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diff --git a/13664-0.txt b/13664-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00a618f --- /dev/null +++ b/13664-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2915 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13664 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Two names are accented with Macrons (a short horizontal bar over + the letter), for which there is no ASCII character. They are usually + marked as [=e], as in Argim[=e]n[=e]s. For legibility, they have been + replaced here by the bare letter. To restore the original accents, + + change Oonrana to Oonr[=a]na + change Argimenes to Argim[=e]n[=e]s + + + + + +SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF LORD DUNSANY + +MCMXII + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + The Gods of the Mountain + The First Act of King Argimenes and the Unknown Warrior + The Fall of Babbulkund + The Sphinx at Gizeh + Idle Days on the Yann + A Miracle + The Castle of Time + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +I + +Lady Wilde once told me that when she was a young girl she was stopped +in some Dublin street by a great crowd and turned into a shop to +escape from it. She stayed there some time and the crowd still passed. +She asked the shopman what it was, and he said, 'the funeral of Thomas +Davis, a poet.' She had never heard of Davis; but because she thought +a country that so honoured a poet must be worth something, she became +interested in Ireland and was soon a famous patriotic poet herself, +being, as she once said to me half in mockery, an eagle in her youth. + +That age will be an age of romance for an hundred years to come. +Its poetry slid into men's ears so smoothly that a man still living, +though a very old man now, heard men singing at the railway stations +he passed upon a journey into the country the verses he had published +but that morning in a Dublin newspaper; and yet we should not regret +too often that it has vanished, and left us poets even more unpopular +than are our kind elsewhere in Europe; for now that we are unpopular +we escape from crowds, from noises in the street, from voices that +sing out of tune, from bad paper made one knows not from what refuse, +from evil-smelling gum, from covers of emerald green, from that ideal +of reliable, invariable men and women, which would forbid saint +and connoisseur who always, the one in his simple, the other in his +elaborate way, do what is unaccountable, and forbid life itself which, +being, as the definition says, the only thing that moves itself, +is always without precedent. When our age too has passed, when its +moments also, that are so common and many, seem scarce and precious, +students will perhaps open these books, printed by village girls at +Dundrum, as curiously as at twenty years I opened the books of history +and ballad verse of the old 'Library of Ireland.' They will notice +that this new 'Library,' where I have gathered so much that seems to +me representative or beautiful, unlike the old, is intended for few +people, and written by men and women with that ideal condemned by +'Mary of the Nation', who wished, as she said, to make no elaborate +beauty and to write nothing but what a peasant could understand. If +they are philosophic or phantastic, it may even amuse them to find +some analogy of the old with O'Connell's hearty eloquence, his winged +dart shot always into the midst of the people, his mood of comedy; +and of the new, with that lonely and haughty person below whose tragic +shadow we of modern Ireland began to write. + + +II + +The melancholy, the philosophic irony, the elaborate music of a play +by John Synge, the simplicity, the sense of splendour of living in +Lady Gregory's lamentation of Emer, Mr. James Stephens when he makes +the sea waves 'Tramp with banners on the shore' are as much typical +of our thoughts and day, as was 'She dwelt beside the Anner with mild +eyes like the dawn,' or any stanza of the 'Pretty girl of Lough Dan,' +or any novel of Charles Lever's of a time that sought to bring Irish +men and women into one nation by means of simple patriotism and a +genial taste for oratory and anecdotes. A like change passed over +Ferrara's brick and stone when its great Duke, where there had been +but narrow medieval streets, made many palaces and threw out one +straight and wide street, as Carducci said, to meet the Muses. +Doubtless the men of 'Perdóndaris that famous city' have such +antiquity of manners and of culture that it is of small moment should +they please themselves with some tavern humour; but we must needs +cling to 'our foolish Irish pride' and form an etiquette, if we would +not have our people crunch their chicken bones with too convenient +teeth, and make our intellect architectural that we may not see them +turn domestic and effusive nor nag at one another in narrow streets. + + +III + +Some of the writers of our school have intended, so far as any +creative art can have deliberate intention, to make this change, a +change having more meaning and implications than a few sentences can +define. When I was first moved by Lord Dunsany's work I thought that +he would more help this change if he could bring his imagination into +the old Irish legendary world instead of those magic lands of his with +their vague Eastern air; but even as I urged him I knew that he could +not, without losing his rich beauty of careless suggestion, and the +persons and images that for ancestry have all those romantic ideas +that are somewhere in the background of all our minds. He could not +have made Slieve-na-Mon nor Slieve Fua incredible and phantastic +enough, because that prolonged study of a past age, necessary before +he could separate them from modern association, would have changed +the spontaneity of his mood to something learned, premeditated, and +scientific. + +When we approach subtle elaborate emotions we can but give our minds +up to play or become as superstitious as an old woman, for we cannot +hope to understand. It is one of my superstitions that we became +entangled in a dream some twenty years ago; but I do not know whether +this dream was born in Ireland from the beliefs of the country men and +women, or whether we but gave ourselves up to a foreign habit as our +spirited Georgian fathers did to gambling, sometimes lying, as their +history has it, on the roadside naked, but for the heap of straw they +had pulled over them, till they could wager a lock of hair or the +paring of a nail against what might set them up in clothes again. +Whether it came from Slieve-na-Mon or Mount Abora, Æ. found it with +his gods and I in my 'Land of Heart's Desire,' which no longer +pleases me much. And then it seemed far enough till Mr. Edward Martyn +discovered his ragged Peg Inerney, who for all that was a queen in +faery; but soon John Synge was to see all the world as a withered and +witless place in comparison with the dazzle of that dream; and now +Lord Dunsany has seen it once more and as simply as if he were a child +imagining adventures for the knights and ladies that rode out over the +drawbridges in the piece of old tapestry in its mother's room. But to +persuade others that it is all but one dream, or to persuade them that +Lord Dunsany has his part in that change I have described I have but +my superstition and this series of little books where I have set his +tender, pathetic, haughty fancies among books by Lady Gregory, by +Æ., by Dr. Douglas Hyde, by John Synge, and by myself. His work which +seems today so much on the outside, as it were, of life and daily +interest, may yet seem to those students I have imagined rooted in +both. Did not the Maeterlinck of 'Pelleas and Melisande' seem to be +outside life? and now he has so influenced other writers, he has been +so much written about, he has been associated with so much celebrated +music, he has been talked about by so many charming ladies, that he is +less a vapour than that Dumas _fils_ who wrote of such a living +Paris. And has not Edgar Allen Poe, having entered the imagination of +Baudelaire, touched that of Europe? for there are seeds still carried +upon a tree, and seeds so light they drift upon the wind and yet can +prove that they, give them but time, carry a big tree. Had I read +'The Fall of Babbulkund' or 'Idle Days on the Yann' when a boy I had +perhaps been changed for better or worse, and looked to that first +reading as the creation of my world; for when we are young the less +circumstantial, the further from common life a book is, the more +does it touch our hearts and make us dream. We are idle, unhappy and +exorbitant, and like the young Blake admit no city beautiful that is +not paved with gold and silver. + + +IV + +These plays and stories have for their continual theme the passing +away of gods and men and cities before the mysterious power which is +sometimes called by some great god's name but more often 'Time.' His +travellers, who travel by so many rivers and deserts and listen to +sounding names none heard before, come back with no tale that does +not tell of vague rebellion against that power, and all the beautiful +things they have seen get something of their charm from the pathos +of fragility. This poet who has imagined colours, ceremonies and +incredible processions that never passed before the eyes of Edgar +Allen Poe or of De Quincey, and remembered as much fabulous beauty as +Sir John Mandeville, has yet never wearied of the most universal of +emotions and the one most constantly associated with the sense of +beauty; and when we come to examine those astonishments that seemed +so alien we find that he has but transfigured with beauty the common +sights of the world. He describes the dance in the air of large +butterflies as we have seen it in the sun-steeped air of noon. 'And +they danced but danced idly, on the wings of the air, as some haughty +queen of distant conquered lands might in her poverty and exile dance +in some encampment of the gipsies for the mere bread to live by, but +beyond this would never abate her pride to dance for one fragment +more.' He can show us the movement of sand, as we have seen it where +the sea shore meets the grass, but so changed that it becomes the +deserts of the world: 'and all that night the desert said many things +softly and in a whisper but I knew not what he said. Only the sand +knew and arose and was troubled and lay down again and the wind knew. +Then, as the hours of the night went by, these two discovered the +foot-tracks wherewith we had disturbed the holy desert and they +troubled over them and covered them up; and then the wind lay down and +the sand rested.' Or he will invent some incredible sound that will +yet call before us the strange sounds of the night, as when he says, +'sometimes some monster of the river coughed.' And how he can play +upon our fears with that great gate of his carved from a single ivory +tusk dropped by some terrible beast; or with his tribe of wanderers +that pass about the city telling one another tales that we know to +be terrible from the blanched faces of the listeners though they tell +them in an unknown tongue; or with his stone gods of the mountain, for +'when we see rock walking it is terrible' 'rock should not walk in the +evening.' + +Yet say what I will, so strange is the pleasure that they give, so +hard to analyse and describe, I do not know why these stories and +plays delight me. Now they set me thinking of some old Irish jewel +work, now of a sword covered with Indian Arabesques that hangs in a +friend's hall, now of St. Mark's at Venice, now of cloud palaces at +the sundown; but more often still of a strange country or state of the +soul that once for a few weeks I entered in deep sleep and after lost +and have ever mourned and desired. + + +V + +Not all Lord Dunsany's moods delight me, for he writes out of a +careless abundance; and from the moment I first read him I have wished +to have between two covers something of all the moods that do. I +believe that I have it in this book, which I have just been reading +aloud to an imaginative young girl more French than English, whose +understanding, that of a child and of a woman, and expressed not in +words but in her face, has doubled my own. Some of my selections, +those that I have called 'A Miracle' and 'The Castle of Time' are +passages from stories of some length, and I give but the first act of +'Argimenes,' a play in the repertory of the Abbey Theatre, but each +selection can be read I think with no thoughts but of itself. If 'Idle +Days on the Yann' is a fragment it was left so by its author, and if +I am moved to complain I shall remember that perhaps not even his +imagination could have found adventures worthy of a traveller who had +passed 'memorable, holy Golnuz, and heard the pilgrims praying,' and +smelt burned poppies in Mandaroon. + + Normandy 1912. + + W. B. Yeats. + + + + +THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAIN + +ACT I + +SCENE: The East. Outside a city wall; three beggars seated on the +ground. + + +OOGNO These days are bad for beggary. + +THAHN They are bad. + +ULF (an older beggar but not grey) Some evil has befallen the rich +ones of this city. They take no joy any longer in benevolence, but are +become sour and miserly at heart. Alas for them! I sometimes sigh for +them when I think of this. + +OOGNO Alas for them. A miserly heart must be a sore affliction. + +THAHN A sore affliction indeed, and bad for our calling. + +OOGNO (reflectively) They have been thus for many months. What thing +has befallen them? + +THAHN Some evil thing. + +ULF There has been a comet come near to the earth of late and the +earth has been parched and sultry so that the gods are drowsy and all +those things that are divine in man, such as benevolence, drunkenness, +extravagance and song, have faded and died and have not been +replenished by the gods. + +OOGNO It has indeed been sultry. + +THAHN I have seen the comet o' nights. + +ULF The gods are drowsy. + +OOGNO If they awake not soon and make this city worthy again of our +order, I for one shall forsake the calling and buy a shop and sit at +ease in the shade and barter for gain. + +THAHN You will keep a shop? (Enter Agmar and Slag. Agmar, though +poorly dressed, is tall, imperious, and older than Ulf. Slag follows +behind him.) + +AGMAR Is this a beggar who speaks? + +OOGNO Yes, master, a poor beggar. + +AGMAR How long has the calling of beggary existed? + +OOGNO Since the building of the first city, Master. + +AGMAR And when has a beggar ever followed a trade? When has he ever +haggled and bartered and sat in a shop? + +OOGNO Why, he has never done so. + +AGMAR Are you he that shall be first to forsake the calling? + +OOGNO Times are bad for the calling here. + +THAHN They are bad. + +AGMAR So you would forsake the calling. + +OOGNO The city is unworthy of our calling. The gods are drowsy, and +all that is divine in man is dead. (To third Beggar) Are not the gods +drowsy? + +ULF They are drowsy in their mountains away at Marma. The seven green +idols are drowsy. Who is this that rebukes us? + +THAHN Are you some great merchant, Master? Perhaps you will help a +poor man that is starving. + +SLAG My Master a Merchant! No, no. He is no merchant. My Master is no +merchant. + +OOGNO I perceive that he is some lord in disguise. The gods have woken +and have sent him to save us. + +SLAG No, no. You do not know my Master. You do not know him. + +THAHN Is he the Soldan's self that has come to rebuke us? + +AGMAR (with great pride) I am a beggar, and an old beggar. + +SLAG There is none like my Master. No traveller has met with cunning +like to his, not even those that come from Aethiopia. + +ULF We make you welcome to our town, upon which an evil has fallen, +the days being bad for beggary. + +AGMAR Let none that has known the mystery of roads, or has felt the +wind arising new in the morning, or who has called forth out of the +souls of men divine benevolence, ever speak any more of any trade or +of the miserable gains of shops and the trading men. + +OOGNO I but spoke hastily, the times being bad. + +AGMAR I will put right the times. + +SLAG There is nothing that my Master cannot do. + +AGMAR (to Slag) Be silent and attend to me. I do not know this city, I +have travelled from far, having somewhat exhausted