diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/61478-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/61478-0.txt | 2313 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 2313 deletions
diff --git a/old/61478-0.txt b/old/61478-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8054e04..0000000 --- a/old/61478-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2313 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Court of the King, by Margaret Benson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll -have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using -this ebook. - - - -Title: The Court of the King - And Other Studies - -Author: Margaret Benson - -Release Date: February 22, 2020 [EBook #61478] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURT OF THE KING *** - - - - -Produced by David E. Brown and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - -THE COURT OF THE KING - - - - -_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ - - - THE SOUL OF A CAT. - THE VENTURE OF RATIONAL FAITH. - CAPITAL LABOUR AND TRADE AND THE OUTLOOK. - SUBJECT TO VANITY. - THE TEMPLE OF MUT IN ASHER. (With J. A. GOURLAY.) - - - - - THE COURT OF - THE KING - - AND OTHER STUDIES - - - _By_ MARGARET BENSON - - - T. FISHER UNWIN - LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE - LEIPSIC: INSELSTRASSE 20 - - - - - _First published, 1913_ - - - (_All rights reserved_) - - - - -PREFACE - - “We wake with wrists and ankles jewelled still.” - - -There are many ways of entering fairyland; sometimes there is a door in -the ground, and he who goes through finds himself in some great hall -or carved and painted chamber. Sometimes we find the morning dew on a -flower and touch the eyes with it; or, like John Dietrich, catch the -cap which the fairies are flinging and put it on our own heads: and -immediately the little people spring into sight, we hear the sweetness -of their music and see the glitter of their hidden treasure and watch -the merriness of their games. - -The difficulty of the first method is to find the way, of the second to -find the will; and John Dietrich’s way is the venture of confidence. - -Children are continually in fairyland; grubbing in mother earth they -find the door; as they tumble on the grass the morning dew touches -their eyes and makes them pure. - -But sometimes the light of fairyland will shine suddenly about you; -and you know it is no common glow though it seems but the light of day -to many. So a child sauntering and playing at midday in the fields -may throw back its head and look into a deep blue summer sky, and be -seized on a sudden by a beauty which troubles the spirit, a greatness -which weighs upon the soul and wearies it, till the will fails. Or the -light may shine softer at evening through the nursery window, when -roofs of houses and branches of elder purple and darken against a sky -all purest primrose, and draw the young spirit with a half-comprehended -longing. Sometimes it comes with raptures of sunlight in a green -garden; sometimes cold and strange in moonlight when existence holds -its breath, and earth is lost in shadow or refined to vapour in -uncertain light; sometimes with a fullness of peace in pale emerald of -evening light jewelling the latticed windows of an old house, till -the enchantment thickens and the spirit pants with the presage of the -moment, waiting for a revelation which still delays. - -And sometimes it is filled with the very spirit of the little people: -curious, amused, fantastic--as when you walk on a sea-shore, and -suddenly, as with the touch of a charm, the pool at your feet becomes -a little inland sea: you see the rocky shores sloping down, the sandy -bottom, the submarine promontories through the blue: forests of seaweed -sway; a terrible creature with claws crawls out through pale coralline; -a lump of red jelly stretches out its arms and becomes now a living, -crimson flower, now a horrid polypus ravaging, irresistible; a fairy -being mailed in translucent armour floats on with antennæ fiercely -waving; and you are back in fairyland. - -Many times you may borrow the Red Cap to watch the boy Stevenson -titanically carve mountains and seas in a mere mess of porridge; or to -hear with Charles Kingsley when the grouse prophesies doom on the moor -or the empty gnat boasts himself beside the stream. But sweetest of all -it is to win for yourself the charm which opens your eyes in wood or -field, and to hear with awakened ear the voices of created things. - -These things should be at our command; but the things which children -know we must re-learn; and there is no truth more evident to the child -nor more surely proved to the philosopher than that all which we see -or hear depends for all its meaning on the soul of the world that -no man sees or hears. Let this book be taken as a short and simple -lesson-book in hidden meanings. Life gives us many lessons hard to -read, and problems painful to unriddle; but here in kind and simple -wise our lesson was made plain and the page was pleasant to read: for -to the eyes of everyday, in varying scenes, among diverse races, and -nations long since dead “the dear old nurse” showed us the things which -follow. She brought us through the Gates of Gold and sent us to float -on the serene water below a pleasant pasture; she taught us daily, -dwelling on the other side; led us by moonlight to the Court of the -King; showed us through sordid circumstance the silent romance on the -golden hill, as she had showed us romantic incidents, even in the -Desert City; then she surrendered us to the guardianship of her child -Imagination who, through the voices of others, brought back for us the -Oriental vision of the royal boat in the mysterious midnight solemnity. -And from this our older guardian led us back, and blotting out for -us sight and sound of a populous city by a transparent veil, made us -understand how to trust the mightiness of the life of which we were -part. - -Then she bade us close the book with the touch of pain and healing sent -to quicken into life, and again Imagination sent us, among the scenes -of daily life to look for the beautiful kingdom which endures: And we -must say it in what form we may, so that we catch the meaning of the -simple word, so early and so often said, from which our stubborn sense -rebels, “the prison is the world of sight.” - -Thus before memory should fade too much I wrote down some of the things -I had under guidance witnessed and experienced, and those which the -child Imagination had, as I say, taught in divers ways. - -For too often we let memory lie like a rabbit in a winter burrow; and -imagination buzzes on the surface of things like a fly on a pane: we -narrow our vision to our purpose and our hearing to intelligible -voices, till it needs a shock of strangeness or of beauty to bring -us back to realities--to rouse memory to throw open the door in the -hillside, to make imagination leave its sheet of glass for the world -of air and light, to let the beauties and the music of the infinite -creation reach the dull brain. - - MARGARET BENSON. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - PREFACE 5 - - - I - - THE GATES OF GOLD 17 - - - II - - THE LAKE WITHIN THE WORLD 27 - - - III - - A DESERT CITY 37 - - - IV - - THE OTHER SIDE 53 - - - V - - THE SILENT ROMANCE 73 - - VI - - THE COURT OF THE KING 85 - - - VII - - THE GOLDEN DAHABEAH 101 - - - VIII - - THE UNSEEN WORLD 125 - - - IX - - FROM THE BANK OF THE RIVER 135 - - - - -THE GATES OF GOLD - - - - -I - -THE GATES OF GOLD - - -The favourite game with Noah’s Ark was to make the nursery table -an Island of Delight. The Delight must have centred in the -looking-glasses, which, with frames discreetly hidden in moss, mirrored -in their unruffled surfaces forms of numerous ducks and geese and other -less decided species of birds. Certainly the other furnishings of the -Island were not particularly delightful, for it was thickly populated -with wild beasts of horrid aspect and defective limbs, and specimens of -that strange pinkish animal of which Noah is so fond, and which may be -classified with equal probability as a Dingo or a Wild Boar. - -My earliest ideas of an Oasis were combined of this Island of Delight -and of the description of Elim. The Oasis would be round as the nursery -table; it would be covered with lush green grass like a water-meadow. -It would have about seventy palm-trees standing at fairly regular -intervals, and between the palm-trees there would be (instead of the -looking-glasses) bubbling springs of water crystal-clear. - -When at last I saw an Oasis it was unlike my vision--my Vision of -Delight. There was no grass, but there were more palm-trees; there were -no crystal fountains, but trickles of brown water in sandy channels. -It came up to my ideal in one point only--there was none of that -indefiniteness of outline which is so repulsive to the simple mind. -Even as you can stand on the bridge above Mentone, and see a milestone -with France on one side and a milestone with Italy on the other, so -here you could take your stand and say “That on my right hand is -Desert, and that on my left is Oasis.” - -We had been travelling all day over the sandy, dusty plains of North -Africa; we had found little to eat at the shed-like stations except -blue cheese and musty bread; and towards evening we entered a rocky -defile. At the end of this defile they said were the Gates of Gold. -There was not much to see and the train loitered on. - -Suddenly we saw at the end of the valley two great escarpments of -reddish rock; at their foot leaned one palm-tree, behind was a glimpse -of blue hills. The evening sunlight fell golden on the Golden Gates -as we passed through and suddenly cried out, for everywhere below us -spread a sea of waving palm-trees. This was the Oasis. - -The Oasis lay on a plain so flat that the horizon to the south curved -like the horizon of the sea; and like little clouds resting on the -ocean here and there an oasis showed greyish green in the distance. -To the north lay a range of hills, which guarded the enchanted place -from the world of men. The flatness drew the soul with a strange -attraction, until one longed to go out over it farther than eye could -reach, anywhere or nowhere. The desert was in sandy ridges like a badly -ploughed field; isolated tufts of a heath-like plant grew here and -there; often there lay on the ground, as if spilled from a cart, yellow -apples, reddening invitingly. Evil fruits these are, full of dust and -bitterness, and even the camel will not eat them. - -But within the Oasis were golden oranges, juicy, like no oranges you -eat here, for they ripen on the dark, glossy trees; there were gardens -of purple fig and yellow citrons large as the head of an Arab child; -and the dates were sweet and large, and half transparent in their -candied clusters. - -But the enchanted time was when the moon was high, its silver light was -faintly tinged with rose; then one walked under the palm-trees, and -light and shadow lay like silver and ebony across the path, interlacing -and waving if some faint breeze stirred them, and the strange, sweet -odours of the East lay warm and thick, and the tinkle of Arab sounds -were in our ears, and the slim brown figures moved across the path; -and we went back to dream of silver lights and waving, ebon shadows. - -And one morning we went away from the Oasis, and passed through the -Gates of Gold, and back into the world of men, to find we had been but -two days away. - - - - -THE LAKE WITHIN THE WORLD - - - - -II - -THE LAKE WITHIN THE WORLD - - -There were other such enchanted places in this land, and one could -step aside from the high-road of life into a place of fantasy and -sweet illusion. The dawdling, leisured train set us down one day at a -wayside station. No houses were in sight, but behind a clump of trees -a cloud of steam rose into the air, as if all the world was a-washing. -The train dawdled away across the plain and we went towards the -trees to find ourselves in face of a shining, misty waterfall. The -white stone was streaked with grey and pink; the water boiled up in -little cauldrons and fell down in a cloud of steam; at the bottom of -the dazzling rocks oleanders bent over the warm streams, maiden-hair -fringed the banks; hoary olives with twisted trunks rose above the -oleanders. - -While we still waited there came up from the side of the steaming river -a splendid figure--a woman all in scarlet hung about with silvery -chains. “That,” said the guide, “is the washer-woman.” We climbed up -behind the waterfall, where it sprang in its strange excitement out of -the earth, and found a stone courtyard, built round with little empty -houses, one of these prepared for us. - -While we paused at the door a moment, I saw between the stones a tiny -plant--a plant to conjure with. It is like clover, splashed with -crimson. A poet who wore the Red Cap has said that this crimson is the -blood of Spring, and, to him, a drop of his own heart’s blood. - -A French family were living here in a clean, empty house with airy -guest-rooms; and while they regaled us with wild-boar’s flesh they -talked of the topics of their day: how the jackals howled about the -courtyard in winter; how the rugged way to the Roman City was not yet -open; how the locusts came down ten years ago, swarm upon swarm, till -you could hear the sound of the eating of their hosts by night; how -they devoured fruit and leaf and bark like the “army” in Joel, and then -melted like snow under the sun. - -In this strange, quiet land we slept well, and went out next day over -the pleasant undulating plain, watered by warm streams with their -bordering