SEPTEMBER 1981 The A tlantic M onthly PAGE 61

The P rophet’s H air

A SHORT STORY BY SALMAN RUSHDIE

arly in 19- , when srinagar was under the spell large tip, the hawker rowed Atta home to a large house

E of a winter so fierce it could crack men’s bones as if

they were glass, a young man upon whose cold-
pinked skin there lay, like a frost, the unmistakable
sheen of wealth was to be seen entering the most wretch­
on the shores of the lake, where a painfully beautiful girl
and her equally handsome mother, neither of whom, it
was clear from their eyes, had slept a wink from worry­
ing, screamed at the sight of their A tta—who was the
ed and disreputable part of the city, where the houses of elder brother of the beautiful girl—lying motionless
wood and corrugated iron seemed perpetually on the amid the funereally stunted winter blooms of the hopeful
verge of losing their balance, and asking in low, grave florist. The flower vendor was indeed paid off handsome­
tones where he might go to engage the services of a ly, not least to ensure his silence, and plays no further
dependably professional thief. The young man’s name part in our story. Atta himself, suffering terribly from
was Atta, and the rogues in that part of town directed exposure as well as a broken skull, entered a coma that
him gleefully into ever darker and less public alleys, until caused the city’s finest doctors to shrug helplessly. It was
in a yard wet with the blood of a slaughtered chicken he therefore all the more remarkable that on the very same
was set upon by two men whose faces he never saw, evening the most wretched and disreputable part of the
robbed of the substantial bankroll that he had insanely city received a second unexpected visitor. This was
brought on his solitary excursion, and beaten within an Huma, the sister of the unfortunate young man, and her
inch of his life. question was the same as her brother’s, and asked in the
Night fell. His body was carried by anonymous hands same low, grave tones: “Where may I hire a thief?”
to the edge of the lake, whence it was transported by The story of the rich idiot who had come looking for a
shikara across the water and deposited, torn and bleed­ burglar was already common knowledge in those insalu­
ing, on the deserted embankment of the canal that led to brious gullies; but this time the girl added, “I should say
the gardens of Shalimar. At dawn the next morning a that I am carrying no money, nor am I wearing any jew­
flower vendor was rowing his boat through water to els; my father has disowned me and will pay no ransom if
which the cold of the night had given the cloudy consis­ I am kidnapped; and a letter has been lodged with the
tency of wild honey when he saw the prone form of young commissioner of police, my uncle, to be opened in the
Atta, who was just beginning to stir and moan, and on event of my not being safe at home by morning. In that
whose now deathly pale skin the sheen of wealth could letter he will find full details of my journey here, and he
still be made out dimly beneath an actual layer of frost. will move Heaven and Earth to punish my assailants.”
The flower vendor moored his craft, and by stooping over Her extraordinary beauty, which was visible even
the mouth of the injured man was able to learn the through the enormous welts and bruises disfiguring her
poor fellow’s address, which was mumbled through arms and forehead, coupled with the oddity of her inqui­
lips that could scarcely move; whereupon, hoping for a ries, had attracted a sizable group of curious onlookers,
and because her little speech seemed to them to cover
Salman Rushdie is the author o f the recently published Midnight’s just about everything, no one attempted to injure her in
Children, a novel about India. any way, although there were some raucous comments to
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KAREN WATSON
PAGE 62 T he A t l a n t i c M o n t h l y SEPTEMBER 1981