the city of Ackara. + +SLAG My Master was three times knocked down and injured by carriages +there, once he was killed and seven times beaten and robbed, and every +time he was generously compensated. He had nine diseases, many of them +mortal.... + +AGMAR Be silent, Slag.... Have you any thieves among the calling here? + +ULF We have a few that we call thieves here, Master, but they would +scarcely seem thieves to you. They are not good thieves. + +AGMAR I shall need the best thief you have. + +(Enter two citizens richly clad, Illanaun and Oorander) + +ILLANAUN Therefore we will send galleons to Ardaspes. + +OORANDER Right to Ardaspes through the silver gates. + +(Agmar transfers the thick handle of his long staff to his left +armpit, he droops on to it and it supports his weight, he is upright +no longer. His right arm hangs limp and useless. He hobbles up to the +citizens imploring alms.) + +ILLANAUN I am sorry. I cannot help you. There have been too many +beggars here, and we must decline alms for the good of the town. + +AGMAR (sitting down and weeping) I have come from far. (Illanaun +presently returns and gives Agmar a coin. Exit Illanaun. Agmar, erect +again, walks back to the others.) + +AGMAR We shall need fine raiment, let the thief start at once. Let it +rather be green raiment. + +BEGGAR I will go and fetch the thief. (Exit) + +ULF We will dress ourselves as lords and impose upon the city. + +OOGNO Yes, yes; we will say we are ambassadors from a far land. + +ULF And there will be good eating. + +SLAG (in an undertone to Ulf) But you do not know my Master. Now that +you have suggested that we shall go as lords, he will make a better +suggestion. He will suggest that we should go as kings. + +ULF (incredulous) Beggars as kings! + +SLAG Ay. You do not know my Master. + +ULF (to Agmar) What do you bid us do? + +AGMAR You shall first come by the fine raiment in the manner I have +mentioned. + +ULF And what then, Master? + +AGMAR Why then we shall go as gods. + +BEGGARS As gods? + +AGMAR As gods. Know you the land through which I have lately come in +my wanderings? Marma, where the gods are carved from green stone in +the mountains. They sit all seven of them against the hills. They sit +there motionless and travellers worship them. + +ULF Yes, yes, we know those gods. They are much reverenced here; but +they are drowsy and send us nothing beautiful. + +AGMAR They are of green jade. They sit cross-legged with their right +elbows resting on their left hands, the right forefinger pointing +upwards. We will come into the city disguised, from the direction of +Marma, and will claim to be these gods. We must be seven as they are. +And when we sit, we must sit cross-legged as they do, with the right +hand uplifted. + +ULF This is a bad city in which to fall into the hands of oppressors, +for the judges lack amiability here as the merchants lack benevolence +ever since the gods forgot them. + +AGMAR In our ancient calling a man may sit at one street corner for +fifty years doing the one thing, and yet a day may come when it is +well for him to rise up and to do another thing, while the timorous +man starves. + +ULF Also it were well not to anger the gods. + +AGMAR Is not all life a beggary to the gods? Do they not see all men +always begging of them and asking alms with incense, and bells, and +subtle devices? + +OOGNO Yes, all men indeed are beggars before the gods. + +AGMAR Does not the mighty Soldan often sit by the agate altar in his +royal temple as we sit at a street corner or by a palace gate? + +ULF It is even so. + +AGMAR Then will the gods be glad when we follow the holy calling with +new devices and with subtlety, as they are glad when the priests sing +a new song. + +ULF Yet I have a fear. + +AGMAR (to Slag) Go you into the city before us, and let there be a +prophecy there which saith that the gods who are carven from green +rock in the mountain shall one day arise in Marma and come here in the +guise of men. + +SLAG Yes, Master. Shall I make the prophecy myself? Or shall it be +found in some old document? + +AGMAR Let someone have seen it once in some rare document. Let it be +spoken of in the market-place. + +SLAG It shall be spoken of, Master. (Slag lingers. Enter thief and +Thahn) + +OOGNO This is our thief. + +AGMAR (encouragingly) Ah, he is a quick thief. + +THIEF I could only procure you three green raiments, Master. The city +is not now well supplied with them; moreover it is a very suspicious +city, and without shame for the baseness of its suspicions. + +SLAG (to a beggar) This is not thieving. + +THIEF I could do no more, Master. I have not practised thieving all my +life. + +AGMAR You have got something: it may serve our purpose. How long have +you been thieving? + +THIEF I stole first when I was ten. + +SLAG When he was ten! + +AGMAR We must tear them up and divide them amongst the seven. (to +Thahn) Bring me another beggar. + +SLAG When my Master was ten he had already had to slip by night out of +two cities. + +OOGNO (admiringly) Out of two cities! + +SLAG (nodding his head) In his native city they do not now know what +became of the golden cup that stood in the Lunar Temple. + +AGMAR Yes, into seven pieces. + +ULF We will each wear a piece of it over our rags. + +OOGNO Yes, yes, we shall look fine. + +AGMAR That is not the way that we shall disguise ourselves. + +OOGNO Not cover our rags? + +AGMAR No, no. The first who looked closely would say 'These are only +beggars. They have disguised themselves.' + +ULF What shall we do? + +AGMAR Each of the seven shall wear a piece of the green raiment +underneath his rags. And peradventure here and there a little shall +show through; and men shall say 'These seven have disguised themselves +as beggars. But we know not what they be.' + +SLAG Hear my wise Master. + +OOGNO (in admiration) _He_ is a beggar. + +ULF He is an _old_ beggar. + + + +ACT II + +SCENE: The Metropolitan Hall of the city of Kongros. Citizens, etc. +Enter the seven beggars with green silk under their rags. + + +OORANDER Who are you and whence come you? + +AGMAR Who may say what we are or whence we come? + +OORANDER What are these beggars and why do they come here? + +AGMAR Who said to you that we were beggars? + +OORANDER Why do these men come here? + +AGMAR Who said to you that we were men? + +ILLANAUN Now, by the moon! + +AGMAR My sister. + +ILLANAUN What? + +AGMAR My little sister. + +SLAG Our little sister the Moon. She comes to us at evenings away in +the mountain of Marma. She trips over the mountains when she is young: +when she is young and slender she comes and dances before us: and when +she is old and unshapely she hobbles away from the hills. + +AGMAR Yet she is young again and forever nimble with youth: yet she +comes dancing back. The years are not able to curb her nor to bring +grey hairs to her brethren. + +OORANDER This is not wonted. + +ILLANAUN It is not in accordance with custom. + +AKMOS Prophecy hath not thought it. + +SLAG She comes to us new and nimble remembering olden loves. + +OORANDER It were well that prophets should come and speak to us. + +ILLANAUN This hath not been in the past. Let prophets come; let +prophets speak to us of future things. (The beggars seat themselves +upon the floor in the attitude of the seven gods of Marma.) + +CITIZEN I heard men speak to-day in the market-place. They speak of a +prophecy read somewhere of old. It says the seven gods shall come from +Marma in the guise of men. + +ILLANAUN Is this a true prophecy? + +OORANDER It is all the prophecy we have. Man without prophecy is like +a sailor going by night over uncharted seas. He knows not where are +the rocks nor where the havens. To the man on watch all things ahead +are black and the stars guide him not, for he knows not what they are. + +ILLANAUN Should we not investigate this prophecy? + +OORANDER Let us accept it. It is as the small uncertain light of a +lantern, carried it may be by a drunkard but along the shore of some +haven. Let us be guided. + +AKMOS It may be that they are but benevolent gods. + +AGMAR There is no benevolence greater than our benevolence. + +ILLANAUN _Then_ we need do little: they portend no danger to us. + +AGMAR There is no anger greater than our anger. + +OORANDER Let us make sacrifice to them, if they be gods. + +AKMOS We humbly worship you, if ye be gods. + +ILLANAUN (kneeling too) You are mightier than all men and hold high +rank among other gods and are lords of this our city, and have the +thunder as your plaything and the whirlwind and the eclipse and all +the destinies of human tribes, if ye be gods. + +AGMAR Let the pestilence not fall at once upon this city, as it had +indeed designed to; let not the earthquake swallow it all immediately +up amid the howls of the thunder; let not infuriate armies overwhelm +those that escape if we be gods. + +POPULACE (in horror) If we be gods! + +OORANDER Come let us sacrifice. + +ILLANAUN Bring lambs. + +AKMOS Quick, quick. (Exit some.) + +SLAG (with solemn air) This god is a very divine god. + +THAHN He is no common god. + +MLAN Indeed he has made us. + +CITIZEN (A WOMAN) (to Slag) He will not punish us, Master? None of the +gods will punish us? We will make a sacrifice, a good sacrifice. + +ANOTHER We will sacrifice a lamb that the priests have blessed. + +FIRST CITIZEN Master, you are not wroth with us? + +SLAG Who may say what cloudy dooms are rolling up in the mind of the +eldest of the gods. He is no common god like us. Once a shepherd went +by him in the mountains and doubted as he went. He sent a doom after +that shepherd. + +CITIZEN Master, we have not doubted. + +SLAG _And the doom found him on the hills at evening._ + +SECOND CITIZEN It shall be a good sacrifice, Master. (Re-enter with a +dead lamb and fruits. They offer the lamb on an altar where there is +fire, and fruits before the altar.) + +THAHN (stretching out a hand to a lamb upon an altar.) That leg is not +being cooked at all. + +ILLANAUN It is strange that gods should be thus anxious about the +cooking of a leg of lamb. + +OORANDER It is strange certainly. + +ILLANAUN Almost I had said that it was a man spoke then. + +OORANDER (Stroking his beard and regarding the second beggar.) +Strange. Strange certainly. + +AGMAR Is it then strange that the gods love roasted flesh? For this +purpose they keep the lightning. When the lightning flickers about the +limbs of men there comes to the gods in Marma a pleasant smell, even +a smell of roasting. Sometimes the gods, being pacific, are pleased to +have roasted instead the flesh of lamb. It is all one to the gods: let +the roasting stop. + +OORANDER No, no, gods of the mountain! + +OTHERS No, no. + +OORANDER Quick, let us offer the flesh to them. If they eat all is +well. (They offer it, the beggars eat, all but Agmar who watches.) + +ILLANAUN One who was ignorant, one who did not know, had almost said +that they ate like hungry men. + +OTHERS Hush. + +AKMOS Yet they look as though they had not had a meal like this for a +long time. + +OORANDER They _have_ a hungry look. + +AGMAR (who has not eaten) I have not eaten since the world was very +new and the flesh of men was tenderer than now. These younger gods +have learned the habit of eating from the lions. + +OORANDER O oldest of divinities, partake, partake. + +AGMAR It is not fitting that such as I should eat. None eat but beasts +and men and the younger gods. The Sun and the Moon and the nimble +Lightning and I, we may kill, and we may madden, but we do not eat. + +AKMOS If he but eat of our offering he cannot overwhelm us. + +ALL O ancient deity, partake, partake. + +AGMAR Enough. Let it be enough that these have condescended to this +bestial and human habit. + +ILLANAUN (to Akmos) And yet he is not unlike a beggar whom I saw not +so long since. + +OORANDER But beggars eat. + +ILLANAUN Now I never knew a beggar yet who would refuse a bowl of +Woldery wine. + +AKMOS This is no beggar. + +ILLANAUN Nevertheless let us offer him a bowl of Woldery wine. + +AKMOS You do wrong to doubt him. + +ILLANAUN I do but wish to prove his divinity. I will fetch the Woldery +wine. (Exit) + +AKMOS He will not drink. Yet if he does, then he will not overwhelm +us. Let us offer him the wine. + +(Re-enter Illanaun with a goblet.) + +FIRST BEGGAR It is Woldery wine! + +SECOND BEGGAR It is Woldery! + +THIRD BEGGAR A goblet of Woldery wine! + +FOURTH BEGGAR O blessed day! + +MLAN O happy times! + +SLAG O my wise Master! (All the Beggars stretch out their hands, +including Agmar. Illanaun gives it to Agmar. Agmar takes it solemnly, +and very carefully pours it upon the ground.) + +FIRST BEGGAR He has spilt it. + +SECOND BEGGAR He has spilt it. (Agmar sniffs the fumes.) + +AGMAR It is a fitting libation. Our anger is somewhat appeased. + +ANOTHER BEGGAR But it was Woldery! + +AKMOS (kneeling to Agmar) Master, I am childless, and I.... + +AGMAR Trouble us not now. It is the hour at which the gods are +accustomed to speak to the gods in the language of the gods, and if +Man heard us he would guess the futility of his destiny, which were +not well for Man. Begone! Begone! (Exeunt all but one who lingers.) + +ONE Master.... + +AGMAR Begone! (exit one) (Agmar takes up a piece of meat and begins to +eat it: the beggars rise and stretch themselves: they laugh, but Agmar +eats hungrily.) + +OOGNO Ah, now we have come into our own. + +THAHN Now we have alms. + +SLAG Master! My wise Master! + +ULF These are the good days, the good days; and yet I have a fear. + +SLAG What do you fear? There is nothing to fear. No man is as wise as +my Master. + +ULF I fear the gods whom we pretend to be. + +SLAG The gods? + +AGMAR (taking a chunk of meat from his lips) Come hither, Slag. + +SLAG (going up to him) Yes, Master. + +AGMAR Watch in the doorway while I eat. (Slag goes to the doorway) +Sit in the attitude of a god. Warn me if any of the citizens approach. +(Slag sits in the doorway in the attitude of a god, back to the +audience) + +OOGNO (to Agmar) But, Master, shall we not have Woldery wine? + +AGMAR We shall have all things if only we are wise at first for a +little. + +THAHN Master, do any suspect us? + +AGMAR We must be _very_ wise. + +THAHN But if we are not wise, Master? + +AGMAR Why then death may come to us ... + +THAHN O Master! + +AGMAR ... slowly. (All stir uneasily except Slag motionless in the +doorway.) + +OOGNO Do they believe us, master? + +SLAG (half turning his head) Someone comes. (Slag resumes his +position.) + +AGMAR (putting away his meat) We shall soon know now. (All take up the +attitude. Enter one.) + +ONE Master, I want the god that does not eat. + +AGMAR I am he. + +ONE Master, my child was bitten in the throat by a death-adder at +noon. Spare him, Master; he still breathes, but slowly. + +AGMAR Is he indeed your child? + +ONE He is surely my child, Master. + +AGMAR Was it your wont to thwart him in his play, while he was strong +and well? + +ONE I never thwarted him, Master. + +AGMAR Whose child is Death? + +ONE Death is the child of the gods. + +AGMAR Do you that never thwarted your child in his play ask this of +the gods? + +ONE (with some horror, perceiving Agmar's meaning) Master! + +AGMAR Weep not. For all the houses that men have builded are the +play-fields of this child of the gods. (The man goes away in silence +not weeping.) + +OOGNO (Taking Thahn by the wrist) Is this indeed a man? + +AGMAR A man, a man, and until just now a hungry one. + + + +ACT III + +Same room. A few days have elapsed. Seven thrones shaped like +mountain-crags stand along the back of the stage. On these the beggars +are lounging. The Thief is absent. + + +MLAN Never had beggars such a time. + +OOGNO Ah, the fruits and tender lamb! + +THAHN The Woldery wine! + +SLAG It was better to see my Master's wise devices than to have fruit +and lamb and Woldery wine. + +MLAN Ah, when they spied on him to see if he would eat when they went +away! + +OOGNO When they questioned him concerning the gods and Man! + +THAHN When they asked him why the gods permitted cancer! + +SLAG Ah! My wise Master. + +MLAN How well his scheme has succeeded. + +OOGNO How far away is hunger! + +THAHN It is even like to one of last year's dreams, the trouble of a +brief night long ago. + +MLAN Ho, ho, ho, to see them pray to us! + +AGMAR (sternly) When we were beggars did we not speak as beggars? Did +we not whine as they? Was not our mien