Zikr

“ Secondly, the reciter is so much drowned in this state that he loses consciousness of his ownself, if someone beheads him or cuts him into pieces with a sword, he will not move a bit. Thirdly, by the effect of Tasawur of Ism-e-Allah Zaat, this secret Zikr makes the reciter so heedless to the worldly wealth that if the entire wealth of the universe is presented before him, he will not even look at it, as the gold and soil are equal for him. Fourthly, this secret Zikr grants its reciter such engrossment in Allah that he reaches the level of 38. ”

“ O God! O our Lord! O Thou liberal of pardon! O Thou most bountiful of the most bountiful! O God! Amen!"—They were then silent for three or four minutes; and again recited the Fát'ḥah; but silently. This form of prefacing the zikr is commonly used, by almost all orders of darweeshes in Egypt.
The performers now commenced the zikr. Sitting in the manner above described, they chanted, in slow measure, "Lá iláha illa-lláh" ("There is no deity but God") to the following air:—
bowing the head and body twice in each repetition of "Lá iláha illa-lláh." ”

“ The great zikr before the Medinia mosque ceases and all the people come streaming out from the dark, shadowy lanes towards the tomb of Sidi Suliman, which shines white in the moonlight with orange lights blazing from its open door and little windows. The sheikhs walk slowly about from group to group, each followed by a little knot of men—servants carrying carpets and cushions, and some watchmen in tall brown tarbouches, holding staves. The police stand about in the crowd, and when one walks up to watch a dance they hurry forward and push people aside, saying, “Make way, make way!” ”

“ Our people did it quietly, and the moonsheed sang very sweetly—indeed ‘the song of the moonsheed is the sugar in the sherbet to the Zikkeer,’ said a man who came up when it was over, streaming with perspiration and radiant with smiles. Some day I will write to you the whole ‘grund Idee’ of a zikr, which is, in fact, an attempt to make present ‘the communion of saints,’ dead or living. As I write arrives the Arooset er-rallee, and my crew furl her big sail quite ‘Bristol fashion.’ My men have come together again, some from Nubia and some from the Delta ”

“ Most of the zikkeers were Aḥmedee darweeshes, persons of the lower orders, and meanly dressed: many of them wore green turbans. At one end of the ring were four munshids (or singers of religious odes) , and with them was a player on the kind of flute called "náy." I procured a small seat of palm-sticks from a coffee-shop close by, and, by means of a little pushing, and the assistance of my servant, obtained a place with the munshids, and sat there to hear a complete act, or "meglis," of the zikr ”

“ The sight cooled us all; the strife ceased. We gathered in shame, remorse, and horror round our ill-fated host; but it was too late, his eyes rolled fearfully in his head, and still he struggled to release himself from Zicci’s arms, who continued to whisper (I trust divine comfort) in his ear. I have seen men die, but, never one who wore such horror on his countenance. At last all was over; Zicci rose from the corpse, and taking, with great composure, his sword from my hand,—“Ye are witnesses, gentlemen,” said he, calmly, “that the Prince brought his fate upon himself. ”

“ Those eyes met his, and he could not withdraw from the charm of their gaze. He felt her heart throbbing beneath his own; her breath came warm upon his cheek. He trembled,—he, the lofty, the mysterious Zicci,—who seemed to stand aloof from his race. With a deep and burning sigh he murmured, “Isabel, I love thee!” That beautiful face, bathed in blushes, drooped upon his bosom; and as he bent down, his lips sought the rosy mouth,—a long and burning kiss. Danger, life, the world were forgotten! Suddenly Zicci tore himself from her. ”

“ Zikali saw it also and laughed. “Oho!” he laughed, “forgetting all my warnings, and that the day of my death will be his own, the King thinks to kill me because I am old and feeble and alone and unarmed. He thinks to kill me as the Black One thought, as Dingaan thought, as even Panda thought, yet I live on to this day. Well, I bear no malice since it is natural that the King should wish to kill one who knows the secret of where he would hide himself for his own life’s sake. That spearhead which the King is fingering is sharp, so sharp that my bare breast cannot turn its edge. ”

