She
by
H. Ryder Haggard
CHAPTER I--
MY VISITOR
THERE are some events of which each circumstance and
surrounding detail seems to be graven on the memory in
such fashion that we cannot forget it, and so it is
with the scene that I am about to describe. It rises
as clearly before my mind at this moment as though it
had happened yesterday.
It was in this very month something over twenty years
ago that I, Ludwig Horace Holly, was sitting one night
in my rooms at Cambridge, grinding away at some
mathematical work, I forget what. I was to go up for
my fellowship within a week, and was expected by my
tutor and my college generally to distinguish myself.
At last, wearied out, I flung my book down, and, going
to the mantelpiece, took down a pipe and filled it.
There was a candle burning on the mantelpiece, and a
long, narrow glass at the back of it; and as I was in
the act of lighting the pipe I caught sight of my own
countenance in the glass and paused to reflect. The
lighted match burned away till it scorched my fingers
forcing me to drop it; but still stood and I stared at
myself in the and reflected.
"Well," I said aloud, at last, "it is to be hoped that
I shall be able to do something with the inside of my
head, for I shall certainly never do anything by the
help of the outside."
This remark will doubtless strike anybody who reads it
as being slightly obscure, but I was in reality
alluding to my physical deficiencies. Most men of
twenty-two are endowed at any rate with some share of
the comeliness of youth, but to me even this was
denied. Short, thick-set, and deep-chested almost to
deformity, with long, sinewy arms, heavy features,
deep-set gray eyes, a low brow half overgrown with a
mop of thick black hair, like a deserted clearing on
which the forest had once more begun to encroach; such
was my appearance nearly a quarter of a century ago,
and such, with some modification, is it to this day.
Like Cain, I was branded--branded by nature with the
stamp of abnormal ugliness, as I was gifted by nature
with iron and abnormal strength and considerable
intellectual powers. So ugly was I that the spruce
young men of my college, though they were proud enough
of my feats of endurance and physical prowess, did not
even care to be seen walking with me. Was it wonderful
that I was misanthropic and sullen? Was it wonderful
that I brooded and worked alone, and had no friends--
at least, only one? I was set apart by Nature to live
alone, and draw comfort from her breast, and hers
only. Women hated the sight of me. Only a week before
I had heard one call me a "monster" when she thought I
was out of hearing, and say that I had converted her
to the monkey theory. Once, indeed, a woman pretended
to care for me, and I lavished all the pent-up
affection of my nature upon her. Then money that was
to have come to me went elsewhere, and she discarded
me. I pleaded with her as I have never pleaded with
any living creature before or since, for I was caught
by her sweet face, and loved her; and in the end by
way of answer she took me to the glass, and stood side
by side with me, and looked into it.
"Now," she said, "if I am Beauty, who are you?" That
was when I was only twenty.
And so I stood and stared, and felt a sort of grim
satisfaction in the sense of my own loneliness; for I
had neither father, nor mother, nor brother; and as I
did so there came a knock at my door.
I listened before I went to open it, for it was nearly
twelve o'clock at night, and I was in no mood to admit
any stranger. I had but one friend in the college, or,
indeed, in the world-perhaps it was he.
Just then the person outside the door coughed, and I
hastened to open it, for I knew the cough.
A tall man of about thirty, with the remains of great
personal beauty, came hurrying in, staggering beneath
the weight of a massive iron box which he carried by a
handle with his right hand. He placed the box upon the
table, and then fell into an awful fit. of coughing.
He coughed and coughed till his face became quite
purple, and at last he sank into a chair and began to
spit up blood. I poured out some whiskey into a
tumbler, and gave it to him. He drank it, and seemed
better; though his better was very bad indeed.
"Why did you keep me standing there in the cold?" he
asked, pettishly. "You know the draughts are death to
me."
"I did not know who it was," I answered. "You are a
late visitor."
"Yes; and I verily believe it is my last visit," he
answered, with a ghastly attempt at a smile. "I am
done for, Holly, I am done for. I do not believe that
I shall see to-morrow!"
"Nonsense!" I said. "Let me go for a doctor."
He waved me back imperiously with his hand. "It is
sober sense; but I want no doctors. I have studied
medicine, and I know all about it. No doctors can help
me. My last hour has come! For a year past I have only
lived by a miracle. Now listen to me as you never
listened to anybody before; for you will not have the
opportunity of getting me to repeat my words. We have
been friends for two years; now tell me how much do
you know about me?"
"I know that you are rich, and have had a fancy to
come to college long after the age that most men leave
it. I know that you have been married, and that your
wife died; and that you have been the best, indeed
almost the only friend I ever had."
"Did you know that I have a son?"
"No."
"I have. He is five years old. He cost me his mother's
life, and I have never been able to bear to look upon
his face in consequence. Holly, if you will accept the
trust, I am going to leave you that boy's sole
guardian."
I sprang almost out of my chair.
"Me!" I said.
"Yes, you. I have not studied you for two years for
nothing. I have known for some time that I could not
last, and since I realized the fact I have been
searching for some one to whom I could confide the boy
and this," and he tapped the iron box. "You are the
man, Holly; for, like a rugged tree, you are hard and
sound at core. Listen; the boy will be the only
representative of one of the most ancient families in
the world, that is, so far as families can be traced.
You will laugh at me when I say it, but one day it
will be proved to you beyond a doubt, that my sixty-
fifth or sixty-sixth lineal ancestor was an Egyptian
priest of Isis, though he was himself of Grecian
extraction, and was called Kallikrates. His father was
one of the Greek mercenaries raised by Hak-Hor, a
Mendesian Pharaoh of the twenty-ninth dynasty, and his
grandfather, I believe, was that very Kallikrates
mentioned by Herodotus. In or about the year 339
before Christ, just at the time of the final fall of
the Pharaohs, this Kallikrates (the priest) broke his
vows of celibacy and fled from Egypt with a princess
of royal blood who had fallen in love with him, and
was finally wrecked upon the coast of Africa,
somewhere, as I believe, in the neighbourhood of where
Delagoa Bay now is, or rather to the north of it, he
and his wife being saved, and all the remainder of
their company destroyed in one way or another. Here
they endured great hardships, but were at last
entertained by the mighty queen of a savage people, a
white woman of peculiar loveliness, who, under
circumstances which I cannot enter into, but which you
will one day learnt if you live, from the contents of
the box, finally murdered my ancestor, Kallikrates.
His wife, however, escaped, how I know not, to Athens,
bearing a child with her, whom she named Tisisthenes,
or the Mighty Avenger. Five hundred years or more
afterwards the family migrated to Rome under
circumstances of which no trace remains, and here,
probably with the idea of preserving the idea of
vengeance which we find set out in the name of
Tisisthenes, they appear to have pretty regularly
assumed the cognomen of Vindex, or Avenger. Here, too,
they remained for another five centuries or more, till
about 770 A.D., when Charlemagne invaded Lombardy,
where they were then settled, whereon the head of the
family seems to have attached himself to the great
Emperor, and to have returned with him across the
Alps, and finally to have settled in Brittany. Eight
generations later his lineal representative crossed to
England in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and in
the time of William the Conqueror was advanced to
great honor and power. From that time till the present
day I can trace my descent without a break. Not that
the Vinceys--for that was the final corruption of the
name after its bearers took root in English soil--have
been particularly distinguished--they never came much
to the fore. Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes
merchants, but on the whole they have preserved a dead
level of respectability, and a still deader level of
mediocrity. From the time of Charles II. till the
beginning of the present century they were merchants.
About 1790 my grandfather made a considerable fortune
out of brewing, and retired. In 1821 he died, and my
father succeeded him, and dissipated most of the
money. Ten years ago he died also, leaving me a net
income of about two thousand a year. Then it was that
I undertook an expedition in connection with that,"
and he pointed to the iron chest, "which ended
disastrously enough. On my way back I traveled in the
South of Europe, and finally reached Athens. There I
met my beloved wife, who might well also have been
called the 'Beautiful', like my old Greek ancestor.
There I married her, and there, a year afterwards,
when my boy was born, she died."
He paused awhile, his head sank upon his hand, and
then continued,
"My marriage had diverted me from a project which I
cannot enter into now. I have no time, Holly--I have
no time! One day, if you accept my trust, you will
learn all about it. After my wife's death I turned my
mind to it again. But first it was necessary, or, at
least, I conceived that it was necessary, that I
should attain to a perfect knowledge of Eastern
dialects, especially Arabic. It was to facilitate my
studies that I came here. Very soon, however, my
disease developed itself, and now there is an end of
me." And, as though to emphasize his words, he burst
into another terrible fit of coughing.
I gave him some more whiskey, and after resting he
went on,
"I have never seen my boy, Leo, since he was a tiny
baby. I never could bear to see him, but they tell me
that he is a quick and handsome child. In this
envelope," and he produced a letter from his pocket
addressed to myself, "I have jotted down the course I
wish followed in the boy's education. It is a somewhat
peculiar one. At any rate, I could not intrust it to a
stranger. Once more, will you undertake it?"
"I must first know what I am to undertake," I
answered.
"You are to undertake to have the boy, Leo, to live
with you till he is twenty-five years of age--not to
send him to school, remember. On his twenty-fifth
birthday your guardianship will end, and you will
then, with the keys that I give you now" (and he
placed them on the table), "open the iron box, and let
him see and read the contents, and say whether or not
he is willing to undertake the quest. There is no
obligation on him to do so. Now, as regards terms. My
present income is two thousand two hundred a year.
Half of that income I have secured to you by will for
life contingently on your undertaking the
guardianship--that is, one thousand a year
remuneration to yourself, for you will have to give up
your life to it, and one hundred a year to pay for the
board of the boy. The rest is to accumulate till Leo
is twenty-five, so that there may be a sum in hand
should he wish to undertake the quest of which I
spoke."
"And suppose I were to die?" I asked.
"Then the boy must become a ward of Chancery and take
his chance. Only be careful that the iron chest is
passed on to him by your will. Listen, Holly, don't
refuse me. Believe me, this is to your advantage. You
are not fit to mix with the world--it would only
embitter you. In a few weeks you will become a Fellow
of your College, and the income that you will derive
from that combined with what I have left you will
enable you to live a life of learned leisure,
alternated with the sport of which you are so fond,
such as will exactly suit you."
He paused and looked at me anxiously, but I still
hesitated. The charge seemed so very strange.
"For my sake, Holly. We have been good friends, and I
have no time to make other arrangements."
"Very well," I said, "I will do it, provided there is
nothing in this paper to make me change my mind," and
I touched the envelope he had put upon the table by
the keys.
"Thank you, Holly, thank you. There is nothing at all.
Swear to me by God that you will be a father to the
boy, and follow my directions to the letter."
"I swear it," I answered, solemnly.
"Very well, remember that perhaps one day I shall ask
for the account of your oath, for though I am dead and
forgotten, yet shall I live. There is no such thing as
death, Holly, only a change, and, as you may perhaps
learn in time to come, I believe that even here that
change could under certain circumstances be
indefinitely postponed," and again he broke into one
of his dreadful fits of coughing.
"There," he said, "I must go; you have the chest, and
my will will be found among my papers, under the
authority of which the child will be handed over to
you. You will be well paid, Holly, and I know that you
are honest, but if you betray my trust, by Heaven, I
will haunt you!"
I said nothing, being, indeed, too bewildered to
speak.
He held up the candle, and looked at his own face in
the glass, It had been a beautiful face, but disease
had wrecked it. "Food for the worms," he said.
"Curious to think that in a few hours I shall be stiff
and cold--the journey done, the little game played
out. Ah me, Holly! life is not worth the trouble of
life, except when one is in love--at least, mine has
not been; but the boy Leo's may be if he has the
courage and the faith. Good-bye, my friend!" and with
a sudden excess of tenderness he flung his arm about
me and kissed me on the forehead, and then turned to
go:
"Look here, Vincey," I said, "if you are as ill as you
think, you had better let me fetch a doctor."
"No, no," he said, earnestly. "Promise me that you
won't. I am going to die, and, like a poisoned rat, I
wish to die alone."
"I don't believe that you are going to do anything of
the sort," I answered. He smiled, and, with the word
"Remember" on his lips, was gone. As for myself, I sat
down and rubbed my eyes, wondering if I had been
asleep. As this supposition would not bear
investigation, I gave it up, and began to think that
Vincey must have been drinking. I knew that he was,
and had been, very ill, but still it seemed impossible
that he could be in such a condition as to be able to
know for certain that he would not outlive the night.
Had he been so near dissolution surely he would
scarcely have been able to walk, and carry a heavy
iron box with him. The whole story, on reflection,
seemed to me utterly incredible, for I was not then
old enough to be aware how many things happen in this
world that the commonsense of the average man would
set down as so improbable as to be absolutely
impossible. This is a fact that I have only recently
mastered. Was it likely that a man would have a son
five years of age whom he had never seen since he was
a tiny infant? No. Was it likely that he could
foretell his own death so accurately? No. Was it
likely that he could trace his pedigree for more than
three centuries before Christ or that he would
suddenly confide the absolute guardianship of his
child, and leave half his fortune, to a college
friend? Most certainly not. Clearly Vincey was either
drunk or mad. That being so, what did it mean? and
what was in the sealed iron chest?
The whole thing baffled and puzzled me to such an
extent that at last I could stand it no longer, and
determined to sleep over it, So I jumped up, and
having put the keys and the letter that Vincey had
left away into my despatch-box, and stowed the iron
chest in a large portmanteau, I turned in, and was
soon fast asleep.
As it seemed to me, I had only been asleep for a few
minutes when I was awakened by somebody calling me. I
sat up and rubbed my eyes; it was broad daylight--
eight o'clock, in fact.
"Why, what is the matter with you, John?" I asked of
the gyp who waited on Vincey and myself. "You look as
though you had seen a ghost!"'
"Yes, sir, and so I have," he answered, "leastways
I've seen a corpse, which is worse. I've been in to
call Mr. Vincey, as usual, and there he lies stark and
dead!"
CHAPTER II--
THE YEARS ROLL BY
OF course, poor Vincey's sudden death created a great
stir in the college; but, as he was known to be very
ill, and a satisfactory doctor's certificate was
forthcoming, there was no inquest. They were not so
particular about inquests in those days as they are
now; indeed, they were generally disliked, as causing
a scandal. Under all these circumstances, as I was
asked no questions, I did not feel called upon to
volunteer any information about our interview of the
night of Vincey's decease, beyond saying that he had
come into my rooms to see me, as he often did. On the
day of the funeral a lawyer came down from London and
followed my poor friend's remains to the grave, and
then went back with his papers and effects, except, of
course, the iron chest which had been left in my
keeping. For a week after this I heard no more of the
matter, and, indeed, my attention was amply occupied
in other ways, for I was up for my Fellowship, a fact
that had prevented me from attending the funeral or
seeing the lawyer. At last, however, the examination
was over, and I came back to my rooms and sank into an
easy-chair with a happy consciousness that I had got
through it very fairly.
Soon, however, my thoughts, relieved of the pressure
that had crushed them into a single groove during the
last few days, turned to the events of the night of
poor Vincey's death, and again I asked myself what it
all meant, and wondered if I should hear anything more
of the matter, and if I did not, what it would be my
duty to do with the curious iron chest. I sat there
and thought and thought till I began to grow quite
disturbed over the whole occurrence: the mysterious
midnight visit, the prophecy of death so shortly to be
fulfilled, the solemn oath that I had taken, and which
Vincey had called on me to answer to in another world
than this. Had the man committed suicide? It looked
like it. And what was the quest of which he spoke? The
circumstances were almost uncanny, so much so that,
though I am by no means nervous, or apt to be alarmed
at anything that may seem to cross the bounds of the
natural, I grew afraid, and began to wish I had had
nothing to do with it. How much more do I wish it now,
over twenty years afterwards!
As I sat and thought, there was a knock at the door,
and a letter, in a big blue envelope, was brought in
to me. I saw at a glance that it was a lawyer's
letter, and an instinct told me that it was connected
with my trust. The letter, which, I still have, runs
thus:
"Sir,--Our client, the late M. L. Vincey, Esq., who
died on the 9th instant in --- College, Cambridge, has
left behind him a will, of which you will please find
copy enclosed, and of which we are the executors. By
this will you will perceive that you take a life-
interest in about half of the late Mr. Vincey's
property, now invested in consols, subject to your
acceptance of the guardianship of his only son, Leo
Vincey, at present an infant, aged five. Had we not
ourselves drawn up the document in question in
obedience to Mr. Vincey's clear and precise
instructions, both personal and written, and had he
not then assured us that he had very good reasons for
what he was doing, we are bound to tell you that its
provisions seem to us of so unusual a nature that we
should have felt bound to call the attention of the
Court of Chancery to them, in order that such steps
might be taken as seemed desirable to it, either by
contesting the capacity of the testator or otherwise,
to safeguard the interests of the infant. As it is,
knowing that the testator was a gentleman of the
highest intelligence and acumen, and that he has
absolutely no relations living to whom he could have
confided the guardianship of the child, we do not feel
justified in taking this course.
"Awaiting such instructions as you please to send us
as regards the delivery of the infant and the payment
of the proportion of the dividends due to you,
"We remain, sir, faithfully yours,
"GEOFFREY & JORDAN."
I put down the letter, and ran my eye through the
will, which appeared, from its utter
unintelligibility, to have been drawn on the strictest
legal principles. So far as I could discover, however,
it exactly bore out what my friend had told me on the
night of his death. So it was true after all. I must
take the boy. Suddenly I remembered the letter which
he had left with the chest. I fetched it and opened
it. It only contained such directions as he had
already given to me as to opening the chest on Leo's
twenty-fifth birthday, and laid down the outlines of
the boy's education, which was to include Greek, the
higher mathematics, and Arabic. At the bottom there
was a postscript to the effect that if the boy died
under the age of twenty-five, which, however, he did
not believe would be the case, I was to open the
chest, and act on the information I obtained if I saw
fit. If I did not see fit, I was to destroy all the
contents. On no account pass them on to a stranger.