beggarly? + +MLAN We were the pride of our calling. + +AGMAR (sternly) Then now that we are gods let us _be_ as gods, and not +mock our worshippers. + +ULF I think the gods _do_ mock their worshippers. + +AGMAR The gods have never mocked _us_. We are above all pinnacles that +we have ever gazed at in dreams. + +ULF I think that when Man is high then most of all are the gods wont +to mock him. (Enter Thief) + +THIEF Master, I have been with those that see all and know all, I have +been with the thieves, Master. They know me for one of the craft, but +they do not know me as being one of us. + +AGMAR Well, well ... + +THIEF There is danger, Master, there is great danger. + +AGMAR You mean that they suspect that we are men? + +THIEF That they have long done, Master. I mean that they will know it. +Then we are lost. + +AGMAR Then they do not know it? + +THIEF They do not know it yet, but they will know it, and we are lost. + +AGMAR When will they know it? + +THIEF Three days ago they suspected us. + +AGMAR More than you think suspected us, but have any dared to say so? + +THIEF No, Master. + +AGMAR Then forget your fears, my thief. + +THIEF Two men went on dromedaries three days ago to see if the gods +were still at Marma. + +AGMAR They went to Marma! + +THIEF Yes, three days ago. + +OOGNO We are lost. + +AGMAR They went three days ago? + +THIEF Yes, on dromedaries. + +AGMAR They should be back to-day. + +OOGNO We are lost. + +THAHN We are lost. + +THIEF They must have seen the green jade idols sitting against the +mountains. They will say, 'The gods are still at Marma.' And we shall +be burnt. + +SLAG My Master will yet devise a plan. + +AGMAR (to the Thief) Slip away to some high place and look towards the +desert and see how long we have to devise a plan. (Exit Thief.) + +SLAG My Master will devise a plan. + +OOGNO He has taken us into a trap. + +THAHN His wisdom is our doom. + +SLAG He will find a wise plan yet. (Re-enter Thief.) + +THIEF It is too late. + +AGMAR It is too late? + +THIEF The dromedary men are here. + +OOGNO We are lost. + +AGMAR Be silent! I must think. (They all sit still. Citizens enter and +prostrate themselves. Agmar sits deep in thought.) + +ILLANAUN (to Agmar) Two holy pilgrims have gone to your sacred +shrines, wherein you were wont to sit before you left the mountains. +(Agmar says nothing) They return even now. + +AGMAR They left us here and went to find the gods. A fish once took a +journey into a far country to find the sea. + +ILLANAUN Most reverend Deity, their piety is so great that they have +gone to worship even your shrines. + +AGMAR I know these men that have great piety. Such men have often +prayed to me before, but their prayers are not acceptable. They little +love the gods, their only care is their piety. I know these pious +ones. They will say that the seven gods were still at Marma. So shall +they seem more pious to you all, pretending that they alone have seen +the gods. Fools shall believe them and share in their damnation. + +OORANDER (to Illanaun) Hush. You anger the gods. + +ILLANAUN I am not sure whom I anger. + +OORANDER It may be they are the gods. + +ILLANAUN Where are these men from Marma? + +CITIZEN Here are the dromedary men, they are coming now. + +ILLANAUN (to Agmar) The holy pilgrims from your shrine are come to +worship you. + +AGMAR The men are doubters. How the gods hate the word! Doubt ever +contaminated virtue. Let them be cast into prison and not besmirch +your purity, (rising) Let them not enter here. + +ILLANAUN But O most reverened Deity from the mountain, we also doubt, +most reverend Deity. + +AGMAR You have chosen. You have chosen. And yet it is not too late. +Repent and cast these men in prison and it may not be too late. _The +gods have never wept_. And yet when they think upon damnation and the +dooms that are withering a myriad bones, then almost, were they not +divine, they _could_ weep. Be quick. Repent of your doubt. + +ILLANAUN Most reverend Deity, it is a mighty doubt. + +CITIZENS _Nothing has killed him! They are not the gods_! + +SLAG (to Agmar) You have a plan, my Master. You have a plan? + +AGMAR Not yet, Slag. (Enter the dromedary men.) + +ILLANAUN (to Oorander) These are the men that went to the shrines at +Marma. + +OORANDER (in a loud, clear voice) Were the gods of the mountain seated +still at Marma, or were they not there? (The beggars get up hurriedly +from their thrones.) + +DROMEDARY MAN They were not there. + +ILLANAUN They were not there? + +DROMEDARY MAN Their shrines were empty. + +OORANDER Behold the gods of the mountain! + +AKMOS They have indeed come from Marma. + +OORANDER Come. Let us go away to prepare a sacrifice, a mighty +sacrifice to atone for our doubting. (Exeunt.) + +SLAG My most wise Master! + +AGMAR No, no, Slag. I do not know what has befallen. When I went by +Marma only two weeks ago the idols of green jade were still seated +there. + +OOGNO We are saved now. + +THAHN Aye, we are saved. + +AGMAR We are saved, but I know not how. + +OOGNO _Never_ had beggars such a time. + +THIEF I will go out and watch. (He creeps out.) + +ULF Yet I have a fear. + +OOGNO A fear? Why, we are saved. + +ULF Last night I dreamed. + +OOGNO What was your dream? + +ULF It was nothing. I dreamed that I was thirsty and one gave me +Woldery wine; yet there was a fear in my dream. + +THAHN When I drink Woldery wine I am afraid of nothing. (Re-enter +Thief.) + +THIEF They are making a pleasant banquet ready for us; they are +killing lambs, and girls are there with fruits, and there is to be +much Woldery wine. + +MLAN Never had beggars such a time. + +AGMAR Do any doubt us now? + +THIEF I do not know. + +MLAN When will the banquet be? + +THIEF When the stars come out. + +OOGNO Ah. It is sunset already. There will be good eating. + +THAHN We shall see the girls come in with baskets upon their heads. + +OOGNO There will be fruits in the baskets. + +THAHN All the fruits of the valley. + +MLAN Ah, how long we have wandered along the ways of the world. + +SLAG Ah, how hard they were. + +THAHN And how dusty. + +OOGNO And how little wine. + +MLAN How long we have asked and asked, and for how much! + +AGMAR We to whom all things are coming now at last. + +THIEF I fear lest my art forsake me now that good things come without +stealing. + +AGMAR You will need your art no longer. + +SLAG The wisdom of my Master shall suffice us all our days. (Enter a +frightened man. He kneels before Agmar and abases his forehead.) + +MAN Master, we implore you, the people beseech you. (Agmar and the +beggars in the attitude of the gods sit silent.) + +MAN Master, it is terrible. (The beggars maintain silence) It is +terrible when you wander in the evening. It is terrible on the edge of +the desert in the evening. Children die when they see you. + +AGMAR In the desert? When did you see us? + +MAN Last night, Master. You were terrible last night. You were +terrible in the gloaming. When your hands were stretched out and +groping. You were feeling for the city. + +AGMAR Last night do you say? + +MAN You were terrible in the gloaming! + +AGMAR You yourself saw us? + +MAN Yes, Master, you were terrible. Children too saw you and they +died. + +AGMAR You say you saw us? + +MAN Yes, Master. Not as you are now, but otherwise. We implore you, +Master, not to wander at evening. You are terrible in the gloaming. +You are.... + +AGMAR You say we appeared not as we are now. How did we appear to you? + +MAN Otherwise, Master, otherwise. + +AGMAR But how _did_ we appear to you? + +MAN You were all green, Master, all green in the gloaming, all of rock +again as you used to be in the mountains. Master, we can bear to see +you in flesh like men, but when we see rock walking it is terrible, it +is terrible. + +AGMAR That is how we appeared to you? + +MAN Yes, Master. Rock should not walk. When children see it they do +not understand. Rock should not walk in the evening. + +AGMAR There have been doubters of late. Are they satisfied? + +MAN Master, they are terrified. Spare us, Master. + +AGMAR It is wrong to doubt. Go, and be faithful. (Exit Man.) + +SLAG What have they seen, Master? + +AGMAR They have seen their own fears dancing in the desert. They have +seen something green after the light was gone, and some child has told +them a tale that it was us. I do not know what they have seen. What +should they have seen? + +ULF Something was coming this way from the desert, he said. + +SLAG What should come from the desert? + +AGMAR They are a foolish people. + +ULF That man's white face has seen some frightful thing. + +SLAG A frightful thing? + +ULF That man's face has been near to some frightful thing. + +AGMAR It is only we that have frightened them, and their fears have +made them foolish. (Enter an attendant with a torch or lantern which +he places in a receptacle. Exit.) + +THAHN Now we shall see the faces of the girls when they come to the +banquet. + +MLAN Never had beggars such a time. + +AGMAR Hark! They are coming. I hear footsteps. + +THAHN The dancing girls. They are coming. + +THIEF There is no sound of flutes; they said they would come with +music. + +OOGNO What heavy boots they have, they sound like feet of stone. + +THAHN I do not like to hear their heavy tread; those that would dance +to _us_ must be light of foot. + +AGMAR I shall not smile at them if they are not airy. + +MLAN They are coming very slowly. They should come nimbly to us. + +THAHN They should dance as they come. But the footfall is like the +footfall of heavy crabs. + +ULF (in a loud voice, almost chaunting) I have a fear, an old fear and +a boding. We have done ill in the sight of the seven gods; beggars we +were and beggars we should have remained; we have given up our calling +and come in sight of our doom: I will no longer let my fear be silent: +it shall run about and cry: it shall go from me crying, like a dog +from out of a doomed city; for my fear has seen calamity and has known +an evil thing. + +SLAG (hoarsely) Master! + +AGMAR (rising) Come, come! (They listen. No one speaks. The stony +boots come on. Enter in single file a procession of seven green men, +even hands and faces are green; they wear greenstone sandals, they +walk with knees extremely wide apart, as having sat cross-legged for +centuries, their right arms and right forefingers point upwards, right +elbows resting on left hands: they stoop grotesquely: halfway to the +footlights they wheel left. They pass in front of the seven beggars, +now in terrified attitudes and six of them sit down in the attitude +described, with their backs to the audience. The leader stands, still +stooping. Just as they wheel left, OOGNO cries out.) The gods of the +mountain! + +AGMAR (hoarsely) Be still. They are dazzled by the light, they may not +see us. (The leading green thing points his forefinger at the lantern, +the flame turns green. When the six are seated the leader points one +by one at each of the seven beggars, shooting out his forefinger at +them. As he does this each beggar in his turn gathers himself back on +to his throne and crosses his legs, his right arm goes stiffly upwards +with forefinger erect, and a staring look of horror comes into his +eyes. In this attitude the beggars sit motionless while a green light +falls upon their faces. The gods go out. + +Presently enter the Citizens, some with victuals and fruit. One +touches a beggar's arm and then another's.) + +CITIZEN They are cold; they have turned to stone. (All abase +themselves foreheads to the floor.) + +ONE We have doubted them. We have doubted them. They have turned to +stone because we have doubted them. + +ANOTHER They were the true gods. + +ALL They were the true gods. + + + + +THE FIRST ACT OF KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR + + + King Argimenes + Zarb (a slave born of slaves) + An Old Slave Slaves of King Darniak + A Young Slave + Slaves + + King Darniak + The King's Overseer + A Prophet + The Idol-Guard + The Servant of the King's Dog + + Queen Otharlia + Queen Oxara + Queen Cahafra Queens of King Darniak + Queen Thragolind + Guards and Attendants + + + +ACT I + +Time: A long time ago. SCENE: The dinner-hour on the slave-fields of +King Darniak. + + +(The Curtain rises upon King Argimenes, sitting upon the ground, +bowed, ragged, and dirty, gnawing a bone. He has uncouth hair and a +dishevelled beard. A battered spade lies near him. Two or three slaves +sit at back of stage eating raw cabbage-leaves. The tear-song, the +chaunt of the low-born, rises at intervals, monotonous and mournful, +coming from distant slave-fields.) + +KING ARGIMENES This is a good bone; there is juice in this bone. + +ZARB I wish I were you, Argimenes. + +KING ARGIMENES I am not to be envied any longer. I have eaten up my +bone. + +ZARB I wish I were you, because you have been a King. Because men +have prostrated themselves before your feet. Because you have ridden a +horse and worn a crown and have been called Majesty. + +KING ARGIMENES When I remember that I have been a king it is very +terrible. + +ZARB But you are lucky to have such things in your memory as you have. +I have nothing in my memory--Once I went for a year without being +flogged, and I remember my cleverness in contriving it--I have nothing +else to remember. + +KING ARGIMENES It is very terrible to have been a king. + +ZARB But we have nothing who have no good memories in the past. It is +not easy for us to hope for the future here. + +KING ARGIMENES Have you any god? + +ZARB We may not have a god because he might make us brave and we might +kill our guards. He might make a miracle and give us swords. + +KING ARGIMENES Ah, you have no hope then. + +ZARB I have a little hope. Hush, and I will tell you a secret--The +King's great dog is ill and like to die. They will throw him to us. We +shall have beautiful bones then. + +KING ARGIMENES Ah! Bones. + +ZARB Yes. That is what _I_ hope for. And have _you_ no other hope? Do +you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you +and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace +gateway? + +KING ARGIMENES No. I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in +the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised +us and took me sleeping. But will they throw him to us? Will so +honourable a brute as the King's dog be thrown to us? + +ZARB When he is dead his honours are taken away. Even the King when he +is dead is given to the worms. Then why should not his dog be thrown +to us? + +KING ARGIMENES We are not worms! + +ZARB You do not understand, Argimenes. The worms are little and free, +while we are big and enslaved. I did not say we were worms, but we are +_like_ worms, and if they have the King when he is dead, why then-- + +KING ARGIMENES Tell me more of the King's dog. Are there big bones on +him? + +ZARB Ay, he is a big dog--a high, big, black one. + +KING ARGIMENES You know him then? + +ZARB O yes, I know him. I know him well. I was beaten once because of +him, twenty-five strokes from the treble whips, two men beating me. + +KING ARGIMENES How did they beat you because of the King's dog? + +ZARB They beat me because I spoke to him without making obeisance. He +was coming dancing alone over the slave-fields and I spoke to him. He +was a friendly great dog, and I spoke to him and patted his head, and +did not make obeisance. + +KING ARGIMENES And they saw you do it? + +ZARB Yes, the slave-guard saw me. They came and seized me at once and +bound my arms. The great dog wanted me to speak to him again, but I +was hurried away. + +KING ARGIMENES You should have made obeisance. + +ZARB The great dog seemed so friendly that I forgot he was the King's +great dog. + +KING ARGIMENES But tell me more. Was he hurt, or is it a sickness? + +ZARB They say that it is a sickness. + +KING ARGIMENES Ah. Then he will grow thin if he does not die soon. If +it had been a hurt!