of oleander and fern, and sheltered by olive and carob. - -At last we came to a place where a grassy bank swept round us in a half -circle. “Fourteen years ago,” said the guide “the shepherds feeding -their flocks close by heard a great noise, and running hither saw the -earth had fallen in,” and he pointed as he spoke to a crack in the side -of the bank, just such a rent as a great tree makes when it falls, -tearing its roots out of the ground. “Into that,” he said, “you must -go.” - -So we went towards it in faith, and found when we got there a man could -easily pass in. As we descended into the hot twilight inside the ground -a bat flew out. We went down-hill until the guide stopped us, where -there seemed to lie at our feet a little blue dust over the stones, -for this was the still blue water of a lake that stretched away into -deep and deeper darkness. As we stood we heard out of the darkness the -splash of oars, a light shone on the water, and round the sheer wall -of rock on the right came a boat with a lantern at its prow. - -Into this we stepped, and it moved on into the deep shadows. Out of the -dark water rose great stalagmites like columns, and stalactites dropped -to meet them like heavy pendants from some vaulted roof. We moved round -rocky chambers where the lantern shone on the walls, and through halls -whose boundaries were unrevealed; all sense of direction and of time -was lost till a flash of lightning seemed to fall on the water. It -was only the reflected light of a grey day, filtered through the rent -in the earth down which we had come, but after that great darkness it -seemed dazzling. - -So we went up again to the light of day, and back through that -pleasant land. But when we came away, I brought with me a leaf of the -crimson-splashed clover “to witness if I lie.” - - - - -A DESERT CITY - - - - -III - -A DESERT CITY - - “He seems as one whose footsteps halt - Toiling in immeasurable sand - And o’er a weary sultry land - Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill - The city sparkles like a grain of salt.” - - -In the desert not twenty miles from Cairo there has sprung up the -mushroom growth of a wonder-working Health Resort. It possesses several -hotels, an “Establishment,” a golf links, and everything which a -really desirable Health Resort must possess.[1] But at the time when -I first knew that tract of sand on which it stands the case was far -otherwise. If one must have summarized the attractions of the place -they would have run:-- - - Fifteen pyramids Distant - One palm-tree Distant - Several ill-smelling streams Quite close - Flat sandy desert Near and distant - - A perfectly bare range of low hills beginning half a mile away and - reaching to Arabia. - -An English advertisement of foreign appearance bore witness to these -charms and ended with a striking appeal to leave for desert air “the -filthy, stinking city,” as it characterized Grand Cairo. - -We responded to the appeal, and went to stay in a hotel of large -corridors and wide balconies which looked out upon the fifteen -pyramids. Opposite was a small, bare house called Villa Mon Bijou. The -town was planted on a desert so flat that it seemed a German toy town -set upon a table; only there were no trees with curly green foliage -to be seen, because no one might plant a living thing unless by order -from Government.[2] Neat little pavements with new little gas lamps -traversed it rectangularly, and came every way to an abrupt stop in -heavy desert sand. There was a tiny English church, in which the few -English Christians staying in the place assembled. Little flat-roofed -villas like coloured cardboard boxes stood back from the pavement with -strange ornaments above the gate; here a stone eagle with knees turned -outwards, there a stuffed fox. Backwards and forwards we went under -noontide sun to the baths, and were told to rest in the Khedive’s -sitting-room, upholstered with yellow satin. - -One would have thought that nothing so brand-new could have been found -in sight of the pyramid of Unas and the cemetery of Sakkara. Even death -seemed glaringly recent. One day we drove in the desert and searched -the horizon for objects of interest. “What is that?” we said, pointing -to a small building on the outskirts of the town. “That,” replied Saïd -with pride, “is the new slaughter-house.” “And this enclosure?” “The -English cemetery.” “And that yonder?” “The Italian mortuary.” “What is -that which looks like a village on the hill?” “That is the Mahommedan -burying-place.” “And that beyond?” “Another graveyard.” Then he drove -us through a valley of Hinnom, where we marked, among other things, a -dead camel and a dead calf; and as we passed between the windmill and -the ill-smelling stream we saw three coffins lie, brand-new, unguarded -and alone. - -But towards evening a certain magic fell upon the place. We had gone -one day towards the single palm-tree in the desert. Miles and miles of -sand and air, unstirred by any slightest sound, seemed to lie between -us and that solitary tree, and when we reached it nothing could be seen -but the slot of beasts around it. - -Then as we turned the light began to change. Behind the fifteen -pyramids the sky glowed scarlet till it tinged the water of the -Nile with blood. Far up in the blue hung an ethereal arc of crimson -light; the heaven deepened to indigo where it met night; kindled -into indescribable sapphire where it touched the dying day; the -conflagration grew till at last earth glowed its answer to the sky with -a purple flood rising and deluging sand-hills and valley. - -As we neared the toy town with its twinkling lights the glow had died -away, and there gloomed before us dimly a knoll round which knelt the -camels of the Bedawîn; the figures which moved beside them with dark, -fine profile and the white cloths round their heads seemed like Magi -come to greet the Royal Child. - -Again we went up the hills which, like a low rampart, bordered the -plain to the east. At the foot they were carved into quarries of a -stone so white that it seemed like wedges cut in a great cream cheese. -The hills were barren, but for a few straggling plants and grasses -about; like a raised map or the skeleton of the world. Yet as we went -on we still found always in front, like the marks on the carriage -drive, a curving, trodden road, winding up vanishing out of sight. - -While we stood looking at the loneliness there came daintily stepping, -with embroidered shoes and black silk mantles round them, a party of -women to meet us; in front a man carried a child. I cannot but think -that they vanished into thin air when they had passed us. - -Or again one might descend towards the river, on the road between the -fields. There as the sky lights its fires towards evening the men would -leave their work and stand with dripping feet on their coarse outer -garment by the water’s edge to say the evening prayer. Near the town -stood a sycamore, under which, on a raised platform, some men prayed -loud and lustily five times a day. “God likit them very much,” said the -donkey-boy; but with cynical estimation of the importance of this fact -he added, “If I bray, where is my business?” - -A brougham on the road as we returned: Europe is at one side. But -within sat a woman golden haired, with her veil pushed back and a -cigarette between her teeth. That one passing, demure and dignified, -with an attendant wrinkled and stately, is a Princess walking for -her health. Here two in a victoria, with transparent veils and Paris -bonnets, show Turkish emancipation; and the shut and blinded brougham -with a Sudanese on the box gives sign of Arab propriety. - -And now as the town is reached we begin to see the meaning of this -modern city; those high walls are not merely meant to hide a garden -of flowers, nor does the lattice serve only to keep the sunlight from -fading Eastern fabrics. But behind the pierced work of that window -peers some Scheherazade at her story-weaving, wondering what life -means, “half sick of shadows.” There is the Pasha’s house, and the -whisper goes that these are slaves. - -A strange, pathetic figure trod this road daily, a man of aquiline -face, brown skin, and pointed beard, dressed in a fine embroidered -garment of scarlet with white cloth falling on his shoulders. - -Evening by evening he left the town, and squatting by one of the -sulphur streams looked out with level eyes towards the farthest horizon -of the south, his beads held idly in his hands. That man, we learned, -was the Pasha’s gatekeeper and came from the Sudan. - -One day a crowd ran and digged by the side of this stream. “What are -they doing?” we asked, and the answer was that they were making a -garden. It will surely blossom like the rose--but not on those flowers -will the gatekeeper gaze. - -In the evening when the moon has risen, and a great star close to -her tip hangs the banner of the Moslems in heaven, the magic is most -potent. Then the flat-roofed houses become palaces of marble, and among -the dark figures stealing through the street you look for Mesrour on -his secret errands, that he may show you the mysteries of life and -death behind veil and wall and lattice. Then one may well believe that -over at Sakkara under the sand-hills the dead are sitting in their -carven chambers, to play their games and cast their spells and eat and -drink. - -And yet in Europe they talk of freeing Egypt, and speak of the -“patriot” dervish; and at Gordon’s death-place, where the gatekeeper -was born and from which he was stolen, they entertain the Pasha with -the honours of a burgess. - -Who wakes? who dreams? Surely the Western eye sees clear, which looks -on the place in the searching noonday light; for it is the hand of the -Western that planted Villa Mon Bijou and raised the gas lamps. - -Leave it then with its neat realities and its fancied magic; draw away -over the sand towards the Great River and the dwellings of the dead; -and as one might see across the great ocean a line of reef built up by -tiny busy insects, so look back once to see over “immeasurable sand,” -“the city sparkle like a grain of salt.” - - - - -THE OTHER SIDE - - - - -IV - -THE OTHER SIDE - - -When Alice went through the Looking-glass, she sprang down into a world -where a change had passed on all familiar things; so that she must walk -away from the things she wanted to arrive at, and time ran backwards -and stopped. When a merman brought a girl through the translucent -mirror of the water to be his wife in the great caves below the sea, -she heard but dimly the church bell and the sounds of the world above, -and saw but seldom its sights when she rose through the bay. And when -Tom slipped into the stream he found himself in a great empty world -below the water; and it was not for some time that he was able even to -see the crowds of merry water-babies with which it was peopled. - -We had often looked into the looking-glass from a little village on -the bank of a great river. Sometimes this river was only a river of -muddy water; sometimes towards evening, when no wind ruffled its -surface, it was a mirror of burnished metal, reflecting the fires of -the west; sometimes a river of molten gold. Sometimes, when the sky was -bright above, it was a stretch of sapphire, edged with gold and set -in emerald, for beyond the sandy shore of the river lay a great sea -of green corn--few trees were there, but the waving corn, and animals -pasturing in luxuriant vetch; and beyond this again began the sandy -desert, which stretched away to the bases of the hills. - -So the River ran, dividing the country, and the two sides of it have -been called since the beginning of history _the two lands_. The River -was broad, and so deep that the reptiles of the one side have never -been able to cross to the other, and the lizards of the two lands are -of quite different kinds. - -But just at the edge of the desert you begin to see traces of quite -a different kind of life, the giant images of people long dead, and -their temples; behind in the cliff you may see, even from across the -river, the doors of rock-hewn chambers which are called the Eternal -Habitations. That side of the river is called the City of the Dead. - -Now the people of the village opposite used to speak of going over to -the “Other Side.” They crossed the river, and rode through the fields -of waving corn, and the men and women who moved among the fields, who -tethered the beasts to pasture, the little children who drove oxen -in the creaking _sakhieh_ seemed like figures of a picture to them; -and when they reached the City of the Dead, the desert places of the -Eternal Habitations, the Silent Citizens were unperceived by them, -their voices were unheard; or they seemed to see but rude stone -figures of an earlier age, dead bodies, unskilful paintings on the -wall. Before they could recognize the living men they had turned back -and recrossed the river, and never knew that they had been so near the -mysteries of the “Other Side.” - -But when you came to live in the country on the Other Side the aspect -of it was altogether different. At the back, the country was walled in -by precipices of rock, a great golden wall from which spurs ran down -on to the desert. If you climbed up the first ridge to get a farther -view you saw ridge on ridge of the same barren hills, with golden rocky -defiles, reflecting back and back again the eastern sunlight. At -certain hours of the day a stream of people, like small ants, poured -up one valley, over a hill and back again across the river; otherwise -there was never a sign of human life, except that, from peak to peak, -at far distances, you might see a little rock-built shelter, and the -solitary figure of a watchman who guarded the chambers of the dead. - -Between the hills and the cultivated lands are lower hills, half rock, -half sand, with sandy slopes. In the sand there gaped holes about the -paths as you rode or walked, and looking down you might peer into a -chamber, sculptured with images of men and women sitting at feasts; or -higher up in the hill you would see a squared doorway of stone facing -sometimes a great courtyard, and entering, you might find a pillared -chamber, gold vessels and jewelled boats painted on the wall; here a -picture of a man propelling his bark through marshy groves populous -with birds, there one driving the plough, and a woman sowing corn; here -a kingly child on his nurse’s knee; there the antelope caught by the -dogs and dripping blood from the hunter’s arrow. The longer one lived -here the more one began to see of these doors in the hillside and holes -in the ground, until it seemed that the whole mountain was honeycombed -with the rock-hewn chambers. Sometimes you might cross a courtyard -where the eastern slope of a hill lay in cool shadow; pass through one -painted room after another, chapel and shrine, shrine and chapel, and -so come out on the other side of the hill still golden in the light of -the setting sun.