to the land of his
fathers, unseen by your Queen, of whom he is perhaps a brother; he will
live, hating alike Moslem and Christian, but he will banish me for ever
to islands of many demons.'

'The Queen shall know of these strange things,' said Darkush, 'and we
will wait for her words.'

'Wait for the Mecca caravan!' exclaimed Baroni. 'You know not the child
of storms, who is my master, and that is ever a reason why I think
he must be one of you. For had he been softened by Christianity or
civilised by the Koran----'

'Unripe figs for your Christianity and your Koran!' exclaimed Darkush.
'Do you know what we think of your Christianity and your Koran?'

'No,' said Baroni, quietly. 'Tell me.'

'You will learn in our mountains,' said Darkush.

'Then you mean to let me go there?'

'If the Queen permit you,' said Darkush.

'It is three hundred miles to your country, if it be an hour's journey,'
said Baroni. 'What with sending the message and receiving the answer, to
say nothing of the delays which must occur with a woman and a queen in
the case, the fountains of Esh Sham will have run dry before we hear
that our advance is forbidden.'

Darkush shook his head, and yet smiled.

'By the sunset of to-morrow, Effendi, I could say, ay or nay. Tell me
what scammony you want, and it shall be done.'

'Write down in your tablets how much you can let me have,' said Baroni,
'and I will pay you for it to-morrow. As for the goods themselves, you
may keep them for me, until I ask you for them; perhaps the next time I
travel with a capitani who is one of yourselves.'

Darkush threw aside the tube of his nargileh, and, putting his hand very
gently into the breast of his robe, he drew out a pigeon, dove-coloured,
but with large bright black eyes. The pigeon seemed very knowing and
very proud, as he rested on his master's two fingers.

'Hah, hah! my Karaguus, my black-eyes,' exclaimed Darkush. 'What, is he
going on a little journey to somebody! Yes, we can trust Karaguus, for
he is one of us. Effendi, to-morrow at sunset, at your khan, for the
bazaar will be closed, you shall hear from me.'




CHAPTER L.

_The Mysterious Mountains_

AT THE black gorge of a mountain pass sat, like sentries, two horsemen.
Their dress was that of the Kurds: white turbans, a black shirt girt
with cords, on their backs a long lance, by their sides a crooked sword,
and in their girdles a brace of pistols.

Before them extended a wide, but mountainous landscape: after the small
and very rugged plain on the brink of which they were posted, many hilly
ridges, finally a lofty range. The general character of the scene was
severe and savage; the contiguous rocks were black and riven, the
hills barren and stony, the granite peaks of the more eminent heights
uncovered, except occasionally by the snow. Yet, notwithstanding
the general aridity of its appearance, the country itself was
not unfruitful. The concealed vegetation of the valleys was not
inconsiderable, and was highly cherished; the less precipitous cliffs,
too, were cut into terraces, and covered with artificial soil. The
numerous villages intimated that the country was well populated. The
inhabitants produced sufficient wine and corn for their own use, were
clothed in garments woven by themselves, and possessed some command
over the products of other countries by the gums, the bees'-wax, and the
goats' wool which they could offer in exchange.

'I have seen two eagles over Gibel Kiflis twice this morning,' said one
of the horsemen to his companion. 'What does that portend?'

'A good backsheesh for our Queen, comrade. If these children of
Franguestan can pay a princess's dower to visit some columns in the
desert, like Tadmor, they may well give us the golden keys of their
treasury when they enter where none should go but those who are----'

'But they say that this Frank is one.'

'It has never been known that there were any among the Franks,' replied
his comrade, shaking his head. 'The Franks are all Nazareny, and, before
they were Nazareny, they were savages, and lived in caves.'

'But Keferinis has given the word that all are to guard over the
strangers as over the Queen herself, and that one is a prince, who is
unquestionably one of us.'

'My father had counted a hundred and ten years when he left us, Azaz,
and he had twenty-four children, and when he was at the point of death
he told us two things: one was, never to forget what we were; and the
other, that never in his time had one like us ever visited our country.'