--but we should not complain. I complain more often +than you do because I had not learned to submit while I was yet young. + +ZARB If your beautiful memories do not please you, you should hope +more. I wish I had your memories. I should not trouble to hope then. +It is very hard to hope. + +KING ARGIMENES There will be nothing more to hope for when we have +eaten the King's dog. + +ZARB Why you might find gold in the earth while you were digging. Then +you might bribe the commander of the guard to lend you his sword; we +would all follow you if you had a sword. Then we might take the King +and bind him and lay him on the ground and fasten his tongue outside +his mouth with thorns and put honey on it and sprinkle honey near. +Then the grey ants would come from one of their big mounds. My father +found gold once when he was digging. + +KING ARGIMENES (pointedly) Did your father free himself? + +ZARB No. Because the King's Overseer found him looking at the gold and +killed him. But he would have freed himself if he could have bribed +the guard. (A prophet walks across the stage attended by two guards.) + +SLAVES He is going to the King. He is going to the King. + +ZARB He is going to the King. + +KING ARGIMENES Going to prophesy good things to the King. It is easy +to prophesy good things to a king, and be rewarded when the good +things come. What else should come to a king? A prophet! a prophet! (A +deep bell tolls slowly. King Argimenes and Zarb pick up their spades +at once, and the old slaves at the back of the stage go down on their +knees immediately and grub in the soil with their hands. The white +beard of the oldest trails in the dirt as he works. King Argimenes +digs.) + +KING ARGIMENES What is the name of that song that we always sing? I +like the song. + +ZARB It has no name. It is our song. There is no other song. + +KING ARGIMENES Once there were other songs. Has this no name? + +ZARB I think the soldiers have a name for it. + +KING ARGIMENES What do the soldiers call it? + +ZARB The soldiers call it the tear-song, the chaunt of the low-born. + +KING ARGIMENES It is a good song. I could sing no other now. (Zarb +moves away digging.) + +KING ARGIMENES (to himself as his spade touches something in the +earth.) Metal! (Feels with his spade again.) Gold perhaps!--It is of +no use here. (uncovers earth leisurely. Suddenly he drops on his knees +and works excitedly in the earth with his hands. Then very slowly, +still kneeling, he lifts, lying flat on his hands, a long greenish +sword, his eyes intent on it. About the level of his uplifted forehead +he holds it, still flat on both hands, and addresses it thus:) + +O holy and blessed thing. (Then he lowers it slowly till his hands +rest on his knees, and looking all the while at the sword.) + +KING ARGIMENES Three years ago tomorrow King Darniak spat at me, +having taken my kingdom from me. Three times in that year I was +flogged, with twelve stripes, with seventeen stripes, and with twenty +stripes. A year and eleven months ago, come Moon-day, the King's +Overseer struck me in the face, and nine times in that year he called +me dog. For one month two weeks and a day I was yoked with a bullock +and pulled a rounded stone all day over the paths, except while we +were fed. I was flogged twice that year--with eighteen stripes and +with ten stripes. This year the roof of the slave-sty has fallen in +and King Darniak will not repair it. Five weeks ago one of his queens +laughed at me as she came across the slave-fields. I was flogged again +this year and with thirteen stripes, and twelve times they have called +me dog. And these things they have done to a king, and a king of the +house of Ithara. (He listens attentively for a moment, then buries +the sword again and pats the earth over it with his hands, then digs +again. The old slaves do not see him: their faces are to the earth.) +(Enter the King's Overseer carrying a whip. The slaves and King +Argimenes kneel with their foreheads to the ground as he passes across +the stage. Exit the King's Overseer.) + +KING ARGIMENES (kneeling, hands outspread downwards.) O warrior +spirit, wherever thou wanderest, whoever be thy gods; whether they +punish thee or whether they bless thee; O kingly spirit that once laid +here this sword, behold I pray to thee having no gods to pray to, for +the god of my nation was broken in three by night. Mine arm is stiff +with three years' slavery and remembers not the sword. But guide thy +sword till I have slain six men and armed the strongest slaves, and +thou shalt have the sacrifice every year of a hundred goodly oxen. And +I will build in Ithara a temple to thy memory wherein all that enter +in shall remember thee, so shalt thou be honoured and envied among the +dead, for the dead are very jealous of remembrance. Aye, though thou +wert a robber that took men's lives unrighteously, yet shall rare +spices smoulder in thy temple and little maidens sing and new-plucked +flowers deck the solemn aisles; and priests shall go about it ringing +bells that thy soul shall find repose. O but it has a good blade this +old green sword; thou wouldst not like to see it miss its mark (if the +dead see at all, as wise men teach,) thou wouldst not like to see it +go thirsting into the air; so huge a sword should find its marrowy +bone. (Extending his right hand upward.) Come into my right arm, O +ancient spirit, O unknown warrior's soul. And if thou hast the ear of +any gods, speak there against Illuriel, god of King Darniak. (He rises +and goes on digging. Re-enter the King's Overseer.) + +THE KING'S OVERSEER So you have been praying. + +KING ARGIMENES (kneeling) No, Master. + +THE KING'S OVERSEER The slave-guard saw you. (Strikes him) It is not +lawful for a slave to pray. + +KING ARGIMENES I did but pray to Illuriel to make me a good slave, to +teach me to dig well and to pull the rounded stone, and to make me not +to die when the food is scarce, but to be a good slave to my master, +the great King. + +THE KING'S OVERSEER Who art thou to pray to Illuriel? Dogs may not +pray to an immortal god. (Exit. Zarb comes back, digging.) + +KING ARGIMENES (digging) Zarb. + +ZARB (also digging) Do not look at me when you speak. The guards are +watching us. Look at your digging. + +KING ARGIMENES How do the guards know we are speaking because we look +at one another? + +ZARB You are very witless. Of course they know. + +KING ARGIMENES Zarb. + +ZARB What is it? + +KING ARGIMENES How many guards are there in sight? + +ZARB There are six of them over there. They are watching us. + +KING ARGIMENES Are there other guards in sight of these six guards? + +ZARB No. + +KING ARGIMENES How do you know? + +ZARB Because whenever their officer leaves them they sit upon the +ground and play with dice. + +KING ARGIMENES How does that show that there are not another six in +sight of them? + +ZARB How witless you are, Argimenes. Of course it shows there are +not. Because, if there were, another officer would see them, and their +thumbs would be cut off. + +KING ARGIMENES Ah. (a pause.) Zarb. (a pause) Would the slaves follow +me if I tried to kill the guards? + +ZARB No, Argimenes. + +KING ARGIMENES Why would they not follow me? + +ZARB Because you look like a slave. They will never follow a slave, +because they are slaves themselves, and know how mean a creature is a +slave. If you looked like a king they would follow you. + +KING ARGIMENES But I am a king. They know that I am a king. + +ZARB It is better to look like a king. It is looks that they would go +by. + +KING ARGIMENES If I had a sword would they follow me? A beautiful huge +sword of bronze. + +ZARB I wish I could think of things like that. It is because you were +once a king that you can think of a sword of bronze. I tried to hope +once that I should some day fight the guards, but I couldn't picture a +sword, I couldn't imagine it; I could only picture whips. + +KING ARGIMENES Dig a little nearer, Zarb. (They both edge closer.) I +have found a very old sword in the earth. It is not a sword such as +common soldiers wear. A king must have worn it, and an angry king. It +must have done fearful things; there are little dints in it. Perhaps +there was a battle here long ago where all were slain, and perhaps +that king died last and buried his sword, but the great birds +swallowed him. + +ZARB You have been thinking too much of the King's dog, Argimenes, and +that has made you hungry, and hunger has driven you mad. + +KING ARGIMENES I _have_ found such a sword. (A pause.) + +ZARB Why--then you will wear a purple cloak again, and sit on a great +throne, and ride a prancing horse, and we shall call you Majesty. + +KING ARGIMENES I shall break a long fast first and drink much water, +and sleep. But will the slaves follow me? + +ZARB You will _make_ them follow you if you have a sword. Yet is +Illuriel a very potent god. They say that none have prevailed against +King Darniak's dynasty so long as Illuriel stood. Once an enemy cast +Illuriel into the river and overthrew the dynasty, but a fisherman +found him again and set him up, and the enemy was driven out and the +dynasty returned. + +KING ARGIMENES If Illuriel could be cast down as my god was cast down +perhaps King Darniak could be overcome as I was overcome in my sleep? + +ZARB If Illuriel were cast down all the people would utter a cry and +flee away. It would be a fearful portent. + +KING ARGIMENES How many men are there in the armoury at the palace? + +ZARB There are ten men in the palace armoury when all the slave-guards +are out. (They dig awhile in silence.) + +ZARB The officer of the slave-guard has gone away--they are playing +with dice now. (Zarb throws down his spade and stretches his +arms)--The man with the big beard has won again, he is very nimble +with his thumbs--They are playing again, but it is getting dark, I +cannot clearly see. + +(King Argimenes furtively uncovers the sword, he picks it up and grips +it in his hand.) + +ZARB Majesty! (King Argimenes crouches and steals away towards the +slave-guard.) + +ZARB (to the other slaves) Argimenes has found a terrible sword and +has gone to slay the slave-guard. It is not a common sword, it is some +king's sword. + +AN OLD SLAVE Argimenes will be dreadfully flogged. We shall hear him +cry all night. His cries will frighten us, and we shall not sleep. + +ZARB No! no! The guards flog poor slaves, but Argimenes had an angry +look. The guards will be afraid when they see him look so angry and +see his terrible sword. It was a huge sword, and he looked very angry. +He will bring us the swords of the slave-guard. We must prostrate +ourselves before him and kiss his feet or he will be angry with us +too. + +OLD SLAVE Will Argimenes give me a sword? + +ZARB He will have swords for six of us if he slays the slave-guard. +Yes, he will give you a sword. + +SLAVE A sword! No, no, I must not; the King would kill me if he found +that I had a sword. + +SECOND SLAVE (slowly, as one who develops an idea) If the King found +that I had a sword, why then it would be an evil day for the King. +(They all look off left.) + +ZARB I think that they are playing at dice again. + +FIRST SLAVE I do not see Argimenes. + +ZARB No, because he was crouching as he walked. The slave-guard is on +the sky-line. + +SECOND SLAVE What is that dark shadow behind the slave-guard? + +ZARB It is too still to be Argimenes. + +SECOND SLAVE Look! It moves. + +ZARB The evening is too dark, I cannot see. (They continue to gaze +into the gathering darkness. They raise themselves on their knees and +crane their necks. Nobody speaks. Then from their lips and from others +further off goes up a long deep Oh! It is like the sound that goes up +from the grand stand when a horse falls at a fence, or in England like +the first exclamation of the crowd at a great cricket match when a man +is caught in the slips.) + + + + +THE FALL OF BABBULKUND + + +I said: 'I will arise now and see Babbulkund, City of Marvel. She is +of one age with the earth; the stars are her sisters. Pharaohs of +the old time coming conquering from Araby first saw her, a solitary +mountain in the desert, and cut the mountain into towers and terraces. +They destroyed one of the hills of God, but they made Babbulkund. She +is carven, not built; her palaces are one with her terraces, there is +neither join nor cleft. Hers is the beauty of the youth of the world. +She deemeth herself to be the middle of Earth, and hath four gates +facing outward to the Nations. There sits outside her eastern gate a +colossal god of stone. His face flushes with the lights of dawn. When +the morning sunlight warms his lips they part a little, and he giveth +utterance to the words 'Oon Oom,' and the language is long since dead +in which he speaks, and all his worshippers are gathered to their +tombs, so that none knoweth what the words portend that he uttereth at +dawn. Some say that he greets the sun as one god greets another in the +language thereof, and others say that he proclaims the day, and others +that he uttereth warning. And at every gate is a marvel not credible +until beholden.' + +And I gathered three friends and said to them: 'We are what we have +seen and known. Let us journey now and behold Babbulkund, that our +minds may be beautified with it and our spirits made holier.' + +So we took ship and travelled over the lifting sea, and remembered not +things done in the towns we knew, but laid away the thoughts of them +like soiled linen and put them by, and dreamed of Babbulkund. + +But when we came to the land of which Babbulkund is the abiding glory, +we hired a caravan of camels and Arab guides, and passed southwards +in the afternoon on the three days' journey through the desert that +should bring us to the white walls of Babbulkund. And the heat of +the sun shone upon us out of the bright grey sky, and the heat of the +desert beat up at us from below. + +About sunset we halted and tethered our horses, while the Arabs +unloaded the provisions from the camels and prepared a fire out of +the dry scrub, for at sunset the heat of the desert departs from it +suddenly, like a bird. Then we saw a traveller approaching us on a +camel coming from the south. When he was come near we said to him: + +'Come and encamp among us, for in the desert all men are brothers, and +we will give thee meat to eat and wine, or, if thou art bound by thy +faith, we will give thee some other drink that is not accursed by the +prophet.' + +The traveller seated himself beside us on the sand, and crossed his +legs and answered: + +'Hearken, and I will tell you of Babbulkund, City of Marvel. +Babbulkund stands just below the meeting of the rivers, where Oonrana, +River of Myth, flows into the Waters of Fable, even the old stream +Plegáthanees. These, together, enter her northern gate rejoicing. Of +old they flowed in the dark through the Hill that Nehemoth, the first +of Pharaohs, carved into the City of Marvel. Sterile and desolate they +float far through the desert, each in the appointed cleft, with life +upon neither bank, but give birth in Babbulkund to the sacred purple +garden whereof all nations sing. Thither all the bees come on a +pilgrimage at evening by a secret way of the air. Once, from his +twilit kingdom, which he rules equally with the sun, the moon saw +and loved Babbulkund, clad with her purple garden; and the moon wooed +Babbulkund, and she sent him weeping away, for she is more beautiful +than all her sisters the stars. Her sisters come to her at night into +her maiden chamber. Even the gods speak sometimes of Babbulkund, clad +with her purple garden. Listen, for I perceive by your eyes that +ye have not seen Babbulkund; there is a restlessness in them and an +unappeased wonder. Listen. In the garden whereof I spoke there is a +lake that hath no twin or fellow in the world; there is no companion +for it among all the lakes. The shores of it are of glass, and the +bottom of it. In it are great fish having golden and scarlet scales, +and they swim to and fro. Here it is the wont of the eighty-second +Nehemoth (who rules in the city to-day) to come, after the dusk has +fallen, and sit by the lake alone, and at this hour eight hundred +slaves go down by steps through caverns into vaults beneath the lake. +Four hundred of them carrying purple lights march one behind the +other, from east to west, and four hundred carrying green lights +march one behind the other, from west to east. The two lines cross and +re-cross each other in and out as the slaves go round and round, and +the fearful fish flash up and down and to and fro.' + +But upon that traveller speaking night descended, solemn and cold, and +we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and lay down upon the sand in +the sight of the astral sisters of Babbulkund. And all that night the +desert said many things, softly and in a whisper, but I knew not what +he said. Only