The adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan/04

Chapter IV: Of his ingenuity in rescuing his master's money from the Turcoman, and of his determination to keep it
One of the first objects which I had in view for the furtherance of my plan of escape ‎was to obtain possession of the money which was sewed in the padding of my former ‎master's turban. But it had been thrown into a corner of the women's tent, to which I ‎had no access, and it required much ingenuity to get at it without creating suspicion. ‎I had established my reputation as a barber throughout ours and the neighbouring ‎encampments, and had become a favourite of the men; but although I had reason to ‎believe that the Banou of my master would fain become more intimately acquainted ‎with me than she hitherto had been, yet as neither she nor any of the other women ‎could employ me in my profession as a shaver, our intercourse hitherto had been ‎confined to tender glances, occasional acts of kindness on her part, and of ‎corresponding marks of thankfulness and acknowledgement on mine. But as they ‎knew enough of civilized life to be aware that in Persia barbers were also surgeons—‎that besides shaving and rubbing in the bath, they could bleed, draw teeth, and set a ‎broken limb—the Banou soon discovered that she wanted to be bled, and sent a ‎deputation to ask me if I could perform that service for her. Looking upon this as a ‎favourable opportunity to learn some tidings of the object of my solicitude, or ‎perhaps to gain possession of it, I immediately answered that provided I was ‎furnished with a penknife, I hoped that I could bleed as dexterously as the best of my ‎profession. The instrument was produced, and one of the elders of the tribe, who ‎pretended to a smattering of astrology, announced that a conjunction of the planets ‎favourable to such an operation would take place on the following morning. At that ‎auspicious moment, I was introduced into the women's tent, where I found the Banou ‎seated on a carpet on the ground, waiting for me with great impatience. She was not ‎a person to excite sensations of a tender nature in a novice like me; for, in the first ‎place, she was of an unwieldy size (so different from the slim forms that we are ‎taught to prize in Persia) that I looked upon her with disgust; and, in the next, I ‎lived in such terror of Aslan Sultan, that had I aspired to her favour, it must have ‎been in the constant dread of the loss of my ears. However, I was much noticed by ‎her, and received great attentions from her companions, who, looking upon me as a ‎being of a superior order, all wanted to have their pulses felt. Whilst making my ‎preparations for bleeding the Banou, I cast my eyes about the tent, in the hopes of ‎seeing the prize, which I was anxious to possess. It struck me that I might make the ‎very operation in which I was engaged subservient to my views, and demanding to ‎feel the patient's pulse once more, which I did with a look of intense meditation, I ‎observed that this was a complicated disorder—that the blood must not be allowed ‎to flow upon the ground, but be collected in a vessel, that I might examine it at ‎leisure. This strange proposal of mine raised an immediate outcry amongst the ‎women; but with the Banou a deviation from the usual practice only served to ‎confirm her opinion of my superior skill. Here, however, a new difficulty arose. The ‎scanty stock of a Turcoman could ill afford to sacrifice any utensil by applying it to ‎a service which would defile it for ever. They were recapitulated one by one, and all ‎found too precious to be thrown away. I was hesitating whether I might venture to go ‎straight to my point, when the Banou bethought herself of an old leather drinking-‎cup, which she desired one of the women to search for in a corner of the tent. 'This ‎will never do: you can see the light through it,' said I, holding it up towards the tent ‎door, and pointing to the seams with the penknife, which I held in my hand, and with ‎I cut, at the same time, half a dozen of the stitches.‎

‎'Where is the cap of that old Emir?' cried out the Banou.‎

‎'It is mine,' said the second wife; 'I want it to stuff my saddle with.'‎

‎'Yours!' returned the other in a fury. 'There is but one God! Am not I the Banou of ‎this harem? I will have it.'‎

‎'You shall not,' retorted the other.‎

Upon this an uproar ensued which became so loud and threatening, that I feared it ‎would come to the ears of Aslan Sultan, who very probably would have settled the ‎dispute by taking at once the bone of contention from the contending parties. But ‎luckily the astrologer interfered, and when he had assured the second wife that the ‎blood of the Banou would be upon her head if anything unfortunate happened on this ‎occasion, she consented to give up her pretensions. I accordingly prepared to bleed ‎my patient; but when she saw the penknife, the cap underneath to receive her blood, ‎and the anxious faces of those about her, she became frightened, and refused to ‎permit me to proceed. Fearing after all that I should lose my prize, I put on a very ‎sagacious look, felt her pulse, and said that her refusal was unavailing, for that it was ‎her fate to be bled, and that she and every one knew nothing could avert an event ‎which had been decreed since the beginning of the world. To this there was no reply; ‎and all agreeing that she would commit a great sin were she to oppose herself to the ‎decrees of Providence, she put out her bare arm, and received the stab from my ‎penknife with apparent fortitude. The blood was caught, and, when the operation was ‎over, I ordered that it should be conveyed to a little distance from the camp, and that ‎none but myself should be permitted to approach it, as much of the good or evil that ‎might accrue to the patient from bleeding depended upon what happened to the ‎blood after it had flown from the body. I waited until night, when everybody was ‎asleep, and then with great anxiety ripped up the lining, where to my joy I found the ‎fifty ducats, which I immediately concealed in an adjacent spot, and then dug a hole ‎for the cap, which I also concealed. In the morning I informed the Banou, that having ‎seen some wolves prowling about the tents, I feared that something unlucky might ‎happen to her blood, and that I had buried it, caoûk and all. This appeared to satisfy ‎her; and by way of recompense for the service I had rendered, she sent me a dish ‎made with her own hands, consisting of a lamb roasted whole, stuffed with rice and ‎raisins, accompanied by a bowl of sour milk with salt in it.‎

I must confess that when I became possessed of the fifty ducats, a recollection of my ‎poor former master, who was leading a melancholy life in the mountains with the ‎camels, whilst I was living in comparative luxury, came across my mind, and I half ‎resolved to restore them to him; but by little and little I began to argue differently ‎with myself. 'Had it not been for my ingenuity,' said I, 'the money was lost for ever; ‎who therefore has a better claim to it than myself? If he was to get possession of it ‎again, it could be of no use to him in his new profession, and it is a hundred to one ‎but what it would be taken from him, therefore, I had best keep it for the present: ‎besides, it was his fate to lose, and mine to recover it.' This settled every difficulty, ‎and I looked upon myself as the legitimate possessor of fifty ducats, which I ‎conceived no law could take from me. Meanwhile, I made an attempt to convey to ‎him half of the roasted lamb which I had just received, through the means of a ‎shepherd's boy who was going into the mountains, and who promised not to eat any ‎of it by the wayside. Although I doubted his word, yet, after my deliberation about ‎the ducats, my conscience wanted some quietus: 'I cannot do less,' said I, 'than make ‎my fellow sufferer in adversity a partaker of my prosperity.' But alas! the boy had ‎scarcely crossed the deep ravine that bordered the encampment ere I could perceive ‎him carrying the meat to his mouth, and I made no doubt that every bone was picked ‎clean before he was out of sight. It would have been a useless undertaking to have ‎pursued him, considering the distance that already separated us, so I contented ‎myself by discharging a stone and a malediction at his head, neither of which ‎reached their destination.‎