“ What say you, signor? You smile. Such never could be your lot. Pledge me in a sentiment: 'Long life; to the fortunate lover; a quick release to the baffled suitor!'"
"I pledge you," said Zicci. And as the fatal wine was poured into his glass, he repeated, fixing his eyes on the Prince, "I pledge you even in this wine!"
He lifted the glass to his lips. The Prince seemed ghastly pale, while the gaze of the Corsican bent upon him with an intent and stern brightness that the conscience-stricken host cowered and quailed beneath. ”

“ Why does it please you to fool me, Zikali, with such talk as this? If there is any truth in it, show me where the woman called Queen lives and how I am to come to her.
The old wizard took up the little assegai which he had offered to me and with its blade raked out ashes from the fire that always burnt in front of him. While he did so, he talked to me, as I thought in a random fashion, perhaps to distract my attention, of a certain white man whom he said I should meet upon my journey and of his affairs, also of other matters, none of which interested me much at the time. ”

“ The girl followed him into the room, trembling and blushing deeply, and stood before him with the lamp she held shining upward on her cheek, and the long hair that fell like a shower of light over the bare shoulders and heaving bust.
"Isabel," said Zicci, in a voice that spoke deep emotion, "I am by thy side once more to save thee. Not a moment is to be lost. Thou must fly with me, or remain the victim of the Prince di —. I would have made the charge I now undertake another's,—thou knowest I would, thou knowest it; but he is not worthy of thee, the cold Englishman! I throw myself at thy feet ”

“ Zigg spake: "The thin habit of spirits is beyond the force of weapons."
"Pish!" said Spitfire. "Was this a spirit? I hold it rather a simulacrum or illusion prepared for us by Witchland's cunning, to darken our counsel and shake our resolution."
*⁠*⁠*
On the morrow while yet sunrise was red, Lord Zigg went down to the sea-shore to bathe in the great rock pools that face southward across the little bay of Owlswick. The salt air was fresh after the rain. The wind that had veered to the east blew in cold and pinching gusts. In a rift between slate-blue clouds the low sun flamed blood-red. ”

“ Ziska, who called himself "John Ziska of the Chalice, commander in the hope of God of the Taborites," had been a friend and was an ardent follower of Huss. He was an old man, bald-headed, short, broad-shouldered, with a deep furrow across his brow, an enormous aquiline nose, and a short red moustache. In his genius for military operations, he ranks among the great commanders of the world: his quickness, energy and inventive talent were marvellous, but at the same time he knew neither tolerance nor mercy.
1420.
Ziska's first policy was to arm the Bohemians. ”

“ Still mute and aghast he stared at her; his senses swam, his brain reeled, and then slowly, like the lifting of a curtain on the last scene of a dire tragedy, a lightning thought, a scorching memory, sprang into his mind and overwhelmed him like a rolling wave that brings death in its track. With a fierce oath he rushed towards her, and seized her hands in his—hands cold as ice and clammy as with the dews of the grave.
“Ziska! Woman! Devil! Speak before you drive me to madness! What passion moves you thus—what mystic fooling? ”

“ A few minutes later Zikali crept back into the hut, laughing to himself.
“All is safe,” he said, “and you can come out of your hole, old jackal. He who calls himself a king is gone, taking with him those whom he thinks faithful, most of whom are but waiting a chance to betray him. What did I say, a king? Nay, in all Africa there is no slave so humble or so wretched as this broken man. Oh! feather by feather I have plucked my fowl and by and by I shall cut his throat. You will be there, Macumazahn, you will be there.” ”

“ Ah, if she had never beheld Zicci!
“Isabel,” said the Englishman, drawing her again to the bench from which she had risen, and seating himself beside her, “you know how passionately I love thee. Hitherto thou hast played with my impatience and my ardor, thou hast sometimes smiled, sometimes frowned away my importunities for a reply to my suit; but this day—I know not how it is—I feel a more sustained and settled courage to address thee, and learn the happiest or the worst. I have rivals, I know,—rivals who are more powerful than the poor artist. Are they also more favored?” ”