the sand knew and arose and was troubled and lay down +again, and the wind knew. Then, as the hours of the night went by, +these two discovered the foot-tracks wherewith we had disturbed the +holy desert, and they troubled over them and covered them up; and then +the wind lay down and the sand rested. Then the wind rose again and +the sand danced. This they did many times. And all the while the +desert whispered what I shall not know. + +Then I slept awhile and awoke just before sunrise, very cold. Suddenly +the sun leapt up and flamed upon our faces; we all threw off our +blankets and stood up. Then we took food, and afterwards started +southwards, and in the heat of the day rested, and afterwards pushed +on again. And all the while the desert remained the same, like a dream +that will not cease to trouble a tired sleeper. + +And often travellers passed us in the desert, coming from the City of +Marvel, and there was a light and a glory in their eyes from having +seen Babbulkund. That evening, at sunset, another traveller neared us, +and we hailed him, saying: + +'Wilt thou eat and drink with us, seeing that all men are brothers in +the desert?' + +And he descended from his camel and sat by us and said: + +'When morning shines on the colossus Neb and Neb speaks, at once the +musicians of King Nehemoth in Babbulkund awake. + +'At first their fingers wander over their golden harps, or they stroke +idly their violins. Clearer and clearer the note of each instrument +ascends like larks arising from the dew, till suddenly they all blend +together and a new melody is born. Thus, every morning, the musicians +of King Nehemoth make a new marvel in the City of Marvel; for these +are no common musicians, but masters of melody, raided by conquest +long since, and carried away in ships from the Isles of Song. And, at +the sound of the music, Nehemoth awakes in the eastern chamber of his +palace, which is carved in the form of a great crescent, four miles +long, on the northern side of the city. Full in the windows of its +eastern chamber the sun rises, and full in the windows of its western +chamber the sun sets. + +'When Nehemoth awakes he summons slaves who bring a palanquin with +bells, which the King enters, having lightly robed. Then the slaves +run and bear him to the onyx Chamber of the Bath, with the sound of +small bells ringing as they run. And when Nehemoth emerges thence, +bathed and annointed, the slaves run on with their ringing palanquin +and bear him to the Orient Chamber of Banquets, where the King takes +the first meal of the day. Thence, through the great white corridor +whose windows all face sunwards, Nehemoth, in his palanquin, passes +on to the Audience Chamber of Embassies from the North, which is all +decked with Northern wares. + +'All about it are ornaments of amber from the North and carven +chalices of the dark brown Northern crystal, and on its floors lie +furs from Baltic shores. + +'In adjoining chambers are stored the wonted food of the hardy +Northern men, and the strong wine of the North, pale but terrible. +Therein the King receives barbarian princes from the frigid lands. +Thence the slaves bear him swiftly to the Audience Chamber of +Embassies from the East, where the walls are of turquoise, studded +with the rubies of Ceylon, where the gods are the gods of the East, +where all the hangings have been devised in the gorgeous heart of Ind, +and where all the carvings have been wrought with the cunning of the +isles. Here, if a caravan hath chanced to have come in from Ind or +from Cathay, it is the King's wont to converse awhile with Moguls or +Mandarins, for from the East come the arts and knowledge of the world, +and the converse of their people is polite. Thus Nehemoth passes on +through the other Audience Chambers & receives, perhaps, some Sheihks +of the Arab folk who have crossed the great desert from the West, or +receives an embassy sent to do him homage from the shy jungle people +to the South. And all the while the slaves with the ringing palanquin +run westwards, following the sun, and ever the sun shines straight +into the chamber where Nehemoth sits, and all the while the music from +one or other of his bands of musicians comes tinkling to his ears. +But when the middle of the day draws near, the slaves run to the +cool grooves that lie along the verandahs on the northern side of the +palace, forsaking the sun, and as the heat overcomes the genius of the +musicians, one by one their hands fall from their instruments, till at +last all melody ceases. At this moment Nehemoth falls asleep, and the +slaves put the palanquin down and lie down beside it. At this hour the +city becomes quite still, and the palace of Nehemoth and the tombs of +the Pharaohs of old face to the sunlight, all alike in silence. Even +the jewellers in the market-place, selling gems to princes, cease from +their bargaining and cease to sing; for in Babbulkund the vendor of +rubies sings the song of the ruby, and the vendor of sapphires sings +the song of the sapphire, and each stone hath its song, so that a man, +by his song, proclaims and makes known his wares. + +'But all these sounds cease at the meridian hour, the jewellers in the +market-place lie down in what shadow they can find, and the princes +go back to the cool places in their palaces, and a great hush in +the gleaming air hangs over Babbulkund. But in the cool of the late +afternoon, one of the King's musicians will awake from dreaming of his +home and will pass his fingers, perhaps, over the strings of his harp +and, with the music, some memory may arise of the wind in the glens of +the mountains that stand in the Isles of Song. Then the musician will +wrench great cries out of the soul of his harp for the sake of the old +memory, and his fellows will awake and all make a song of home, woven +of sayings told in the harbour when the ships came in, and of tales in +the cottages about the people of old time. One by one the other bands +of musicians will take up the song, and Babbulkund, City of Marvel, +will throb with this marvel anew. Just now Nehemoth awakes, the slaves +leap to their feet and bear the palanquin to the outer side of the +great crescent palace between the south and the west, to behold the +sun again. The palanquin, with its ringing bells, goes round once +more; the voices of the jewellers sing again in the market-place +the song of the emerald, the song of the sapphire; men talk on the +housetops, beggars wail in the streets, the musicians bend to their +work, all the sounds blend together into one murmur, the voice of +Babbulkund speaking at evening. Lower and lower sinks the sun, till +Nehemoth, following it, comes with his panting slaves to the great +purple garden of which surely thine own country has its songs, from +wherever thou art come. + +'There he alights from his palanquin and goes up to a throne of ivory +set in the garden's midst, facing full westwards, and sits there +alone, long regarding the sunlight until it is quite gone. At this +hour trouble comes into the face of Nehemoth. Men have heard him +muttering at the time of sunset: 'Even I too, even I too.' Thus do +King Nehemoth and the sun make their glorious ambits about Babbulkund. + +'A little later, when the stars come out to envy the beauty of the +City of Marvel, the King walks to another part of the garden and sits +in an alcove of opal all alone by the marge of the sacred lake. This +is the lake whose shores and floors are of glass, which is lit +from beneath by slaves with purple lights and with green lights +intermingling, and is one of the seven wonders of Babbulkund. Three of +the wonders are in the city's midst and four are at her gates. There +is the lake, of which I tell thee, and the purple garden of which I +have told thee and which is a wonder even to the stars, and there is +Ong Zwarba, of which I shall tell thee also. And the wonders at the +gates are these. At the eastern gate Neb. And at the northern gate +the wonder of the river and the arches, for the River of Myth, which +becomes one with the Waters of Fable in the desert outside the city, +floats under a gate of pure gold, rejoicing, and under many arches +fantastically carven that are one with either bank. The marvel at the +western gate is the marvel of Annolith and the dog Voth. Annolith sits +outside the western gate facing towards the city. He is higher than +any of the towers or palaces, for his head was carved from the summit +of the old hill; he hath two eyes of sapphire wherewith he regards +Babbulkund, and the wonder of the eyes is that they are to-day in the +same sockets wherein they glowed when first the world began, only the +marble that covered them has been carven away and the light of day let +in and the sight of the envious stars. Larger than a lion is the dog +Voth beside him; every hair is carven upon the back of Voth, his war +hackles are erected and his teeth are bared. All the Nehemoths have +worshipped the god Annolith, but all their people pray to the dog +Voth, for the law of the land is that none but a Nehemoth may worship +the god Annolith. The marvel at the southern gate is the marvel of the +jungle, for he comes with all his wild untravelled sea of darkness and +trees and tigers and sunward-aspiring orchids right through a marble +gate in the city wall and enters the city, and there widens and holds +a space in its midst of many miles across. Moreover, he is older than +the City of Marvel, for he dwelt long since in one of the valleys +of the mountain which Nehemoth, first of Pharaohs, carved into +Babbulkund. + +'Now the opal alcove in which the King sits at evening by the lake +stands at the edge of the jungle, and the climbing orchids of the +jungle have long since crept from their homes through clefts of the +opal alcove, lured by the lights of the lake, and now bloom there +exultingly. Near to this alcove are the hareems of Nehemoth. + +'The King hath four hareems--one for the stalwart women from the +mountains to the north, one for the dark and furtive jungle women, one +for the desert women that have wandering souls and pine in Babbulkund, +and one for the princesses of his own kith, whose brown cheeks blush +with the blood of ancient Pharaohs and who exult with Babbulkund in +her surpassing beauty, and who know nought of the desert or the jungle +or the bleak hills to the north. Quite unadorned and clad in simple +garments go all the kith of Nehemoth, for they know well that he grows +weary of pomp. Unadorned all save one, the Princess Linderith, who +weareth Ong Zwarba and the three lesser gems of the sea. Such a +stone is Ong Zwarba that there are none like it even in the turban of +Nehemoth nor in all the sanctuaries of the sea. The same god that made +Linderith made long ago Ong Zwarba; she and Ong Zwarba shine together +with one light, and beside this marvellous stone gleam the three +lesser ones of the sea. + +'Now when the King sitteth in his opal alcove by the sacred lake with +the orchids blooming around him all sounds are become still. The sound +of the tramping of the weary slaves as they go round and round never +comes to the surface. Long since the musicians sleep, and their hands +have fallen dumb upon their instruments, and the voices in the city +have died away. Perhaps a sigh of one of the desert women has become +half a song, or on a hot night in summer one of the women of the hills +sings softly a song of snow; all night long in the midst of the purple +garden sings one nightingale; all else is still; the stars that look +on Babbulkund arise and set, the cold unhappy moon drifts lonely +through them, the night wears on; at last the dark figure of Nehemoth, +eighty-second of his line, rises and moves stealthily away.' + +The traveller ceased to speak. For a long time the clear stars, +sisters of Babbulkund, had shone upon him speaking, the desert wind +had arisen and whispered to the sand, and the sand had long gone +secretly to and fro; none of us had moved, none of us had fallen +asleep, not so much from wonder at his tale as from the thought that +we ourselves in two days' time should see that wondrous city. Then we +wrapped our blankets around us and lay down with our feet towards the +embers of our fire and instantly were asleep, and in our dreams we +multiplied the fame of the City of Marvel. + +The sun arose and flamed upon our faces, and all the desert glinted +with its light. Then we stood up and prepared the morning meal, and, +when we had eaten, the traveller departed. And we commended his soul +to the god of the land whereto he went, of the land of his home to the +northward, and he commended our souls to the god of the people of +the land wherefrom we had come. Then a traveller overtook us going on +foot; he wore a brown cloak that was all in rags and he seemed to have +been walking all night, and he walked hurriedly but appeared weary, so +we offered him food and drink, of which he partook thankfully. When +we asked him where he was going, he answered 'Babbulkund.' Then we +offered him a camel upon which to ride, for we said, 'We also go to +Babbulkund.' But he answered strangely: 'Nay, pass on before me, for +it is a sore thing never to have seen Babbulkund, having lived while +yet she stood. Pass on before me and behold her, and then flee away at +once, returning northward.' + +Then, though we understood him not, we left him, for he was insistent, +and passed on our journey southwards through the desert, and we came +before the middle of the day to an oasis of palm trees standing by a +well and there we gave water to the haughty camels and replenished our +water-bottles and soothed our eyes with the sight of green things and +tarried for many hours in the shade. Some of the men slept, but of +those that remained awake each man sang softly the songs of his own +country, telling of Babbulkund. When the afternoon was far spent +we travelled a little way southwards, and went on through the cool +evening until the sun fell low and we encamped, and as we sat in our +encampment the man in rags overtook us, having travelled all the day, +and we gave him food and drink again, and in the twilight he spoke, +saying: + +'I am the servant of the Lord the God of my people and I go to do his +work on Babbulkund. She is the most beautiful city in the world; +there hath been none like her, even the stars of God go envious of her +beauty. She is all white, yet with streaks of pink that pass through +her streets and houses like flames in the white mind of a sculptor, +like desire in Paradise. She hath been carved of old out of a holy +hill, no slaves wrought the City of Marvel, but artists toiling at the +work they loved. They took no pattern from the houses of men, but +each man wrought what his inner eye had seen and carved in marble the +visions of his dream. All over the roof of one of the palace chambers +winged lions flit like bats, the size of every one is the size of the +lions of God, and the wings are larger than any wing created; they are +one above the other more than a man can number, they are all carven +out of one block of marble, the chamber itself is hollowed from it, +and it is borne aloft upon the carven branches of a grove of clustered +tree-ferns wrought by the hand of some jungle mason that loved the +tall fern well. Over the River of Myth, which is one with the Waters +of Fable, go bridges, fashioned like the wisteria tree and like the +drooping laburnum, and a hundred others of wonderful devices, the +desire of the souls of masons a long while dead. Oh! very beautiful is +white Babbulkund, very beautiful she is, but proud; and the Lord the +God of my people hath seen her in her pride, and looking towards +her hath seen the prayers of Nehemoth going up to the abomination +Annolith, and all the people following after Voth. She is very +beautiful, Babbulkund; alas that I may not bless her. I could live +always on one of her inner terraces looking on the mysterious jungle +in her midst and the heavenward faces of the orchids that, clambering +from the darkness, behold the sun. I could love Babbulkund with a +great love, yet am I the servant of the Lord the God of my people, +and the King hath sinned unto the abomination Annolith, and the people +lust exceedingly for Voth. Alas for thee, Babbulkund, alas that I may +not even now turn back, for to-morrow I must prophesy