'Eagles again fly over Gibel Kiflis: methinks the strangers must be at
hand.'

'May their visit lead to no evil to them or to us!'

'Have you misgivings?'

'We are alone among men: let us remain so.'

'You are right. I was once at Haleb (Aleppo); I will never willingly
find myself there again.'

'Give me the mountains, the mountains of our fathers, and the beautiful
things that can be seen only by one of us!'

'They are not to be found in the bazaars of Haleb; in the gardens of
Damascus they are not to be sought.'

'Oh! who is like the Queen who reigns over us? I know to whom she is to
be compared, but I will not say; yet you too know, my brother in arms.'

'Yes; there are things which are not known in the bazaars of Haleb; in
the gardens of Damascus they are not to be sought.'

Karaguus, the black-eyed pigeon, brought tidings to the Queen of the
Ansarey, from her agent Darkush, that two young princes, one a Syrian,
the other a Frank, wished to enter her territories to confer with her
on grave matters, and that he had reason to believe that one of the
princes, the Frank, strange, incredible as it might sound, was one of
themselves. On the evening of the next day, very weary, came Ruby-lips,
the brother of Black-eyes, with the reply of her Majesty, ordering
Darkush to grant the solicited pass, but limiting the permission of
entrance into her dominions to the two princes and two attendants. As
one of these, Baroni figured. They did not travel very rapidly. Tancred
was glad to seize the occasion to visit Hameh and Aleppo on his journey.

It was after quitting the latter city, and crossing the river
Koweik, that they approached the region which was the object of their
expedition. What certainly did not contribute to render their progress
less difficult and dangerous was the circumstance that war at this
moment was waged between the Queen of the Ansarey and the Pasha of
Aleppo. The Turkish potentate had levied tribute on some villages which
owned her sway, and which, as he maintained, were not included in the
ancient composition paid by the Ansarey to the Porte in full of all
demands. The consequence was, that parties of the Ansarey occasionally
issued from their passes and scoured the plain of Aleppo. There was also
an understanding between the Ansarey and the Kurds, that, whenever any
quarrel occurred between the mountaineers and the Turks, the Kurds, who
resembled the inhabitants of the mountain in their general appearance,
should, under the title of Ansarey, take this opportunity of ravage.
Darkush, however, had given Baroni credentials to the secret agent of
the Ansarey at Aleppo; and, with his instructions and assistance,
the difficulties, which otherwise might have been insuperable, were
overcome; and thus it was that the sentries stationed at the mouth of
the black ravine, which led to the fortress palace of the Queen, were
now hourly expecting the appearance of the princes.

A horseman at full gallop issued from the hills, and came bounding
over the stony plain; he shouted to the sentries as he passed them,
announcing the arrival of the strangers, and continued his pace through
the defile. Soon afterwards appeared the cavalcade of the princes;
themselves, their two attendants, and a party of horsemen with white
turbans and long lances.

Tancred and Fakredeen rode horses of a high race. But great as is the
pleasure of being well mounted, it was not that circumstance alone which
lit up their eyes with even unwonted fire, and tinged their cheeks
with a triumphant glow. Their expedition had been delightful; full of
adventure, novelty, and suspense. They had encountered difficulties and
they had overcome them. They had a great purpose, they were on the eve
of a stirring incident. They were young, daring, and brilliant.

'A strong position,' said Tancred, as they entered the defile.

'O! my Tancred, what things we have seen together!' exclaimed
Fakredeen. 'And what is to follow?'

The defile was not long, and it was almost unbending. It terminated in
a table-land of very limited extent, bounded by a rocky chain, on one of
the front and more moderate elevations of which was the appearance of an
extensive fortification; though, as the travellers approached it, they
perceived that, in many instances, art had only availed itself of the
natural advantages of the position, and that the towers and turrets were
carved out of the living rock which formed the impregnable bulwarks and
escarpments.

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