“ KAATJE BRINGS NEWS
Zikali burst into one of his peals of laughter, so unholy that it caused the blood in me to run cold.
“The King’s word is war,” he cried. “Let Nomkubulwana take that word back to heaven. Let Macumazahn take it to the White Men. Let the captains cry it to the regiments and let the world grow red. The King has chosen, though mayhap, had I been he, I should have chosen otherwise; yet what am I but a hollow reed stuck in the ground up which the spirits speak to men? It is finished, and I, too, am finished for a while. Farewell, O King! Where shall we meet again, I wonder? ”

“ Why is this Nyanga (i.e. witch-doctor) here?” and he pointed to Zikali beyond the fire. “Why has the Opener of Roads been brought from the Black Kloof which he has not left for years? Is it not that he may give us counsel in our need and show us a sign that his counsel is good, whether it be for war or peace? Then when he has made divination and given the counsel and shown the sign, then, O King, do you speak the word of war or peace, and send it to the Queen by yonder white man, and by that word we, the people, will abide.” ”

“ Zikali glanced at the bones again, poking them about in the ashes with his toe, then replied with a yawn,
“You seem to have a little yellow man in your service, a clever snake who knows how to creep through grass, and when to strike and when to lie hidden. I should take him too, if I were you.”
“You know well that I have such a man, Zikali, a Hottentot named Hans, clever in his way but drunken, very faithful too, since he loved my father before me. He is cooking my supper in the waggon now. Are there to be any others?” ”

“ As if to make up for the silence with which the guests had hitherto listened to Zicci, every tongue was now loosened; every man talked, no man listened. In the serene beauty of the night and scene there was something wild and fearful in the contrast of the hubbub and Babel of these disorderly roysterers. One of the Frenchmen in especial, the young Due de R—,—a nobleman of the highest rank, and of all the quick, vivacious, and irascible temperament of his countrymen,—was particularly noisy and excited. ”

“ Why do you wear that pretty likeness of the Great One yonder over your heart, as I have known you do with things that belonged to women in past days, Baas? Do you know that it is Zikali's Great Medicine, nothing less, as everyone does throughout the land? When Zikali sends an order far away, he always sends that image with it, for then he who receives the order knows that he must obey or die. Also the messenger knows that he will come to no harm if he does not take it off, because, Baas, the image is Zikali himself, and Zikali is the image. They are one and the same. ”

“ She had loved him as few women have either heart or strength to love, and he had rewarded her fidelity by death and eternal torment! A struggling cry escaped him, and he stretched out his arms:
“Ziska! Forgive—forgive!”
As he uttered the words, he saw her wan face suddenly change,—all the terror and torture passed from it like a passing cloud,—beautiful as an angel’s, it smiled upon him,—the eyes softened and flashed with love, the lips trembled, the spectral form glowed with a living luminance, and a mystic Glory glittered above the dusky hair! ”

“ Zicci then turned the conversation, talked lightly and gayly and soon afterwards departed.
“Villain,” then exclaimed the Prince, grasping Mascari by the collar, “you have betrayed me!”
“I assure your Excellency that the dice were properly arranged,—he should have thrown twelve; but he is the Devil, and that’s the end of it.”
“There is no time to be lost,” said the Prince, quitting hold of his parasite, who quietly resettled his cravat.
“My blood is up! I will win this girl, if I die for it. Who laughed? Mascari, didst thou laugh?” ”

“ The hot sun glared in his eyes and made them ache,—the rough stones of the narrow street were scorching to his feet. He began to move slowly away with a curious faint sensation of giddiness and sickness upon him, when the sound of music floating from the direction of the Princess Ziska’s palace brought him to a sudden standstill. It was a strange, wild melody, played on some instrument with seemingly muffled strings. A voice with a deep, throbbing thrill of sweetness in it began to sing:
Oh, for the passionless peace of the Lotus-Lily! ”

“ Last of the guests came Zicci, and the crowd gave way as the dazzling foreigner moved along to the lord of the palace. The Prince greeted him with a meaning smile, to which Zicci answered by a whisper: “He who plays with loaded dice does not always win.”
The Prince bit his lip; and Zicci, passing on, seemed deep in conversation with the fawning Mascari.
“Who is the Prince’s heir?” asked the Corsican.
“A distant relation on the mother’s side; with his Excellency dies the male line.”
“Is the heir present at our host’s banquet?”
“No; they are not friends.” ”