against thee +and cry out against thee, Babbulkund. But ye travellers that have +entreated me hospitably, rise and pass on with your camels, for I can +tarry no longer, and I go to do the work on Babbulkund of the Lord the +God of my people. Go now and see the beauty of Babbulkund before I cry +out against her, and then flee swiftly northwards.' + +A smouldering fragment fell in upon our camp fire and sent a strange +light into the eyes of the man in rags. He rose at once, and his +tattered cloak swirled up with him like a great wing; he said no more, +but turned round from us instantly southwards, and strode away into +the darkness towards Babbulkund. Then a hush fell upon our encampment, +and the smell of the tobacco of those lands arose. When the last flame +died down in our camp fire I fell asleep, but my rest was troubled by +shifting dreams of doom. + +Morning came, and our guides told us that we should come to the city +ere nightfall. Again we passed southwards through the changeless +desert; sometimes we met travellers coming from Babbulkund, with the +beauty of its marvels still fresh in their eyes. + +When we encamped near the middle of the day we saw a great number of +people on foot coming towards us running, from the southwards. These +we hailed when they were come near, saying, 'What of Babbulkund?' + +They answered: 'We are not of the race of the people of Babbulkund, +but were captured in youth and taken away from the hills that are to +the northward. Now we have all seen in visions of the stillness the +Lord the God of our people calling to us from His hills, and therefore +we all flee northward. But in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been +troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams of doom, and none may +interpret what the dreams portend. Now this is the dream that King +Nehemoth dreamed on the first night of his dreaming. He saw move +through the stillness a bird all black, and beneath the beatings of +his wings Babbulkund gloomed and darkened; and after him flew a bird +all white, beneath the beatings of whose wings Babbulkund gleamed and +shone; and there flew by four more birds alternately black and white. +And, as the black ones passed Babbulkund darkened, and when the white +ones appeared her streets and houses shone. But after the sixth bird +there came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her place, and there +was only the empty desert where she had stood, and the rivers Oonrana +and Plegáthanees mourning alone. Next morning all the prophets of the +King gathered before their abominations and questioned them of the +dream, and the abominations spake not. But when the second night +stepped down from the halls of God, dowered with many stars, King +Nehemoth dreamed again; and in this dream King Nehemoth saw four birds +only, black and white alternately as before. And Babbulkund darkened +again as the black ones passed, and shone when the white came by; only +after the four birds came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her +place, leaving only the forgetful desert and the mourning rivers. + +'Still the abominations spake not, and none could interpret the dream. +And when the third night came forth from the divine halls of her home +dowered like her sisters, again King Nehemoth dreamed. And he saw a +bird all black go by again, beneath whom Babbulkund darkened, and then +a white bird and Babbulkund shone; and after them came no more, +and Babbulkund passed away. And the golden day appeared, dispelling +dreams, and still the abominations were silent, and the King's +prophets answered not to portend the omen of the dream. One prophet +only spake before the King, saying: 'The sable birds, O King, are the +nights, and the white birds are the days,...' This thing the King had +feared, and he arose and smote the prophet with his sword, whose soul +went crying away and had to do no more with nights and days. + +'It was last night that the King dreamed his third dream, and this +morning we fled away from Babbulkund. A great heat lies over it, and +the orchids of the jungle droop their heads. All night long the women +in the hareem of the North have wailed horribly for their hills. A +fear hath fallen upon the city, and a boding. Twice hath Nehemoth gone +to worship Annolith, and all the people have prostrated themselves +before Voth. Thrice the horologers have looked into the great crystal +globe wherein are foretold all happenings to be, and thrice the globe +was blank. Yea, though they went a fourth time yet was no vision +revealed; and the people's voice is hushed in Babbulkund.' + +Soon the travellers arose and pushed on northwards again, leaving us +wondering. Through the heat of the day we rested as well as we might, +but the air was motionless and sultry and the camels ill at ease. The +Arabs said that it boded a desert storm, and that a great wind would +arise full of sand. So we arose in the afternoon, and travelled +swiftly, hoping to come to shelter before the storm. And the air +burned in the stillness between the baked desert and the glaring sky. + +Suddenly a wind arose out of the South, blowing from Babbulkund, and +the sand lifted and went by in great shapes, all whispering. And the +wind blew violently, and wailed as it blew, and hundreds of sandy +shapes went towering by, and there were little cries among them and +the sounds of a passing away. Soon the wind sank quite suddenly, and +its cries died, and the panic ceased among the driven sands. And when +the storm departed the air was cool, and the terrible sultriness and +the boding were passed away, and the camels had ease among them. And +the Arabs said that the storm which was to be had been, as was willed +of old by God. + +The sun set and the gloaming came, and we neared the junction +of Oonrana and Plegáthanees, but in the darkness discerned not +Babbulkund. We pushed on hurriedly to reach the city ere nightfall, +and came to the junction of the River of Myth where he meets with the +Waters of Fable, and still saw not Babbulkund. All round us lay the +sand and rocks of the unchanging desert, save to the southwards where +the jungle stood with its orchids facing skywards. Then we perceived +that we had arrived too late, and that her doom had come to +Babbulkund; and by the river in the empty desert on the sand the +man in rags was seated, with his face hidden in his hands, weeping +bitterly. + + * * * * * + +Thus passed away in the hour of her iniquities before Annolith, in the +two thousand and thirty-second year of her being, in the six thousand +and fiftieth year of the building of the World, Babbulkund, City of +Marvel, sometime called by those that hated her City of the Dog, but +hourly mourned in Araby and Ind and wide through jungle and desert; +leaving no memorial in stone to show that she had been, but remembered +with an abiding love, in spite of the anger of God, by all that knew +her beauty, whereof still they sing. + + + + +THE SPHINX AT GIZEH + + +I saw the other day the Sphinx's painted face. + +She had painted her face in order to ogle Time. + +And he has spared no other painted face in all the world but hers. + +Delilah was younger than she, and Delilah is dust. + +Time hath loved nothing but this worthless painted face. + +I do not care that she is ugly, nor that she has painted her face, so +that she only lure his secret from Time. + +Time dallies like a fool at her feet when he should be smiting cities. + +Time never wearies of her silly smile. + +There are temples all about her that he has forgotten to spoil. + +I saw an old man go by and Time never touched him. + +Time that has carried away the seven gates of Thebes! + +She has tried to bind him with ropes of eternal sand, she had hoped to +oppress him with the Pyramids. + +He lies there in the sun with his foolish hair all spread about her +paws. + +If she ever learns his secret we will put out his eyes, so that he +shall find no more our beautiful things--there are lovely gates in +Florence that I fear he will carry away. + +We have tried to bind him with song and with old customs, but they +only held him for a little while, and he has always smitten us and +mocked us. + +When he is blind he shall dance to us and make sport. + +Great clumsy Time shall stumble and dance, who liked to kill little +children and can hurt even the daisies no longer. + +Then shall our children laugh at him who slew Babylon's winged bulls +and smote great numbers of the elves and fairies, when he is shorn of +his hours and his years. + +We will shut him up in the Pyramid of Cheops, in the great chamber +where the sarcophagus is. Thence we will lead him out when we give our +feasts. He shall ripen our corn for us and do menial work. + +We will kiss thy painted face, O Sphinx, if thou wilt betray to us +Time. + +And yet I fear that in his ultimate anguish he may take hold blindly +of the world and the moon and slowly pull down upon him the House of +Man. + + + + +IDLE DAYS ON THE YANN + + +So I came down through the wood to the bank of Yann and found, as +had been prophesied, the ship _Bird of the River_ about to loose her +cable. + +The captain sate cross-legged upon the white deck with his scimitar +lying beside him in its jewelled scabbard, and the sailors toiled to +spread the nimble sails to bring the ship into the central stream of +Yann, and all the while sang ancient soothing songs. And the wind of +the evening descending cool from the snowfields of some mountainous +abode of distant gods came suddenly, like glad tidings to an anxious +city, into the wing-like sails. + +And so we came into the central stream, whereat the sailors lowered +the greater sails. But I had gone to bow before the captain, and to +inquire concerning the miracles, and appearances among men, of the +most holy gods of whatever land he had come from. And the captain +answered that he came from fair Belzoond, and worshipped gods that +were the least and humblest, who seldom sent the famine or the +thunder, and were easily appeased with little battles. And I told how +I came from Ireland, which is of Europe, whereat the captain and all +the sailors laughed, for they said, 'There are no such places in all +the land of dreams.' When they had ceased to mock me, I explained that +my fancy mostly dwelt in the desert of Cuppar-Nombo, about a beautiful +blue city called Golthoth the Damned, which was sentinelled all round +by wolves and their shadows, and had been utterly desolate for years +and years because of a curse which the gods once spoke in anger and +could never since recall. And sometimes my dreams took me as far as +Pungar Vees, the red-walled city where the fountains are, which trades +with the Isles and Thul. When I said this they complimented me upon +the abode of my fancy, saying that, though they had never seen these +cities, such places might well be imagined. For the rest of that +evening I bargained with the captain over the sum that I should pay +him for my fare if God and the tide of Yann should bring us safely as +far as the cliffs by the sea, which are named Bar-Wul-Yann, the Gate +of Yann. + +And now the sun had set, and all the colours of the world and heaven +had held a festival with him, and slipped one by one away before the +imminent approach of night. The parrots had all flown home to the +jungle on either bank, the monkeys in rows in safety on high branches +of the trees were silent and asleep, the fireflies in the deeps of the +forest were going up and down, and the great stars came gleaming out +to look on the face of Yann. Then the sailors lighted lanterns and +hung them round the ship, and the light flashed out on a sudden +and dazzled Yann, and the ducks that fed along his marshy banks all +suddenly arose, and made wide circles in the upper air, and saw the +distant reaches of the Yann and the white mist that softly cloaked the +jungle, before they returned again into their marshes. + +And then the sailors knelt on the decks and prayed, not all together, +but five or six at a time. Side by side there kneeled down together +five or six, for there only prayed at the same time men of different +faiths, so that no god should hear two men praying to him at once. +As soon as any one had finished his prayer, another of the same faith +took his place. Thus knelt the row of five or six with bended heads +under the fluttering sail, while the central stream of the River Yann +took them on towards the sea, and their prayers rose up from among the +lanterns and went towards the stars. And behind them in the after end +of the ship the helmsman prayed aloud the helmsman's prayer, which is +prayed by all who follow his trade upon the River Yann, of whatever +faith they be. And the captain prayed to his little lesser gods, to +the gods that bless Belzoond. + +And I too felt that I would pray. Yet I liked not to pray to a jealous +God there where the frail affectionate gods whom the heathen love were +being humbly invoked; so I bethought me, instead, of Sheol Nugganoth, +whom the men of the jungle have long since deserted, who is now +unworshipped and alone; and to him I prayed. + +And upon us praying the night came suddenly down, as it comes upon all +men who pray at evening and upon all men who do not; yet our prayers +comforted our own souls when we thought of the Great Night to come. + +And so Yann bore us magnificently onwards, for he was elate with +molten snow that the Poltiades had brought him from the Hills of Hap, +and the Marn and Migris were swollen full with floods; and he bore us +in his might past Kyph and Pir, and we saw the lights of Goolunza. + +Soon we all slept except the helmsman, who kept the ship in the +mid-stream of Yann. + +When the sun rose the helmsman ceased to sing, for by song he cheered +himself in the lonely night. When the song ceased we suddenly all +awoke, and another took the helm, and the helmsman slept. + +We knew that soon we should come to Mandaroon. We made a meal, and +Mandaroon appeared. Then the captain commanded, and the sailors loosed +again the greater sails, and the ship turned and left the stream of +Yann and came into a harbour beneath the ruddy walls of Mandaroon. +Then while the sailors went and gathered fruits I came alone to the +gate of Mandaroon. A few huts were outside it, in which lived the +guard. A sentinel with a long white beard was standing in the gate, +armed with a rusty pike. He wore large spectacles, which were covered +with dust. Through the gate I saw the city. A deathly stillness was +over all of it. The ways seemed untrodden, and moss was thick on +doorsteps; in the market-place huddled figures lay asleep. A scent +of incense came wafted through the gateway, of incense and burned +poppies, and there was a hum of the echoes of distant bells. I said +to the sentinel in the tongue of the region of Yann, 'Why are they all +asleep in this still city?' + +He answered: 'None may ask questions in this gate for fear they wake +the people of the city. For when the people of this city wake the gods +will die. And when the gods die men may dream no more.' And I began to +ask him what gods that city worshipped, but he lifted his pike because +none might ask questions there. So I left him and went back to the +_Bird of the River_. + +Certainly Mandaroon was beautiful with her white pinnacles peering +over her ruddy walls and the green of her copper roofs. + +When I came back again to the _Bird of the River_, I found the sailors +were returned to the ship. Soon we weighed anchor, and sailed out +again, and so came once more to the middle of the river. And now the +sun was moving towards his heights, and there had reached us on the +River Yann the song of those countless myriads of choirs that attend +him in his progress round the world. For the little creatures that +have many legs had spread their gauze wings easily on the air, as +a man rests his elbows on a balcony, and gave jubilant, ceremonial +praises to the sun, or else they moved together on the air in wavering +dances intricate and swift, or turned aside to avoid the onrush of +some drop of water that a breeze had shaken from a jungle orchid, +chilling the air and driving it before it, as it fell whirring in its +rush to the earth; but all the while they sang triumphantly. 