Some great lord stepped forward, one who was a hunter though he looked little like it, for the scent on his hair reached me from four paces away and there was paint upon his face.
“Yes, O King,” he said in a mincing voice, “let him enter and kill a lion. But if he fail, then let a lion kill him. There are some hungry in the palace den and it is not fit that the King’s ears should be filled with empty words by foreigners from Egypt.”
“So be it,” said the King. “Egyptian, you have brought it on your own head. Prove that you can do what you say and I will give you great honour. Fail, and to the lions with him who lies of lions. Still,” he added, “it is not right that you should go alone. Choose therefore one of these lords to keep you company; he who would put you to the test, if you will.”
Now I looked at the scented noble who turned pale beneath his paint. Then I looked at the fat eunuch, Houman, who opened his mouth and gasped like a fish, and when I had looked, I shook my head and said as though to myself,
“Not so, no woman and no eunuch shall be my companion on this quest,” whereat the King and all the rest laughed out loud. “The dwarf and I will go alone.”
“The dwarf!” said the King. “Can he hunt lions also?”
“No, O King, but perchance he can smell them, for otherwise how shall I find them in that thicket within an hour?”
“Perchance they can smell him. How is the ape-man named?” asked the King.
“Bes, O King, after the god of the Egyptians whom he resembles.”
“Dare you accompany your master on this hunt, O Bes?” inquired the King.