Read "The Shaving of Shagpat" by George Meredith online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Now, while Shibli Bagarag gazed on Shagpat kindled by the beams of Aklis, lo, the genii Karavejis and Veejravoosh circling each other in swift circles like two sapphire rings toward him, and they whirled to a point above his head, and fell and prostrated themselves at his feet: so he cried, "O ye slaves of the Sword, my servitors! how of the whereabout of Karaz?"
They answered, "O Master of the Event, we found him after many circlings far off, and 'twas by the borders of the Putrid Sea. We came not close on him, for he is stronger than we without the Sword, but it seemed he was distilling drops of an oil from certain substances, large thickened drops that dropped into a phial."