'For the +day is for us,' they said, 'whether our great and sacred father the +Sun shall bring up more life like us from the marshes, or whether all +the world shall end to-night.' And there sang all those whose notes +are known to human ears, as well as those whose far more numerous +notes have been never heard by man. + +To these a rainy day had been as an era of war that should desolate +continents during all the lifetime of a man. + +And there came out also from the dark and steaming jungle to behold +and rejoice in the Sun the huge and lazy butterflies. And they danced, +but danced idly, on the ways of the air, as some haughty queen of +distant conquered lands might in her poverty and exile dance, in some +encampment of the gipsies, for the mere bread to live by, but beyond +that would never abate her pride to dance for a fragment more. + +And the butterflies sung of strange and painted things, of purple +orchids and of lost pink cities and the monstrous colours of the +jungle's decay. And they, too, were among those whose voices are not +discernible by human ears. And as they floated above the river, going +from forest to forest, their splendour was matched by the inimical +beauty of the birds who darted out to pursue them. Or sometimes they +settled on the white and wax-like blooms of the plant that creeps and +clambers about the trees of the forest; and their purple wings flashed +out on the great blossoms as, when the caravans go from Nurl to Thace, +the gleaming silks flash out upon the snow, where the crafty merchants +spread them one by one to astonish the mountaineers of the Hills of +Noor. + +But upon men and beasts the sun sent a drowsiness. The river monsters +along the river's marge lay dormant in the slime. The sailors pitched +a pavilion, with golden tassels, for the captain upon the deck, and +then went, all but the helmsman, under a sail that they had hung as an +awning between two masts. Then they told tales to one another, each +of his own city or of the miracles of his god, until all were fallen +asleep. The captain offered me the shade of his pavilion with the gold +tassels, and there we talked for awhile, he telling me that he was +taking merchandise to Perdóndaris, and that he would take back to fair +Belzoond things appertaining to the affairs of the sea. Then, as +I watched through the pavilion's opening the brilliant birds and +butterflies that crossed and recrossed over the river, I fell asleep, +and dreamed that I was a monarch entering his capital underneath +arches of flags, and all the musicians of the world were there, +playing melodiously their instruments; but no one cheered. + +In the afternoon, as the day grew cooler again, I awoke and found the +captain buckling on his scimitar, which he had taken off him while he +rested. + +And now we were approaching the wide court of Astahahn, which opens +upon the river. Strange boats of antique design were chained there +to the steps. As we neared it we saw the open marble court, on three +sides of which stood the city fronting on colonnades. And in the court +and along the colonnades the people of that city walked with solemnity +and care according to the rites of ancient ceremony. All in that city +was of ancient device; the carving on the houses, which, when age +had broken it, remained unrepaired, was of the remotest times, and +everywhere were represented in stone beasts that have long since +passed away from Earth--the dragon, the griffin, and the hippogriffin, +and the different species of gargoyle. Nothing was to be found, +whether material or custom, that was new in Astahahn. Now they took no +notice at all of us as we went by, but continued their processions and +ceremonies in the ancient city, and the sailors, knowing their custom, +took no notice of them. But I called, as we came near, to one who +stood beside the water's edge, asking him what men did in Astahahn and +what their merchandise was, and with whom they traded. He said, 'Here +we have fettered and manacled Time, who would otherwise slay the +gods.' + +I asked him what gods they worshipped in that city, and he said, 'All +those gods whom Time has not yet slain.' Then he turned from me and +would say no more, but busied himself in behaving in accordance with +ancient custom. And so, according to the will of Yann, we drifted +onwards and left Astahahn. + +The river widened below Astahahn, and we found in greater quantities +such birds as prey on fishes. And they were very wonderful in their +plumage, and they came not out of the jungle, but flew, with their +long necks stretched out before them, and their legs lying on the wind +behind, straight up the river over the mid-stream. + +And now the evening began to gather in. A thick white mist had +appeared over the river, and was softly rising higher. It clutched +at the trees with long impalpable arms, it rose higher and higher, +chilling the air; and white shapes moved away into the jungle as +though the ghosts of shipwrecked mariners were searching stealthily in +the darkness for the spirits of evil that long ago had wrecked them on +the Yann. + +As the sun sank behind the field of orchids that grew on the matted +summit of the jungle, the river monsters came wallowing out of the +slime in which they had reclined during the heat of the day, and the +great beasts of the jungle came down to drink. The butterflies a while +since were gone to rest. In little narrow tributaries that we +passed night seemed already to have fallen, though the sun which had +disappeared from us had not yet set. + +And now the birds of the jungle came flying home far over us, with the +sunlight glistening pink upon their breasts, and lowered their pinions +as soon as they saw the Yann, and dropped into the trees. And the +widgeon began to go up the river in great companies, all whistling, +and then would suddenly wheel and all go down again. And there shot by +us the small and arrow-like teal; and we heard the manifold cries of +flocks of geese, which the sailors told me had recently come in from +crossing over the Lispasian ranges; every year they come by the same +way, close by the peak of Mluna, leaving it to the left, and the +mountain eagles know the way they come and--men say--the very hour, +and every year they expect them by the same way as soon as the snows +have fallen upon the Northern Plains. + +But soon it grew so dark that we saw these birds no more, and only +heard the whirring of their wings, and of countless others besides, +until they all settled down along the banks of the river, and it was +the hour when the birds of the night went forth. Then the sailors lit +the lanterns for the night, and huge moths appeared, flapping about +the ship, and at moments their gorgeous colours would be revealed by +the lanterns, then they would pass into the night again, where all +was black. And again the sailors prayed, and thereafter we supped and +slept, and the helmsman took our lives into his care. + +When I awoke I found that we had indeed come to Perdóndaris, that +famous city. For there it stood upon the left of us, a city fair +and notable, and all the more pleasant for our eyes to see after +the jungle that was so long with us. And we were anchored by the +market-place, and the captain's merchandise was all displayed, and a +merchant of Perdóndaris stood looking at it. And the captain had his +scimitar in his hand, and was beating with it in anger upon the +deck, and the splinters were flying up from the white planks; for the +merchant had offered him a price for his merchandise that the captain +declared to be an insult to himself and his country's gods, whom +he now said to be great and terrible gods, whose curses were to +be dreaded. But the merchant waved his hands, which were of great +fatness, showing the pink palms, and swore that of himself he thought +not at all, but only of the poor folk in the huts beyond the city to +whom he wished to sell the merchandise for as low a price as possible, +leaving no remuneration for himself. For the merchandise was mostly +the thick toomarund carpets that in the winter keep the wind from +the floor, and tollub which the people smoke in pipes. Therefore +the merchant said if he offered a piffek more the poor folk must +go without their toomarunds when the winter came, and without their +tollub in the evenings, or else he and his aged father must starve +together. Thereat the captain lifted his scimitar to his own throat, +saying that he was now a ruined man, and that nothing remained to him +but death. And while he was carefully lifting his beard with his left +hand, the merchant eyed the merchandise again, and said that rather +than see so worthy a captain die, a man for whom he had conceived an +especial love when first he saw the manner in which he handled his +ship, he and his aged father should starve together and therefore he +offered fifteen piffeks more. + +When he said this the captain prostrated himself and prayed to his +gods that they might yet sweeten this merchant's bitter heart--to his +little lesser gods, to the gods that bless Belzoond. + +At last the merchant offered yet five piffeks more. Then the captain +wept, for he said that he was deserted of his gods; and the merchant +also wept, for he said that he was thinking of his aged father, and +of how he soon would starve, and he hid his weeping face with both +his hands, and eyed the tollub again between his fingers. And so the +bargain was concluded, and the merchant took the toomarund and tollub, +paying for them out of a great clinking purse. And these were packed +up into bales again, and three of the merchant's slaves carried them +upon their heads into the city. And all the while the sailors had sat +silent, cross-legged in a crescent upon the deck, eagerly watching the +bargain, and now a murmur of satisfaction arose among them, and they +began to compare it among themselves with other bargains that they +had known. And I found out from them that there are seven merchants +in Perdóndaris, and that they had all come to the captain one by one +before the bargaining began, and each had warned him privately against +the others. And to all the merchants the captain had offered the wine +of his own country, that they make in fair Belzoond, but could in no +wise persuade them to it. But now that the bargain was over, and the +sailors were seated at the first meal of the day, the captain appeared +among them with a cask of that wine, and we broached it with care and +all made merry together. And the captain was glad in his heart because +he knew that he had much honour in the eyes of his men because of +the bargain that he had made. So the sailors drank the wine of their +native land, and soon their thoughts were back in fair Belzoond and +the little neighbouring cities of Durl and Duz. + +But for me the captain poured into a little glass some heavy yellow +wine from a small jar which he kept apart among his sacred things. +Thick and sweet it was, even like honey, yet there was in its heart +a mighty, ardent fire which had authority over souls of men. It was +made, the captain told me, with great subtlety by the secret craft of +a family of six who lived in a hut on the mountains of Hian Min. Once +in these mountains, he said, he followed the spoor of a bear, and he +came suddenly on a man of that family who had hunted the same bear, +and he was at the end of a narrow way with precipice all about him, +and his spear was sticking in the bear, and the wound not fatal, and +he had no other weapon. And the bear was walking towards the man, very +slowly because his wound irked him--yet he was now very close. And +what the captain did he would not say; but every year as soon as the +snows are hard, and travelling is easy on the Hian Min, that man comes +down to the market in the plains, and always leaves for the captain in +the gate of fair Belzoond a vessel of that priceless secret wine. + +And as I sipped the wine and the captain talked, I remembered me of +stalwart noble things that I had long since resolutely planned, and my +soul seemed to grow mightier within me and to dominate the whole tide +of the Yann. It may be that I then slept. Or, if I did not, I do not +now minutely recollect every detail of that morning's occupations. +Towards evening, I awoke and wishing to see Perdóndaris before we left +in the morning, and being unable to wake the captain, I went ashore +alone. Certainly Perdóndaris was a powerful city; it was encompassed +by a wall of great strength and altitude, having in it hollow ways for +troops to walk in, and battlements along it all the way, and fifteen +strong towers on it in every mile, and copper plaques low down where +men could read them, telling in all the languages of those parts of +the Earth--one language on each plaque--the tale of how an army +once attacked Perdóndaris and what befel that army. Then I entered +Perdóndaris and found all the people dancing, clad in brilliant silks, +and playing on the tambang as they danced. For a fearful thunderstorm +had terrified them while I slept, and the fires of death, they said, +had danced over Perdóndaris, and now the thunder had gone leaping away +large and black and hideous, they said, over the distant hills, and +had turned round snarling at them, showing his gleaming teeth, and had +stamped, as he went, upon the hill-tops until they rang as though +they had been bronze. And often and again they stopped in their merry +dances and prayed to the God they knew not, saying, 'O, God that we +know not, we thank Thee for sending the thunder back to his hills.' +And I went on and came to the market-place, and lying there upon the +marble pavement I saw the merchant fast asleep and breathing heavily, +with his face and the palms of his hands towards the sky, and slaves +were fanning him to keep away the flies. And from the market-place I +came to a silver temple and then to a palace of onyx, and there were +many wonders in Perdóndaris, and I would have stayed and seen them +all, but as I came to the outer wall of the city I suddenly saw in it +a huge ivory gate. For a while I paused and admired it, then I came +nearer and perceived the dreadful truth. The gate was carved out of +one solid piece! + +I fled at once through the gateway and down to the ship, and even as I +ran I thought that I heard far off on the hills behind me the tramp of +the fearful beast by whom that mass of ivory was shed, who was perhaps +even then looking for his other tusk. When I was on the ship again I +felt safer, and I said nothing to the sailors of what I had seen. + +And now the captain was gradually awakening. + +Now night was rolling up from the East and North, and only the +pinnacles of the towers of Perdóndaris still took the fallen sunlight. +Then I went to the captain and told him quietly of the thing I had +seen. And he questioned me at once about the gate, in a low voice, +that the sailors might not know; and I told him how the weight of the +thing was such that it could not have been brought from afar, and the +captain knew that it had not been there a year ago. We agreed that +such a beast could never have been killed by any assault of man, and +that the gate must have been a fallen tusk, and one fallen near and +recently. Therefore he decided that it were better to flee at once; so +he commanded, and the sailors went to the sails, and others raised the +anchor to the deck, and just as the highest pinnacle of marble lost +the last rays of the sun we left Perdóndaris, that famous city. And +night came down and cloaked Perdóndaris and hid it from our eyes, +which as things have happened will never see it again; for I have +heard since that something swift and wonderful has suddenly wrecked +Perdóndaris in a day--towers, and walls, and people. + +And the night deepened over the River Yann, a night all white with +stars. And with the night there rose the helmsman's song. As soon as +he had prayed he began to sing to cheer himself all through the lonely +night. But first he prayed, praying the helmsman's prayer. And this +is what I remember of it, rendered into English with a very feeble +equivalent of the rhythm that seemed so resonant in those tropic +nights. + +To whatever god may hear. + +Wherever there be sailors whether of river or sea: whether their way +be dark or whether through storm: whether their peril be of beast or +of rock: or from enemy lurking on land or pursuing on sea: wherever +the