the effect th a t it was pretty peculiar for someone who was the notorious crim inal himself; and was she crazy,
was trying to hire a crook to invoke the protection of a were her ears playing tricks, or had he tru ly ju st
high-up policeman uncle. She was directed into ever announced th at, given the circumstances, he him self was
darker and less public alleys until finally in a gully as the only man for the job?
dark as ink an old woman with eyes th a t stared so pierc­ Struggling wildly against the newborn goblins of nos­
ingly th at Huma instantly understood she was blind talgia, Hum a warned the fearsom e volunteer th a t only a
motioned her through a doorway from which darkness m atter of extreme urgency and peril would have brought
seemed to be pouring like smoke. Clenching her fists, her unescorted into these ferocious streets. “Because we
angrily ordering her heart to behave normally, the girl can afford no last-m inute backings-out,” she continued,
followed the old woman into the gloom-wrapped house. “I am determined to tell you everything, keeping back no
The faintest conceivable rivulet of candlelight trickled secrets whatsoever. If, after hearing me out, you are still
through the darkness; following this unreliable yellow prepared to proceed, then we shall do everything in our
thread (because she could no longer see the old lady), power both to assist you and to make you rich.” The old
Huma received a sudden sharp blow to the shins and thief shrugged; nodded; spat. H um a began her story.
cried out involuntarily, after which she instantly bit her
lip, angry at having revealed her mounting terror to
whatever waited there shrouded in black. She had in fact IX DAYS AGO, EVERYTHING IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF HER
collided with a low table on which a single candle burned
and beyond which a mountainous figure could be made
out, sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Sit, sit,” said a
S father, the wealthy moneylender H ashim , had been
as it always was. A t breakfast her m other had
spooned khichri lovingly onto the m oneylender’s plate;
the conversation had been filled with those expressions
m an’s calm, deep voice, and her legs, needing no more
flowery invitation, buckled beneath her at the terse com­ of courtesy and solicitude on which the fam ily prided
mand. Clutching her left hand in her right, she forced her itself. Hashim was fond of pointing out th a t while he was
voice to respond evenly: “And you, sir, will be the thief I not a godly man he set great store by “living honorably in
have been requesting?” the world.” In th a t spacious lakeside residence, all out­
Shifting its weight very slightly, the shadow-mountain siders were greeted with the same form ality and respect,
informed her th a t all criminal activity originating in this even those unfortunates who came to negotiate for sm all
zone was well organized and also centrally controlled, so fragm ents of H ashim ’s great fortune, and of whom he
th a t all requests for w hat m ight be term ed freelance naturally asked an interest rate of 71 percent, partly, as
work had to be channeled through this room. He he told his khichri-spooning wife, “to teach these people
demanded comprehensive details of the crime to be com­ the value of money; let them only learn th at, and they
mitted, including a precise inventory of items to be will be cured of this fever of borrowing, borrowing all the
acquired, also a clear statem ent of all financial induce­ tim e—so you see th a t if my plans succeed, I shall put
ments being offered with no gratuities excluded, plus, for myself out of business!” In th eir children, A tta and
filing purposes only, a summary of the motives for the Huma, the moneylender and his wife had sought, suc­
application. At this, Huma, as though remembering cessfully, to inculcate the virtues of th rift, plain dealing,
something, stiffened in both body and resolve and replied perfect manners, and a healthy independence of spirit.
loudly th a t her motives were entirely a m atter for her­ Breakfast ended; the family wished one another a ful­
self; th a t she would discuss details with no one but the filling day. W ithin a few hours, however, the glassy con­
thief himself; but th at the rewards she proposed could tentm ent of th a t household, of th a t life of porcelain deli­
only be described as “lavish.” “All I am willing to say to cacy and alabaster sensibilities, was to be shattered
you, sir, since this appears to be some sort of employment beyond all hope of repair.
agency, is th a t in return for such lavish rewards I m ust The moneylender summoned his personal shikara and
have the most desperate criminal a t your disposal, a man was on the verge of stepping into it when, a ttrac ted by a
for whom life holds no terrors, not even the fear of God. glint of silver, he noticed a small phial floating between
The worst of fellows, I tell you—nothing less will do!” the boat and his private quay. On an impulse, he scooped
Now a paraffin storm lantern was lighted, and Huma it out of the glutinous water: it was a cylinder of tinted
saw facing her a gray-haired giant down whose left cheek glass cased in exquisitely wrought silver, and H ashim
ran the most sinister of scars, a cicatrice in the shape of saw within its walls a silver pendant bearing a single
the Arabic letter S. She had the insupportably nostalgic strand of human hair. Closing his fist around th is unique
notion th a t the bogeyman of her childhood nursery had discovery, he m uttered to the boatm an th a t he had
risen up to confront her, because her ayah had always changed his plans and hurried to his sanctum where,
forestalled any incipient acts of disobedience by th re a t­ behind closed doors, he feasted his eyes on his find. There
ening Huma and Atta: “You don’t watch out and I’ll send can be no doubt th a t Hashim the m oneylender knew from
th at one to steal you aw ay—th a t Sheikh Sin, the Thief of the first th at he was in possession of the fam ous holy
Thieves!” Here, gray-haired but unquestionably scarred, hair of the Prophet Mohammed, whose th e ft from the
SEPTEMBER 1981 The A tlantic M onthly PAGE 63

