Page:The Shaving of Shagpat.djvu/37

Rh thwacking made me seriously reflect;
 * A turned the cream of love to curd:

Most surely that profession I reject
 * Before the fear of a prospective.

So the Vizier said, Tis well, thou turnest verse neatly.' And he exclaimed extemporaneously:

Then said he, 'Fear no further thwacking, but honour and prosperity in the place of it. What says the poet?—

How near to it art thou, O Shibli Bagarag! Know, then, that among this people there is great reverence for the growing of hair, and he that is hairiest is honoured most, wherefore are barbers creatures of especial abhorrence, and of a surety flourish not. And so it is that I owe my station to the esteem I profess for the cultivation of hair, and to my persecution of the clippers of it. And in this kingdom is no one that beareth such a crop as I, saving one, a clothier, an accursed one!—and may a blight fall upon him for his vanity and his affectation of solemn priestliness, and his lolling in his shop-front to be admired and marvelled at by the people. So this fellow I would disgrace and bring to scorn,—this Shagpat! for he is mine