[3] - -Down below these rocks, clustering round the doorways of the lowest -slopes, are brown houses that a day’s rain can bring to ruin, villages -like a child’s building in sand; open yards, sheds thatched with straw, -erections in mud like gigantic mushrooms with upturned brim; and for -the more permanent part of the habitation these childish builders have -borrowed the rocky chambers. - -For the truth is that two races of people inhabit this country. The -one race are like merry, selfish children, though a mystery of -simplicity hangs about them like the mystery of the hidden life of a -child. In their villages ring sounds of men and animals all day and -all night; voices are hoarse with talking and singing; it seems like -a great orchestra of the inhabitants. Up to the middle of the night -donkeys chant their canon, cocks blow their clarion; all day you -hear the groaning of camels, the agitated voices of kids and lambs, -the lamentable cries of their mothers; towards evening the lowing of -kine as they return from the _sakhieh_, the fury of the dogs, the -provocative cry of the jackal, and sometimes as night falls the long, -weird howling of the wolf. Then when the moon is full the children -sing in chorus, apeing the elder boys at their work; the workers of -the day are the feasters of the night, and drum and song help on the -fantasia. Here is merriment and noise, complaint, vociferous demand, -swift anger, cheerfulness again; the ragged children and young animals -race and play from simple excess of vitality. - -Yet all this noise is like the chattering of a brook in a quiet place, -though it beats loud upon the ear it is as powerless against the great -quiet of the desert as lapping waves against a rocky shore. - -For the other race that lives here is silent, yet their words have -gone out into the ends of the world. You leave the villages and mount -the hill, and the noise comes fainter from below. You pass through -the chambers and see these greater people live their lives and learn -from the writing on the wall what “he saith.” You go towards evening -up some valley of golden rocks, where the sunlight reflected from the -sand shines on the shadowed cliff like the shining of a hidden lake, -and find in a fold of the hill a little empty temple of old time; or -descending rocky steps pass into a chamber where the walls present -great deeds of state, ambassadors clad in fine embroidered dresses -bring foreign tribute of nations long perished, precious things of gold -and gem, strange beasts from far countries. Or when clouds are chasing -through a moonlit sky you pass up a road between sand-hills towards -a temple of these silent races; its white pillars and colonnades now -flash out silver in a sudden gleam of light; and now the shadow of a -cloud passing with purple bloom over the hill above annihilates courts -and terraces, until it seems a magician’s wand is at work, destroying -and re-creating this ghostly building. - -Or at evening you ride through the place of tombs; the sun has sunk, -and a glow, orange and red, gives a sharp outline to the hills. Out of -the holes in the ground come an army of little shadows, sweeping faster -than the eye can follow them over the unlevel ground; and from the -rocks on the left peers out a sharp nose and ears, and the jackal runs -with heavy drooping tail across the path, and dodges behind a big stone -to peer out with insatiable curiosity as you pass; or in the night one -hears the cry of a wild cat caught and torn by the dogs. - -There are no merry flocks of birds here as in the cultivated land -below, and but little sound of their voices. The sparrow indeed, who -holds nothing sacred, chatters his minute affairs in the great silence; -the discreet wagtail runs about the ledges of the rocks, the black and -white chat bows on a stone. But the most part are seen on the wing; the -soft grey martin, with its atmosphere of domestic peace, hovers about -the Eternal Habitations, thinking to rear its young in the chambers of -the dead; the swallows made wild by their long flight, and loosed from -the restraints of the North, build their nests on the cliff, and sweep -at sunset, with musical screams, up and down the face of the rock; -great kites circle above in the hot noonday, let fall sometimes their -weird whistling cry, circling on and on till the vast blue engulfs -them; and once, high in the sky towards evening, there came a flight of -cranes, who wheeled, split, and recrossed, then gathered decision and -moved stately in black and white northwards. - -All luxuriance of life had vanished. Even as time seemed to have stood -still, and the people learnt their arts and crafts from those who -died six thousand years ago, so growth seemed to have vanished from -the visible world. Now and then as you wandered up a valley a single -blade of barley shone like a gem half hidden by a stone; or some plant, -desert-coloured, spread, dry greyish tufts, where the ground retained -invisible moisture. But life hung suspended, and the longer you dwelt -in the country the more you perceived that you were living in the City -of the Dead. Sometimes one forgot how days and weeks were passing, and -again a thousand years were but as yesterday, a watch in the night. The -noises of the outside world came but faintly: once, we heard the sound -of a nation weeping and the nations of the earth sorrowing with it, -and again the sober welcome to one who came to take upon him the burden -of the State. - -So they sorrowed four thousand years ago--not without hope. “A hawk -has soared--the follower of the god met his maker.” So the officers of -State welcomed the son who should take its cares upon him. And on that -very night when with grief and praise the nation laid to rest a Queen -and mother in the fullness of her age, our eyes looked on, resting -untouched, deep in the recesses of the rock, among the mystic symbols -of his faith, the body of a king swathed still and garlanded who died -three thousand years before that Queen was born. - -The sounds of war came dimly, for the pictures of far earlier wars -might meet the eyes day by day; and when we came on the bodies of those -men who warred and taught and lived and enjoyed, alert in the chase, -quiescent in the cool breath of their gardens, they lay quiet with -their ornaments perhaps upon them, a garland round their neck, a book -between their feet. - -But when at last returning we came down to the fields, we saw that -time indeed had passed. The corn which was but sprouting when we came, -was full in the ear, and the barley was yellowing to harvest; the -bean-flower had opened, spread its fragrance and passed; the purple -vetch still lingered; the poppy raised an imperial head. Clouds of -gay, thieving sparrows rose as we passed; the crested lark ran before -us, sprang and hovered with a few notes of liquid song; tiny birds -hung on the barley blades; the whistle of the quail came from the deep -green where it hid. The river spread before us like a highway paved -with sapphire; so we passed along it to the north and the voices of the -world we belonged to rung out clearer as we moved; and behind us there -faded like a dream that world whose present is four thousand years of -time with the insistence of its silent voices, the permanence of the -dead, the fleeting brightness of the living. - - - - -THE SILENT ROMANCE - - - - -V - -THE SILENT ROMANCE - - -The cock has been defying Achmet Bukdadi again to-day. - -It is a very little cock, hardly larger than a bantam; its plumage -betokens a fine disregard of race; if you were pressed you might -suggest a remote relationship to a game-cock. The cries of Achmet -Bukdadi drew me to the window to see the cock, feathers raised, -parading angrily and scornfully in front of him. Achmet’s cries -attracted two or three other children, and they ran about on our -terrace trying to hustle the cock off the edge of it. Finally one -courageous boy lifted him by the wings, and put him on the back of -another, whence he descended with feathers and dignity ruffled to the -ground, while the children dispersed shrieking and laughing. - -Achmet had a more prompt ally two days ago, when the cock was doing -sentry-go before their front yard gate and would not let Achmet go -home. His cries called his mother to his aid, and she came evidently -prepared for the crisis, for she straightway threw the wand which was -in her hand with unerring aim, and the cock fled vanquished down the -village rubbish-heap. - -Achmet’s mother is the most silent and most graceful woman in the -village. She is the youngest of Bukdadi’s two wives; the other must be -the mother of the sullen looking boy who lounges after our water-donkey -up and down the hill, for she is grey haired, while Achmet’s mother has -thick black plaits under her blue head veil. She is not indifferent to -matters of dress, for her outer wrapping is edged with crimson. She -seems far more active than the other woman, and all her movements, in -the most menial occupation, show an unconscious grace which tempts one -to the full use of unusual advantages of observation. Her grace is not -the tender quality often so-called, but a robust deftness and certainty -of action. She had to drive a lame donkey to the water the other day, -and in the strokes of her staff there was no more pity for the little -beast, halting and hurrying between two diverse pains, than for her -own burdened womanhood. The donkey must drink; she herself would bring -water for the household in the great earthenware pot balanced on her -head. Hesitation for the animal was as much out of the question as -help for her from the stepson who lounged past her with his stick held -behind his shoulders. - -So she urged the animal to the pool beneath the tamarisks, and I doubt -not mounted the hill again with all the speed that nature would allow. - -It is well, perhaps, that she is taciturn in a yard so populous--the -other wife, the two sons, Bukdadi himself, seldom seen, a girl, -daughter or slave, and the little Achmet, not to speak of the -animals--the white camel in the corner nearest the gate, the neat black -water-donkey next him, for the invalid one occupies the innermost -corner, the bullocks who move with deference at her bidding, besides -Achmet’s enemy the cock with his harîm, and the pigeons. I cannot be -sure that the brown sheep belong to this yard; they are always being -driven out, it is true, but whenever they are not being driven out -they are going in; and it appeared that the black goat with two kids -was preparing to spend the night in the hollow stem of the mud fungus, -on the family platform. What makes conclusions less certain, however, -is that the grey kid now dances up and down hill with the boy in the -yellow-striped dress, and that the sheep have more than once called on -us in our dining-room. - -Among all these Achmet’s mother moves, sober, taciturn, efficient. One -wonders when the transition comes from the laughing children to the -serious, burdened woman. Marriage is not the turning-point, for little -Saïda, with her round face and dark eyes and blue-patterned little -chin, is married, though she still prefers to live with her father -and be an occasional visitor at her husband’s house. And what there -is of demureness in Saïda compared to the ragged Ahm Ibrahim in wild -neglected gaiety is produced evidently not by her marriage but by her -blue dress and her red dress, her necklace and her earrings. - -The burden of the household, but above all the care of the children, -must work the change, and the trace of tenderness that there is about -Achmet’s mother seems all for Achmet. She exercises no repressive -influence on him, for Achmet, with his grubby black dress, his thin, -merry, ugly little face with even rows of little white teeth as he -lisps his greeting--Achmet, whether cantering about on a dhurra stalk, -or pretending to be a man carrying stones with his grandfather, or -climbing over his neighbours’ walls, is always gay. - -He takes the unexpected gift without that deliberate anticipation of -favours to come which is the first acquirement of the Arab baby; and in -his pleasures and his woes alike Achmet flies to his mother, conveys to -her his bakshîsh of sugar-cane; wails to her when the cock is warlike -and threatening. - -She had him with her one evening in the great mud chalice which forms -larder, barn, and summer