shrine at Hazratbal the previous morning had created an infinitude of tiny sandalwood dolls, which had originally
unprecedented hue and cry in the valley. The thieves—no been carved to serve as children’s bathtime toys. “And
doubt alarmed by the pandemonium, by the procession after all,” Hashim told himself, “the Prophet would have
through the streets of the endless ululating crocodiles of disapproved mightily of this relic-worship; he abhorred
lamentation, by the riots, the political ramifications, and the idea of being deified; so by keeping this rotting hair
the widespread police search th at was commanded and from its mindless devotees, I perform—do I not?—a finer
carried out by men whose entire careers now hung upon service than I would by returning it! Naturally, I don’t
this single lost hair—had evidently panicked and hurled want it for its religious value; I’m a man of the world, of
the phial into the gelatine bosom of the lake. Having this world; I see it purely as a secular object of great
found it by a stroke of good fortune, Hashim’s duty as a rarity and blinding beauty: in short, it’s the phial I
citizen was clear; the hair must be restored to its shrine, desire, not the hair. There are American millionaires
and the state to equanimity and peace. who buy stolen paintings and hide them away; they
But the moneylender had formed a different notion. would know how I feel. I must, must have it!”
All about him in his study was the evidence of collector’s Every collector must share his treasures with one oth­
mania: great cases full of impaled butterflies from Gul- er human being, and Hashim summoned—and told—his
marg, three dozen miniature cannons cast from the only son, Atta, who was deeply perturbed but, having
melted-down metal of the great gun Zamzama, innumer­ been sworn to secrecy, spilled the beans only when the
able swords, a Naga spear, ninety-four terracotta camels troubles became too terrible to bear. The youth left his
of the sort sold on railway-station platforms, and an father alone in the crowded solitude of his collections.
PAGE 64 T he Atlantic M onthly SEPTEMBER 1981

Hashim was sitting erect in a hard chair, gazing intently trem bling debtor arrived a t the house to confess his
at the beautiful phial. inability to pay the latest installm ent of in terest owed,
and made the m istake of rem inding H ashim , in some­
w hat blustering fashion, of the K oran’s strictu res
T WAS WELL KNOWN THAT THE MONEYLENDER NEVER against usury. The moneylender, flying into a rage,