As this letter added nothing material to my knowledge,
and certainly raised no further objection in my mind
to undertaking the task I had promised my dead friend
to undertake, there was only one course open to me--
namely, to write to Messrs. Geoffrey & Jordan, and
express my readiness to enter on the trust, stating
that I should be willing to commence my guardianship
of Leo in ten days' time. This done I proceeded to the
authorities of my college, and, having told them as
much of the story as I considered desirable, which was
not very much, after considerable difficulty succeeded
in persuading them to stretch a point, and, in the
event of my having obtained a fellowship, which I was
pretty certain I had done, allow me to have the child
to live with me. Their consent, however, was only
granted on the condition that I vacated my rooms in
college and took lodgings. This I did, and with some
difficulty succeeded in obtaining very good apartments
quite close to the college gates. The next thing was
to find a nurse. And on this point I came to a
determination. I would have no woman to lord it over
me about the child, and steal his affections from me.
The boy was old enough to do without female
assistance, so I set to work to hunt up a suitable
male attendant. With some difficulty I succeeded in
hiring a most respectable round-faced young man, who
had been a helper in a hunting-stable, but who said
that he was one of a family of seventeen and well
accustomed to the ways of children, and professed
himself quite willing to undertake the charge of
Master Leo when he arrived. Then, having taken the
iron box to town, and with my own hands deposited it
at my banker's, I bought some books upon the health
and management of children, and read them, first to
myself, and then aloud to Job--that was the young
man's name--and waited.
At length the child arrived in the charge of an
elderly person, who wept bitterly at parting with him,
and a beautiful boy he was. Indeed, I do not think
that I ever saw such a perfect child before or since.
His eyes were gray, his forehead broad, and his face,
even at that early age, clean cut as a cameo, without
being pinched or thin. But perhaps his most attractive
point was his hair, which was pure gold in color and
tightly curled over his shapely head. He cried a
little when his nurse finally tore herself away and
left him with us. Never shall I forget the scene.
There he stood, with the sunlight from the window
playing upon his golden curls, his fist screwed in one
eye, while he took us in with the other. I was seated
in a chair, and stretched out my hand to him to induce
him to come to me, while Job, in the corner, was
making a sort of clucking noise, which, arguing from
his previous experience, or from the analogy of the
hen, he judged would have a soothing effect, and
inspire confidence in the youthful mind, and running a
wooden horse of peculiar hideousness backward and
forward in a way that was little short of inane. This
went on for some minutes, and then all of a sudden the
lad stretched out both his little arms and ran to me.
"I like you," he said; "you is ugly, but you is good."
Ten minutes afterwards he was eating large slices of
bread-and-butter, with every sign of satisfaction; Job
wanted to put jam on to them, but I sternly reminded
him of the excellent works we had read, and forbade
it.
In a very little while (for, as I expected, I got my
fellowship) the boy became the favorite of the whole
college--where, all orders and regulations to the
contrary notwithstanding, he was continually in and
out--a sort of chartered libertine, in whose favor all
rules were relaxed. The offerings made at his shrine
were simply without number, and I had a serious
difference of opinion with one old resident Fellow,
now long dead, who was usually supposed to be the
crustiest man in the university, and to abhor the
sight of a child. And yet I discovered, when a
frequently recurring fit of sickness had forced Job to
keep a strict lookout, that this unprincipled old man
was in the habit of enticing the boy to his rooms and
there feeding him upon unlimited quantities of brandy-
balls, and making him promise to say nothing about it.
Job told him that he ought to be ashamed of himself,
"at his age, too, when he might have been a
grandfather if he had done what was right," by which
Job understood had got married, and thence arose the
row.
But I have no space to dwell upon those delightful
years, around which memory still fondly hovers. One by
one they went by, and as they passed we two grew
dearer and yet more dear to each other. Few sons have
been loved as I love Leo, and few fathers know the
deep and continuous affection that Leo bears to me.
The child grew into the boy, and the boy into the
young man, as one by one the remorseless years flew
by, and as he grew and increased, so did his beauty
and the beauty of his mind grow with him. When he was
about fifteen they used to call him Beauty about the
college, and me they nicknamed the Beast. Beauty and
the Beast was what they called us when we went out
walking together, as we used to do every day. Once Leo
attacked a great strapping butcher's man, twice his
size, because he sang it out after us, and thrashed
him, too--thrashed him fairly. I walked on and
pretended not to see, till the combat got too
exciting, when I turned round and cheered him on to
victory. It was the chaff of the college at the time,
but I could not help it. Then when he was a little
older the undergraduates got fresh names for us. They
called me Charon and Leo the Greek god! I will pass
over my own appellation with the humble remark that I
was never handsome, and did not grow more so as I grew
older. As for his, there was no doubt about its
fitness. Leo at twenty-one might have stood for a
statue of the youthful Apollo. I never saw anybody to
touch him in looks, or anybody so absolutely
unconscious of them. As for his mind, he was brilliant
and keen witted, but not a scholar. He had not the
dullness necessary for that result. We followed out
his father's instructions as regards his education
strictly enough, and on the whole the results,
especially so far as the Greek and Arabic went, were
satisfactory. I learned the latter language in order
to help to teach it to him, but after five years of it
he knew it as well as I did--almost as well as the
professor who instructed us both. I always was a great
sportsman--it is my one passion--and every autumn we
went away somewhere shooting or fishing, sometimes to
Scotland, sometimes to Norway, once even to Russia. I
am a good shot, but even in this he learned to excel
me.
When Leo was eighteen I moved back into my rooms, and
entered him at my own college, and at twenty-one he
took his degree--a respectable degree, but not a very
high one. Then it was that I, for the first time, told
him something of his own story, and of the mystery
that loomed ahead. Of course he was very curious about
it, and of course I explained to him that his
curiosity could not be gratified at present. After
that, to pass the time away, I suggested that he
should get himself called to the bar; and this he did,
reading at Cambridge, and only going up to London to
eat his dinners.
I had only one trouble about him, and that was that
every young woman who came across him, or, if not
every one, nearly so, would insist on falling in love
with him. Hence arose difficulties which I need not
enter into here, though they were troublesome enough
at the time. On the whole, he behaved fairly well; I
cannot say more than that.
And so the time went by till at last he reached his
twenty-fifth birthday, at which date this strange and,
in some ways, awful history really begins.
CHAPTER III--
THE SHERD OF AMENARTAS
ON the day preceding Leo's twenty-fifth birthday we
both proceeded to London, and extracted the mysterious
chest from the bank where I had deposited it twenty
years before. It was, I remember, brought up by the
same clerk who had taken it down. He perfectly
remembered having hidden it away. Had he not done so,
he said, he should have had difficulty in finding it,
it was so covered up with cobwebs.
In the evening we returned with our precious burden to
Cambridge, and I think that we might both of us have
given away all the sleep we got that night and not
have been much the poorer. At daybreak Leo arrived in
my room in a dressing-gown, and suggested that we
should at once proceed to business. I scouted the idea
as showing an unworthy curiosity. The chest had waited
twenty years, I said, so it could very well continue
to wait until after breakfast. Accordingly at nine--an
unusually sharp nine--we breakfasted; and so occupied
was I with my own thoughts that I regret to state that
I put a piece of bacon into Leo's tea in mistake for a
lump of sugar. Job, too, to whom the contagion of
excitement had, of course, spread, managed to break
the handle off my Se`vres china tea-cup, the identical
one I believe that Marat had been drinking from just
before he was stabbed in his bath.
At last, however, breakfast was cleared away, and Job,
at my request, fetched the chest, and placed it upon
the table in a somewhat gingerly fashion, as though he
mistrusted it. Then he prepared to leave the room.
"Stop a moment, Job," I said. "If Mr. Leo has no
objection, I should prefer to have an independent
witness to this business, who can be relied upon to
hold his tongue unless he is asked to speak."
"Certainly, Uncle Horace," answered Leo; for I had
brought him up to call me uncle--though he varied the
appellation somewhat disrespectfully by calling me
"old fellow," or even "my avuncular relative."
Job touched his head, not having a hat on.
"Lock the door, Job," I said, "and bring me my
despatch-box."
He obeyed, and from the box I took the keys that poor
Vincey, Leo's father, had given me on the night of his
death. There were three of them; the largest a
comparatively modern key, the second an exceedingly
ancient one, and the third entirely unlike anything of
the sort that we had ever seen before, being fashioned
apparently from a strip of solid silver, with a bar
placed across to serve as a handle, and some nicks cut
in the edge of the bar. It was more like a model of
some antediluvian railway key than anything else.
"Now, are you both ready?" I said, as people do when
they are going to fire a mine. There was no answer, so
I took the big key, rubbed some salad oil into the
wards, and after one or two bad shots, for my hands
were shaking, managed to fit it, and shoot the lock.
Leo bent over and caught the massive lid in both his
hands, and with an effort, for the hinges had rusted,
leaned it back. Its removal revealed another case
covered with dust. This we extracted from the iron
chest without any difficulty, and removed the
accumulated filth of years from it with a clothes-
brush.
It was, or appeared to be, of ebony, or some such
close-grained black wood, and was bound in every
direction with flat bands of iron. Its antiquity must
have been extreme, for the dense, heavy wood was
actually in parts commencing to crumble away from age.
"Now for it," I said, inserting the second key.
Job and Leo bent forward in breathless silence. The
key turned, and I flung back the lid, and uttered an
exclamation, as did the others; and no wonder, for
inside the ebony case was a magnificent silver casket,
about twelve inches square by eight high. It appeared
to be of Egyptian workmanship, for the four legs were
formed of Sphinxes, and the dome-shaped cover was also
surmounted by a Sphinx. The casket was of course much
tarnished and dinted with age, but otherwise in fairly
sound condition.
I drew it out and set it on the table, and then, in
the midst of the most perfect silence, I inserted the
strange-looking silver key, and pressed this way and
that until at last the lock yielded, and the casket
stood open before us. It was filled to the brim with
some brown shredded material, more like vegetable
fibre than paper, the nature of which I have never
been able to discover. This I carefully removed to the
depth of some three inches, when I came to a letter
enclosed in an ordinary modern looking envelope, and
addressed in the handwriting of my dead friend Vincey-
-
"To my son Leo, should he live to open this casket."
I handed the letter to Leo, who glanced at the
envelope, and then put it down upon the table, making
a motion to me to go on emptying the casket.
The next thing that I found was a parchment carefully
rolled up. I unrolled it, and seeing that it was also
in Vincey's handwriting, and headed "Translation of
the Uncial Greek writing on the Potsherd," put it down
by the letter. Then followed another ancient roll of
parchment, that had become yellow and crinkled with
the passage of years. This I also unrolled. It was
likewise a translation of the same Greek original, but
into black-letter Latin this time, which at the first
glance appeared to me from the style and character to
date from somewhere about the beginning of the
sixteenth century. Immediately beneath this roll was
something hard and heavy, wrapped up in yellow linen,
and reposing upon another. layer of the fibrous
material. Slowly and carefully we unrolled the linen,
exposing to view a very large but undoubtedly ancient
potsherd of a dirty yellow color! This potsherd had,
in my judgment, once been a part of an ordinary
amphora of medium size. For the rest, it measured ten
and a half inches in length by seven in width, was
about a quarter of an inch thick, and densely covered
on the convex side that lay towards the bottom of the
box with writing in the later uncial Greek character,
faded here and there, but for the most part perfectly
legible, the inscription having evidently been
executed with the greatest care, and by means of a
reed pen, such as the ancients often used. I must not
forget to mention that in some remote age this
wonderful fragment had been broken in two, and
rejoined by means of cement and eight long rivets.
Also there were numerous inscriptions on the inner
side, but these were of the most erratic character,
and had clearly been made by different hands and in
many different ages, and of them, together with the
writings on the parchments, I shall have to speak
presently.
"Is there anything more?" asked Leo, in a kind of
excited whisper.
I groped about, and produced something hard, done up
in a little linen bag. Out of the bag we took first a
very beautiful miniature done upon ivory, and,
secondly, a small chocolate colored composition
scarabaeus, marked thus:
[graphic omitted]
symbols which, we have since ascertained, mean "Suten
se Ra^," which is, being translated, the "Royal Son of
Ra^ or the Sun." The miniature was a picture of Leo's
Greek mother, a lovely, dark-eyed creature. On the
back of it was written in poor Vincey's handwriting,
"My beloved wife."
"That is all," I said.
"Very well," answered Leo, putting down the miniature,
at which he had been gazing affectionately; "and now
let us read the letter," and without further ado he
broke the seal, and read aloud as follows:
"MY SON LEO--When you open this, if you ever live to
do so, you will have attained to manhood, and I shall
have been long enough dead to be absolutely forgotten
by nearly all who knew me. Yet in reading it remember
that I have been, and for anything you know may still
be, and that in it, through this link of pen and
paper, I stretch out my hand to you across the gulf of
death, and my voice speaks to you from the unutterable
silence of the grave. Though I am dead, and no memory
of me remains in your mind, yet am I with you in this
hour that you read. Since your birth to this day I
have scarcely seen your face. Forgive me this. Your
life supplanted the life of one whom I loved better
than women are often loved, and the bitterness of it
endureth yet. Had I lived I should in time have
conquered this foolish feeling, but I am not destined
to live. My sufferings, physical and mental, are more
than I can bear, and when such small arrangements as I
have to make for your future well-being are completed
it is my intention to put a period to them. May God
forgive me if I do wrong. At the best I could not live
more than another year."
"So he killed himself," I exclaimed. "I thought so."
"And now," Leo went on, without replying, "enough of
myself. What has to be said belongs to you who live,
not to me, who am dead, and almost as much forgotten
as though I had never been. Holly, my friend (to whom,
if he will accept the trust, it is my intention to
confide you), will have told you something of the
extraordinary antiquity of your race. In the contents
of this casket you will find sufficient to prove it.
The strange legend that you will find inscribed by
your remote ancestress upon the potsherd was
communicated to me by my father on his deathbed, and
took a strong hold upon-my imagination. When I was
only nineteen years of age I determined, as, to his
misfortune, did one of ancestors about the time of
Elizabeth, to investigate its truth. Into all that
befell me I cannot enter now.
But this I saw with my own eyes. On the coast of
Africa, in a hitherto unexplored region, some distance
to the north of where the Zambesi falls into the sea,
there is a headland, at the extremity of which a peak
towers up, shaped like the head of a negro, similar to
that of which the writing speaks. I landed there, and
learned from a wandering native, who had been cast out
by his people because of some crime which he had
committed, that far inland are great mountains, shaped
like cups, and caves surrounded by measureless swamps.
I learned also that the people there speak a dialect
of Arabic, and are ruled over by a _i_ beautiful white
woman _i_ who is seldom seen by them, but who is
reported to have power over all things living and
dead. Two days after I had ascertained this the man
died of fever contracted in crossing the swamps, and I
was forced, by want of provisions and by symptoms of
an illness which afterwards prostrated me, to take to
my dhow again.
"Of the adventures that befell me after this I need
not now speak. I was wrecked upon the coast of
Madagascar, and rescued some months afterwards by an
English ship that brought me to Aden, whence I started
for England, intending to prosecute my search us soon
as I had made sufficient preparations. On my way I
stopped in Greece, and there, for ' _i_ Omnia vincit
amor _i_ ,' I met your beloved mother, and married
her, and there you were born and she died. Then it was
that my last illness seized me, and I returned hither
to die. But still I hoped against hope, and set myself
to work to learn Arabic, with the intention, should I
ever get better, of returning to the coast of Africa,
and solving the mystery of which the tradition has
lived so many centuries in our family. But I have not
got better, and, so far as I am concerned, the story
is at an end.
"For you, however, my son, it is not at an end, and to
you I hand on these the results, of my labor, together
with the hereditary proofs of its origin. It is my
intention to provide that they shall not be put into
your hands until you have reached an age when you will
be able to judge for yourself whether or not you will
choose to investigate what, if it is true, must be the
greatest mystery in the world, or to put it by as an
idle fable, originating in the first place in a
woman's disordered brain.
"I do not believe that it is a fable; I believe that
if it can only be rediscovered there is a spot where
the vital forces of the world visibly exist. Life
exists; why therefore should not the means of
preserving it indefinitely exist also? But I have no
wish to prejudice your mind about the matter. Read and
judge for yourself. If you are inclined to undertake
the search, I have so provided that you will not lack
for means. If, on the other hand, you are satisfied
that the whole thing is a chimera, then, I adjure you,
destroy the potsherd and the writings, and let a cause
of troubling be removed from our race forever. Perhaps
that will be wisest. The unknown is generally taken to
be terrible, not as the proverb would infer, from the
inherent superstition of man, but became it so often
is terrible. He who would tamper with the vast and
secret forces that animate the world may well fall a
victim to them. And if the end were attained, if at
last you emerged from the trial ever beautiful and
ever young, defying time and evil, and lifted above
the natural decay of flesh and intellect, who shall
say that the awesome change would prove a happy one?
Choose, my son, and may the Power who rules all
things, and who says 'thus far shalt thou go, and thus
much shalt thou learn', direct the choice to your own
happiness and the happiness of the world, which, in
the event of your success, you would one day certainly
rule by the pure force of accumulated experience.--
Farewell!"
Thus the letter, which was unsigned and undated,
abruptly ended.
