Road to Ubar Pa - Nicholas Clapp [93]
At the corners of Ubar's rising fortress, the masons erected sturdy towers. Additional towers guarded vulnerable points in the wall.
To complete their work, the masons may have returned the next season and even the one after that. The fortress they built served the essential needs of an early city: exchange and defense. With its welcoming gate and large interior court and spring, Ubar could accommodate the ebb and flow of desert trade. In the event of an attack, that same gate could swing shut and secure the Ubarites, their animals, and their frankincense.
At some point in the course of the construction, a lookout on duty in one of the towers would have caught sight of a column of dust rapidly approaching: the king of the People of'Ad and his retinue. To lend him a name, call him, as in myth, King Khuljan ibn al-Dahn ibn 'Ad.
Khuljan would have cut quite a figure. Riding a sleek stallion, he wore a scarlet robe fastened over his left shoulder. In preparation for his arrival at Ubar, the royal barber had woven the king's long hair in plaits and dyed it blue with the juice of the nil plant and had blued his face as well.
Khuljan wore no crown but rather a five-thonged leather headband wrapped with bands of gold and silver. On arriving at Ubar's new gate, he would have been honored with clouds of incense, and commoners falling to their knees to kiss his knees. Those of higher station who knew him well kissed his wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Little boys, if they dared, jumped to clap their hands beneath the king's nostrils, so they might acquire the virtue of his breath. The kahin who looked after the temple offered Khuljan hen's eggs, which the king dashed on the outer and inner thresholds of the gate, dedicating it to the glory of the gods and to the prosperity of his tribe. After inspecting Ubar's fortifications and enlarged temple, the king retired to his tent. It had, as always, been a long journey.
In the manner of Arabian kings, Khuljan would have held morning court (or majlis, as it later came to be called) in the shade of the gate. At times it was a court of judgment, with the king acting as "master of ordeals." As an accused man was brought forth, Khuljan drew his finely wrought bronze dagger and laid it on the coals of the fire kept by the soldiers on duty at the gate. He chatted with them as they watched it brighten and redden; it would swiftly determine whether the accused was "of gold or of iron," an innocent or a scoundrel. Turning to him, Khuljan ordered that he open his mouth and show his tongue. The king then took the tip of the man's tongue between finger and thumb with one hand, and with the other raised his dagger to his own lips and, almost kissing it, whispered, "O fire, O fire, be cold and at peace."
Swiftly and without hesitation, Khuljan pressed the flat of the dagger upon the man's outstretched tongue, turned it over, and pressed again. If the accused was at once able to spit, it boded well for him. The true test came later in the day, when his tongue was carefully examined. If there was swelling or undue burning or swollen glands in the neck, he was declared guilty and paid as his accusers saw fit, often with his life. If he was free of these signs, he was slapped on the back by the soldiers and smiled upon by his king.
At Ubar's gate the king resolved major and minor disputes, gave his blessing to caravans coming and