I ate lunch, so it was not until evening th a t a servant

entered the sanctum to summon his m aster to the
dining table. He found Hashim as A tta had left him. The
same, but not the same: because now the moneylender
attacked the fellow with one of his large collection of
bullwhips. By mischance, later the same day, a second
defaulter came to plead for tim e, and was seen fleeing
Hasliim ’s study with a great gash on his arm , because
looked swollen, distended, his eyes bulged even more H um a’s father had called him a thief of other m en’s
than usual; they were red-rimmed and his knuckles were money and had tried to cut off the fellow’s rig h t hand
white. It was as though he were on the point of bursting, with one of the thirty-eight kukri knives hanging on the
as though under the influence of the misappropriated study walls. These breaches of the fam ily’s laws of deco­
relic he had filled up with some spectral fluid that m ight rum alarmed A tta and Huma; and when, th a t evening,
at any moment ooze uncontrollably from his every bodily their m other attem pted to calm H ashim down, he struck
opening. He had to be helped to the table; and then the her on the face with an open hand. A tta leaped to his
explosion did indeed take place. Seemingly careless of the m other’s defense and he, too, was sent flying. “From now
effect of his words on the carefully constructed and frag­ on,” Hashim bellowed, “th ere’s going to be some disci­
ile constitution of the family’s life, Hashim began to pline around here!”
gush, to spume stream s of terrible truths. In horrified The moneylender’s wife began a fit of hysteria th a t
silence, his children heard their father turn upon his continued throughout the night and the following day,
wife, and reveal to her th a t for many years their m ar­ and which so provoked her husband th a t he threatened
riage had been the worst of his afflictions. “An end to her with divorce, a t which she fled to her room, locked
politeness!” he thundered. “An end to hypocrisy!” He the door, and subsided into a raga of sniffling. H um a now
revealed to his family the existence of a mistress; he lost her composure, challenged her fath er openly, an ­
informed them of his regular visits to paid women. He nounced (with th a t same independence of sp irit th a t he
told his wife that, far from being the principal beneficia­ had encouraged in her) th a t she would wear no cloth over
ry of his will, she would receive no more than the eighth her face: apart from anything else, it was bad for the
portion th at was her due under Islamic law. Then he eyes. On hearing this, her fath e r disowned her a t once
turned upon his children, screaming at A tta for his lack and gave her one week in which to pack her bags.
of academic ability: “A dope! I have been cursed with a By the fourth day, the fear in the air of the house had
dope!” and accusing his daughter of lasciviousness, become so thick th a t it was difficult to walk around. A tta
because she went around the city barefaced, which was told his shock-numbed sister: “We are descending to g u t­
unseemly for any good Moslem girl to do; she should, he ter-level—but I know w hat m ust be done.”
commanded, enter purdah forthwith. He left the table That afternoon, Hashim left home accompanied by two
without having eaten and fell into the deep sleep of a hired thugs to extract the unpaid dues from his two insol­
man who has got many things off his chest, leaving his vent clients. A tta went im m ediately to his fa th e r’s study.
children stunned, his wife in tears, and the dinner going Being the son and heir, he possessed his own key to the
cold on the sideboard under the gaze of an anticipatory moneylender’s safe, which he now used, and removing
bearer. the little phial from its hiding-place, he slipped it into his
At five o’clock the next morning the moneylender trouser pocket and relocked the safe door.
forced his family to rise, wash, and say their prayers; Now he told Huma the secret of w hat his fath e r had
from th at time on, he began to pray five times daily for found in Lake Dal, and cried, “Maybe I’m crazy—maybe
the first time in his life, and his wife and children were the awful things th a t are happening have made me
obliged to do likewise. Before breakfast, Huma saw the cracked—but I am convinced there will be no peace in our
servants, under her fath e r’s direction, constructing a house until this hair is out of it.” His sister instantly
great heap of books in the garden and setting fire to it. agreed th a t the hair m ust be returned, and A tta set off in
The only volume left untouched was the Koran, which a hired shikara to the H azratbal mosque. Only when the
Hashim wrapped in a silken cloth and placed on a table in boat had delivered him into the throng of the d istrau g h t
the hall. He ordered each member of his family to read faithful th a t was swirling around the desecrated shrine
passages from this book for a t least two hours a day. did A tta discover th a t the relic was no longer in his
Visits to the cinema were also forbidden. And if A tta pocket. There was only a hole, which his m other, usually
invited male friends to the house, Huma was to retire to so attentive to household m atters, m ust have overlooked
her room. under the stress of recent events . . . A tta ’s initial surge
By now, the family had entered a state of wild-eyed of chagrin was quickly replaced by a feeling of profound
horror; but there was worse to come. That afternoon, a relief. “Suppose,” he imagined, “I had already announced
SEPTEMBER 1981 The A tlantic M onthly PAGE 65

to the mullahs that the hair was on my person! They body was convulsed by a fit of coughing; he spat blood
would never have believed me now—and this mob would into an old tin can. The great sheikh, the “Thief of
have lynched me! At any rate, it’s gone, and th at’s a load Thieves,” was also an old and sick man, and every day the
off my mind.” Feeling more contented than he had for time drew nearer when some young pretender to his pow­
days, the young man returned home. er would stick a dagger in his stomach. A lifelong addic­
Here he found his sister bruised and weeping in the tion to gambling had left him as poor as he had been
hall; upstairs, in her bedroom, his mother wailed like a when, decades ago, he had started out in this line of work
brand-new widow. He begged Huma to tell him what had as a mere pickpocket’s apprentice; in the extraordinary
happened, and when she replied that their father, return­ commission he had accepted from the moneylender’s
ing from his brutal business trip, had once again noticed daughter he saw his opportunity of amassing enough
a glint of silver between boat and quay, had once again wealth, at a stroke, to leave the valley and acquire the
scooped up the errant relic, and was consequently in a luxury of a respectable death that would leave his stom­
rage to end all rages, having beaten the truth out of ach intact.
her—then Atta buried his face in his hands and sobbed As for the Prophet’s hair, well, neither he nor his blind
that, in his opinion, that hair was persecuting them; that wife had ever had much to say for prophets; that was one
it had come back to finish the job. thing they had in common with the moneylender’s clan.
Now it was Huma’s turn to think of a way out of their It would not do, however, to reveal the nature of this, his
troubles. While her arms turned black and blue and great last crime, to his four sons; to his consternation, they had
stains spread across her forehead, she hugged her broth­ all grown up into hopelessly devout fellows, who even
er and whispered to him her determination to get rid of spoke absurdly of making the pilgrimage to Mecca some
the hair at all costs; she repeated this last phrase several day. “But how will you go?” their father would laugh at
times. “The hair,” she then declared, “must be stolen. It them, because, with the absolutist love of a parent, he
was stolen from the mosque; it can be stolen from this had made sure they were all provided with a lifelong
house. But it must be a genuine robbery, carried out by a source of high income by crippling them at birth, so that,
real thief, not by one of us who are the hair’s victims—by as they dragged themselves around the city, they earned
a thief so desperate that he fears neither capture nor excellent money in the begging business. The children,
curses.” Of course, she added, the theft would be ten then, could look after themselves; he and his wife would
times harder to pull off now that their father, knowing be off with the jewel boxes of the moneylender’s women.
that there had already been one attempt on the relic, was It was a timely chance indeed that had brought the beau­
certainly on his guard. tiful bruised girl into his corner of the town.