"What do you make of that, Uncle Holly?" said Leo,
with a sort of gasp, as he replaced it on the table.
"We have been looking for a mystery, and we certainly
seem to have found one."
"What do I make of it? Why, that your poor dear father
was off his head, of course," I answered, testily. "I
guessed as much that night, twenty years ago, when he
came into my room. You see he evidently hurried his
own end, poor man. It is absolute balderdash."
"That's it, sir!" said Job, solemnly. Job was a most
matter-of-fact specimen of a matter-of-fact class.
"Well, let's see what the potsherd has to say, at any
rate," said Leo, taking up the translation in his
father's writing, and commencing to read:
'I, Amenartas, of the Royal House of the Pharaohs of
Egypt, wife of Kallikrates (the Beautiful in
Strength), a Priest of Isis whom the gods cherish and
the demons obey, being about to die, to my little son
Tisisthenes (the Mighty Avenger). I fled with thy
father from Egypt in the days of Nectanebes, causing
him through love to break the vows that he had vowed.
We fled southward, across the waters, and we wandered
for twice twelve moons on the coast of Libya (Africa)
that looks towards the rising sun, where by a river is
a great rock carven like the head of an Ethiopian.
Four days on the water from the mouth of a mighty
river were we cast away, and some were drowned and
some died of sickness. But us wild men took through
wastes and marshes, where the sea-fowl hid the sky,
bearing us ten days' journey till we came to a hollow
mountain, where a great city had been and fallen, and
where there are caves of which no man hath seen the
end; and they brought us to the Queen of the people
who place pots upon the heads of strangers, who is a
magician having a knowledge of all things, and life
and loveliness that does not die. And she cast eyes of
love upon thy father, Kallikrates, and would have
slain me, and taken him to husband, but he loved me
and feared her, and would not. Then did she take us,
and lead us by terrible ways, by means of dark magic,
to where the great pit is, in the mouth of which the
old philosopher lay dead, and showed to us the rolling
Pillar of Life that dies not, whereof the voice is as
the voice of thunder; and she did stand in the flames,
and come forth unharmed, and yet more beautiful. Then
did she swear to make thy father undying even as she
is, if he would but slay me, and give himself to her,
for me she could not slay because of the magic of my
own people that I have, and that prevailed thus far
against her. And he held his hand before his eyes to
hide her beauty, and would not. Then in her rage did
she smite him by her magic, and he died; but she wept
over him, and bore him thence with lamentations: and
being afraid, me she sent to the mouth of the great
river where the ships come, and I was carried far away
on the ships where I gave thee birth, and hither to
Athens I came at last after many wanderings. Now I say
to thee, my son, Tisisthenes, seek out the woman, and
learn the secret of Life, and if thou mayest find a
way slay her, because of thy father Kallikrates; and
if thou dost fear or fail, this I say to all of thy
seed who come after thee, till at last a brave man be
found among them who shall bathe in the fire and sit
in the place of the Pharaohs. I speak of those things,
that though they be past belief, yet I have known, and
I lie not."
"May the Lord forgive her for that," groaned Job, who
had been listening to this marvellous composition with
his mouth open.
As for myself, I said nothing: my first idea being
that my poor friend, being demented, had composed the
whole thing, though it scarcely seemed likely that
such a story could have been invented by anybody. It
was too original. To solve my doubts I took up the
potsherd and began to read the close uncial Greek
writing on it; and very good Greek of the period it
is, considering that it came from the pen of an
Egyptian born.
Besides the uncial writing on the convex side of the
sherd at the top, painted in dull red, on what had
once been the lip of the amphora, was the cartouche
already mentioned as being on the _i_ scarabaeus _i_ ,
which we had also found in the casket. The
hieroglyphics or symbols, however, were reversed, just
as though they had been pressed on wax. Whether this
was the cartouche of the original Kallikrates, or of
some prince or Pharaoh from whom his wife Amenartas
was descended, I am not sure, nor can I tell if it was
drawn upon the sherd at the same time that the uncial
Greek was inscribed, or, copied on more recently from
the Scarab by some other member of the family. Nor was
this all. At the foot of the writing, painted in the
same dull red, was the faint outline of a somewhat
rude drawing of the head and shoulders of a sphinx
wearing two feathers, symbols of majesty, which,
though common enough upon the effigies of sacred bulls
and gods, I have never before met with on a sphinx.
Also on the right-hand side of this surface of the
sherd, painted obliquely in red on the space not
covered by the uncial, and signed in blue paint, was
the following quaint inscription:
IN EARTH AND SKIE AND SEA
STRANGE THYNGES THER BE.
HOC FECIT
DOROTHEA VINCEY.
Perfectly bewildered, I turned the relic over. It was
covered from top to bottom with notes and signatures
in Greek, Latin, and English. The first in Uncial
Greek was by Tisisthenes, the son to whom the writing
was addressed. It was, "I could not go. Tisisthenes to
his son, Kallikrates."
This Kallikrates (probably, in the Greek fashion, so
named after his grandfather) evidently made some
attempt to start on the quest, for his entry, written
in very faint and almost illegible uncial, is, "I
ceased from my going, the gods being against me.
KaIlikrates to his son."
Between these two ancient writings--the second of
which was inscribed upside down and was so faint and
worn that, had it not been for the transcript of it
executed by Vincey, I should scarcely have been able
to read it, since, owing to its having been written on
that portion of the tile which had, in the course of
ages, undergone the most handling, it was nearly
rubbed out--was the bold, modern-looking signature of
one Lionel Vincey, "AEtate sua 17," which was written
thereon, I think, by Leo's grandfather. To the right
of this were the initials "J. B. V.," and below came a
variety of Greek signatures, in uncial and cursive
character, and what appeared to be some carelessly
executed repetitions of the sentence "to my son,"
showing that the relic was religiously passed on from
generation to generation.
The next legible thing after the Greek signatures was
the word "ROMAE, A.U.C.," showing-that the family had
now migrated to Rome. Unfortunately, however, with the
exception of its termination (cvi) the date of their
settlement there is forever lost, for just where it
had been placed a piece of the potsherd is broken
away.
Then followed twelve Latin signatures, jotted about
here and there, wherever there was a space upon the
tile suitable to their inscription. These signatures,
with three exceptions only, ended with the name
"Vindex" or "the Avenger," which seems to have been
adopted by the family after its migration to Rome as a
kind of equivalent to the Grecian "Tisisthenes," which
also means an avenger. Ultimately, as might be
expected, this Latin cognomen of Vindex was
transformed first into De Vincey, and then into the
plain, modern Vincey. It is very curious to observe
how the idea of revenge, inspired by an Egyptian
before the time of Christ, is thus, as it were,
embalmed in an English family name.
A few of the Roman names inscribed upon the sherd I
have actually since found mentioned in history and
other records. They were, if I remember right,
MVSSIVS. VINDEX
SEX. VARIVS. MARVLLVS
C. FVFIDIVS. C. F. VINDEX
and
LABERIA POMPEIANA. CONIVX. MACRINI. VINDICIS
the last being, of course, the name of a Roman lady.
The following list, however, comprises all the Latin
names upon. the sherd:
C. CAECILIVS VINDEX
M. AIMILIVS VINDEX
SEX. VARIVS. MARVLLVS
Q. SOSIVS PRISCVS SENECIO VINDEX
L. VALERIVS COMINIVS VINDEX
SEX. OTACILIVS. M. F.
L ATTIVS. VINDEX
MVSSIVS VINDEX
C. FVFIDIVS. C. F. VINDEX
LICINIVS FAVSTVS
LAVERIA POMPEIANA CONIVX MACRINI VINDICIS
MANILIA LVCILLA CONIVX MARVLLI VINDICIS
After the Roman names there is evidently a gap of very
many centuries. Nobody will ever know now what was the
history of the relic during those dark ages, or how it
came to have been preserved in the family. My poor
friend Vincey had, it will be remembered, told me that
his Roman ancestors finally settled in Lombardy, and,
when Charlemagne invaded it, returned with him across
the Alps, and made their home in Brittany, whence they
crossed to England in the reign of Edward the
Confessor. How he knew this I am not aware, for there
is no reference to Lombardy or Charlemagne upon the
tile, though, as will presently be seen, there is a
reference to Brittany. To continue: the next entries
on the sherd, if I may except a long splash either of
blood or red coloring matter of some sort, consist of
two crosses drawn in red pigment, and probably
representing Crusaders' swords, and a rather neat
monogram ("D. V.") in scarlet and blue, perhaps
executed by that same Dorothea Vincey who wrote, or
rather painted, the doggerel couplet. To the left of
this, scribed in faint blue, were the initials A.V.,
and after them a date, 1300.
Then came what was perhaps as curious an entry as
anything upon this extraordinary relic of the past. It
is executed in black-letter, written over-the crosses
or Crusaders' swords, and dated fourteen hundred and
forty-five. As the best plan will be to allow it to
speak for itself, I here give the black-letter
facsimile, together with the original Latin without
the contractions, from which it will be seen that the
writer was a fair medieval Latinist. Also we
discovered what is still more curious, an English
version of the black-letter Latin. This, also written
in black-letter, we found inscribed on a second
parchment that was in the coffer, apparently somewhat
older in date than that on which was inscribed the
mediaeval Latin translation of the uncial Greek.
Expanded Version of the Black-Letter Inscription.
"ISTA reliquia est valde misticum et myrificum opus,
quod majores mei ex Armorica, scilicet Britannia
Minore, secum convehebant; et quidam sanctus clericus
semper patri meo in manu ferebat quod penitus illud
destrueret, affirmans quod esset ab ipso Sathana
conflatum prestigiosa et dyabolica arte, quare pater
mens confregit illud in duos partes, quas quidem ego
Johannes de Vinceto salvas servavi et adaptavi sicut
apparet die lune proximo post festum beate Marie
Virginis anni gratie MCCCCXLV."
Modernized Version of the Black-Letter Translation.
"THYS rellike ys a ryghte mistycall worke and a
marvaylous, ye whyche myne aunceteres aforetyme dyd
conveigh hider with them from Armoryke which ys to
seien Britaine ye Lesse and a certayne holye clerke
should allweyes beare my fadir on honde that he owghte
uttirly for to frusshe ye same, affyrmynge that yt was
fourmed and conflatyd of Sathanas hym selfe by arte
magike and dyvellysshe wherefore my fadir dyd take ye
same and tobrast yt yn tweye, but I, John de Vincey,
dyd save whool ye tweye partes therof and topeecyd
them togydder agayne soe as yee se, on this daye
mondaye next folIowynge after ye feeste of Seynte
Marye ye Blessed Vyrgyne yn ye yeere of Salvacioun
fowertene hundreth and fyve and fowerti."
The next and, save one, last entry was Elizabethan,
and dated 1564, "A most strange historie, and one that
did cost my father his life; for in seekynge for the
place upon the east coast of Africa, his pinnace was
sunk by a Portuguese galleon off Lorenzo Marquez, and
he himself perished.--John Vincey."
Then came the last entry, apparently, to judge by the
style of writing, made by some representative of the
family in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was
a misquotation of the well-known lines in Hamlet, and
ran thus: "There are more things in Heaven and earth
than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio."
And now there remained but one more document to be
examined--namely, the ancient black-letter translation
into mediaeval Latin of the uncial inscription on the
sherd. As will be seen, this translation was executed
and subscribed in the year 1495, by a certain "learned
man," Edmundus de Prato (Edmund Pratt) by name,
licentiate in Canon Law, of Exeter College, Oxford,
who had actually been a pupil of Grocyn, the first
scholar who taught Greek in England. No doubt on the
fame of this new learning reaching his ears, the
Vincey of the day, perhaps that same John de Vincey
who years before had saved the relic from destruction
and made the black-letter entry on the sherd in 1445
hurried off to Oxford to see if perchance it might
avail to solve the secret of the mysterious
inscription. Nor was he disappointed, for the learned
Edmundus was equal to the task.
Expanded Version of the Mediaeval Latin Translation.
AMENARTAS, e genere regio Egyptii, uxor Callicratis,
sacerdotis Isidis, quam dei fovent demonia attendunt,
filiolo suo Tisistheni jam moribunda ita rnandat:
Effugi quondam ex Egypto, regnante Nectanebo, cure
patre tuo, propter mei amorem pejerato. Fugientes
autem versus Notum trans mare, et viginti quatuor
menses per litora Libye versus Orientem errantes, ubi
est petra quedam magna sculpta instar Ethiopis
capitis, deinde dies quatuor ab ostio fluminis magni
ejecti partim submersi sumus partim morbo mortui
sumus: in fine autem a feris hominibus portabamur per
paludes et vada, ubi avium multitudo celum obumbrat,
dies decem, donec advenimus ad cavum quendam montem,
ubi olim magna urbs erat, caverne quoque immense;
duxerunt autem nos ad reginam
Advenaslasaniscoronantium, que magica^ utebatur et
peritia omnium rerum, et saltem pulcritudine et vigore
insenescibilis erat. Hec magno patris tui amore
perculsa, primum quidem ei connubium michi mortem
parabat; postea vero, recusante Callicrate, amore mei
et timore regine affecto nos per magicam abduxit per
vias horribiles ubi est puteus ille profundus, cujus
juxta aditum jacebat senioris philosophi cadaver, et
advenientibus monstravit flammam Vite erectam, instar
columne volutantis, voces emittentem quasi tonitrus:
tunc per ignem impetu nocivo expers transiit et jam
ipsa sese formosior visa est.
Quibus factis juravit se patrem tuum quoque immortalem
ostensuram esse, si me prius occisa regine
contubernium mallet; neque enim ipsa me occidere
valuit, propter nostratum magicam cujus egomet partem
habeo. Ille veto nichil hujus generis malebat, manibus
ante oculos passis, ne mulieris formositatena
adspiceret: postea illum magica percussit arte, at
mortuum efferebat inde cum fletibus et vagitibus, at
me per timorem expulit ad ostium magni fluminis,
velivoli, porro in nave, in qua te peperi, vix post
dies huc Athenas vecta sum. At tu, O Tisisthenes, ne
quid quorum mando nauci fac: necesse enim est mulierem
exquirere si qua Vite mysterium impetres et vindicare,
quantum in te est, patrem tuum Callicratem in regine
morte. Sin timore sen aliqua causa rem relinquis
infectam, hoc ipsum omnibus posteris mando, dum bonus
quis inveniatur qui ignis lavacrum non perhorrescet,
et potentia dignus dominabitur hominum.
Talia dico incredibilia quidem at minime ficta de
rebus michi cognitis.
Hec Grece scripta Latine reddidit vir doctus Edmundus
de Prato, in Decretis Licenciatus, e Collegio
Exoniensi Oxoniensi doctissimi Grocyni quondam e
pupillis, Idibus Aprills Anno Domini MCCCCLXXXXV.
"Well," I said, when at length I had read out and
carefully examined these writings and paragraphs, at
least those of them that were still easily legible,
"that is the conclusion of the whole matter, Leo, and
now you can form your own opinion on it. I have
already formed mine."
"And what is?" he asked, in his quick way.
"It is this. I believe that potsherd to be perfectly
genuine, and that, wonderful as it may seem, it has
come down in your family from since the fourth century
before Christ. The entries absolutely prove it, and
therefore, however improbable it may seem, it must be
accepted. But there I stop. That your remote
ancestress, the Egyptian princess, or some scribe
under her direction, wrote that which we see on the
sherd I have no doubt, nor have I the slightest doubt
but that her sufferings and the loss of her husband
had turned her head, and that she was not right in her
mind when she did write it."
"How do you account for what my father saw and heard
there?" asked Leo.
"Coincidence. No doubt there are bluffs on the coast
of Africa that look something like a man's head, and
plenty of people who speak bastard Arabic. Also, I
believe that there are lots of swamps. Another thing
is, Leo, and I am sorry to say it, but I do not
believe that your poor father was quite right when he
wrote that letter. He had met with a great trouble,
and also he had allowed this story to prey on his
imagination, and he was a very imaginative man.
Anyway, I believe that the whole thing is the most
unmitigated rubbish. I know that there are curious
things and forces in nature which we rarely meet with,
and, when we do meet them, cannot understand. But
until I see it with my own eyes, which I am not likely
to, I never will believe that there is any means of
avoiding death, even for a time, or that there is or
was a white sorceress living in the heart of an
African swamp! It is bosh, my boy, all bosh!--What do
you say, Job?"
"I say, sir, that it is a lie, and, if it is true, I
hope Mr. Leo won't meddle with no such things, for no
good can't come of it."
"Perhaps you are both right," said Leo, very quietly.
"I express no opinion. But I say this. I am going to
set the matter at rest once and for all, and if you
won't come with me I will go by myself."
I looked at the young man, and saw that he meant what
he said. When Leo means what he says he always puts on
a curious look about the mouth. It has been a trick of
his from a child. Now, as a matter of fact, I had no
intention of allowing Leo to go anywhere by himself,
for my own sake, if not for his. I was far too much
attached to him for that. I am not a man of many ties
or affections. Circumstances have been against me in
this respect, and men and women shrink from me, or, at
least, I fancy they do, which comes to the same thing,
thinking, perhaps, that my somewhat forbidding
exterior is a key to my character. Rather than endure
this, I have, to a great extent, secluded myself from
the world, and cut myself off from those opportunities
which with most men result in the formation of
relations more or less intimate. Therefore Leo was all
the world to me--brother, child, and friend--and until
he wearied of me, where he went there I should go too.
But, of course, it would not do to let him see how
great a hold he had over me; so I cast about for some
means whereby I might let myself down easy.
"Yes, I shall go, uncle; and if I don't find the
'rolling Pillar of Life,' at any rate I shall get some
first-class shooting."
