Dictionary of the Khazars (Male Edition) by Milorad Pavic by Milorad Pavic

Author:Milorad Pavic
Language: eng
Format: epub

They had stumbled upon an inn; darkness was falling in reddish flakes, and Masudi was breathing deeply on his bed. His own body looked to him like a ship riding the waves. Somebody in the next room was playing the lute. Later, Anatolian lute players would tell the legend of that night and that music. Masudi immediately recognized the lute as an exquisite specimen. It was made from the wood of a tree that had not been felled with an ax, so the sound in the wood had not been killed. Moreover, it had been found in some high country, where the sound of water does not reach the woods. And, finally, the belly of the instrument was made not of wood but of some kind of animal matter. Masudi could tell the difference, just as wine drinkers know the difference between inebriation on white wine and on red. Masudi recognized the melody the unknown musician was playing; it was an extremely rare tune, and he was surprised to hear this particular song in such an out-of-the-way place. There was an extremely difficult section in this song, and in the days when he had still played the lute, Masudi had devised a special fingering for it, one that was used widely by lute players. However, the anonymous player was using another, still better fingering; Masudi could not figure out what it was, could not find the key to it. He was stunned. He waited for the section to come around again, and when it did he finally understood. Instead of ten, the player was using eleven fingers for that section. Masudi knew now that it was the shaitan playing, because the devil uses his ten fingers and tail to play.

"Has he caught up with me or I with him?" Masudi muttered to himself, rushing into the room next door. There he found a man with slender fingers all the same length. Snakes of gray slithered through his beard. His name was Yabir Ibn Akshany, and lying there in front of him was an instrument made out of white tortoise-shell.

"Show me!" Masudi sputtered. "Show me! What I heard is impossible..."

Yabir Ibn Akshany yawned, opening his mouth very slowly, as though giving birth to an invisible child that he formed with his mouth and tongue.

"Show you what?" he retorted, bursting into laughter. "The tail? But you're not interested in the song or the music -- you abandoned that a long time ago. Now you are a reader of dreams. It is me you're interested in. You want the devil to help you. Because, as the Book says, the shaitan sees God, people don't. So what would you like to know about me? I ride an ostrich, and when I go on foot I take an escort of demons with me, little devils, one of whom is a poet. He wrote poems centuries before Allah created the first humans, Adem and Hava. His verse tells about us shaitans and the devil's seed. But I hope you won't take them too seriously, because the words in the poems are not the real words.

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