Close upon these
came the procession of the Guilds and the junketing of the Janissaries,
and last of all the Feast of Palms, which palms were carried to the very
gates of the Seraglio, along with the sugar gardens I have already
spoken of. Then there was the Feast of Lamps, in which ten thousand
shining lamps gleamed among twenty thousand blossoming tulips, so that
one might well have believed that the lamps were blossoming and the
tulips were shining. And all the while the cannons of the Anatoli Hisar
and the Rumili Hisar were thundering, and the Bosphorus seemed to be
turned into a sea of fire by reason of the illuminated ships and the
sparkling fireworks. Such then was the dream of the humblest of thy
slaves at dawn of the 12th day of the month Dzhemakir, which day is a
day of good omen to the sons of Osman."
It might have been thought a tiresome matter to listen to such long,
drawn-out visions as this to the very end, but Achmed was a good
listener, and, besides, he delighted in such things. Nothing made him so
happy as great festivals, and the surest way of gaining his good graces
was by devising some new pageant of splendour, excellence, and
originality unknown to his predecessors. Adsalis had won his favour by
inventing the Feast of Lamps and Tulips, which was renewed every year.
This Feast of Palms, moreover, was another new idea, and so also was the
idea of the sugar garden. So Achmed, in a transport of enthusiasm,
pressed the favourite Sultana to his bosom, and swore solemnly that her
dream should be fulfilled, and then sent her back into the harem.
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