Here was my opportunity, and I took it.
"Shooting?" I said. "Ah! yes; I never thought of that.
It must be a very wild stretch of country, and full of
big game. I have always wanted to kill a buffalo
before I die. Do you know, my boy, I don't believe in
the quest, but I do believe in big game, and really,
on the whole, if, after thinking it over, you make up
your mind to go, I will take a holiday, and come with
you."
"Ah," said Leo, "I thought that you would not lose
such a chance. But how about money? We shall want a
good lot."
"You need not trouble about that," I answered. "There
is all your income that has been accumulating for
years, and besides that I have saved two thirds of
what your father left me, as I consider, in trust for
you. There is plenty of cash."
"Very well, then, we may as well stow these things
away and go up to town to see about our guns. By the
way, Job, are you coming too? It's time you began to
see the world."
"Well, sir," answered Job, stolidly, "I don't hold
much with foreign parts, but if both you gentlemen are
going you will want somebody to look after you, and I
am not the man to stop behind after serving you for
twenty years."
"That's right, Job," said I. "You won't find out
anything wonderful, but you will get some good
shooting. And now look here, both of you. I won't have
a word said to a living soul about this nonsense," and
I pointed to the potsherd. "If it got out, and
anything happened to me, my next of kin would dispute
my will on the ground of insanity, and I should become
the laughing-stock of Cambridge."
That day three months we were on the ocean, bound for
Zanzibar.
CHAPTER IV--
THE SQUALL
How different is the scene that I have now to tell
from that which has just been told! Gone are the quiet
college rooms, gone the wind-swayed English elms and
cawing rooks, and the familiar volumes on the shelves,
and in their place there rises a vision of the great
calm ocean gleaming in shaded silver lights beneath
the beams of the full African moon. A gentle breeze
fills the huge sails of our dhow, and draws us through
the water that ripples musically against our sides.
Most of the men are sleeping forward, for it is near
midnight, but a stout, swarthy Arab, Mahomed by name,
stands at the tiller, lazily steering by the stars.
Three miles or more to our starboard is a low dim
line. It is the eastern shore of Central Africa. We
are running to the southward, before the northeast
monsoon, between the mainland and the reef that for
hundreds of miles fringes that perilous coast. The
night is quiet, so quiet that a whisper can be heard
fore and aft the dhow; so quiet that a faint booming
sound rolls across the water to us from the distant
land.
The Arab at the tiller holds up his hand, and says one
word: "Simba (lion)!"
We all sit up and listen. Then it comes again, a slow,
majestic sound, that thrills us to the marrow.
"To-morrow by ten o'clock," I say, "we ought, if the
captain is not out in his reckoning, which I think
very probable, to make this mysterious rock with a
man's head, and begin our shooting."
"And begin our search for the ruined city and the Fire
of Life," corrected Leo, taking his pipe from his
mouth, and laughing a little.
"Nonsense!" I answered. "You were airing your Arabic
with that man at the tiller this afternoon. What did
he tell you? He has been trading (slave-trading
probably) up and down these latitudes for half of his
iniquitous life, and once landed on this very 'man'
rock. Did he ever hear anything of the ruined city or
the caves?"
"No," answered Leo. "He says that the country is all
swamp behind, and full of snakes, especially pythons,
and game, and that no man lives there. But then there
is a belt of swamp all along the East African coast,
so that does not go for much."
"Yes," I said, "it does--it goes for malaria. You see
what sort of an opinion these gentry have of the
country. Not one of them will go with us. They think
that we are mad, and upon my word I believe that they
are right. If ever we see old England again I shall be
astonished. However, it does not greatly matter to me
at my age, but I am anxious for you, Leo, and for Job.
It's a Tom Fool's business, my boy."
"All right, Uncle Horace. So far as I am concerned, I
am willing to take my chance. Look! What is that
cloud?" and he pointed to a dark blotch upon the
starry sky, some miles astern of us.
"Go and ask the man at the tiller," I said.
He rose, stretched his arms, and went. Presently he
returned.
"He says it is a squall, but it will pass far on one
side of us."
Just then Job came up, looking very stout and English
in his shooting-suit of brown flannel, and with a sort
of perplexed appearance upon his honest round face
that had been very common with him since he got into
these strange waters.
"Please, sir," he said, touching his sun hat, which
was stuck on to the back of his head in a somewhat
ludicrous fashion, "as we have got all those guns and
things in the whale-boat astern, to say nothing of the
provisions in the lockers, I think it would be best if
I got down and slept in her. I don't like the looks"
(here he dropped his voice to a portentous whisper)
"of these black gentry; they have such a wonderful
thievish way about them. Supposing now that some of
them were to slip into the boat at night and cut the
cable, and make off with her! That would be a pretty
go, that would."
The whale-boat, I may explain, was one specially built
for us at Dundee, in Scotland. We had brought it with
us, as we knew that this coast was a network of
creeks, and that we might require something to
navigate them with. She was a beautiful boat, thirty
feet in length, with a centre-board for sailing,
copper-bottomed to keep the worm out of her, and full
of watertight compartments. The captain of the dhow
had told us that when we reached the rock, which he
knew, and which appeared to be identical with the one
described upon the sherd and by Leo's father, he would
probably not be able to run up to it on account of the
shallows and breakers. Therefore we had employed three
hours that very morning, while we were totally
becalmed, the wind having dropped at sunrise, in
transferring most of our goods and chattels to the
whale-boat, and placing the guns, ammunition, and
preserved provisions in the water-tight lockers
specially prepared for them, so that when we did sight
the fabled rock we should have nothing to do but step
into the boat and run her ashore. Another reason that
induced us to take this precautionary step was that
Arab captains are apt to run past the point that they
are making, either from carelessness or owing to a
mistake in its identity. Now, as sailors know, it is
quite impossible for a dhow which is only rigged to
run before the monsoon to beat back against it.
Therefore we got our boat ready to row for the rock at
any moment.
"Well, Job," I said, "perhaps it would be as well.
There are lots of blankets there, only be careful to
keep out of the moon, or it may turn your head or
blind you."
"Lord, sir! I don't think it would much matter if it
did; it is that turned already with the sight of these
blackamoors and their filthy, thieving ways. They are
only fit for muck, they are; and they smell bad enough
for it already."
Job, it will be perceived, was no admirer of the
manners and customs of our dark-skinned brothers.
Accordingly we hauled up the boat by the tow-rope till
it was right under the stern of the dhow, and Job
bundled into her with all the grace of a falling sack
of potatoes. Then we returned and sat down on the deck
again, and smoked and talked in little gusts and
jerks. The night was so lovely, and our brains were so
full of suppressed excitement of one sort and another,
that we did not feel inclined to turn in. For nearly
an hour we sat thus, and then, I think, we both dozed
off. At least I have a faint recollection of Leo
sleepily explaining that the head was not a bad place
to hit a buffalo, if you could catch him exactly
between the horns, or send your bullet down his
throat, or some nonsense of the sort.
Then I remember no more; till suddenly--a frightful
roar of wind, a shriek of terror from the awakening
crew, and a whip like sting of water in our faces.
Some of the men ran to let go the halyards and lower
the sail, but the parral jammed and the yard would not
come down. I sprang to my feet and hung on to a rope.
The sky aft was dark as pitch, but the moon still
shone brightly ahead of us and lit up the blackness.
Beneath its sheen a huge white-topped breaker, twenty
feet high or more, was rushing on to us. It was on the
break--the moon shone on its crest and tipped its foam
with light. On it rushed beneath the inky sky, driven
by the awful squall behind it. Suddenly, in the
twinkling of an eye, I saw the black shape of the
whale-boat cast high into the air on the crest of the
breaking wave. Then--a shock of water, a wild rush of
boiling foam, and I was clinging for my life to the
shroud, aye, swept straight out from it like a flag in
a gale.
We were pooped.
The wave passed. It seemed to me that I was under
water for minutes--really it was seconds. I looked
forward. The blast had torn out the great sail, and
high in the air it was fluttering away to leeward like
a huge wounded bird. Then for a moment there was
comparative calm, and in it I heard Job's voice
yelling wildly, "Come here to the boat."
Bewildered and half drowned as I was, I had the sense
to rush aft. I felt the dhow sinking under me she was
full of water. Under her counter the whale-boat was
tossing furiously, and I saw the Arab Mahomed, who had
been steering, leap into her. I gave one desperate
pull at the towrope to bring the boat alongside.
Wildly I sprang also, and Job caught me by one arm and
I rolled into the bottom of the boat. Down went the
dhow bodily, and as she did so Mahomed drew his curved
knife and severed the fibre-rope by which we were fast
to her, and in another second we were driving before
the storm over the place where the dhow had been.
"Great God!" I shrieked, "where is Leo? Leo! Leo!"
"He's gone, sir, God help him!" roared Job into my
ear; and such was the fury of the squall that his
voice sounded like a whisper.
I wrung my hands in agony. Leo was drowned, and I was
left alive to mourn him.
"Look out;" yelled Job, "here comes another."
I turned; a second huge wave was overtaking us. I half
hoped that it would drown me. With a curious
fascination I watched its awful advent. The moon was
nearly hidden now by the wreaths of the rushing storm,
but a little light still caught the crest of the
devouring breaker. There was something dark on it--a
piece of wreckage. It was on us now, and the boat was
nearly full of water. But she was built in air-tight
compartments--Heaven bless the man who invented them!
and lifted up through it like a swan. Through the foam
and turmoil I saw the black thing on the wave hurrying
right at me. I put out my right arm to ward it from
me, and my hand closed on another arm, the wrist of
which my fingers gripped like a vise. l am a very
strong man, and had something to hold to, but my arm
was nearly torn from its socket by the strain and
weight of the floating body. Had the rush lasted
another two seconds I must either have let go or gone
with it. But it passed, leaving us up to our knees in
water.
"Bail out! bail out!" shouted Job, suiting the action
to the word.
But I could not bail just then, for as the moon went
out and left us in total darkness, one faint, flying
ray of light lit upon the face of the man I had
gripped, who was now half lying, half floating in the
bottom of the boat.
It was Leo. Leo brought back by the wave--back, dead
or alive, from the very jaws of Death.
"Bail out! bail out!" yelled Job, "or we shall
founder."
I seized a large tin bowl with a handle to it, which
was fixed under one of the seats, and the three of us
bailed away for dear life. The furious tempest drove
over and round us, flinging the boat this way and
that, the wind and the storm wreaths and the sheets of
stinging spray blinded and bewildered us, but through
it all we worked like demons with the wild
exhilaration of despair, for even despair can
exhilarate. One minute! three minutes! six minutes!
The boat began to lighten, and no fresh wave swamped
us. Five minutes more, and she was fairly clear. Then,
suddenly, above the awful shriekings of the hurricane
came a duller, deeper roar. Great heavens! It was the
voice of breakers!
At that moment the moon began to shine forth again--
this time behind the path of the squall. Out far
across the torn bosom of the ocean shot the ragged
arrows of her light, and there, half a mile ahead of
us, was a white line of foam, then a little space of
openmouthed blackness, and then another line of white.
It was the breakers, and their roar grew clearer and
yet more clear as we sped down upon them like a
swallow. There they were, boiling up in snowy spouts
of spray, smiting and gnashing together like the
gleaming teeth of hell.
"Take the tiller, Mahomed!" I roared in Arabic. "We
must try and shoot them." At the same moment I seized
an oar, and got it out, motioning to Job to do
likewise.
Mahomed clambered aft, and got hold of the tiller, and
with some difficulty Job, who had sometimes pulled a
tub upon the homely Cam, got out his oar. In another
minute the boat's head was straight on to the ever-
nearing foam, towards which she plunged and tore with
the speed of a racehorse. Just in front of us the
first line of breakers seemed a little thinner than to
the right or left--there was a gap of rather deeper
water. I turned and pointed to it.
"Steer for your life, Mahomed!" I yelled. He was a
skilful steersman, and well acquainted with the
dangers of this most perilous coast, and I saw him
grip the tiller and bend his heavy frame forward, and
stare at the foaming terror till his big round eyes
looked as though they would start out of his head. The
send of the sea was driving the boat's head round to
starboard. If we struck the line of breakers fifty
yards to starboard of the gap we must sink. It was a
great field of twisting, spouting waves. Mahomed
planted his foot against the seat before him, and,
glancing at him I saw his brown toes spread out like a
hand with the weight he put upon them as he took the
strain of the tiller. She came round a bit, but not
enough. I roared to Job to back water, while I dragged
and labored at my oar. She answered now, and none too
soon.
Heavens, we were in them! And then followed a couple
of minutes of heartbreaking excitement such as I
cannot hope to describe. All I remember is a shrieking
sea of foam, out of which the billows rose here,
there, and everywhere, like avenging ghosts from their
ocean grave. Once we were turned right round, but
either by chance, or through Mahomed's skilful
steering, the boat's head came straight again before a
breaker filled us. One more--a monster. We were
through it or over it--more through than over--and
then, with a wild yell of exultation from the Arab, we
shot out into the comparatively smooth water of the
mouth of sea between the teeth like lines of gnashing
waves.
But we were half full of water again, and not more
than half a mile ahead was the second line of
breakers. Again we set to and bailed furiously.
Fortunately the storm had now quite gone by, and the
moon shone brightly, revealing a rocky headland
running half a mile or more out into the sea, of which
this second line of breakers appeared to be a
continuation. At any rate, they boiled around its
foot. Probably the ridge that formed the headland ran
out into the ocean, only at a lower level, and made
the reef also. This headland was terminated by a
curious peak that seemed not to be more than a mile
away from us. Just as we got the boat pretty clear for
the second time, Leo, to my immense relief, opened his
eyes and remarked that the clothes had tumbled off the
bed, and that he supposed it was time to get up for
chapel. I told him to shut his eyes and keep quiet,
which he did without in the slightest degree realizing
the position. As for myself, his reference to chapel
made me reflect, with a sort of sick longing, on my
comfortable rooms at Cambridge. Why had I been such a
fool as to leave them? This is a reflection that has
several times recurred to me since, and with ever-
increasing force.
But now again we are drifting down on the breakers,
though with lessened speed, for the wind had fallen,
and only the current or the tide (it afterwards turned
out to be the tide) was driving us.
Another minute, and with a sort of howl to Allah from
the Arab, a pious ejaculation from myself, and
something that was not pious from Job, we were in
them. And then the whole scene, down to our final
escape, repeated itself, only not quite so violently.
Mahomed's skilful steering and the air-tight
compartments saved our lives. In five minutes we were
through, and drifting--for we were too exhausted to do
anything to help ourselves except keep her head
straight--with the most startling rapidity round the
headland which I have described.
Round we went with the tide, until we got well under
the lee of the point, and then suddenly the speed
slackened, we ceased to make way, and finally appeared
to be in dead water. The storm had entirely passed,
leaving a clean-washed sky behind it; the headland
intercepted the heavy sea that had been occasioned by
the squall, and the tide, which had been running so
fiercely up the river (for we were now in the mouth of
a river), was sluggish before it turned, so we floated
quietly, and before the moon went down managed to bail
out the boat thoroughly and get her a little ship-
shape. Leo was sleeping profoundly, and on the whole I
thought it wise not to wake him. It was true he was
sleeping in wet clothes, but the night was now so warm
that I thought (and so did Job) that they were not
likely to injure a man of his unusually vigorous
constitution. Besides, we had no dry ones at hand.
Presently the moon went down, and left us floating on
the waters, now only heaving like some troubled
woman's breast, giving us leisure to reflect upon all
that we had gone through and all that we had escaped.
Job stationed himself at the bow, Mahomed kept his
post at the tiller, and I sat on a seat in the middle
of the boat close to where Leo was lying.
The moon went slowly down in chastened loveliness; she
departed like some sweet bride into her chamber, and
long, veil-like shadows crept up the sky through which
the stars peeped shyly out. Soon, however, they too
began to pale before a splendor in the east, and then
the quivering footsteps of the dawn came rushing
across the new-born blue, and shook the planets from
their places. Quieter and yet more quiet grew the sea,
quiet as the soft mist that brooded on her bosom, and
covered up her troubling, as the illusive wreaths of
sleep brood upon a pain-racked mind, causing it to
forget its sorrow. From the east to the west sped the
angels of the dawn, from sea to sea, from mountain-top
to mountain-top, scattering light with both their
hands. On they sped out of the darkness, perfect,
glorious, like spirits of the just breaking from the
tomb; on, over the quiet sea, over the low coast-line,
and the swamps beyond, and the mountains beyond them;
over those who slept in peace, and those who woke in
sorrow; over the evil and the good; over the living
and dead; over the wide world and all that breathes or
has breathed thereon.
It was a wonderfully beautiful sight, and yet sad,
perhaps from the very excess of its beauty. The
arising sun; the setting sun! There we have the symbol
and the type of humanity, and all things with which
humanity has to do. The symbol and the type, yes, and
the earthly beginning, and the end also.
And on that morning this came home to me with a
peculiar force. The sun that rose to-day for us had
set last night for eighteen of our fellow voyagers!--
had set forever for eighteen whom we knew!
The dhow had gone down with them, they were tossing
about now among the rocks and seaweed, so much human
drift on the great ocean of death! And we four were
saved. But one day a sunrise will come when we shall
be among those who are lost, and then others will
watch those glorious rays, and grow sad in the midst
of beauty, and dream of Death in the full glow of
arising Life!
For this is the lot of man.