chamber of the Arab house. - -The sun had gone down, but a certain unreal glow lay on the hill behind -the village; night was purpling the sky; her figure rose out of the -shadowy cup powerful and graceful, with the child crouched at her feet; -the work of the day was over, her heart’s desire was with her. - -To-day she could not come to the child when he called, for but two -nights ago there was a movement and whispering at midnight in the yard -of Bukdadi, and the wail arose of a voice smaller and younger than that -of little Achmet. So the mother rests. - - - - -THE COURT OF THE KING - - - - -VI - -THE COURT OF THE KING - - “Sealed within the iron hills.” - - -THE APPROACH - -The moon had risen as we rode down the steep, sandy road and threaded -our way through the little mud enclosures, where dogs, alive for the -excitement of the night, were prowling on the walls, listening with -ears pricked up for warnings of enemies, looking with vigilant eyes -for some alien to draw near. As we crossed into that part of the -village where they did not know us, a hoarse storm of barking filled -the air, but in a minute or two we had passed beyond this, and were -out among the sand-hills between the tombs, where the whole plain was -flooded with a misty, uncertain light. - -Song and merry-making had begun in the villages, for the full moon is -festival for those who have no artificial light; but the thud of the -drums, the sound of children’s voices, and the barking of dogs faded -and died away, and we came out into a great emptiness, threading a -narrow path between the tumbled heaps; on each side the tombs gaped -dimly at our feet. On the right hand we looked far away over desert -and field to the great dark pylons of a temple across the river: on the -left rose sharply the sandy spur of the hill we were rounding. No one -was in sight and on no side could we see any human habitation. - -We turned round the spur of the hill into a boulder-strewn valley, -arid and silent. Even at midday there is little sign of life here, -except on certain days when a stream of people traverse it and return; -otherwise you find but a chance sown seed, dropped in a favourable -spot; a withering leaf let fall by some traveller, a stray pigeon, -an “evil bird” the Arabs think, who has left the abode of men and -foresworn its final service for their use, to live its hermit life -in the wilderness. Otherwise you see but the golden limestone rocks, -radiating back the golden Egyptian sunshine. Then all is bare and keeps -no secret, for the very shadows are broken by reflected light. - -But now the colour of the limestone showed but faintly in the white -light, and the shadows fell dark from boulder and rocks. The valley was -empty of life, penetrated with mystery. - -There, as we turned, at an angle of the path was a figure, solitary in -the moonlight, a man in a long, dark garment, holding by him his donkey -with a sheepskin over its saddle. He stood waiting here to give us a -message, and having delivered it went back by the way we had come. -And now looking back we could see nothing of mud village or vast old -temple, no living man of the present, no stone memorial of the past; we -were alone in a world half lit, wholly empty, stone and sand as far as -eye could see, with an empty sky above where the moon had quenched all -lesser lights. - -The valley, which we began to see more clearly, was narrow and rose -steeply on each side; the ground beneath our feet looked like a -river-bed, on each side of which were large boulders casting deep -black shadows. From time to time the rocks which walled the valley so -crossed one another that it seemed the way was barred in front of us, -until, as we neared it, we found the road swept round a corner of rock. -Turning such a corner, again we found three people silently awaiting -us, two of them the companions who had preceded us; the third a slim -figure all in white, on foot with a staff in his hand. He was a man of -some authority over the guard, who, as we learned later, had lain seven -years in jail for a murder. He ran with noiseless steps in front of us, -and so heralded we went on to where the valley broadened out a little, -branching to the right; and at the entrance a great rock jutting out of -the cliff seemed in the moonlight to take a fantastic likeness to some -colossal statue of a king, carved, you would have said, by an Egyptian -of old. - -Our path led us to the left, and here the cliffs began to close in on -us, until they rose like a wall on each side of a narrow way, at once -so steep and so rugged that we could not tell whether the defile was -natural or the work of man. It led at last to where a wall of rock, -barring the way, had been rudely cut through. In this rough gateway -we halted--behind us the rocky passage through which we had come; -before us, as far as we could see, the hills ran down, like a great -amphitheatre, to a floor of tumbled sand-heaps. - -Here, as we halted, one of our companions blew a whistle, and the next -moment the hills re-echoed to the sound of a gun. After a moment’s -pause he blew again, and now dark-draped figures suddenly appeared -among the desolate rocks, running noiselessly towards us. After a -moment all but two or three dispersed again, and we rode forward with -the white, slim figure still in front and two men in flowing dark -garments following us behind. - -The great emptiness, the silence, the white, uncertain light by which -the rocks showed faintly tinged with the rose and golden colour of the -limestone, the dark figures suddenly appearing, noiselessly moving, -dispersing into the night; the strange, desolate valley winding through -all apparent barriers into the heart of the hills seemed like a dream. -Surprise vanished; even observation was dulled. - -So we went forward to the head of the valley, ringed about with sheer -mountain walls, and perceived that here the mounds which lay about the -way gaped with open mouths, and we could see the moonlight shining -through grated doors on the painted walls of galleries that ran down -deep into the hill. - -These we passed, and dismounting from our beasts, climbed a little -mound, turned behind a projecting buttress of rock, and found ourselves -opposite to a door cut in the cliff. One of the men who had followed -us went in and left us for a while sitting without in the moonlight. - - -THE PRESENCE - -The great square doorway of the tomb showed inky black on the face of -the cliff, golden in the moonlight; the shaft plunged steeply downwards -into the rock, with short, high steps roughly cut against one wall. -Down these we slowly made our way, the utter darkness pricked here and -there by the flame of a candle in some one’s hand. A flame shone for -a moment on the little shelf cut back into the rock, where the string -bed and wooden pillow of the guard still wait his return, just where he -went out and left them so many thousand years ago. The steps stopped -suddenly on the edge of a pit deep and broad; by the light of a candle -held high we could dimly see the red and blue patterns painted on its -plastered walls. A hole had been broken through them on the opposite -side of the chasm, and crossing by a little plank bridge we crept -through, still deeper into the heart of the cliff. On the other side of -the wall the tunnel still went downwards, but the faint light showed -a deep alcove to the right. On the rocky floor lay a man, bound upon -a crumbling wooden boat; the painful bonds still held the brown and -shrivelled limbs, his knees drawn up, his head pressed back. - -Again down the steep stairway we climbed, feeling along the rough-cut -wall, and again at the bottom a chamber opened to the right. A man, a -woman, and a girl lie here, side by side in the middle of the floor. -They have suffered the indignity of stripping; wounds are in their -breasts; the thick black hair upon their heads makes the small faces -and limbs seem the more withered and unhuman. It is a pitiful sight. - -For the third time the rock-hewn ladder led us down to the square-cut -doorway which opened to the presence-chamber of a king of Egypt. -The great hall stretched back into the darkness, dimly lighted by -hidden candles, heavy with the silence of three thousand years. The -faint gleam fell upon the painted walls and pillars of the eternal -dwelling-place, the work of such far-off hands clear and fresh with -the freshness of yesterday. On the great square pillars Amenhetep -still feels the fullness of his earthly life and draws strength from -mysterious communing with the life-giving god. On the walls a huge -papyrus seems unrolled where the spirit of the King, in the depth -of the nether world, may learn to wrestle with and overthrow the -serpent-monsters brought by each gloomy Hour. At the back of the hall -two steps lead down to the high vaulted space where stands the great -rose-granite sarcophagus. In the darkness and the silence the lid or -the inner coffin was raised and we were in the presence of the King. - -The dim-veiled figure lay before us, wrapt in an inexpressible mystery, -the impress of his kingship still upon him, crowned with the greater -dignity of death. Far from the loved Egyptian sunshine, from the sweet -breath of the north wind, from the fleeting ways of men, the inhabitant -of the rock holds his solemn court through the centuries which have no -power upon him, with the records of his life and warfare around him and -the mimosa wreaths upon his breast. - - [Since the above was written plunderers penetrated into the tomb in - the absence of the guard, and the body of Amenhetep II. no longer - rests in his Eternal Habitation.] - - - - -THE GOLDEN DAHABEAH - - - - -VII - -THE GOLDEN DAHABEAH - - -I - -Mahmoud was crouched on the hot sand, in the shade of a great granite -figure of an old Egyptian king. On the temple wall at his right hand -was incised the figure of a large hawk, which had a certain life-like -stare and stride. Below lay the thick green lake; a little pied -kingfisher fluttered and poised over it. Mahmoud’s donkey had strayed -a little from his owner, and was pulling at some few blades of thin, -straggling weed. The Father of the Box, who had ridden him out to -Karnak, had some foolish prejudice against tying up donkeys’ heads. -Mahmoud explained that it prevented the donkey from having a headache; -but Englishmen always want things done in their own way. - -Yet as Mahmoud sat dreaming, his eyes fixed on the water, he was -thinking of none of these things. Rather he was dreaming of little -Fatma, Fatma whom he had run and played with as a little girl--but now -she was old enough to be married. He had seen Fatma as they came out; -she was carrying a waterpot on her head, and the slender fingers were -tipped with henna; her hair was plaited over her brow, and the large -blue-studded rings in her ears swayed as she ran. She held her veil -firmly in her small, white teeth, and only gave him one look, half shy, -half merry, as she passed. - -Mahmoud’s father and mother said he must be married this year. He -wished to marry no one but little Fatma; but ah! the marriage-gift. - -He stared at the smooth, thick water, and droned a little song--“Oh, -great holy gardener, let me into the garden.” - -The sun was just going down, and as Mahmoud turned idly, half lost -in his dreaming, the rays struck the wall where was the image of the -hawk, and the boy stood breathless, for the hawk was all of gold, and -as he looked the fierce head turned a little. - -Through his maze came the voice of the Father of the Box, crying to him -to get the donkey. - -A moment he started and turned, but when he looked again there was -nothing but the stone hawk carved on the wall; and again came the call, -as the Englishman and the “box” came round the corner. - -Mahmoud gasped and panted: “The chicken is all gold.” - -“Oh, the Golden Horus,” said the Father of the Box, giving the precious -camera into Mahmoud’s hand. “Hurry up and fetch the donkey, it is -getting dark and damp.” - -But he did not ask how a donkey-boy should know the Golden Horus. - - -II - -The donkey-boys were sitting outside the garden gate of the hotel. -Mahmoud was against the wall, and taking little part in the flow of -conversation. - -“Achmet Effendi will make a big feast to-morrow,” said one. “He has -killed two sheep for his feast.” - -“Achmet Effendi is a very rich man,” said Maouad. “Twenty years ago he -sent his servant Gameel Gameel to dig up stones to burn and lay on his -field, there where the English ‘_sidi matre_’ (cemetery) is. But Gameel -Gameel found a big pot of golden coins and he brought them all back -to Achmet Effendi. For ten years they kept them hidden, then Achmet -Effendi sold them for much money and became a rich man. That is why he -loves Gameel Gameel better than his son.” - -“Gameel Gameel was a great fool,” said Hassan flippantly. “Why should -he not become a rich man himself?” - -Kuku was speaking aside to Gorgius. - -“I tell my lady that I am going to be married to Fatma. I say to her: -‘I see Fatma in the market; I like her very much and she likes me very -much. My mother has arranged it for me. If you give me an English -handkerchief,’ I say to my lady, ‘you shall come to my wedding.’” - -“Liar-boy!” said Gorgius scornfully; but Mahmoud feared and sighed in -himself. - -A small figure passed, and the light from the gas lamp showed a -withered old man with a white beard and smiling face. He wore a red -tarbûsh turbaned about with white, and trailed a green Mecca robe. - -“Mohammed Mohassib will have a big feast,” said one. “He has killed a -camel and made soup with it. The Father of the Beard said to Mohammed, -‘You will feed three hundred men to-morrow.’ Mohammed said, ‘I hope -more than that.’” - -“Mohammed Mohassib slept in the temple of Mut,” said Maouad; “that was -fifty years ago, when he was a boy. When the sun rose Mohammed saw the -golden hawk. He ran to catch it, but it flew away into the sky. One -feather fell from it, and Mohammed Mohassib picked it up. Then he was -a lucky man and became rich, and went to Mecca, and to-morrow he will -feed more than three hundred men.” - -Mahmoud’s ear was caught for the second time. “If a man sees the golden -bird will he be a lucky man?” he asked. - -“Oh, it is Mahmoud who will be the lucky man,” said Hassan, with a -laugh. “To-morrow when Abu el Haggag has done with his boat we shall -set it to float on the Lake of Karnak, and Mahmoud shall see it all -golden at night and shall swim out to it. But Mahmoud, he never speaks, -so when the sun strikes it the boat of Abu el Haggag will be for -Mahmoud.” - -A short silence followed this profane speech, for Abu el Haggag is the -great Saint of Luxor, and next day they held the procession of his -sacred boat. - -But Hassan rattled on. “I make no feast to-morrow. Everybody else -makes a feast. Nasr says every time he sees his lady he says, ‘I have -bought some sheep and some rice, and my wife has mixed them together -like so; my wife has made balls of them, and she will put them in the -oven to bake them. And I will bring you some.’ Every time he says that. -I would not eat Nasr’s balls. I will go to Rameses Bar and spend money -and drink whisky.” - -His audacity succeeded in making itself heard, which was chiefly what -he wanted. And he went on: “Mahmoud gets little money from the Father -of the Box. I say to the Father of the Box when he rides my donkey, -‘Give me more money, this is too little.’ He says, ‘Then I will beat -you.’ But I say to the Mother of the Nose, ‘I am a very poor boy; I am -only ten years old. My father send away my mother. Who shall give my -mother money?’ Then she says, ‘Oh, poor boy! here is some money.’ I -like these ladies. They are very foolish.” - -“Did you say to the Mother of the Nose ‘My mother is married again to a -rich man,’ oh liar?” asked Mahmoud. - -But at this moment the garden gate opened and a babel of voices -arose:--“Take my donkey; take my donkey; de best donkey in Luxor.” -“Here is Whisky and Soda; no donkey like so.” “Never you believe -nobody. Liar boy. Here is Rameses. Every day he win a race....” - - -III - -Abu el Haggag’s boat had come and passed, poor starveling -representative of the longest pedigree in the world. Here passed of old -the Sacred Bark of the gods, carrying the precious images and emblems, -the king burning incense before it, the oxen lotus-garlanded for the -sacrifice. - -And later this sacred bark lent its outward form to the Ark of the Most -High God, bearing the simple symbols of justice and mercy, in the long -desert wanderings and in the Holy Land. - -And now the poor, sordid boat on its little truck passed round; -charcoal burned instead of incense. With the feeble tradition the -Arabs tell that it was the boat in which Abu the Saint went to see his -friends. This is all that is left in their minds of that most ancient -idea--this and the golden vision of the boat at midnight on Karnak Lake. - -The droning noises of Arab music had died down as Mahmoud ran through -Luxor; a few beggars cleared the remnants of the feast of Mohammed -Mohassib; while the old man stood smiling in his doorway over the -memory of his lordly hospitality. He nodded kindly to Mahmoud running -by. - -After he passed the house Mahmoud paused; he did not dare to go on this -way--highway though it was--for he feared above all the afreet-haunted -bridge that he would have to pass. So he turned, and running down a -narrow way crossed the empty market-place and came out on the field -road. - -The light was dying down and the sky was cloudy; there was little mist, -but the scent of beanfields hung heavy on the air; the corn-blades -rustled as his dress swept them, running. The barking of the village -dogs died down behind him into silence, so that he started and nearly -fell when a little cue-owl mewed suddenly from a carob-tree. - -Down into the cutting, and as he mounted again his heart leaped into -his mouth, for a dark figure rose up above the corn. Then he remembered -that it was only the great lion-headed statue that sat lonely in the -fields, and he took courage again. - -When he came to the road he paused, debating. Which of the two ways to -the Lake? By the one he would have to pass the spot where that fierce -golden bird had turned to look at him yesterday. By the other way he -must go up the dark sphinx avenue, a very haunt of afreets. To go on -either way was dreadful; to stay here not less so; to go back, he was -persuaded now, would be to lose Fatma. - -He turned to the left and entered the sphinx avenue. A half-grown moon -struggling with the clouds now and again threw straggling and sharp -shadows of the palm leaves across his path, but more dreadful was the -dry rustling of the leaves on high when a cloud passed; before him -loomed the great arch. On each side the sphinxes--crouched like strange -creatures with narrow, beak-like noses--seemed in the darkness ready -to spring. And that great black nodding palm-tree, surely that was an -afreet too, and might catch him. But up the path bordered with horror -he still ran. - -Now he must turn to the right, before the arch is reached; and but a -short way farther pass those four images of great old kings mutilated, -but not the less uncanny and fearful in this dim light. They seemed -to look down on the little figure still running; but he had passed in -safety, and there lay the lake, black and still like the pool of ink in -which men saw strange visions. - -Mahmoud said his prayer and praise and lay down to sleep by the -lake.... - - -IV - -The first time Mahmoud woke the moon had won the battle, and was -shining on the temple, turning all to unreal, ethereal building, -faintly roseate, a temple seen in a dream. Mahmoud looked towards the -lake and all was still; the moon made a white sheet of water. - -The second time Mahmoud woke the moon was down, but from the lake came -a light--soft, lambent, golden. He looked towards it, and oh the glory, -the wonder! a golden boat was riding on the water. - -Mahmoud had often seen under the hot sun, in some ripple of desert -sand, a sudden sheet of water. In the middle it was clear water, -bright, reflecting the edge of cultivated land. At the margin it was -uncertain; no eye could tell where it melted into the shaking haze of -heat. So here, the middle of the boat was clear and distinct, and on -the deck was standing one single figure; but at the stern and prow, -though he saw figures he saw them dimly, the outlines of them melted -into the gold reflection of the water. - -The central figure on the deck he marked from head to foot. He says -he has seen the face outlined on some temple wall, but he can never -find it. He says, too, it was not unlike the father of Gorgius the -Copt donkey-boy. But the father of Gorgius, he added, was only a -fellah-man; this was a great man, greater than the Khedive of Egypt, as -great as a King of England. - -But of one thing he is certain: not only had the figure a strange -erection on his head, but he wore a lion’s tail behind. Mahmoud’s eyes -were so riveted to the figure that he could not tell how the boat -moved. He said something about a sail and something about oars; but -this he knew, that though it moved on with its golden reflection over -the lake, it stirred no water in front and no widening ripple ran out -behind. - -It was drawing to the shore, and suddenly, as if it had come within -focus, the prow was clear to him, with a man leaping down to the land, -a coil of golden rope upon his arm. - -What passed next was but the work of an instant. Without rising to his -feet Mahmoud shot down like a snake among the stones, and as the man -coiled the rope round a rock he seized it. - -As the lightning flash strikes across the sky, so the man with this -golden light upon him leaped back; and into the waters of the lake, -into the golden reflection, sank the boat, without sound or ripple. - -Mahmoud was standing alone by the black pool in the light of the stars -under the lonely night. But by the light of the stars he saw in his -scarred and bleeding hand the strands of the golden rope. - - * * * * * - -Now Mahmoud trails the Mecca robe through the streets of Luxor, but -they say that Fatma wears the golden rope. - - - - -THE UNSEEN WORLD - - - - -VIII - -THE UNSEEN WORLD - - -The whole world had faded and darkened to a uniform tint, black and -dingy. The woman who stood there could hardly say whether this tint -were brown or grey, for there was no colour to contrast it with, -nothing but her own black dress seen through the same sordid medium. -In front of her, rather lighter in tint, she could see a few inches of -parapet, on which her hands were lying, and dimly could discern the -ground at her feet. If she leant over the parapet she could not see the -water, but where she believed it to be, something like the shadow of a -ripple moved across the dusk. - -And as for want of contrast she could determine no colour, so for want -of distance she could determine no size. All she saw could be enclosed -by four small walls; all she could not see might reveal miles of -river-bank, streets of stately houses. It was not the Infinite but the -Indetermined that she looked upon. Noises had sunk into a hoarse murmur -and swell, dulled as by this thick, heavy medium. No such monotony of -existence could be conceived; a world of shadows, an Isle of Voices, -would be life itself to this. And yet she believed herself to be -standing in the heart of the greatest city in the world, but a few -paces removed from streets where men and women were moving up and down; -where her face was turned across the water stood (she believed) a great -house, a town garden where wood-pigeons built, and where she had seen -lilies of the valley flower, saying softly to herself:-- - - “Here in dust and dirt, oh here, - The lilies of His love appear.” - -How was it possible that in so short a time such a change should fall, -such a swallowing up of life as the centuries cannot bring to the -cities of the south? Truly she was living by faith in a blank world of -existence. A foot or two of parapet each side of her hands; a foot or -two of gravel each side of her feet--beyond that limit nothingness. Yet -by faith she would move in this void. - -She turned to the left and walked along the path which appeared step -by step as she paced, until in front of her the shadow of a building -fell upon the fog: cornerwise it rose, fading into mist, and likewise -vanished a few feet above her head. - -Yet she believed that this was a great tower; she believed that the -building stretched away from her, and that at that moment, gathered -inside its halls, was the Council of the Nation. It is strange if you -think of it, how firmly she believed in that invisible building, in -those inaudible deliberations, in the reality of its connection with -the isolated fragments of parapet and path--fragments without visible -support, the only things she could see and the least of all she -believed in. - -For as she believed in a present invisible, so she believed in a future -uncreated; that she should presently return from where she stood to -her own house, the fragment of visible world opening before her and -above her, closing behind her as she went. If she could not find the -way, other figures dawning on her, fog-enwrapped, would direct her. -Strange--how she believed in their existence, though she could neither -see nor hear them, how she trusted in their good faith, though she -knew neither who they were nor whence they would come, in their greater -knowledge, though all men were more or less astray in the same fog. - -So resting peaceably in this belief she looked again over the parapet. - -A shadow on blank colourlessness in front; a splash as of water to the -ear. The shadow deepened, defined itself, and out of nothingness grew a -great black barge; it seemed to float on water that she could not see. -Two men, one with body bent forward, one with body swayed back, swung -a great oar at the stern. They were steering in this indistinguishable -world; in this chaos of a world, threading their way between dangers -undiscerned till ruin was impending. Now the black outline was -opposite to her and now the barge was shortened, and still the two -figures swayed and bent, swayed and bent, at their steering. The dark -vision faded into darkness again. Out of nothing grew that barge, into -nothing it went. - -The third thing she saw was this: just below the parapet where the fog -was least thick, out of nothingness came a bird, like a little white -spirit. It was smaller than a seagull; its wings, delicately shaded -with brown, showed a sharper outline, and round them ran a dark line; -the head too was dark. - -A moment it hung below her lightly poised, white wings uplifted, head -down-bent, feet down-dropped towards the flood below. Then this too -vanished in the mist. - -And having seen that she went away content. - - - - -FROM THE BANK OF THE RIVER - - - - -IX - -FROM THE BANK OF THE RIVER - - -I - -In a room in an hotel of the south some one was lying ill. It was -March, and an airless, parching heat lay outside, the palms drooped -yellow leaves, the bee-eaters chattering on a carob-bush dived -luxuriantly into corn so green that they were in no wise distinguished -from it; they turned and fluttered like butterflies, and from the -bronze wing feathers a sheen of gold rippled