"Dunsany, Lord - Idle Days On The Yann" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

dark that we heard those birds no more, and only heard the
whirring of their wings, and of countless others besides,
until they all settled down along the banks of the river,
and it was the hour when the birds of the night went forth.
Then the sailors lit the lanterns for the night, and huge
moths appeared, flapping about the ship, and at moments
their gorgeous colours would be revealed by the lanterns,
then they would pass into the night again, where all was
black. And again the sailors prayed, and thereafter we
supped and slept, and the helmsman took our lives into his
care.
When I awoke I found that we had indeed come to
Perdondaris, that famous city. For there it stood upon the
left of us, a city fair and notable, and all the more
pleasant for our eyes to see after the jungle that was so
long with us. And we were anchored by the market-place, and
the captain's merchandise was all displayed, and a merchant
of Perdondaris stood looking at it. And the captain had his
scimitar in his hand, and was beating with it in anger upon
the deck, and the splinters were flying up from the white
planks; for the merchant had offered him a price for his
merchandise that the captain declared to be an insult to
himself and his country's gods, whom he now said to be great
and terrible gods, whose curses were to be dreaded. But the
merchant waved his hands, which were of great fatness,
showing the pink palms, and swore that of himself he thought
not at all, but only of the poor folk in the huts beyond the
city to whom he wished to sell the merchandise for as low a
price as possible, leaving no remuneration for himself. For
the merchandise was mostly the thick toomarund carpets that
in the winter keep the wind from the floor, and tollub which
the people smoke in pipes. Therefore the merchant said if
he offered a piffek more the poor folk must go without their
toomarunds when the winter came, and without their tollub in
the evenings, or else he and his aged father must starve
together. Thereat the captain lifted his scimitar to his
own throat, saying that he was now a ruined man, and that
nothing remained to him but death. And while he was
carefully lifting his beard with his left hand, the merchant
eyed the merchandise again, and said that rather than see so
worthy a captain die, a man for whom he had conceived an
especial love when first he saw the manner in which he
handled his ship, he and his aged father should starve
together and therefore he offered fifteen piffeks more.
When he said this the captain prostrated himself and
prayed to his gods that they might yet sweeten this
merchant's bitter heart -- to his little lesser gods, to the
gods that bless Belzoond.
At last the merchant offered yet five piffeks more. Then
the captain wept, for he said that he was deserted of his