CHAPTER V--
THE HEAD OF THE ETHIOPIAN
AT length the heralds and forerunners of the royal sun
had done their work, and, searching out the shadows,
caused them to flee away. Then up he came in glory
from his ocean-bed, and flooded the earth with warmth
and I sat there in the boat listening to the gentle
lapping of the water and watched him rise, till
presently the slight drift of the boat brought the odd
shaped rock, or peak, at the end of the promontory
which we had weathered with so much peril, between me
and the majestic sight, and blotted it from my view. I
still continued to stare at the rock, however,
absently enough, till presently it became edged with
the fire of the growing light behind it, and then I
started, as well I might, for I perceived that the top
of the peak, which was about eighty feet high by one
hundred and fifty thick at its base, was shaped like a
negro's head and face, whereon was stamped a most
fiendish and terrifying expression. There was no doubt
about it; there were the thick lips, the fat cheeks,
and the squat nose standing out with startling
clearness against the flaming background. There, too,
was the round skull, washed into shape perhaps by
thousands of years of wind and weather, and, to
complete the resemblance, there was a scrubby growth
of weeds or lichen upon it, which against the sun
looked for all the world like the wool on a colossal
negro's head. It certainly was very odd; so odd that
now I believe that it is not a mere freak of nature,
but a gigantic monument fashioned, like the well-known
Egyptian Sphinx, by a forgotten people out of a pile
of rock that lent itself to their design, perhaps as
an emblem of warning and defiance to any enemies who
approached the harbor. Unfortunately we were never
able to ascertain whether or not this was the case,
inasmuch as the rock was difficult of access both from
the land and the water-side, and we had other things
to attend to. Myself, considering the matter by the
light of what we afterwards saw, I believe that it was
fashioned by man; but whether or not this is so, there
it stands, and sullenly stares from age to age out
across the changing sea--there it stood two thousand
years and more ago, when Amenartas, the Egyptian
princess, and the wife of Leo's remote ancestor
Kallikrates, gazed upon its devilish face--and there I
have no doubt it will still stand when as many
centuries as are numbered between her day and our own
are added to the year that bore us to oblivion.
"What do you think of that, Job?" I asked of our
retainer, who was sitting on the edge of the boat,
trying to get as much sunshine as possible, and
generally looking uncommonly wretched, and I pointed
to the fiery and demoniacal head.
"Oh Lord, sir," answered Job, who now perceived the
object for the first time, "I think that the old
gentleman must have been sitting for his portrait, on
them rocks."
I laughed, and the laugh woke up Leo.
"Hullo," he said, "What's the matter with me? I am all
stiff--where is the dhow? Give me some brandy,
please."
"You may be thankful that you are not stiffer, my
boy," I answered. "The dhow is sunk, and everybody on
board her is drowned, with the exception of us four,
and your own life was only saved by a miracle;" and
while Job, now that it was light enough, searched
about in a locker for the brandy for which Leo asked,
I told him the history of our night's adventure.
"Great heavens!" he said, faintly; "and to think that
we should have been chosen to live through it!"
By this time the brandy was forthcoming, and we all
had a good pull at it, and thankful enough we were for
it. Also the sun was beginning to get strength, and
warm our chilled bones, for we had been wet through
for five hours or more.
"Why," said Leo, with a gasp as he put down the brandy
bottle, "there is the head the writing talks of, the
'rock carven like the head of an Ethiopian.'"
"Yes," I said, "there it is."
"Well, then," he answered, "the whole thing is true."
"I don't at all see that that follows," I answered.
"We knew this head was here, your father saw it. Very
likely it is not the same head that the writing talks
of; or if it is, it proves nothing."
Leo smiled at me in a superior way. "You are an
unbelieving Jew, Uncle Horace," he said. "Those who
live will see."
"Exactly so," I answered, "and now perhaps you will
observe that we are drifting across a sand bank into
the mouth of the river. Get hold of your oar, Job, and
we will row in and see if we can find a place to
land."
The river-mouth which we were entering did not appear
to be a very wide one, though as yet the long banks of
steaming mist that clung about its shores had not
lifted sufficiently to enable us to see its exact
width. There was, as is the case with nearly every
East African river, a considerable bar at the mouth,
which, no doubt, when the wind was on shore and the
tide running out, was absolutely impassable even for a
beat drawing only a few inches. But as things were it
was manageable enough, and we did not ship a cupful of
water. In twenty minutes we were well across it, with
but slight assistance from ourselves, and being
carried by a strong though somewhat variable breeze
well up the harbor. By this time the mist was being
sucked up by the sun, which was getting uncomfortably
hot, and we saw that the mouth of the little estuary
was here about half a mile across, and that the banks
were very marshy, and crowded with crocodiles lying
about on the mud like logs. About a mile ahead of us,
however, was what appeared to be a strip of firm land,
and for this we steered. In another quarter of an hour
we were there, and, making the boat fast to a
beautiful tree with broad, shining leaves, and flowers
of the magnolia species, only they were rose-colored
and not white, which hung over the water, we
disembarked. This done, we undressed, washed
ourselves, and spread our clothes and the contents of
the boat in the sun to dry, which they very quickly
did. Then, taking shelter from the sun under some
trees, we made a hearty breakfast off a "Paysandu"
potted tongue, of which we had brought a good quantity
with us from the Army and Navy Stores, congratulating
ourselves loudly on our good fortune in having loaded
and provisioned the boat on the previous day, before
the hurricane destroyed the dhow. By the time that we
had finished our meal our clothes were quite dry, and
we hastened to get into them, feeling not a little
refreshed. Indeed, with the exception of weariness and
a few bruises, none of us were the worse for the
terrifying adventure which had been fatal to all our
companions. Leo, it is true, had been half drowned,
but that is no great matter to a vigorous young
athlete of five-and-twenty.
After breakfast we started to look about us. We were
on a strip of dry land about two hundred yards broad
by five hundred long, bordered on one side by the
river, and on the other three by endless desolate
swamps, that stretched as far as the eye could reach.
This strip of land was raised about twenty-five feet
above the plain of the surrounding swamps and the
river level; indeed, it had every appearance of having
been made by the hand of man.
"This place has been a wharf," said Leo, dogmatically.
"Nonsense," I answered. "Who would be stupid enough to
build a wharf in the middle of these dreadful marshes
in a country inhabited by savages, that is if it is
inhabited at all?"
"Perhaps it was not always marsh, and perhaps the
people were not always savage," he said, dryly,
looking down the steep bank for we were standing by
the river. "Look there," he went on, pointing to a
spot where the hurricane of the previous night had
torn up one of the magnolia-trees, which had grown on
the extreme edge of the bank just where it sloped down
to the water, by the roots, and lifted a large cake of
earth with them. "Is not that stonework? If not, it is
very like it."
"Nonsense," I said, again, and we clambered down to
the spot, and got between the upturned roots and the
bank.
"Well?" he said.
But I did not answer this time. I only whistled. For
there, laid bare by the removal of the earth, was an
undoubted facing of solid stone laid in large blocks
and bound together with brown cement, so hard that I
could make no impression on it with the file in my
shooting-knife. Nor was this all; seeing something
projecting through the soil at the bottom of the bared
patch of walling, I removed the loose earth with my
hands, and revealed a huge stone ring, a foot or more
in diameter, and about three inches thick. This fairly
staggered me.
"Looks rather like a wharf where good-sized vessels
have been moored, does it not, Uncle Horace?" said
Leo, with an excited grin.
I tried to say "Nonsense" again, but the word stuck in
my throat--the ring spoke for itself. In some past age
vessels _i_ had _i_ been moored there, and this stone
wall was undoubtedly the remnant of a solidly
constructed wharf. Probably the city to which it had
belonged lay buried beneath the swamp behind it.
"Begins to look as though there were something in the
story after all, Uncle Horace," said the exultant Leo;
and, reflecting on the mysterious negro's head and the
equally mysterious stonework, I made no direct reply.
"A country like Africa," I said, "is sure to be full
of the relics of long dead and forgotten
civilizations. Nobody knows the age of the Egyptian
civilization, and very likely it had offshoots. Then
there were the Babylonians and the Phoenicians, and
the Persians, and all manner of people, all more or
less civilized, to say nothing of the Jews, whom
everybody 'wants' nowadays. It is possible that they,
or any one of them, may have had colonies or trading-
stations about here. Remember those buried Persian
cities that the consul showed us at Kilwa."
"Quite so," said Leo, "but that is not what you said
before."
"Well, what is to be done now?" I asked, turning the
conversation.
As no answer was forthcoming we proceeded to the edge
of the swamp, and looked over it. It was apparently
boundless, and vast flocks of every sort of waterfowl
came flying from its recesses, till it was sometimes
difficult to see the sky. Now that the sun was getting
high it drew thin, sickly looking clouds of poisonous
vapor from the surface of the marsh and from the
scummy pools of stagnant water.
"Two things are clear to me," I said, addressing my
three companions, who stared at this spectacle in
dismay: "first, that we can't go across there" (I
pointed to the swamp), "and, secondly, that if we stop
here we shall certainly die of fever."
"That's as clear as a haystack, sir," said Job.
"Very well, then; there are two alternatives before
us. One is to 'bout ship, and try and run for some
port in the whale-boat, which would be a sufficiently
risky proceeding, and the other to sail or row on up
the river, and see where we come to."
"I don't know what you are going to do," said Leo,
setting his mouth, "but I am going up that river."
Job turned up the whites of his eyes and groaned, and
the Arab murmured "Allah," and groaned also. As for
me, I remarked sweetly that as we seemed to be between
the devil and the deep sea, it did not much matter
where we went. But in reality I was as anxious to
proceed as Leo. The colossal negro's head and the
stone wharf had excited my curiosity to an extent of
which I was secretly ashamed, and I was prepared to
gratify it at any cost. Accordingly, having carefully
fitted the mast, restowed the boat, and got out our
rifles, we embarked. Fortunately the wind was blowing
on shore from the ocean, so we were able to hoist the
sail. Indeed, we afterwards found out that as a
general rule the wind set on shore from daybreak for
some hours, and off shore again at sunset, and the
explanation that I offer of this is, that when the
earth is cooled by the dew and the night the hot air
rises, and the draught rushes in from the sea till the
sun has once more heated it through. At least that
appeared to be the rule here.
Taking advantage of this favoring wind, we sailed
merrily up the river for three or four hours. Once we
came across a school of hippopotami, which rose, and
bellowed dreadfully at us within ten or a dozen
fathoms of the boat, much to Job's alarm, and, I will
confess, to my own. These were the first hippopotami
that we had ever seen, and, to judge by their
insatiable curiosity, I should judge that we were the
first white men that they had ever seen. Upon my word
l once or twice thought that they were coming into the
boat to gratify it. Leo wanted to fire at them, but I
dissuaded him, fearing the consequences. Also we saw
hundreds of crocodiles basking on the muddy banks, and
thousands upon thousands of waterfowl. Some of these
we shot, and among them was a wild goose, which, in
addition to the sharp curved spurs on its wings, had a
spur about three quarters of an inch long growing from
the skull just between the eyes. We never shot another
like it, so I do not know if it was a "sport" or a
distinct species. In the latter case this incident may
interest naturalists. Job named it the Unicorn Goose.
About midday the sun grew intensely hot, and the
stench drawn up by it from the marshes which the river
drains was something too awful, and caused us
instantly to swallow precautionary doses of quinine.
Shortly afterwards the breeze died away altogether,
and, as rowing our heavy boat against stream in the
heat was out of the question, we were thankful enough
to get under the shade of a group of trees--a species
of willow--that grew by the edge of the river, and lie
there and gasp till at length the approach of sunset
put a period to our miseries. Seeing what appeared to
be an open space of water straight ahead of us, we
determined to row there before settling what to do for
the night. Just as we were about to loosen the boat,
however, a beautiful water-buck, with great horns
curving forward, and a white stripe across the rump,
came down to the river to drink, without perceiving us
hidden away within fifty yards under the willows. Leo
was the first to catch sight of it, and being an
ardent sportsman, thirsting for the blood of big game,
about which he had been dreaming for months, he
instantly stiffened all over, and pointed like a
setter dog. Seeing what was the matter, I handed him
his express rifle, at the same time taking my own.
"Now then," I whispered, "mind you don't miss."
"Miss!" he whispered back, contemptuously; "I could
not miss it if I tried."
He lifted the rifle, and the roan-colored buck, having
drunk his fill, raised his head and looked out across
the river. He was standing right against the sunset
sky on a little eminence; or ridge of ground, which
ran across the swamp, evidently a favorite path for
game, and there was something very beautiful about
him. Indeed, I do not think that if I live to a
hundred I shall ever forget that desolate and yet most
fascinating scene; it is stamped upon my memory. To
the right and left were wide stretches of lonely,
death-breeding swamp, unbroken and unrelieved so far
as the eye could reach, except here and there by ponds
of black and peaty water that, mirror-like, flashed up
the red rays of the setting sun. Behind us and before
stretched the vista of the sluggish river, ending in
glimpses of a reed-fringed lagoon, on the surface of
which the long lights of the evening played as the
faint breeze stirred the shadows. To the west loomed
the huge red ball of the sinking sun, now vanishing
down the vapory horizon, and filling the great heaven,
high across whose arch the cranes and wild fowl
streamed in line, square, and triangle, with flashes
of flying gold and the lurid stain of blood. And then
ourselves--three modern Englishmen in a modern English
boat--seeming to jar upon and looking out of tone with
that measureless desolation; and in front of us the
noble buck limned out upon a background of ruddy sky.
_i_ Bang! _i_ Away he goes with a mighty bound. Leo
has missed him. _i_ Bang! _i_ right under him again.
Now for a shot. I must have one, though he is going
like an arrow, and a hundred yards away and more. By
Jove! over and over and over! "Well, I think I've
wiped your eye there, Master Leo," I say, struggling
against the ungenerous exultation that in such a
supreme moment of one's existence will rise in the
best-mannered sportsman's breast.
"Confound you, yes," growled Leo; and then, with that
quick smile that is one of his charms lighting up his
handsome face with a ray of light, "I beg your pardon,
old fellow. I congratulate you; it was a lovely shot,
and mine were vile."
We got out of the boat and ran to the buck, which was
shot through the spine and stone dead. It took us a
quarter of an hour or more to clean it and cut off as
much of the best meat as we could carry, and, having
packed this away, we had barely light enough to row up
into the lagoon-like space, into which, there being a
hollow in the swamp, the river here expanded. Just as
the light vanished we cast anchor about thirty fathoms
from the edge of the lake. We did not dare to go
ashore, not knowing if we should find dry ground to
camp on, and greatly fearing the poisonous exhalations
from the marsh, from which we thought we should be
freer on the water. So we lighted a lantern, and made
our evening meal off another potted tongue in the best
fashion that we could, and then prepared to go to
sleep, only, however, to find that sleep was
impossible. For, whether they were attracted by the
lantern, or by the unaccustomed smell of a white man,
for which they had been waiting for the last thousand
years or so, I know not; but certainly we were
presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most
bloodthirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I
ever saw or read of. In clouds they came, and pinged
and buzzed and bit till we were nearly mad. Tobacco
smoke only seemed to stir them into a merrier and more
active life, till at length we were driven to covering
ourselves with blankets, head and all, and sitting to
slowly stew and continually scratch and swear beneath
them. And as we sat, suddenly rolling out like thunder
through the silence came the deep roar of a lion, and
then of a second lion, moving among the reeds within
sixty yards of us.
"I say," said Leo, sticking his head out from under
his blanket, "lucky we ain't on the bank, eh,
avuncular?" (Leo sometimes addressed me in this
disrespectful way.) "Curse it! a mosquito has bitten
me on the nose," and the head vanished again.
Shortly, after this the moon came up, and
notwithstanding every variety of roar that echoed over
the water to us from the lions on the banks, we began,
thinking ourselves perfectly secure, to gradually doze
off.
I do not quite know what it was that made me poke my
head out of the friendly shelter of the blanket,
perhaps because I found that the mosquitoes were
biting right through it. Anyhow, as I did so I heard
Job whisper, a frightened voice--
"Oh, my stars, look there!"
Instantly we all of us looked, and this was what we
saw in the moonlight. Near the shore were two wide and
ever-widening circles of concentric rings rippling
away across the surface of the water, and in the heart
and centre of the circles were two dark moving
objects.
"What is it?" asked I.
"It is those damned lions, sir," answered Job, in a
tone which was an odd mixture of a sense of personal
injury, habitual respect, and acknowledged fear, "and
they are swimming here to heat us," he added,
nervously picking up an "h" in his agitation.
I looked again, there was no doubt about it; I could
catch the glare of their ferocious eyes. Attracted
either by the smell of the newly killed water buck
meat or of ourselves, the hungry beasts were actually
storming our position.
Leo already had his rifle in his hand. I called to him
to wait till they were nearer, and meanwhile grabbed
my own. Some fifteen feet from us the water shallowed
on a bank to the depth of about fifteen inches, and
presently the first of them--it was the lioness--got
on to it and shook herself and roared. At that moment
Leo fired, and the bullet went right down her open
mouth and out at the back of her neck, and down she
dropped, with a splash, dead. The other lion--a full-
grown male--was some two paces behind her. At this
second he got his forepaws on to the bank, when a
strange thing happened. There was a rush and
disturbance of the water, such as one sees in a pond
in England when a pike takes a little fish, only a
thousand times fiercer and larger, and suddenly the
lion gave a most terrific snarling roar and sprang
forward on to the bank, dragging something black with
him.
"Allah!" shouted Mahomed, "a crocodile has got him by
the leg!" and sure enough he had. We could see the
long snout with its gleaming lines of teeth and the
reptile body behind it.
And then followed an extraordinary scene, indeed. The
lion managed to get well on to the bank, the crocodile
half standing and half swimming, still nipping his
hind-leg. He roared till the air quivered with the
sound, and then, with a savage, shrieking snarl,
turned round and clawed hold of the crocodile's head.