over their emerald in the -sun. - -Inside the room was as cool as it might be; when, from time to time, -the shutters were opened the glory of gold and green outside flashed -into sight. Outside life was heavy with heat, luxuriant, substantial; -bounded, limited and weighed down by its very fullness. - -Inside life had dwindled to a thin thread of consciousness, or rather -it seemed like two strands worn nearly to breaking lying side by side. -The one, the actual physical consciousness of a corporal life ebbing, -of breath drawn with difficulty; of physical sensation not perhaps -actually painful, but almost altogether wearying--a consciousness -close to that mysterious land of delusions, where the physical symptoms -are set apart from the personal consciousness and become external -antagonistic forces. It was not intolerable because it was becoming a -thing more and more external, more separate from that other spiritual -consciousness with which it was still lightly entwined. - -And that other thread of being, how shall one describe it? It was not -quite continuous, for now and again the physical sensation numbed it; -now and then, when times of refreshment came, the other like a stream -rose and engulfed it. - -Compare that old image of the Rhone and the Saone. The one flows on, -blue, clear, transparent; the other side by side, turbulent, muddy and -swift. The man lying here seemed to himself to be both, but most of all -the clearer thinner stream. The turbulence, the force of the other is -daily less and less himself, more and more an alien power to which he -yet jealously clings in the body of this death, and will not, cannot -part from it. - -And from time to time comes a new impulse of the stronger torrent--its -yellowing waters tinge the blue--it is fuller, and there is a sense of -well-being; and yet that transparent river of spiritual being, clear as -crystal, has been sullied, it has disappeared. - -Such little trivial things too will give him back the life which is -his power and his bondage;--the cup of iced coffee, that he looks for -and can drink when other food nauseates, this makes him feel that he -lives again and yet kills that clearer, sweeter, finer, life;--as much, -in a sense, as overpowering bodily discomfort kills it--more, perhaps, -for the more it overpowers the more external it is, the less it is -himself. - -If only he can keep from fear, for that kills all. And yet this thread -of consciousness, which I have called spiritual, is not thinking any -thought, it is seeing visions, and these visions are not of another -world but of the sweeter, purer things of this world, transfigured -and serene. He is a child again in a Cornish lane, and the grass is -deep and dewy, the banks are high, crowned with little bushes nearly -bare of leaf, for it is spring; deep in the grass are primroses, long -stalked and growing by the handful, you can thrust your hand into the -damp grass, rich in little ferns and unnamed leaves, and pluck them so; -between the primroses there are violets--are they purple or grey or -blue?--and here and there a celandine, golden yellow. Or he is a boy -sitting on a rock; his feet are bare, the sea is shallow round him, the -ripples run out, and the sun shining through them laces the fine sand -below with gold. He tells the nurses that as soon as he is well he will -go to the sea and dip his feet in it. - -Then he thinks of music that he knows, and it comes with unutterable -sweetness of cadence like music heard in dreams. - -And this radiance lies not only on things imagined but on things seen. -The roses brought into the room are the roses of Dorothea; the scent -of the palm, in blossom outside, fills the room with an ethereal -fragrance; and oh, those clusters of waxen palm flowers that his -friends bring in and place in the green jug, surely it must come from -that tree whose very leaves are for the healing of the nations! - -It is only at night that the horror comes--no nameless horror, but the -horror of fighting with the darkness; it is hot, and it stifles. The -doctors have been, and he knows their report is not good though no one -has told him so. The medicine bottles begin to change; there is one -like a knight’s head near the candle, he knows it is only a cork in it, -but it is very like the armoured head of a knight; and the darkness -comes near, it oppresses all, laying a heavy hand on the world: it is -too near, too heavy, all round us and weighing on us above. - -He sleeps, to shout at the people in the room--he asks the nurse to -expel the Arab who is beside the bed. He knows they are not there at -all, but he does not want to sleep, for he will wake in that horrible -strangle of breath. It is so long, if only there were any light at -all! Weary, interminable length, and some lines of a poem run in his -mind: - - “An hour or two more and God is so kind - The day will be blue in the window blind.” - - * * * * * - - “Thank the kind God the carts come in.” - -They come in so early in London.--Only an hour or two is quiet in the -night, and you would know that the world is alive again, one would not -have to keep the darkness long at bay; but here the night is day-long. -Brandy--what is the good? The smell is nauseating; but it is at his -lips, and he drinks. Has he slept? but it is black and still and dark, -the dogs howl and scuffle past the window. Hours more to come, hours -of the blackness. One of these people who is about the room sits down -by the bed. She is not terrifying. She is only an old lady with grey -hair, but she expects something. She must be told to go away; they will -not tell her, and he is angry with urging. But of course she was not -really there, it was only a dream; so he must have slept again, and the -minutes must have passed. - -There is a hint of grey in the sky, the whisper of a breeze in the palm -leaves--dawn is coming. Now there is one hour of horror to go through, -for the windows must be shut; he cannot breathe--he cannot live like -this for an hour. The door into the passage may be opened, and the -nurse’s step falls cold and echoing on the stone outside; no one else -is moving, it is all grey and cold; he knows how that empty passage -must look. This is better, for the blackness is going. - -He sees the palm-trees outside above the muslin blinds; all the world -is still and dead, its light gone out, but it can be rekindled. From -the other window nothing can be seen but colourless sky, but the sky -itself begins to kindle into life. - -Suddenly something falls across the muslin blind; a bar, and a dot of -sunlight, of that molten gold of Egyptian sunshine before the day has -dried it into dust of gold. Oh the extraordinary beauty of that gold! -Has sunshine been always in the world before, and yet we never knew it -was like that? The darkness has passed, the light shines, the rapture -and the beauty of the light spreads and broadens; the sky is awake, -the garden is alive, the night is gone--and now the window towards -the south is thrown open, and very faint and fair, a delicate violet -light lies on the hills beyond the river. The air is blown in sweet, -fragrant, unspeakably pure; and that carob-tree on which the birds sat -yesterday is green and fresh, and below is the blue-green of the corn -into which they dropped. - -An Arab is riding on his camel along the dyke, they are outlined -against that purple hill. So people still live and move outside; they -can move then, they can go where they wish. But he sees the sun, and -the breath of heaven comes in, and the night is passed. He is tired -with this warring against the night, but the light has come and the -clearer, brighter river is flowing again. This is day. - -What is this land where the spirit has been living? Is it the land of -Beulah or the Valley of the Shadow? Which is most real? He knows which -is most substantial, but why is it most real? The instrument is more -substantial than the melody and infinitely less real. Yet when the veil -grows thin which hides the glory of the vision, agonizing we entreat -that it may not be removed and show the glory of the face. - - -II - - “The luminous - Star-inwrought, beautiful - Folds of the Veil.” - -Many have written of the journey down to the dark river; few have told -of the road backward from the river’s brink; a road of sudden ecstasies -and sordid pitfalls. - -For the radiance lay over the earth when he turned his face to it -again. Nothing was ever sweeter than the sight of palm leaves against -the blue upon the banks of the Nile. As the shores streamed past, -with the rosy hills and yellow lights above them, winged feluccas -furling sail, or sweeping like birds across the blue, with the roaring -of the swiftness of their motion, he could lie and look--weary with -rapture--watching the figures sprung from the old Palestinian story--a -rugged Peter wrapping his fisher’s cloak about him, or urging his -fellows “I go a-fishing.” But slowly, imperceptibly, the walls of the -world closed in again; the sun beat pitilessly down; the heavens were -brass, the earth iron. Now and again they would open out at the sight -of the sapphire sparkle of the Mediterranean, or the deep, green growth -under blossoming orchards of France. The wind became the life-giving -breath of the spirit, and the soul would “beat” against “mortal bars,” -seeing infinite power, infinite possibility, lying but just beyond the -frail partition; a touch, and he might glide from the mountain side -down over the trees that slept in the noonday of the valley; a hand on -the eyes, and they would see to the truth that lies beneath form and -colour of earthly things; a finger on the ear, and he would hear the -very meaning of the wind and of the trickle of the stream--the gift of -tongues would be an imaginably natural incident. - -Yet next day, at some trifling ailment, death and its terrors compass -him about, and the man shakes as with ague under the fear of it and -shame of cowardice. Or he wakes every morning seemingly refreshed, -only to fall by midday into a gulf of blackness and mistrust, sordid, -not tragic, not dignified; and he sits tongue-tied, seeing a sneer -in every smile, marvelling that men do not see the loathsomeness and -terror that lie around them, but walk unconcerned among the dangers -that encompass. Then again life returns in full flood, and the fears -and the terrors are as the fabric of a dream. - -A long, strange way, full of inexplicable joys and sorrows, hopes and -fears--a far longer path to travel in the spirit than that by which he -came “out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt,” to the cool airs and -sweet quiet of an old English country house in wooded downs touched -by the freshness of the sea. There in the south, after the first -bound towards health, life had stood still; the parched, sapless land -could yield dry, clear air, sharp bright sunlight, but no refreshment -of health and of spirit, nothing that could be compared to the misty -mornings, and soft dewy evenings of a mild English spring. There the -spring brings no refreshment; March reaps her harvest and the palm -leaves hang dry and yellowish: here all life was stirring after the -winter sleep, and earth was striving in her own finite way to make all -things new. It was long since he had seen an English spring, and the -eye could not be satisfied with gazing. - -He first noticed it when, looking on the wintry copses, he saw that a -thin ripple of life had run over the ground; among brown stalks and -withered leaves so slight a flush of green that you could hardly say, -“It is here” or “It is there,” nor surely know the change was worked to -the outer eye or noted by the reanimate perception. Then the fine veil -of skeleton branches against the sky, through, under, beyond which he -could see the blue downs of the coast, thickened, and they warmed in -colour; till the brown of the elm became purple, and the brown of the -beeches red, and the willow golden: then the elm burst into its little -purple rosettes but the others stayed. And now crept out those little -silvery creatures which the children call palms; like little downy -animals, so sweet, so comfortable that the child must half believe they -are alive. Early in April the clumps of crocus in the turf, purple and -yellow, were dying, but the daffodils were beginning to take their -place, strewing the rough grass with flowers of milky gold. A week -later the snake-heads were drawing themselves out of the turf, with -head curved downwards like a swan preening its breast; primroses were -waking in the lanes, the larch was hanging “rosy plumelets,” the silver -leaf buds of the apple were out, and the flower of the peach. - -This was cuckoo day, and punctual to the moment they hooted in the -wood below; they had come in good time for the later nests, for the -wagtails had taken their last year’s tenement again in the ivied wall, -and the untidy sparrows were littering lawn and garden. - -Again a week, and the cherry buds showed fawn coloured; two days they -stayed so, then a little tree burst into flower. Two days more, and -the orchard looked as if a snow shower had lightly fallen. At last one -windy day white blossoms came drifting down among the scarlet tulips, -and after this a rose-tinge passed over the trees, like a faint sunset -on the snow, and then the glory was gone. But the expanding spirit -could not bewail the glory gone, for warmer weather came with sun -like summer, so that the plum-tree on the wall burst into flower one -morning while one sat under it; a purple iris appeared, the blackthorn -whitened, and in the garden beds the peonies and lilies shot up, -anemones dozed half their radiant life away in royal groups, purple