^ ^ AN Y0U 00 IT?” HUMA’ IN A ROOM lit by candle hat night , the large house on the shore of
I and storm lantern, ended her account with
this question: “What assurances can you give
that the job holds no terrors for you still?” The criminal,
spitting, stated that he was not in the habit of providing
T the lake lay blindly waiting, with silence lapping at
its walls. A burglar’s night: clouds in the sky and
mists on the winter water. Hashim the moneylender was
asleep, the only member of his family to whom sleep had
references, as a cook might, or a gardener; but he was not come that night. In another room, his son, Atta, lay deep
alarmed so easily, not by any children’s djinn of a curse. in the coils of his coma with a blood clot forming on his
The girl had to be content with this boast, and proceeded brain, watched over by a mother who had let down her
to describe the details of the proposed burglary. “Since long graying hair to show her grief, a mother who placed
my brother’s failure to restore the hair to the mosque, warm compresses on his head with gestures redolent of
my father has taken to sleeping with his precious trea­ impotence. In yet a third bedroom Huma waited, fully
sure under his pillow. However, he sleeps alone and very dressed, amid the jewel-heavy caskets of her desperation.
energetically; only enter his room without waking him, At last a bulbul sang softly from the garden below her
and he will certainly have tossed and turned quite window and, creeping downstairs, she opened a door to
enough to make the theft a simple matter. When you the bird, on whose face there was a scar in the shape
have the phial, come to my room,” and here she handed of the Arabic letter S. Noiseless now, the bird flew up
Sheikh Sin a plan of her home, “and I will hand over all the stairs behind her. At the head of the staircase they
the jewelry owned by my mother and myself. You will parted, moving in opposite directions along the cor­
find—it is w orth—you will be able to get a fortune for ridor of their conspiracy without a glance at one an­
i t . . .” It was clear that her self-control was weak­ other.
ening and that she was on the point of physical collapse. Entering the moneylender’s room with professional
“Tonight,” she burst out finally. “You must come to­ ease, the burglar, Sin, discovered that Huma’s predic­
night!” tions had been wholly accurate. Hashim lay sprawled
No sooner had she left the room than the old criminal’s diagonally across his bed, the pillow untenanted by his
PAGE 66 T he A t l a n t i c M on t h l y SEPTEMBER 1981