The crocodile shifted his grip, having, as we
afterwards discovered, had one of his eyes torn out,
and slightly turned over, and instantly the lion got
him by the throat and held on, and then over and over
they rolled upon the bank, struggling hideously. It
was impossible to follow their movements, but when
next we got a clear view the tables had turned, for
the crocodile, whose head seemed to be a mass of gore,
had got the lion's body in his iron jaws just above
the hips, and was squeezing him and shaking him to and
fro. For his part the tortured brute, roaring in
agony, was clawing and biting madly at his enemy's
scaly head, and fixing his great hind claws in the
crocodile's, comparatively speaking, soft throat,
ripping it open as one would rip a glove.
Then, all of a sudden, the end came. The lion's head
fell forward on the crocodile's back, and with an
awful groan he died, and the crocodile, after standing
for a minute motionless, slowly rolled over on to his
side, his jaws still fixed across the carcass of the
lion, which we afterwards found he had bitten almost
in halves.
This duel to the death was a wonderful and a shocking
sight, and one that I suppose few men have seen--and
thus it ended.
When it was all over, leaving Mahomed to keep a
lookout, we managed to spend the rest of the night as
quietly as the mosquitoes would allow.
CHAPTER VI--
AN EARLY CHRISTIAN CEREMONY
Next morning, at the earliest blush of dawn, we rose,
performed such ablutions as circumstances would allow,
and generally made ready to start. I am bound to say
that when there was sufficient light to enable us to
see each other's faces I, for one, burst out into a
roar of laughter. Job's fat and comfortable
countenance was swollen out to nearly twice its normal
size from mosquito bites, and Leo's condition was not
much better. Indeed, of the three I had come off much
the best, probably owing to the toughness of my dark
skin, and to the fact that a good deal of it was
covered by hair, for since we started from England I
had allowed my naturally luxuriant beard to grow at
its own sweet will. But the other two were,
comparatively speaking, clean shaved, which of course
gave the enemy a larger extent of open country to
operate on, though as for Mahomed, the mosquitoes,
recognizing the taste of a true believer, would not
touch him at any price. How often, I wonder, during
the next week or so did we wish that we were flavored
like an Arab!
By the time that we had done laughing as heartily as
our swollen lips would allow, it was daylight, and the
morning breeze was coming up from the sea, cutting
lanes through the dense marsh mists, and here and
there rolling them before it in great balls of fleecy
vapor. So we set our sail, and having first taken a
look at the two dead lions and the dead alligator,
which we were of course unable to skin, being
destitute of means of curing the pelts, we started,
and, sailing through the lagoon, followed the course
of the river on the farther side. At midday, when the
breeze dropped, we were fortunate enough to find a
convenient piece of dry land on which to camp and
light a fire, and here we cooked two wild duck and
some of the water buck's flesh--not in a very
appetizing way, it is true, but still sufficiently.
The rest of the buck's flesh we cut into strips and
hung in the sun to dry into "biltong," as I believe
South African Dutch call flesh thus prepared. On this
welcome patch of dry land we stopped until the
following dawn, and, as before, spent the night in
warfare with the mosquitoes, but without other
troubles. The next day or two passed in similar
fashion, and without noticeable adventures, except
that we shot a specimen of a peculiarly graceful
hornless buck, and saw many varieties of water-lilies
in full bloom, some of them blue and of exquisite
beauty, though few of the flowers were perfect, owing
to the prevalence of a white water-maggot with a green
head that fed upon them.
It was on the fifth day of our journey, when we had
travelled, so far as we could reckon, about one
hundred and thirty-five to a hundred and forty miles
westward from the coast, that the first event of any
real importance occurred. On that morning the usual
wind failed us about eleven o'clock, and after pulling
a little way we were forced to halt more or less
exhausted at what appeared to be the junction of our
stream with another of a uniform width of about fifty
feet. Some trees grew near at hand--the only trees in
all this country were along the banks of the river--
and under these we rested, and then, the land being
fairly dry just here, walked a little way along the
edge of the river to prospect, and shoot a few
waterfowl for food. Before we had gone fifty yards we
perceived that all hopes of getting farther up the
stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two
hundred yards above where we had stopped were a
succession of shallows and mud-banks, with not six
inches of water over them. It was a watery _i_ cul-de-
sac _i_ .
Turning back, we walked some way along the banks of
the other river, and soon came to the conclusion, from
various indications, that it was not a river at all,
but an ancient canal, like the one which is to be seen
above Mombasa, on the Zanzibar coast, connecting the
Tana River with the Ozy, in such a way as to enable
the shipping coming down the Tana to cross to the Ozy,
and reach the sea by it, and thus avoid the very
dangerous bar that blocks the mouth of the Tuna. The
canal before us had evidently been dug out by man at
some remote period of the world's history, and the
results of his digging still remained in the shape of
the raised banks that had no doubt once formed towing-
paths. Except here and there, where they had been
hollowed out or fallen in, these banks of stiff,
binding clay were at a uniform distance from each
other, and the depth of the water also appeared to be
uniform. Current there was little or none, and, as a
consequence, the surface of the canal was choked with
vegetable growth, intersected by little paths of clear
water, made, I suppose, by the constant passage of
waterfowl, iguanas, and other vermin. Now, as it was
evident that we could not proceed up the river, it
became equally evident that we must either try the
canal or else return to the sea. We could not stop
where we were, to be baked by the sun and eaten up by
the mosquitoes, till we died of fever in. that dreary
marsh.
"Well, I suppose that we most try it," I said; and the
others assented in their various ways--Leo, as though
it were the best joke in the world; Job, in respectful
disgust; and Mahomed, with an invocation to the
Prophet, and a comprehensive curse upon all
unbelievers and their ways of thought and travel.
Accordingly, as soon as the sun got low, having little
or nothing more to hope for-from our friendly wind, we
stared. For the first hour or so we managed to row the
boat, though with great labor; but after that the
weeds got too thick to allow of it, and we were,
obliged to resort to the primitive and most exhausting
resource of towing her. For two hours we labored,
Mahomed, Job, and I, who was supposed to be strong
enough to pull against the two of them, on the bank,
while Leo sat in the bow of the boat, and brushed away
the weeds which collected round the cutwater with
Mahomed's sword. At dark we halted for some hours to
rest and enjoy the mosquitoes, but about midnight we
went on again, taking advantage of the comparative
cool of the night. At dawn we rested for three hours,
and then started once more, and labored on till about
ten o'clock, when a thunderstorm, accompanied by a
deluge of rain, overtook us, and we spent the next six
hours practically under water.
I do not know that there is any necessity for me to
describe the next four days of our voyage in detail,
further than to say that they were, on the whole, the
most miserable that I ever spent in my life, forming
one monotonous record of heavy labor, heat, misery,
and mosquitoes. All the way we passed through a region
of almost endless swamp, and I can only attribute our
escape from fever and death to the constant doses of
quinine and purgatives which we took, and the
unceasing toil which we were forced to undergo. On the
third day of our journey up the canal we had sighted a
round hill that loomed dimly through the vapors of the
marsh, and on the evening of the fourth night, when we
camped, this hill seemed to be within five-and-twenty
or thirty miles of us. We were by now utterly
exhausted, and felt as though our blistered hands
could not pull the boat a yard farther, and that the
best thing that we could do would be to lie down and.
die in that dreadful wilderness of swamp. It was an
awful position, and one in. which I trust no other
white man will ever be placed; and as I threw myself
down in the boat to sleep the sleep of utter
exhaustion, I bitterly cursed my folly in ever having
been a party to such a mad undertaking, which could, I
saw, only end in our death in this ghastly land. I
thought, I remember, as I slowly sank into a doze, of
what the appearance of the boat and her unhappy crew
would be in two or three months' time from that night.
There she would lie, with gaping seams and half filled
with fetid water, which, when the mist-laden wind
stirred her, would wash backward and forward through
our mouldering bones, and that would be the end of
her, and of those in her who would follow after myths
and seek out the secrets of nature.
Already I seemed to hear the water rippling against
the desiccated bones and rattling them together,
rolling my skull against Mahomed's, and his against
mine, till at last Mahomed's stood straight up upon
its vertebrae, and glared at me through its empty eye
holes, and cursed me with its grinning jaws, because
I, a dog of a Christian, disturbed the last sleep of a
true believer. I opened my eyes, and shuddered at the
horrid dream, and then shuddered again at something
that was not a dream, for two great eyes were gleaming
down at me through the misty darkness. I struggled up,
and in my terror and confosion shrieked, and shrieked
again, so that the others sprang up too, reeling, and
drunken with sleep and fear. And then all of a sudden
there was a flash of cold steel, and a great spear was
held against my throat, and behind it other spears
gleamed cruelly.
"Peace," said a voice, speaking in Arabic, or rather
in some dialect into which Arabic entered very
largely; "who are ye who come hither swimming on the
water? Speak or ye die," and the steel pressed sharply
against my throat, sending a cold chili through me.
"We are travellers, and have come hither by chance," I
answered in my best Arabic, which appeared to be
understood, for the man turned his head and,
addressing a tall form that towered up in the
background, said, "Father, shall we slay?"
"What is the color of the men?" said a deep voice in
answer.
"White is their color."
"Slay not," was the reply. "Four suns since was the
word brought to me from _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_
, 'White men come; if white men come, slay them not.
Let them be brought to the land of _i_ She-who-must-
be-obeyed _i_ .' Bring forth the men, and let that
which they have with them be brought forth also."
"Come," said the man, half leading and half dragging
me from the boat, and as he did so I perceived other
men doing the same kind office to my companions.
On the bank were gathered a company of some fifty men.
In that light all I could make out was that they were
armed with huge spears were very tall, and strongly
built, comparatively light in color, and nude, save
for a leopard skin tied round the middle.
Presently Leo and Job were bundled out and placed
beside me.
"What on earth is up?" said Leo, rubbing his eyes.
"Oh, Lord! sir, here's a rum go," ejaculated Job; and
just at that moment a disturbance ensued, and Mahomed
came tumbling between us, followed by a shadowy form
with an up-lifted spear.
"Allah! Allah!" howled Mahomed, feeling that he had
little to hope from man, "protect me! protect me!"
"Father, it is a black one," said a voice. "What said
'She-who-must-be-obeyed' about the black one?"
"She said naught; but slay him not. Come hither, my
son."
The man advanced, and the tail, shadowy form bent
forward and whispered something.
"Yes, yes," said the other, and chuckled in a rather
blood-curdling tone.
"Are the three white men there?" asked the form.
"Yes, they are there."
"Then bring up that which is made ready for them, and
let the men take all that can be brought from the
thing which floats."
Hardly had he spoken when men came running up,
carrying on their shoulders neither more nor less than
palanquins--four bearers and two spare men to a
palanquin--and in these it was promptly indicated we
were expected to stow ourselves.
"Well!" said Leo, "it is a blessing to find anybody to
carry us after having to carry ourselves so long."'
Leo always takes a cheerful view of things.
There being no help for it, after seeing the others
into theirs I tumbled into my own litter, and very
comfortable I found it. It appeared to be manufactured
of cloth woven from grass fibre, which stretched and
yielded to every motion after the body, and, being
bound top and bottom to the bearing pole, gave a
grateful support to the head and neck.
Scarcely had I settled myself when, accompanying their
steps with a monotonous song, the bearers started at a
swinging trot. For half an hour or so I lay still,
reflecting on the very remarkable experiences that we
were going through, and wondering if any of my
eminently respectable fossil friends down at Cambridge
would believe me if I were to be miraculously set at
the familiar dinner-table for the purpose of relating
them. I don't want to convey any disrespectful notion
or slight when I call those good and learned men
fossils, but my experience is that people are apt to
fossilize even at a university if they follow the same
paths too persistently. I was getting fossilized
myself, but of late my stock of ideas has been very
much enlarged. Well, I lay and reflected, and wondered
what on earth would be the end of it all, till at last
l ceased to wonder, and went to sleep.
I suppose I must have slept for seven or eight hours,
getting the first real rest that I had had since the
night before the loss of the dhow, for when I woke the
sun was high in the heavens. We were still journeying
on at a pace of about four miles an hour. Peeping out
through the mistlike curtains of the litter, which
were ingeniously fixed to the bearing pole, I
perceived to my infinite relief that we had passed out
of the region of eternal swamp, and were now
travelling over swelling grassy plains towards a cup-
shaped hill. Whether or not it was the same hill that
we had seen from the canal I do not know, and have
never since been able to discover, for, as we
afterwards found out, these people will give little
information upon such points. Next I glanced at the
men who were bearing me. They were of a magnificent
build, few of them being under six feet in height, and
yellowish in color. Generally their appearance had a
good deal in common with that of the East African
Somali, only their hair was not frizzed up, and hung
in thick black locks upon their shoulders. Their
features were aquiline, and in many cases exceedingly
handsome, the teeth being especially regular and
beautiful. But notwithstanding their beauty, it struck
me that, on the whole, I had never seen a more evil
looking set of faces. There was an aspect of cold and
sullen cruelty stamped upon them that revolted me, and
which in some cases was almost uncanny in its
intensity.
Another thing which struck me about them was that they
never seemed to smile. Sometimes they sang the
monotonous song of which I have spoken, but when they
were not singing they remained almost perfectly
silent, and the light of a laugh never came to
brighten their sombre and evil countenances. Of what
race could these people be? Their language was a
bastard Arabic, and yet they were not Arabs; I was
quite sure of that. For one thing they were too dark,
or, rather, yellow. I could not say why, but I know
that their appearance filled me with a sick fear of
which I felt ashamed. While I was still wondering
another litter came up alongside of mine. In it--for
the curtains were drawn--sat an old man, clothed in a
whitish robe, made apparently from coarse linen, that
hung loosely about him, who, I at once jumped to the
conclusion, was the shadowy figure who had stood on
the bank and been addressed as "Father."
He was a wonderful-looking old man, with a snowy
beard, so long that the ends of it hung over the sides
of the litter, and he had a hooked nose, above which
flashed out a pair of eyes as keen as a snake's, while
his whole countenance was instinct with a look of wise
and sardonic humor impossible to describe on paper.
"Art thou awake, stranger?" he said, in a deep and low
voice.
"Surely, my father," I answered, courteously, feeling
certain that I should do well to conciliate this
ancient Mammon of Unrighteousness.
He stroked his beautiful white beard, and smiled
faintly.
"From whatever country thou camest," he said, "and, by
the way, it must be from one where somewhat of our
language is known, they teach their children courtesy
there, my stranger son. And now, wherefore comest thou
unto this land, which scarce an alien foot has pressed
from the time that man knoweth? Art thou and those
with thee weary of life?"
"'We came to find new things," I answered boldly. "We
are tired of the old things; we have come up out of
the sea to know that which is unknown. We are of a
brave race who fear not death, my very much respected
father--that is, if we can get a little fresh
information before we die."
"Humph!" said the old gentleman, "that may be true; it
is rash to contradict, otherwise I should say that
thou wast lying, my son. However, I dare say that _i_
She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_ will meet thy wishes in the
matter."
"Who is ' _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_ '?" I asked,
curiously.
The old man glanced at the bearers, and then answered,
with a little smile that somehow sent my blood to my
heart--
"Surely, my stranger son, thou wilt learn soon enough,
if it be her pleasure to see thee at all in the
flesh."
"In the flesh?" I answered. "What may my father wish
to convey?"
But the old man only laughed a dreadful laugh, and
made no reply.
"What is the name of my father's people?" I asked.
"The name of my people is Amahagger" (the People of
the Rocks).
"And, if. a son might ask, what is the name of my
father?"
"My name is Billali."
"And whither go we, my father?"
"That shalt thou see," and at a sign from him his
bearers stared forward at a run till they reached the
litter in which Job was reposing (with one leg hanging
over the side). Apparently, however, he could not make
much out of Job, for presently I saw his bearers trot
forward to Leo's litter.
And after that, as nothing fresh occurred, I yielded
to the pleasant swaying motion of the litter, and went
to sleep again. I was dreadfully tired. When I woke I
found that we were passing through a rocky defile of a
lava formation with precipitous sides, in which grew
many beautiful trees and flowering shrubs.
Presently this defile took a turn, and a lovely sight
unfolded itself to my eyes. Before us was a vast cup
of green from four to six miles in extent, of the
shape of a Roman amphitheatre. The sides of this great
cup were rocky, and clothed with bush, but the centre
was of the richest meadow land, studded with single
trees of magnificent growth, and watered by meandering
brooks. On this rich plain grazed herds of goats and
cattle, but I saw no sheep. At first I could not
imagine what this strange spot could be, but presently
it flashed upon me that it must represent the crater
of some long-extinct volcano, which had afterwards
been a lake, and was ultimately drained in some
unexplained way. And here I may state that from my
subsequent experience of this and a much larger, but
otherwise similar spot, which I shall have occasion to
describe by and by, I have every reason to believe
that this conclusion was correct. What puzzled me,
however, was that, although there were people moving
about herding the goats and cattle, I saw no signs of
any human habitation. Where did they all live? I
wondered. My curiosity was soon destined to be
gratified. Turning to the left, the string of litters
followed the cliffy sides of the crater for a distance
of about half a mile, or perhaps a little less, and
then halted. Seeing the old gentleman, my adopted
"father," Billali, emerge from his litter, I did the
same, and so did Leo and Job. The first thing I saw
was our wretched Arab companion, Mahomed, lying
exhausted on the ground. It appeared that he had not
been provided with a litter, but had been forced to
run the entire distance, and, as he was already quite
worn out when we started, his condition now was one of
great prostration.