and -scarlet. The remembrance of trembling and helplessness fell from the -man, and he laughed to see the peacock’s grave and measured dance and -the fierce cock chaffinch wooing in his bright spring coat. - -So the spring returned, unfolding infinite new delights, sometimes -hurrying, sometimes delaying; the copses clothed themselves in foliage -as light as a birch grove, with all fine gradations of colour from -the grey palms grown old, to the golden oaks beginning, and all life -and all activity responded. Though storms and chill might check the -budding, the renewal of the spring moved in man and nature, as man and -nature shook off the memory of death and winter, warmed and revivified -in the waxing power of the sun. - -And the world found voice for its joy, and it was joy to lie awake -in the hour before dawn, while the last fine song of the nightingale -still lingered in the memory, and hear the untutored song echo from -bush to bush; when the thrush and the blackbird waked, and the starling -chattered, and the cock chimed in with the lusty bar of music of his -bugle call, and all in chorus welcomed the day, and ceased. - -And one morning, as the man leaned out of his window to drink the -sweet air of growing things, he saw suddenly, that the desire of -spring was satiate. The trees had burst their buds and made a glory of -golden leaves. Life no longer pulsed, stayed, hurried on, but flowed -in the full tide of summer. Summer would burst into glories of beauty -and odour on this side and on that, but the fresh impulse of spring -was over. And the man leaned out and revelled in it. The rough bank -had covered its scars with lush green grass; and leaves, stems, and -branches were hidden. He revelled in the odorous, sun-warmed air, in -the pleasant kindly earth with its beauties, in the sight and sound of -the happy living things, and he looked away towards the hills, but they -were hidden. Then all at once he saw the blindness of content, and he -cried out “Oh my soul, where are the heavenly horizons and the distant -misty hills?” - -For while he gazed, the veil had fallen; at first translucent, radiant; -threads fine as gossamer shining with light, so that they seemed but -to illuminate the distance. Then the veil was inwrought with flowers -and as each new beauty came, he said “This is God’s work, and I can -see Him in this; all this symbolizes the light of His countenance, and -I see Him in His world.” And of each human interest and activity he -said, “This is God’s work, for it is the work of His children.” So it -fell fold on fold, thickening imperceptibly, full of sweet odours as it -fell, and the voices of birds; and he did not know that the focus of -his view was contracting, and that he was beginning to look not through -the veil but at it. And he did not see that there was another hand at -work and other threads in the web, grosser, more earthly, and darker -yet; and that as it was woven, warp and woof, other hands threw the -shuttle. - -So it fell, closing out the heavenly vision, hiding too the clouds and -darkness round God’s seat; and he found himself gazing on the veil -which men call this world. Then with a great struggle he cried, “In -the time of our wealth, good Lord deliver us.” - - -III - -The year came round again, and this man had found no contentment for -mind or heart. He was such a one as had always believed in the unity -of God and nature, had held the visible universe to be the robe of -His glory and the material to be like clothing which partly hides and -partly reveals the form. - -He was a man whom God had chastened a little in the flesh, so that He -might know the Hand that touched him, yet had given him no loathsome -evil thing to be with him, so that he must hate even the body that -served him. God had given him amply of the good things of life and -sufficiently of its sorrows to make him know the first were good. He -had early looked into the empty tomb and seen that since even the body -can in time elude it, it would be beyond reason and belief to dream -that the soul can be prisoned by it. For the soul is not even prisoned -by the body, seeing that it can walk among the stars, thread the secret -places of the earth, or dive into the seas, while the eyes of the body -stare upon a book; or it can fight battles and go through many strange -adventures and visit distant lands while the eyes are closed and the -body is laid upon the bed. Therefore this man had long believed in his -soul, though he had not taught his life and his fancies that though the -material sometimes appears to be greater and stronger and older than -the spiritual, yet that this is merely as the flower seems to one who -looks not below the ground to be more vital than the root. So though he -believed this, the man could not understand what the truth of the world -might be. For he saw that although one may rejoice in its beauties -and delight even in wholly innocent things, believing truly that they -come from God, yet many men thus go astray. And when he listened to -the voices of the dearest of God’s servants he became all the more -perplexed. For one cried “All things are yours, things present as well -as things to come”; but another said “Love not the world.” Again he -heard one say “It is good to be here; let us build three tabernacles”; -and saw him that said it straightway led into the dust and turmoil of -the incredulous crowd. And the sweetest voice said now “Deny yourself,” -and now “Consider the lilies, consider the birds.” - -This man was a man who always loved the water. It made a great calm in -his mind to see the sea spread calm before his feet; the storm of the -sea filled him with life, and to die in the sea would, he thought, be -like a child sinking to sleep in its mother’s arms. Clear, translucent -water drew him with a great longing, and he dreamt often that he -should bathe, but as his feet touched the water it ebbed away. - -Now near his home there spread, embowered in trees, a great lake; on -one side ran a road neglected and seldom used, from this the lake -ran up curving out of sight. Half-way up towards the curve there -stood a great oak, and beneath this he often bathed. So being in this -perplexity he went out one summer morning, passed through the sleeping -village and by the church, and went down to the lake. - -And in the turn of the year again the woods were lightly foliaged, and -the branches shone golden between the leaves; the ground beneath the -oak was carpeted with hyacinths and primroses, here and there a late -anemone starred it. - -Here he undressed and plunged from a little height into a pool. His -hands parted the water, which rushed up him as he plunged; then he gave -himself up to the element and it lifted him to the surface. Again he -warred with it, yet moved by means of it, with steady stroke parting -it, and again he turned over and yielded himself up to it, and the -least movement was enough to keep him floating on the surface, and he -rejoiced in the coolness and the purity. So when he had finished he -returned and clothed himself, and moved on through the edge of the -wood, looking at the water, wondering at a transparency that was so -deep and the strength of the fleeting thing, till he came to where a -little wooden bridge spanned the overflow from the lake; and upon the -bridge a boy of about eight years old was sitting. - -He was not dressed like a village child; his cap lay beside him with a -little spray of reddening oak stuck into it, and he was staring at the -water. - -“Who are you, my son?” said the man as he passed. - -“I’m a king,” the child replied; “but I’m an outlaw just now, you see,” -he went on, laying his hand on his cap. “I can’t get into my kingdom.” - -“Where is your kingdom?” asked the man. - -“Come down here and you’ll see,” he said. - -The man sat down beside him on the plank. - -“I can’t see much,” he said, “the water is dazzling.” - -“Ah, those are the sun’s messengers,” said the boy; “the sun sends -messengers millions and millions of miles to the lake and they -telegraph back to him. But you must look in another place.” - -The man slipped into the humour of the child. - -“Now I see your kingdom,” he said; “it has greenish forests waving, -strange transparent creatures move silently about.” - -“No, that’s not my kingdom,” the child answered, “why, I can get in -there; but it is not like what you think. Those are slippery fishes and -the bottom is all slimy. You must fix your eyes tight and not let them -slip to see my kingdom.” - -“Now I see it,” said the other; “it has beautiful blue sky, trees -stretch twigs into it which glisten like gold--one spreads leaves like -jewelled glass with the sun shining through; one stretches budding -twigs made of ruby; it is far, far below the shine and the fishes; and -yet when I look it is quite close to us.” - -“Yes, that’s my kingdom!” cried the child. - -“But isn’t it just like that behind us?” said the man, to test him. - -The boy looked round. “No, that’s out-of-doors,” he said. “My kingdom -is much more happy and safe, and the sky is more shining and the leaves -glitter.” - -“But it’s the sun’s kingdom down there even where the shine is,” said -the man. - -“Yes, I know it’s his,” said the boy; “if he didn’t send messengers -down there it would be all inky black and dreadful; but they won’t let -his messengers get through, only a few of them, a little yellowish, -greenish light.” - -“Is out-of-doors his kingdom too?” then said the man. - -“Of course it’s his,” said the child; “if he wasn’t there it would be -dark, and the wind would sob and the trees shake their branches.” - -“And what about your kingdom?” - -“Oh, he makes that for me,” said the child, “to be all my own.” - -The man sat a moment looking at the water and was silent; a starling -chattered on the boughs above; far away came the cry of the cuckoo; at -the right hand of them there was a little rustle as a snake slipped -over dead leaves and through the new living shoots of spring, and -paused. - -The man turned to the child. - -“But is it real?” he said. - -“It’s just as real as the sun and the water and out-of-doors,” said the -boy steadily. - -“But you said some day you would get in,” answered the man, tempting -him. - -The boy turned and looked at him, and his eyes were like a great stream -with the sun shining through. “And that’s just as real as me,” he said. - -The man snapped the twig he held in his hand, the snake silently -slipped through the brake and was gone, and the man stood up, yet -paused a moment looking down at the shining world, then he got up. - -“Goodbye,” he said, “I must go and look for my kingdom. I had one once -but I lost it.” - -“Shall you be able to get in?” asked the boy. - -“Not just yet, perhaps,” he said, “but I can look at it till I find -the way in.” - -So he went back through the wood, remembering that it was written, -“Out of the mouth of babes thou hast perfected praise.” - - - - - The Gresham Press, - - UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, - WOKING AND LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[1] Some of the descriptions which follow include things seen on our -later visits. - -[2] In later years we found a garden open to the public, and even trees -in it. - -[3] More than one such outer chapel of a tomb we made to serve as a -place for Christian worship. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Archaic or alternate spelling which may have been in use at the time - of publication has been retained. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Court of the King, by Margaret Benson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COURT OF THE KING *** - -***** This file should be named 61478-0.txt or 61478-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/1/4/7/61478/ - -Produced by David E. Brown and The Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, -and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive -specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this -eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook -for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, -performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given -away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks -not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the -trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. - -START: FULL LICENSE - -THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE -PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK - -To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free -distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work -(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full -Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at -www.gutenberg.org/license. - -Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works - -1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to -and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property -(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all -the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or -destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your -possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a -Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound -by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the -person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph -1.E.8. - -1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be -used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who -agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few -things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See -paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this -agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. - -1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the -Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection -of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual -works in the collection are in the public domain in the United -States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the -United States and you are located in the United States, we do not -claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, -displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as -all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope -that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting -free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm -works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the -Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily -comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the -same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when -you share it without charge with others. - -1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern -what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are -in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, -check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this -agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, -distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any -other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no -representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any -country outside the United States. - -1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: - -1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other -immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear -prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work -on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the -phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, -performed, viewed, copied or distributed: - - This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and - most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no - restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it - under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this - eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the - United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you - are located before using this ebook. - -1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is -derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not -contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the -copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in -the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are -redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project -Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply -either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or -obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted -with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution -must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any -additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms -will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works -posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the -beginning of this work. - -1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm -License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this -work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. - -1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this -electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without -prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with -active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project -Gutenberg-tm License. - -1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, -compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including -any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access -to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format -other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official -version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site -(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense -to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means -of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain -Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the -full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. - -1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, -performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works -unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. - -1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing -access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works -provided that - -* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from - the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method - you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed - to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has - agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid - within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are - legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty - payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project - Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in - Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg - Literary Archive Foundation." - -* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies - you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he - does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm - License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all - copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue - all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm - works. - -* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of - any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the - electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of - receipt of the work. - -* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free - distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. - -1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than -are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing -from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The -Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm -trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. - -1.F. - -1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable -effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread -works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project -Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may -contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate -or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other -intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or -other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or -cannot be read by your equipment. - -1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right -of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project -Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all -liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal -fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT -LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE -PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE -TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE -LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR -INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH -DAMAGE. - -1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a -defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can -receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a -written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you -received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium -with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you -with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in -lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person -or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second -opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If -the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing -without further opportunities to fix the problem. - -1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth -in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO -OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT -LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. - -1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied -warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of -damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement -violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the -agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or -limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or -unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the -remaining provisions. - -1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the -trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone -providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in -accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the -production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm -electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, -including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of -the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this -or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or -additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any -Defect you cause. - -Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm - -Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of -electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of -computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It -exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations -from people in all walks of life. - -Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the -assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's -goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will -remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project -Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure -and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future -generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see -Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at -www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit -501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the -state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal -Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification -number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by -U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. - -The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the -mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its -volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous -locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt -Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to -date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and -official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact - -For additional contact information: - - Dr. Gregory B. Newby - Chief Executive and Director - gbnewby@pglaf.org - -Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg -Literary Archive Foundation - -Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide -spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of -increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be -freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest -array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations -($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt -status with the IRS. - -The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating -charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United -States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a -considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up -with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations -where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND -DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular -state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate - -While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we -have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition -against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who -approach us with offers to donate. - -International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make -any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from -outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. - -Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation -methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other -ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To -donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate - -Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. - -Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project -Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be -freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and -distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of -volunteer support. - -Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in -the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not -necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper -edition. - -Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search -facility: www.gutenberg.org - -This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, -including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary -Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to -subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. - |