head, th e prize easily accessible. Step by padded step, Sin be necessary, he said, for him to vanish fo r a while. H er
moved tow ard th e goal. I t was a t th is point th a t young blind eyes never opened u n til he had gone.
A tta, w ithout any w arning, his vocal cords prom pted by The noise in th e H ashim household h ad roused th e ir
God knows w h at p ressure of th e clot upon his brain, sat serv an ts and even aw akened th e n ig h t w atch m an who
bolt uprig h t in his bed, giving his m other th e fright of had been fa st asleep as usual on his charpoy by th e gate;
her life, and scream ed a t the top of his voice: “Thief! the police were alerted and th e com m issioner h im self
Thief! Thief!” inform ed. W hen he heard of H u m a’s d eath , th e m o u rn fu l
I t seems probable th a t his poor m ind had been dw ell­ officer opened and read th e sealed le tte r t h a t h is niece
ing, in these la st m om ents, upon his own fa th e r, but it is had given him, and in sta n tly led a large d e ta c h m e n t of
im possible to be certain, because having uttered these arm ed m en into the lig h t-rep e llen t gullies of th e m ost
th ree em phatic words th e young m an fell back on his w retched and disreputable p a r t of th e city. The tongue of
pillow and died. A t once his m other set up a screeching a m alicious cat b u rg lar nam ed H u m a’s fellow -conspira­
and a wailing and a keening and a howling so ear-split- tor; the finger of an am bitious bank robber po in ted a t th e
tingly intense as to com plete the work th a t A tta ’s cry house in which he lay concealed; and alth o u g h Sin m a n ­
had begun; th a t is, h er lam ents p en etrated the walls aged to craw l th ro u g h a h atch in th e a ttic an d a tte m p t a
of her husband’s bedroom and brought H ashim wide rooftop escape, a bullet from th e com m issio n er’s own
awake. rifle p en etrated his stom ach and b ro u g h t him crash in g
Sheikh Sin was ju s t deciding w hether to dive beneath m essily to the ground a t th e feet of the en rag ed uncle.
the bed or b rain th e m oneylender good and proper when From th e dead m a n ’s ragged pocket rolled a p h ial of
H ashim grabbed the tig er-strip ed sw ordstick th a t al­ tin te d glass, cased in filigree silver.
ways stood propped up in a corner beside his bed and
rushed from th e room w ithout so much as noticing the
b u rg lar who stood on th e opposite side of the bed in the he recovery of the p r o p h e t ’s h a ir w as an-

darkness. Sin stooped quickly and removed the phial con­

tain in g the P ro p h et’s h a ir from its hiding place.
M eanwhile H ashim had erupted into the corridor, h av ­
T nounced a t once on A ll-India Radio. One m o n th
later, the valley’s holiest m en assem bled a t th e
H a zratb a l mosque and form ally au th e n tic a te d th e relic.
It sits to th is day in a closely guarded v au lt by th e sh o res
ing unsheathed the sword inside his stick; he was waving
th e blade about dem entedly w ith his rig h t hand and of th e loveliest of lakes in th e h e a rt of th e valley t h a t is
shaking the stick w ith his left.. Now a shadow came ru sh ­ closer th a n any o th er place on e a rth to P arad ise.
ing tow ard him th rough the m idnight darkness of the B ut before its story can properly be concluded, it is
passagew ay and, in his som nolent anger, the m oneylend­ necessary to record th a t w hen th e four sons of th e dead
er th ru s t his sword fa ta lly through its h eart. T urning up sheikh awoke on th a t m o rn in g of his d ea th , having
the light, he found th a t he had m urdered his daughter, unw ittingly spent a few m in u tes under th e sam e roof as
and under the dire influence of th is accident he found the holy hair, they found th a t a m iracle h ad occurred,
him self so persecuted by rem orse th a t he turned the th a t they were all sound of lim b and stro n g of wind, as
sword upon him self, fell upon it, and so extinguished his whole as they m ight have been if th e ir fa th e r h ad n o t
life. H is wife, th e sole surviving m em ber of the fam ily, th o u g h t to sm ash th e ir legs in th e first h o u rs of th e ir
was driven m ad by th e general carnage and had to be lives. They were, all four of them , very p ro p erly fu rious,
com m itted to an asylum for the insane by her brother, because th is m iracle had reduced th e ir ea rn in g pow ers by
th e city’s com m issioner of police. 75 percent, at the m ost conservative estim ate; so th ey
Sheikh Sin quickly understood th a t the plan had gone w ere ruined men.
awry; abandoning the dream of the jewel boxes when he Only th e sheikh’s widow had some reaso n fo r feeling
was b u t a few y ard s from its fulfillm ent, he climbed out grateful, because although h er husband w as dead, she
of H ash im ’s window and m ade his escape during th e had regained h er sight, so t h a t it w as possible for h e r to
awful events described above. R eaching home before spend h er la st days gazing once m ore upon th e b eau ties
dawn, he woke his wife and confessed his failure; it would of th e valley of K ashm ir. □
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