On looking round we discovered that the place where we
had halted was a platform in front of the mouth of a
great cave, and piled upon this platform were the
entire contents of the whaleboat, even down to the
oars and sail. Round the cave stood groups of the men
who had escorted us, and other men of a similar stamp.
They were all tall and all handsome, though they
varied in their degree of darkness of skin, some being
as dark as Mahomed, and some as yellow as a Chinese.
They were naked, except for the leopard-skin round the
waist, and each of them carried a huge spear.
There were also some women among them, who, instead of
the leopard-skin, wore a tanned hide of a small red
buck, something like that of the oribe', only rather
darker in color. These women were, as a class,
exceedingly good-looking, with large, dark eyes, well-
cut features, and a thick bush of curling hair--not
crisped like a negro's--ranging from black to chestnut
in hue, with all shades of intermediate color. Some,
but very few of them, wore a yellowish linen garment,
such as I have described as worn by Billali, but this,
as we afterwards discovered, was a mark of rank,
rather than an attempt at clothing. For the rest,
their appearance was not quite so terrifying as that
of the men, and they sometimes, though rarely, smiled.
As soon as we had alighted they gathered round us and
examined us with curiosity, but without excitement.
Leo's tall, athletic form and clear-cut Grecian face,
however, evidently excited their attention, and when
he politely lifted his hat to them, and showed his
curling yellow hair, there was a slight murmur of
admiration. Nor did it stop there; for, after
regarding him critically from head to foot, the
handsomest of the young women--one wearing a robe, and
with hair of a shade between brown and chestnut--
deliberately advanced to him, and in a way that would
have been winning had it not been so determined,
quietly put her arm round his neck, bent forward, and
kissed him on the lips.
I gave a gasp, expecting to see Leo instantly speared;
and Job ejaculated, "The hussy--well, I never!" As for
Leo, he looked slightly astonished; and then,
remarking that we had got into a country where they
clearly followed the customs of the early Christians,
deliberately returned the embrace.
Again I gasped, thinking that something would happen;
but. to my surprise, though some of the young women
showed traces of vexation, the older ones and the men
only smiled slightly. When we came to understand the
customs of this extraordinary people the mystery was
explained. It then appeared that, in direct opposition
to the habits of almost every other savage race in the
world, women among the Amahagger are not only upon
terms of perfect equality with the men, but are not
held to them by any binding ties. Descent is traced
only through the line of the mother, and while
individuals are as proud of a long and superior female
ancestry as we are of our families in Europe, they
never pay attention to, or even acknowledge, any man
as their father, even when their male parentage is
perfectly well known. There is but one titular male
parent of each tribe, or, as they call it,
"household," and he is its elected and immediate
ruler, with the title of "Father." For instance, the
man Billali was the father of this "household," which
consisted of about seven thousand individuals all
told, and no other man was ever called by that name.
When a woman took a fancy to a man she signified her
preference by advancing and embracing him publicly, in
the same way that this handsome and exceedingly prompt
young lady, who was called Ustane, had embraced Leo.
If he kissed her in return it was a token that he
accepted her, and the arrangement continued till one
of them wearied of it. I am bound, however, to say
that the change of husbands was not nearly so frequent
as might have been expected. Nor did quarrels arise
out of it, at least among the men, who, when their
wives deserted them in favor of a rival, accepted the
whole thing much as we accept the income-tax or our
marriage laws, as something not to be disputed, and as
tending to the good of the community, however
disagreeable they may in particular instances prove to
the individual.
It is very curious to observe how the customs of
mankind on this matter vary in different countries,
making morality an affair of latitude, and what is
right and proper in one place wrong and improper in
another. It must, however, be understood that, as all
civilized nations appear to accept it as an axiom that
ceremony is the touchstone of morality, there is, even
according to our canons, nothing immoral about this
Amahagger custom, seeing that the interchange of the
embrace answers to our ceremony of marriage, which, as
we know, justifies most things.
CHAPTER VII--
USTANE SINGS
When the kissing operation was finished--by the way,
none of the young ladies offered to pet me in this
fashion, though I saw one hovering round Job, to that
respectable individual's evident alarm--the old man
Billali advanced, and graciously waved us into the
cave, whither we went, followed by Ustane, who did not
seem inclined to take the hints I gave her that we
liked privacy.
Before we had gone five paces it struck me that the
cave that we were entering was none of Nature's
handiwork, but, on the contrary, had been hollowed by
the hand of man. So far as we could judge it appeared
to be about one hundred feet in length by fifty wide,
and very lofty, resembling a cathedral aisle more than
anything else. From this main aisle opened passages at
a distance of every twelve or fifteen feet, leading, I
supposed, to smaller chambers. About fifty feet from
the entrance of the cave, just where the light began
to get dim, a fire was burning, which threw huge
shadows upon the gloomy walls around. Here Billali
halted, and asked us to be seated, saying that the
people would bring us food, and accordingly we
squatted ourselves down upon the rugs of skins which
were spread for us, and waited. Presently the food,
consisting of goat's flesh boiled, fresh milk in an
earthenware pot, and boiled cobs of Indian corn, was
brought by young girls. We were almost starving, and I
do not think that I ever in my life ate with such
satisfaction. Indeed, before we had finished we
literally ate up everything that was set before us.
When we had done, our somewhat saturnine host,
Billali, who had been watching us in perfect silence,
rose and addressed us. He said that it was a wonderful
thing that had happened. No man had ever known or
heard of white strangers arriving in the country of
the People of the Rocks. Sometimes, though rarely,
black men had come here, and from them they had heard
of the existence of men much whiter than themselves,
who sailed on the sea in ships, but for the arrival of
such there was no precedent. We had, however, been
seen dragging the boat up the canal, and he told us
frankly that he had at once given orders for our
destruction, seeing that it was unlawful for any
stranger to enter here, when a message had come from "
_i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_ ," saying that our
lives were to be spared, and that we were to be
brought hither.
"Pardon me, my father," I interrupted at this point;
"but if, as I understand, _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed
_i_ lives yet farther off, how could she have known of
our approach?"
Billali turned, and seeing that we were alone--for the
young lady, Ustane, had withdrawn when he had begun to
speak--said, with a curious little laugh--
"Are there none in your land who can see without eyes
and hear without ears? Ask no questions; _i_ She _i_
knew."
I shrugged my shoulders at this, and he proceeded to
say that no further instructions had been received on
the subject of our disposal, and this being so he was
about to start to interview " _i_ She-who-must-be-
obeyed _i_ ," generally spoken of, for the sake of
brevity, as "Hiya" or _i_ She _i_ simply, who he gave
us to understand was the Queen of the Amahagger, and
learn her wishes.
I asked him how long he proposed to be away, and he
said that by travelling hard he might be back on the
fifth day, but there were many miles of marsh to cross
before he came to where _i_ She _i_ was. He then said
that every arrangement would be made for our comfort
during his absence, and that, as he personally had
taken a fancy to us, he sincerely trusted that the
answer he should bring from _i_ She _i_ would be one
favorable to the continuation of our existence, but at
the same time he did not wish to conceal from us that
he thought this doubtful, as every stranger who had
ever come into the country during his grandmother's
life, his mother's life, and his own life, had been
put to death without mercy, and in a way that he would
not harrow our feelings by describing; and this had
been done by the order of _i_ She _i_ herself, at
least he supposed it was by her order. At any rate,
she never interfered to save them.
"Why," I said, "but how can that be? You are an old
man, and the time you talk of must reach back three
men's lives. How, therefore, could _i_ She _i_ have
ordered the death of anybody at the beginning of the
life of your grandmother, seeing that she herself
would not have been born?"
Again he smiled--that same faint, peculiar smile, and
with a deep bow departed, without making any answer;
nor did we see him again for five days.
When he had gone we discussed the situation, which
filled me with alarm. I did not at all like the
accounts of this mysterious queen, " _i_ She-who-must-
be-obeyed _i_ ," or more shortly _i_ She _i_ , who
apparently ordered the execution of any unfortunate
stranger in a fashion so unmerciful. Leo, too, was
depressed about it, but proceeded to console himself
by triumphantly pointing out that this _i_ She _i_ was
undoubtedly the person referred to in the writing on
the potsherd and in his father's letter, in proof of
which he advanced Billali's allusions to her age and
power. I was by this time so overwhelmed with the
whole course of events that I had not even got the
heart left to dispute a proposition so absurd, so I
suggested that we should try and go out and get a
bath, of which we all stood sadly in need.
Accordingly, having indicated our wish to a middle-
aged individual of an unusually saturnine cast of
countenance, even among this saturnine people, who
appeared to be deputed to look after us now that the
Father of the hamlet had departed, we started in a
body--having first lit our pipes. Outside the cave we
found quite a crowd of people evidently watching for
our appearance, but when they saw us come out smoking
they vanished this way and that, calling out that we
were great magicians. Indeed, nothing about us created
so great a sensation as our tobacco smoke--not even
our firearms. After this we succeeded in reaching a
stream that had its source in a strong ground spring,
and taking our bath in peace, though some of the
women, not excepting Ustane, showed a decided
inclination to follow us even there.
By the time that we had finished this most refreshing
bath the sun was setting; indeed, when we got back to
the big cave it had already set. The cave itself was
full of people gathered round fires--for several more
had now been lighted--and eating their evening meal by
their lurid light, and by that of various lamps which
were set about or hung upon the walls. These lamps
were of a rude manufacture of baked earthenware, and
of all shapes, some of them graceful enough. The
larger ones were formed of big red earthenware pots,
filled with clarified melted fat, and having a reed
wick stuck through a wooden disk which filled the top
of the pot, and this sort of lamp required the most
constant attention to prevent its going out whenever
the wick burned down, as there were no means of
turning it up. The smaller hand-lamps, however, which
were also made of baked clay, were fitted with wicks
manufactured from the pith of a palm-tree, or
sometimes from the stem of a very handsome variety of
fern. This kind of wick was passed through a round
hole at the end of the lamp, to which a sharp piece of
hard wood was attached wherewith to pierce and draw it
up whenever it showed signs of burning low.
For a while we sat down and watched this grim people
eating their evening meal in silence as grim as
themselves, till at length, getting tired of
contemplating them and the huge moving shadows on the
rocky walls, I suggested to our new keeper that we
should like to go to bed.
Without a word, he rose, and, taking me politely by
the hand, advanced with a lamp to one of the small
passages that I had noticed opening out of the central
cave. This we followed for about five paces, when it
suddenly widened out into a small chamber, about eight
feet square, and hewn out of the living rock. On one
side of this chamber was a stone slab, about three
feet from the ground, and running its entire length
like a bunk in a cabin, and on this slab he intimated
that I was to sleep. There was no window or air-hole
to the chamber, and no furniture; and, on looking at
it more closely, I came to the disturbing conclusion
(in which, as I afterwards discovered, I was quite
right) that it had originally served for a sepulchre
for the dead rather than a sleeping-place for the
living, the slab being designed to receive the corpse
of the departed. The thought made me shudder in spite
of myself; but, seeing that I must sleep somewhere, I
got over the feeling as best I might, and returned to
the cavern to get my blanket, which had been brought
up from the boat with the other things. There I met
Job, who, having been inducted to a similar apartment,
had flatly declined to stop in it, saying that the
look of the place gave him the horrors, and that he
might as well be dead and buried in his grandfather's
brick grave at once, and expressed his determination
of sleeping with me if I would allow him. This, of
course, I was only too glad to do.
The night passed very comfortably on the whole. I say
on the whole, for personally I went through a most
horrible nightmare of being buried alive, induced, no
doubt, by the sepulchral nature of my surroundings. At
dawn we were aroused by a loud trumpeting sound,
produced, as we afterwards discovered, by a young
Amahagger blowing, through a hole bored in its side,
into a hollowed elephant tusk, which was kept for the
purpose.
Taking the hint, we got up and went down to the stream
to wash, after which the morning meal was served. At
breakfast one of the women, no longer quite young,
advanced, and publicly kissed Job. I think it was in
its way the most delightful thing (putting its
impropriety aside for a moment) that I ever saw. Never
shall I forget the respectable Job's abject terror and
disgust. Job, like myself, is a bit of a misogynist--I
fancy chiefly owing to the fact of his having been one
of a family of seventeen--and the feelings expressed
upon his countenance when he realized that he was not
only being embraced publicly, and without
authorization on his own part, but also in the
presence of his masters, were too mixed and painful to
admit of accurate description. He sprang to his feet,
and pushed the woman, a buxom person of about thirty,
from him.
"Well, I never!" he gasped, whereupon, probably
thinking that he was only coy, she embraced him again.
"Be off with you! Get away, you minx!" he shouted,
waving the wooden spoon, with which he was eating his
breakfast, up and down before the lady's face. "Beg
your pardon, gentlemen, I am sure I. haven't
encouraged her. Oh, Lord! she's coming for me again.
Hold her, Mr. Holly! please hold her! I can't stand
it; I can't, indeed. This has never happened to me
before, gentlemen, never. There's nothing against my
character," and here he broke off, and ran as hard as
he could go down the cave, and for once I saw the
Amahagger laugh. As for the woman, however, she did
not laugh. On the contrary, she seemed to bristle with
fury, which the mockery of the other women about only
served to intensify. She stood there literally
snarling and shaking with indignation, and, seeing
her, I wished Job's scruples had been at Jericho,
forming a shrewd guess that his admirable behavior had
endangered our throats. Nor, as the sequel shows, was
I wrong.
The lady having retreated, Job returned in a great
state of nervousness, and keeping his weather eye
fixed upon every woman who came near him. I took an
opportunity to explain to our hosts that Job was a
married man, and had had very unhappy experiences in
his domestic relations, which accounted for his
presence here and his terror at the sight of women,
but my remarks were received in grim silence, it being
evident that our retainer's behavior was considered as
a slight to the "household" at large, although the
women, after the manner of some of their more
civilized sisters, made merry at the rebuff of their
companion.
After breakfast we took a walk and inspected the
Amahagger herds, and also their cultivated lands. They
have two breeds of cattle, one large and angular, with
no horns, but yielding beautiful milk; and the other,
a red breed, very small and fat, excellent for meat,
but of no value for milking purposes. This last breed
closely resembles the Norfolk red-pole strain, only it
has horns which generally curve forward over the head,
sometimes to such an extent that they have to be cut
to prevent them from growing into the bones of the
skull, The goats are long-haired, and are used for
eating only, at least I never saw them milked. As for
the Amahagger cultivation, it is primitive in the
extreme, being all done by means of a spade made of
iron, for these people smelt and work iron. This spade
is shaped more like a big spearshead than anything
else, and has no shoulder to it on which the foot can
be set. As a consequence, the labor of digging is very
great. It is, however, all done by the men, the women,
contrary to the habits of most savage races, being
entirely exempt from manual toil. But then, as I think
I have said elsewhere, among the Amahagger the weaker
sex has established its rights.
At first we were much puzzled as to the origin and
constitution of this extraordinary race, points upon
which they were singularly uucommunicative. As the
time went on for the next four days passed without any
striking event--we learned something from Leo's lady
friend Ustane, who, by the way, stuck to that young
gentleman like his own shadow. As to origin, they had
none, at least, so far as she was aware. There were,
however, she informed us, mounds of masonry and many
pillars near the place where _i_ She _i_ lived, which
was called Ko^r, and which the wise said had once been
houses wherein men lived, and it was suggested that
they were descended from these men. No one, however,
dared go near these great ruins because they were
haunted: they only looked on them from a distance.
Other similar ruins were to be seen, she had heard, in
various parts of the country, that is, wherever one of
the mountains rose above the level of the swamp. Also
the caves in which they lived had been hollowed out of
the rocks by men, perhaps the same who built the
cities. They themselves had no written laws, only
custom, which was, however, quite as binding as law.
If any man offended against the custom, he was put to
death by order of the Father of the "household." I
asked how he was put to death, and she only smiled,
and said that I might see one day soon.
They had a queen, however. _i_ She _i_ was their
queen, but she was very rarely seen, perhaps once in
two or three years, when she came forth to pass
sentence on some offenders, and when seen was muffled
up in a big cloak, so that nobody could look upon her
face. Those who waited upon her were deaf and dumb,
and therefore could tell no tales, but it was reported
that she was lovely as no other woman was lovely, or
ever had been. It was rumored also that she was
immortal, and had power. over all things, but she,
Ustane, could say nothing of all that. What she
believed was that the queen chose a husband from time
to time, and as soon as a female child was born this
husband, who was never again seen, was put to death.
Then the female child grew up and took the place of
the queen when its mother died and had been buried in
the great caves. But of these matters none could speak
for certain. Only _i_ She _i_ was obeyed throughout
the length and breadth of the land, and to question
her command was certain death. _i_ She _i_ kept a
guard, but had no regular army, and to disobey her was
to die.
I asked what size the land was, and how many people
lived in it. She answered that there were ten
"households," like this that she knew of, including
the big "household," where the queen was; that all the
"households" lived in caves, in places resembling this
stretch of raised country, dotted about in a vast
extent of swamp, which was only to be threaded by
secret paths. Often the "households" made war on each
other until _i_ She _i_ sent word that it was to stop,
and then they instantly ceased. That and the fever
which they caught in crossing the swamps prevented
their numbers from increasing too much. They had no
connection with any other race, indeed none lived near
them, or were able to thread the vast swamps. Once an
army from the direction of the great river (presumably
the Zambesi) had attempted to attack them, but they
got lost in the marshes, and at night, seeing the
great balls of fire that move about there, tried to
come to them, thinking that they marked the enemy's
camp, and half of them were drowned. As for the rest,
they soon died of fever and starvation, not a blow
being struck at them. The marshes, she told us, were
absolutely impassable except to those who knew the
paths, adding, what I could well believe, that we
should never have reached this place where we then
were had we not been brought thither.
