The Snake Catcher's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

position.
    “And then you fell asleep?” he said.
    “Yes. You know, Owen—”
    “Yes?”
    “I
was
very tired that night. You don’t think I could have just fallen asleep in the ordinary way and that afterwards someone administered—?”
    “While you were asleep? That strength? No,” said Owen.
    “You see, I feel sure the lady was genuine.”
    “Well,” said Owen soothingly, “perhaps, in her way, she was.”
    McPhee looked pleased.
    “You think so? I must say, I’ve had doubts myself. Could it be a genuine survival, I’ve asked myself? Or—”
    “I shall want to know about the people in the courtyard,” Owen said.
    “Hangers on,” McPhee said, “excluded from the real mysteries.”
    “All men?”
    “Yes. They’re fascinated, too, of course. Can’t keep away. But frightened! The Aalima is a pretty compelling figure.”
    “Could you identify any of them?”
    “I might be able to recognize them. They’ll be local, of course.”
    “If you could just give me a start…”
    McPhee nodded.
    “I’ll do my best. But, Owen,” he said sternly, “there must be no messing about with the ladies. The Zzarr is a remarkable institution. It is, I am sure, pre-Islamic. I wouldn’t be surprised if it owed something to the Greek mysteries. I thought I caught some Greek words. Some Roman influence, too, perhaps. After all—”
    “Yes?”
    “
Bacchantium instar mulieres vidimus
.”
    “Quite,” said Owen.
     
    “I protest,” said Sheikh Musa.
    “I quite agree,” said Owen heartily, “and I join myself in your protest.”
    “Wait a minute,” said the Sheikh, “you’re the man I’m protesting
to
.”
    “If the subject of your protest is what I think it is,” said Owen, “the deplorable assault on the Bimbashi a couple of nights ago, then we are on common ground.”
    “It’s not the assault I’m bothered about,” said the Sheikh. “It’s his presence there in the first place.
    “At the Zzarr?”
    The Sheikh winced.
    “We don’t like to use that word. The ceremony, you know, is not entirely regular. It’s not something that’s, well, officially recognized. We know it goes on, of course. There are people who, not to put too fine a point on it, are drawn to such things. I dare say you know the kind of people I mean?” Owen, thinking of McPhee, said he did.
    “I wouldn’t want to encourage them by letting them think they have my approval. So I would prefer, if you don’t mind, not to use the word. To do so would be to admit that I know about such things.”
    “Well, yes, but…then why are you here?”
    “I have come to lodge a formal protest at Bimbashi McPhee’s presence.”
    “At what?”
    “An unspecified event in the Gamaliya district.”
    “You can’t protest at his presence if you’re unable to say what he was present at!”
    “From my point of view,” said the Sheikh, “the protest is the important thing, not the event.”
    “I see.”
    “There’s a lot of feeling in the Gamaliya about the incident.”
    “I see.”
    “Which might boil over.”
    “What do you expect me to do about it?”
    The Sheikh looked surprised.
    “Nothing,” he said. “I just wanted to lodge a protest, that was all.”
    Owen understood. The Sheikh was anxious to guard his back in terms of relations with his flock.
    He thought for a moment.
    “I don’t know that I can accept a formal protest,” he said. “If there wasn’t an event, there can’t have been a presence at it.”
    “Oh!”
    “I don’t think I could offer an apology. Formal, that is. However, I might be willing to issue a general statement deploring recent events—unspecified, of course,—in the Gamaliya. Would that help?”
    “From my point of view, yes.”
    “And from my point of view? Would that be enough to head off trouble?”
    “I doubt it,” said Sheikh Musa.
    Owen felt like kicking McPhee’s backside.
     
    Owen still had hopes it would all quietly fade away. The heat would surely dissuade potential