第659章 The Horse And His Boy(249)

And here， to get him out of the way， I’d better finish off the story of Rabadash. He （or it） was duly sent back by boat to Tashbaan and brought into the temple of Tash at the great Autumn Festival， and then he became a man again. But of course four or five thousand people had seen the transformation and the affair could not possibly be hushed up. And after the old Tisroc‘s death when Rabadash became Tisroc in his place he turned out the most peaceable Tisroc Calormen had ever known. This was because， not daring to go more than ten miles from Tashbaan， he could never go on a war himself： and he didn’t want his Tarkaans to win fame in the wars at his expense， for that is the way Tisrocs get overthrown. But though his reasons were selfish， it made things much more comfortable for all the smaller countries round Calormen. His own people never forgot that he had been a donkey. During his reign， and to his face， he was called Rabadash the Peacemaker， but after his death and behind his back he was called Rabadash the Ridiculous， and if you look him up in a good History of Calormen （try the local library） you will find him under that name. And tothis day in Calormene schools， if you do anything unusually stupid， you are very likely to be called “a second Rabadash”. Meanwhile at Anvard everyone was very glad that he had been disposed of before the real fun began， which was a grand feast held that evening on the lawn before the castle， with dozens of lanterns to help the moonlight. And the wine flowed and tales were told and jokes were cracked， and then silence was made and the King‘s poet with two fiddlers stepped out into the middle of the circle. Aravis and Cor prepared themselves to be bored， for the only poetry they knew was the Calormene kind， and you know now what that was like. But at the very first scrape of the fiddles a rocket seemed to go up inside their heads， and the poet sang the great old lay of Fair Olvin and how he fought the Giant Pire and turned him into stone （and that is the origin of Mount Pire.it was a two.headed giant） and won the Lady Liln for his bride； and when it was over they wished it was going to begin again. And though Bree couldn’t sing he told the story of the fight at Zalindreh. And Lucy told again （they had all， except Aravis and Cor， heard it many times but they all wanted it again） the Tale of the Wardrobe and how she and King Edmund and Queen Susan and Peter theHigh King had first come into Narnia.