The Horse And His Boy

“One day there came from the South a stranger who was unlike any man that Shasta had seen before. He rode upon a strong dappled horse with flowing mane and tail and his stirrups and bridle were inlaid with silver. The spike of a helmet projected from the middle of his silken turban and he wore a shirt of chain mail. By his side hung a curving scimitar, a round shield studded with bosses of brass hung at his back, and his right hand grasped a lance. His face was dark, but this did not surprise Shasta because all the people of Calormen are like that; what did surprise him was the man’s beard which was dyed crimson and curled and gleaming with scented oil. But Arsheesh knew by the gold on the stranger’s bare arm that he was a Tarkaan or great lord, and he bowed kneeling before him till his beard touched the earth and made signs to Shasta to kneel also.”

Lewis provides his initial description of the Calormenes, to whom he ascribes the visual and vocal characteristics of stereotypical medieval and early modern Arabs. The individual described is a nobleman who has come to the home of the fisherman Arsheesh to buy the servant boy Shasta. Readers may draw a connection as the narrative proceeds that the Tarkaan knew that there was a foreign-born child in Calormen. Likely, he is operating at the wishes of Rabadash, who is simultaneously wooing the Queen Susan.

“‘It is even so,’ replied the guest dryly. ‘But another poet has likewise said, “He who at tempts to deceive the judicious is already baring his own back for the scourge.” Do not load your aged mouth with falsehoods. This boy is manifestly no son of yours, for your cheek as dark as mine but the boy is fair and white—like the ac cursed but beautiful barbarians who inhabit the remote North.’”

This conversation takes place between the Tarkaan and the fisherman as they negotiate how much the nobleman is going to pay for Shasta. Their verbal sparring reveals that each of them recognizes the exceptionally high worth of Shasta and that worth is tied to his obviously being of northern birth and not the natural son of the fisherman. Because it was a Calormen plot that originally resulted in Shasta being kidnapped from his parents in Archenland, the Tarkaan may even have some sense that Shasta is the eldest son of King Lune.