tiller is cold or the helmsman stiff: wherever sailors sleep or +helmsmen watch: guard, guide, and return us to the old land that has +known us: to the far homes that we know. + +To all the gods that are. + +To whatever god may hear. + + * * * * * + +So he prayed, and there was silence. And the sailors laid them down to +rest for the night. The silence deepened, and was only broken by the +ripples of Yann that lightly touched our prow. Sometimes some monster +of the river coughed. + +Silence and ripples, ripples and silence again. + +And then his loneliness came upon the helmsman, and he began to +sing. And he sang the market songs of Durl and Duz, and the old +dragon-legends of Belzoond. + +Many a song he sang, telling to spacious and exotic Yann the little +tales and trifles of his city of Durl. And the songs welled up over +the black jungle and came into the clear cold air above, and the great +bands of stars that look on Yann began to know the affairs of Durl and +Duz, and of the shepherds that dwelt in the fields between, and the +flocks that they had, and the loves that they had loved, and all the +little things that they hoped to do. And as I lay wrapped up in skins +and blankets, listening to those songs, and watching the fantastic +shapes of the great trees like to black giants stalking through the +night, I suddenly fell asleep. + +When I awoke great mists were trailing away from the Yann. And the +flow of the river was tumbling now tumultuously, and little waves +appeared; for Yann had scented from afar the ancient crags of Glorm, +and knew that their ravines lay cool before him wherein he should meet +the merry wild Irillion rejoicing from fields of snow. So he shook +off from him the torpid sleep that had come upon him in the hot and +scented jungle, and forgot its orchids and its butterflies, and swept +on turbulent, expectant, strong; and soon the snowy peaks of the Hills +of Glorm came glittering into view. And now the sailors were waking +up from sleep. Soon we all eat, and then the helmsman laid him down +to sleep while a comrade took his place, and they all spread over him +their choicest furs. + +And in a while we heard the sound that the Irillion made as she came +down dancing from the fields of snow. + +And then we saw the ravine in the Hills of Glorm lying precipitous and +smooth before us, into which we were carried by the leaps of Yann. +And now we left the steamy jungle and breathed the mountain air; the +sailors stood up and took deep breaths of it, and thought of their own +far-off Acroctian hills on which were Durl and Duz--below them in the +plains stands fair Belzoond. + +A great shadow brooded between the cliffs of Glorm, but the crags were +shining above us like gnarled moons, and almost lit the gloom. Louder +and louder came the Irillion's song, and the sound of her dancing down +from the fields of snow. And soon we saw her white and full of mists, +and wreathed with rainbows delicate and small that she had plucked up +near the mountain's summit from some celestial garden of the Sun. Then +she went away seawards with the huge grey Yann and the ravine widened, +and opened upon the world, and our rocking ship came through to the +light of the day. + +And all that morning and all the afternoon we passed through the +marshes of Pondoovery; and Yann widened there, and flowed solemnly and +slowly, and the captain bade the sailors beat on bells to overcome the +dreariness of the marches. + +At last the Irusian mountains came in sight, nursing the villages +of Pen-Kai and Blut, and the wandering streets of Mlo, where priests +propitiate the avalanche with wine and maize. Then night came down +over the plains of Tlun, and we saw the lights of Cappadarnia. +We heard the Pathnites beating upon drums as we passed Imaut and +Golzunda, then all but the helmsman slept. And villages scattered +along the banks of the Yann heard all that night in the helmsman's +unknown tongue the little songs of cities that they knew not. + +I awoke before dawn with a feeling that I was unhappy before I +remembered why. Then I recalled that by the evening of the approaching +day, according to all foreseen probabilities, we should come to +Bar-Wul-Yann, and I should part from the captain and his sailors. And +I had liked the man because he had given me of his yellow wine that +was set apart among his sacred things, and many a story he had told me +about his fair Belzoond between the Acroctian hills and the Hian Min. +And I had liked the ways that his sailors had, and the prayers that +they prayed at evening side by side, grudging not one another their +alien gods. And I had a liking too for the tender way in which they +often spoke of Durl and Duz, for it is good that men should love their +native cities and the little hills that hold those cities up. + +And I had come to know who would meet them when they returned to their +homes, and where they thought the meetings would take place, some in +a valley of the Acroctian hills where the road comes up from Yann, +others in the gateway of one or another of the three cities, and +others by the fireside in the home. And I thought of the danger that +had menaced us all alike outside Perdóndaris, a danger that, as things +have happened, was very real. + +And I thought too of the helmsman's cheery song in the cold and lonely +night, and how he had held our lives in his careful hands. And as I +thought of this the helmsman ceased to sing, and I looked up and saw +a pale light had appeared in the sky, and the lonely night had passed; +and the dawn widened, and the sailors awoke. + +And soon we saw the tide of the Sea himself advancing resolute between +Yann's borders, and Yann sprang lithely at him and they struggled +awhile; then Yann and all that was his were pushed back northward, +so that the sailors had to hoist the sails and, the wind being +favourable, we still held onwards. + +And we passed Góndara and Narl and Haz. And we saw memorable, holy +Golnuz, and heard the pilgrims praying. + +When we awoke after the midday rest we were coming near to Nen, the +last of the cities on the River Yann. And the jungle was all about us +once again, and about Nen; but the great Mloon ranges stood up over +all things, and watched the city from beyond the jungle. + +Here we anchored, and the captain and I went up into the city and +found that the Wanderers had come into Nen. + +And the Wanderers were a weird, dark tribe, that once in every seven +years came down from the peaks of Mloon, having crossed by a pass that +is known to them from some fantastic land that lies beyond. And the +people of Nen were all outside their houses, and all stood wondering +at their own streets. For the men and women of the Wanderers had +crowded all the ways, and every one was doing some strange thing. Some +danced astounding dances that they had learned from the desert wind, +rapidly curving and swirling till the eye could follow no longer. +Others played upon instruments beautiful wailing tunes that were full +of horror, which souls had taught them lost by night in the desert, +that strange far desert from which the Wanderers came. + +None of their instruments were such as were known in Nen nor in any +part of the region of the Yann; even the horns out of which some were +made were of beasts that none had seen along the river, for they were +barbed at the tips. And they sang, in the language of none, songs that +seemed to be akin to the mysteries of night and to the unreasoned fear +that haunts dark places. + +Bitterly all the dogs of Nen distrusted them. And the Wanderers told +one another fearful tales; for though no one in Nen knew ought of +their language yet they could see the fear on the listeners' faces, +and as the tale wound on the whites of their eyes showed vividly in +terror as the eyes of some little beast whom the hawk has seized. Then +the teller of the tale would smile and stop, and another would tell +his story, and the teller of the first tale's lips would chatter with +fear. And if some deadly snake chanced to appear the Wanderers would +greet him as a brother, and the snake would seem to give his greetings +to them before he passed on again. Once that most fierce and lethal of +tropic snakes, the giant lythra, came out of the jungle and all down +the street, the central street of Nen, and none of the Wanderers moved +away from him, but they all played sonorously on drums, as though +he had been a person of much honour; and the snake moved through the +midst of them and smote none. + +Even the Wanderers' children could do strange things, for if any one +of them met with a child of Nen the two would stare at each other in +silence with large grave eyes; then the Wanderer's child would slowly +draw from his turban a live fish or snake. And the children of Nen +could do nothing of that kind at all. + +Much I should have wished to stay and hear the hymn with which they +greet the night, that is answered by the wolves on the heights of +Mloon, but it was now time to raise the anchor again that the captain +might return from Bar-Wul-Yann upon the landward tide. So we went on +board and continued down the Yann. And the captain and I spoke little, +for we were thinking of our parting, which should be for long, and we +watched instead the splendour of the westering sun. For the sun was a +ruddy gold, but a faint mist cloaked the jungle, lying low, and into +it poured the smoke of the little jungle cities; and the smoke of +them met together in the mist and joined into one haze, which became +purple, and was lit by the sun, as the thoughts of men become hallowed +by some great and sacred thing. Sometimes one column from a lonely +house would rise up higher than the cities' smoke, and gleam by itself +in the sun. + +And now as the sun's last rays were nearly level, we saw the sight +that I had come to see; for from two mountains that stood on either +shore two cliffs of pink marble came out into the river, all glowing +in the light of the low sun, and they were quite smooth and of +mountainous altitude, and they nearly met, and Yann went tumbling +between them and found the sea. + +And this was Bar-Wul-Yann, the gate of Yann, and in the distance +through that barrier's gap I saw the azure indescribable sea, where +little fishing-boats went gleaming by. + +And the sun set, and the brief twilight came, and the exultation of +the glory of Bar-Wul-Yann was gone, yet still the pink cliffs glowed, +the fairest marvel that the eye beheld--and this in a land of wonders. +And soon the twilight gave place to the coming out of stars, and the +colours of Bar-Wul-Yann went dwindling away. And the sight of those +cliffs was to me as some chord of music that a master's hand had +launched from the violin, and which carries to Heaven or Faery the +tremulous spirits of men. + +And now by the shore they anchored and went no further, for they were +sailors of the river and not of the sea, and knew the Yann but not the +tides beyond. + +And the time was come when the captain and I must part, he to go back +again to his fair Belzoond in sight of the distant peaks of the Hian +Min, and I to find my way by strange means back to those hazy fields +that all poets know, wherein stand small mysterious cottages through +whose windows, looking westwards, you may see the fields of men, and +looking eastwards see glittering elfin mountains, tipped with snow, +going range on range into the region of Myth, and beyond it into the +kingdom of Fantasy, which pertain to the Lands of Dream. + +Long we regarded one another, knowing that we should meet no more, for +my fancy is weakening as the years slip by, and I go ever more seldom +into the Lands of Dream. Then we clasped hands, uncouthly on his part, +for it is not the method of greeting in his country, and he commended +my soul to the care of his own gods, to his little lesser gods, the +humble ones, to the gods that bless Belzoond. + + + + +A MIRACLE + + +There is a road in Rome that runs through an ancient temple that once +the gods had loved; it runs along the top of a great wall, and the +floor of the temple lies far down beneath it, of marble, pink and +white. + +Upon the temple floor I counted to the number of thirteen hungry cats. + +'Sometimes,' they said among themselves, 'it was the gods that lived +here, sometimes it was men, and now it's cats. So let us enjoy the sun +on the hot marble before another people comes.' + +For it was at that hour of a warm afternoon when my fancy is able to +hear the silent voices. + +And the fearful leanness of all those thirteen cats moved me to go +into a neighbouring fish shop, and there to buy a quantity of fishes. +Then I returned and threw them all over the railing at the top of the +great wall, and they fell for thirty feet, and hit the sacred marble +with a smack. + +Now, in any other town but Rome, or in the minds of any other cats, +the sight of fishes falling out of heaven had surely excited wonder. +They rose slowly, and all stretched themselves; then they came +leisurely towards the fishes. 'It is only a miracle,' they said in +their hearts. + + + + +THE CASTLE OF TIME + + +Presently there was a stir in one of the houses, and a bat flew out +of the door into the daylight, and three mice came running out of the +doorway down the step, an old stone cracked in two and held together +by moss; and there followed an old man bending on a stick with a white +beard coming to the ground, wearing clothes that were glossed with +use, and presently there came others out of the other houses, all of +them as old, and all hobbling on sticks. These were the oldest people +that the King had ever beheld, and he asked them the name of the +village and who they were; and one of them answered: 'This is the City +of the Aged in the Territory of Time.' + +And the King said; 'Is Time then here?' + +And one of the old men pointed to a great castle standing on a steep +hill and said: 'Therein dwells Time, and we are his people;' and +they all looked curiously at King Karnith Zo, and the eldest of the +villagers spoke again and said: 'Whence do you come, you that are so +young?' and Karnith Zo told him how he had come to conquer Time, to +save the world and the gods, and asked them whence they came. + +And the villagers said: + +'We are older than always, and know not whence we came, but we are the +people of Time, and here from the Edge of Everything he sends out his +hours to assail the world, and you may never conquer Time.' But the +King went back to his armies, and pointed toward the castle on the +hill and told them that at last they had found the Enemy of the Earth; +and they that were older than always went back slowly into their +houses with the creaking of olden doors. And they went across the +fields and passed the village. From one of his towers Time eyed them +all the while, and in battle order they closed in on the steep hill as +Time sat still in his great tower and watched. + +But as the feet of the foremost touched the edge of the hill Time +hurled five years against them, and the years passed over their heads +and the army still came on, an army of older men. But the slope seemed +steeper to the King and to every man in his army, and they breathed +more heavily. And Time summoned up more years, and one by one he +hurled them at Karnith Zo and at all his men. And the knees of the +army stiffened, and their beards grew and turned grey, and the hours +and days and the months went singing over their heads, and their hair +turned whiter and whiter, and the conquering hours bore down, and the +years rushed on and swept the youth of that army clear away till they +came face to face under the walls of the castle of Time with a mass of +howling years, and found the top of the slope too steep for aged men. +Slowly and painfully, harassed with agues and chills, the King rallied +his aged army that tottered down the slope. Slowly the King led back +his warriors over whose heads had shrieked the triumphant years. Year +in, year out, they straggled southwards, always towards Zoon; they +came, with rust upon their spears and long beards flowing, again into +Astarma, and none knew them there. + + +HERE ENDS 'SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF LORD DUNSANY.' +FINISHED ON LADY DAY, IN THE YEAR NINETEEN HUNDRED AND TWELVE. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13664 *** |