These and many other things we learned from Ustane
during the four days pause before our real adventures
began gave us considerable cause for thought. The
whole thing was exceedingly remarkable, almost
incredibly so, indeed, and the oddest part of it was
that so far it did more or less correspond to the
ancient writing on the sherd. And now it appeared that
there was a mysterious queen clothed by rumor with
dread and wonderful attributes, and commonly known by
the impersonal but, to my mind, rather awesome title
of _i_ She _i_ . Altogether, I could not make it out,
nor could Leo, though of course he was exceedingly
triumphant over me because I had persistently mocked
at the whole thing. As for Job, he had long since
abandoned any attempt to call his reason his own, and
left it to drift on the sea of circumstance. Mahomed,
the Arab, who was, by the way, treated civilly indeed,
but with chilling contempt, by the Amahagger, was, I
discovered, in a great fright, though I could not
quite make out what he was frightened about. He would
sit crouched in a corner of the cave all day long,
calling upon Allah and the Prophet to protect him.
When I pressed him about it, he said that he was
afraid because these people were not men and women at
all, but devils, and that this was an enchanted land;
and, upon my word, once or twice since then I have
been inclined to agree with him. And so the time went
on, till the night of the fourth day after Billali had
left, when something happened.
We three and Ustane were sitting round a fire in the
cave just before bedtime, when suddenly the woman, who
had been brooding in silence, rose, and laid her hand
upon Leo's golden curls, and addressed him. Even now,
when I shut my eyes, I can see her proud, imperial
form, clothed alternately in dense shadow and the red
flickering of the fire, as she stood, the wild centre
of as weird a scene as I ever witnessed, and delivered
herself of the burden of her thoughts and forebodings
in a kind of rhythmical speech that ran something
follows:
[poem in italics]
"Thou art my chosen--I have waited
for thee from the beginning!
Thou art very beautiful. Who hath
hair like unto thee, or skin so
white?
Who hath so strong an arm, who is
so much a man.
Thine eyes are the sky, and the light
in them is the stars.
Thou art perfect and of a happy face,
and my heart turned itself towards thee.
Ay, when mine eyes fell on thee I did
desire thee--
Then did I take thee to me--thou, my
Beloved,
And hold thee fast, lest harm should
come unto thee.
Ay, I did cover thine head with mine
hair, lest the sun should strike it;
And altogether was I thine, and thou
wast altogether mine.
And so it went for a little space, till
Time was in labor with an evil
Day;
And then what befell on that day?
Alas! my Beloved, I know not!
But I, I saw thee no more--I, I was
lost in the blackness.
And she who is stronger did take thee;
ay, she who is fairer than Ustane.
Yet didst thou turn and call upon me,
and let thine eyes wander in the
darkness.
But, nevertheless, she prevailed by
Beauty, and led thee down horrible
places, And then, ah! then my Beloved--"
Here this extraordinary woman broke off her speech, or
chant, which was so much musical gibberish to us, for
all that we understood of what she was talking about,
and seemed to fix her flashing eyes upon the deep
shadow before her. Then in a moment they acquired a
vacant, terrified stare, as though they were striving
to realize some half seen horror. She lifted her hand
from Leo's head, and pointed into the darkness. We all
looked, and could see nothing; but she saw something,
or thought she did, and something evidently that
affected even her iron nerves, for, without another
sound, down she fell senseless between us.
Leo, who was growing really attached to this
remarkable young person, was in a great state of alarm
and distress, and I, to be perfectly candid, was in a
condition not far removed from superstitious fear. The
whole scene was an uncanny one.
Presently, however, she recovered, and sat up with an
extraordinary convulsive shudder.
"What didst thou mean, Ustane?" asked Leo, who, thanks
to years of tuition, spoke Arabic very prettily.
"Nay, my chosen," she answered, with a little forced
laugh, "I did but sing unto thee after the fashion of
my people. Surely, I meant nothing. How could I speak
of that which is not yet?"
"And what didst thou see, Ustane?" I asked, looking
her sharply in the face.
"Nay," she answered again; "I saw naught. Ask me not
what I saw. Why should I fright ye?" And then, turning
to Leo with a look of the most utter tenderness that I
ever saw upon the face of a woman, civilized or
savage, she took his head between her hands, and
kissed him on the forehead as a mother might. "When I
am gone from thee, my chosen; when at night thou
stretchest out: thy hand and canst not find me, then
shouldst thou think at times of me, for of a truth I
love thee well, though I be not fit to wash thy feet.
And now let us love and take that which is given us,
and be happy; for in the grave there is no love and no
warmth, nor any touching of the lips. Nothing
perchance, or perchance but bitter memories of what
might have been. To-night the hours are our own, how
know we to whom they shall belong to-morrow?"
CHAPTER VIII--
THE FEAST, AND AFTER!
On the day following this remarkable scene--a scene
calculated to make a deep impression upon anybody who
beheld it, more because of what it suggested and
seemed to foreshadow than of what it revealed--it was
announced to us that a feast would be held that
evening in our honor. I did my best to get out of it,
saying that we were modest people, and cared little
for feasts but my remarks being received with the
silence of displeasure, I thought it wisest to hold my
tongue.
Accordingly, just before sundown, I was informed that
everything was ready, and, accompanied by Job, went
into the cave, where I met Leo, who was, as usual,
followed by Ustane. These two had been out walking
somewhere, and knew nothing of the projected festivity
till that moment. When Ustane heard of it I saw an
expression of horror spring up upon her handsome
features. Turning, she caught a man who was passing up
the cave by the arm, and asked him something in an
imperious tone. His answer seemed to reassure her a
little, for she, looked relieved, though far from
satisfied. Next she appeared to attempt some
remonstrance with the man, who was a person in
authority, but he spoke angrily to her, and shook her
off, and then, changing his mind, led her by the arm,
and sat her down between himself and another man in
the circle round the fire, and I perceived that for
some reason of her own she thought it best to submit.
The fire in the cave was an unusually big one that
night, and in a large circle round it were gathered
about thirty-five men and two women, Ustane and the
woman to avoid whom Job had played the role of another
Scriptural character. The men were sitting in perfect
silence, as was their custom, each with his great
spear stuck upright behind him, in a socket cut in the
rock for that purpose. Only one or two wore the
yellowish linen garment of which I have spoken, the
rest had nothing on except the leopard's skin about
the middle.
"What's up now, sir?" said Job, doubtfully. "Bless us
and save us, there's that woman again. Now, surely,
she can't be after me, seeing that I have given her no
encouragement. They give me the creeps, the whole lot
of them, and that's a fact. Why, look, they have asked
Mahomed to dine, too. There, that lady of mine is
talking to him in as nice and civil a way as possible.
Well, I'm glad it isn't me, that's all."
We looked up, and sure enough the woman in question
had risen, and was escorting the wretched Mahomed from
the corner, where, overcome by some acute prescience
of horror, he had been seated, shivering and calling
on Allah. He appeared unwilling enough to come, if for
no other reason perhaps because it was an unaccustomed
honor, for hitherto his food had been given to him
apart. Anyway I could see that he was in a state of
great terror, for his tottering legs would scarcely
support his stout, bulky form, and I think it was
rather owing to the resources of barbarism behind him,
in the shape of a huge Amahagger with a
proportionately huge spear, than to the seduction of
the lady who led him by the hand, that he consented to
come at all.
"Well," I said to the others, "I don't at all like the
look of things, but I suppose that we must face it
out. Have you fellows got your revolvers on because,
if so, you had better see that they're loaded."
"I have, sir," said Job, tapping his Colt, "but Mr.
Leo has only got his hunting-knife, though that is big
enough, surely."
Feeling that it would not do to wait while the missing
weapon was fetched, we advanced boldly, and seated
ourselves in a line, with our backs against the side
of the cave.
As soon as we were seated, an earthenware jar was
passed round containing a fermented fluid, of by no
means unpleasant taste, though apt to turn upon the
stomach, made of crushed grain--not Indian corn, but a
small brown grain that grows upon the stem in
clusters, not unlike that which in the southern part
of Africa is known by the name of Kaffir corn. The
vase in which this liquid was handed round was very
curious, and as it more or less resembled many
hundreds of others in use among the Amahagger I may as
well describe it. These vases are of a very ancient
manufacture, and of all sizes. None such can have been
made in the country for hundreds, or rather thousands,
of years. They are found in the rock tombs, of which I
shall give a description in their proper place, and my
own belief is that, after the fashion of the
Egyptians, with whom the former inhabitants of this
country may have had some connection, they were used
to receive the viscera of the dead. Leo, however, is
of opinion that, as in the case of Etruscan amphorae,
they were placed there for the spiritual use of the
deceased. They are mostly two-handled, and of all
sizes, some being nearly three feet in height, and
running from that down to as many inches. In shape
they vary, but are all exceedingly beautiful and
graceful, being made of a very fine black ware, not
lustrous, but slightly rough. On this groundwork were
inlaid figures much more graceful and lifelike than
any others I have seen on antique vases. Some of these
inlaid pictures represented love-scenes with a child-
like simplicity and freedom of manner which would not
commend itself to the taste of the present day. Others
again were pictures of maidens dancing, and yet others
of hunting-scenes. For instance, the very vase from
which we were then drinking had on one side a most
spirited drawing of men, apparently white in color,
attacking a bull-elephant with spears, while on the
reverse was a picture not quite so well done, of a
hunter shooting an arrow at a running antelope, I
should say, from the look of it, either an eland or a
koodoo.
This is a digression at a critical point but it is not
too long for the occasion itself was very long. With
the exception of the periodical passing of the vase,
and the movement necessary to throw fuel on to the
fire, nothing happened for the best part of a whole
hour. Nobody spoke a word. There we all sat in perfect
silence, staring at the glare and glow of the large
fire, and at the shadows thrown by the flickering
earthenware lamps (which, by the way, were not
ancient). On the open space between us and the fire
lay a large wooden tray, with four short handles to
it, exactly like a butcher's tray, only not hollowed
out. By the side of the tray was a great pair of long-
handled iron pincers, and on the other side of the
fire was a similar pair. Somehow I did not at all like
the appearance of this tray and the accompanying
pincers. There I sat and stared at them and at the
silent circle of the fierce, moody faces of the men,
and reflected that it was all very awful, and that we
were absolutely in the power of this alarming people,
who, to me at any rate, were all the more formidable
because their true character was still very much of a
mystery to us. They might be better than I thought
them, or they might be worse. I feared that they were
worse, and I was not wrong. It was a curious sort of a
feast, I reflected, in appearance, indeed, an
entertainment of the Barmecide stamp, for there was
absolutely nothing to eat.
At last, just as I was beginning to feel as though I
were being mesmerized, a move was made. Without the
slightest warning, a man from the other side of the
circle called out in a loud voice,
"Where is the flesh that we shall eat?"
Thereon everybody in the circle answered in a deep,
measured tone, and stretching out the right arm
towards the fire as he spoke--
"The flesh will come."
"Is it a goat?" said the same man.
"It is a goat without horns, and more than a goat, and
we shall slay it," they answered, with one voice, and
turning half round they one and all grasped the
handles of their spears with the right hand, and then
simultaneously let them go.
"Is it an ox?" said the man again.
"It is an ox without horns, and more than an ox, and
we shall slay it," was the answer, and again the
spears were grasped, and again let go.
Then came a pause, and I noticed, with horror and a
rising of the hair, that the woman next to Mahomed
began to fondle him, patting his cheeks, and calling
him by names of endearment, while her fierce eyes
played up and down his trembling form. I do not know
why the sight frightened me so, but it did frighten us
all dreadfully, especially Leo. The caressing was so
snakelike, and so evidently a part of some ghastly
formula that had to be gone through. I saw Mahomed
turn white under his brown skin, sickly white with
fear.
"Is the meat ready to be cooked?" asked the voice,
more rapidly.
"It is ready; it is ready."
"Is the pot hot to cook it?" it continued, in a sort
of scream that echoed painfully down the great
recesses of the cave.
"It is hot; it is hot."
"Great heavens!" roared Leo, "remember the writing,
'The people who place pots upon the heads of
strangers.'"
As he said the words, before we could stir, or even
take the matter in, two great ruffians jumped up, and,
seizing the long pincers, plunged them into the heart
of the fire, and the woman who had been caressing
Mahomed suddenly produced a fibre noose from under her
girdle or moocha, and, slipping it over his shoulders,
ran it tight, while the men next him seized him by the
legs. The two men with the pincers gave a heave, and,
scattering the fire this way and that upon the rocky
floor, lifted from it a large earthenware pot, heated
to a white heat. In an instant, almost with a single
movement, they had reached the spot where Mahomed was
struggling. He fought like a fiend, shrieking in the
abandonment of his despair, and, notwithstanding the
noose round him, and the efforts of the men who held
his legs, the advancing wretches were for the moment
unable to accomplish their purpose, which, horrible
and incredible as it seems, was to put the red-hot pot
upon his head.
I sprang to my feet with a yell of horror, and drawing
my revolver fired it by a sort of instinct straight at
the diabolical woman who had been caressing Mahomed,
and was now gripping him in her arms. The bullet
struck her in the back and killed her, and to this day
I am glad that it did, for, as it afterwards
transpired, she had availed herself of the
anthropophagous customs of the Amahagger to organize
the whole thing in revenge of the slight put upon her
by Job. She sank down dead, and as she did so, to my
terror and dismay, Mahomed, by a superhuman effort,
burst from his tormentors, and, springing high into
the air, fell dying upon her corpse. The heavy bullet
from my pistol had driven through the bodies of both,
at once striking down the murderess, and saving her
victim from a death a hundred times more horrible. It
was an awful and yet a most merciful accident.
For a moment there was a silence of astonishment. The
Amahagger had never heard the report of a firearm
before, and its effects dismayed them. But the next a
man close to us recovered himself, and seized his
spear preparatory to making a lunge with it at Leo,
who was the nearest to him.
"Run for it!" I shouted, setting the example by
starting up the cave as hard as my legs would carry
me. I would have made for the open air if it had been
possible, but there were men in the way, and, besides,
I had caught sight of the forms of a crowd of people
standing out clear against the skyline beyond the
entrance to the cave. Up the cave I went, and after me
came the others, and after them thundered the whole
crowd of cannibals, mad with fury at the death of the
woman. With a bound I cleared the prostrate form of
Mahomed. As I flew over him I felt the heat from the
red-hot pot, which was lying close by, strike upon my
legs, and by its glow saw his hands--for he was not
quite dead--still feebly moving. At the top of the
cave was a little platform of rock three feet or so
high by about eight deep, on which two large lamps
were placed at night. Whether this platform had been
left as a seat, or as a raised point afterwards to be
cut away when it had served its purpose as a standing-
place from which to carry on the excavations, I do not
know--at least, I did not then. At any rate, we all
three reached it, and, jumping on it, prepared to sell
our lives as dearly as we could. For a few seconds the
crowd that was pressing on our heels hung back when
they saw us face round upon them. Job was on one side
of the rock to the left, Leo in the centre, and I to
the right. Behind us were the lamps. Leo bent forward
and looked down the long lane of shadows, terminated
in the fire and lighted lamps, through which the quiet
forms of our would-be murderers flitted to and fro
with the faint light glinting on their spears, for
even their fury was silent as a bulldog's. The only
other thing visible was the red-hot pot still glowing
angrily in the gloom. There was a curious light in
Leo's eyes, and his handsome face was set like a
stone. In his right hand was his heavy hunting-knife.
He shifted its thong a little up his wrist, and then
put his arm round me and gave me a good hug.
"Good-bye, old fellow," he said, "my dear friend--my
more than father. We have no chance against those
scoundrels; they will finish us in a few minutes, and
eat us afterwards, I suppose. Good-bye. I led you into
this. I hope you will forgive me. Good-bye, Job."
"God's will be done," I said, setting my teeth, as I
prepared for the end. At that moment, with an
exclamation, Job lifted his revolver and fired, and
hit a man--not the man he had aimed at, by the way;
anything that Job shot at was perfectly safe.
On they came with a rush, and I fired too as fast as I
could, and checked them--between us, Job and I,
besides the woman, killed or mortally wounded five men
with our pistols before they were emptied. But we had
no time to reload, and they still came on in a way
that was almost splendid in its recklessness, seeing
that they did not know but that we could go on firing
forever.
A great fellow bounded up upon the platform, and Leo
struck him dead with one blow of his powerful arm,
sending the knife right through him. I did the same by
another, but Job missed his stroke, and I saw a brawny
Amahagger grip him by the middle and whirl him off the
rock. The knife, not being secured by a thong, fell
from Job's hand as he did so, and, by a most happy
accident for him lit upon its handle on the rock, just
as the body of the Amahagger, being undermost, hit
upon its point and was transfixed upon it. What
happened to Job after that I am sure I do not know,
but my own impression is that he lay still upon the
corpse of his deceased assailant, "playing possum," as
the Americans say. As for myself, I was soon involved
in a desperate encounter with two ruffians who,
luckily for me, had left their spears behind them; and
for the first time in my life the great physical power
with which nature has endowed me stood me in good
stead. I had hacked at the head of one man with my
hunting-knife, which was almost as big and heavy as a
short sword, with such vigor that the sharp steel had
split his skull down to the eyes, and was held so fast
by it that as he suddenly fell sideways the knife was
twisted right out of my hand.
Then it was that the two others sprang upon me. I saw
them coming, and got an arm round the waist of each,
and down we all fell upon the floor of the cave
together, rolling over and over. They were strong men,
but I was mad with rage, and that awful lust for
slaughter which will creep into the hearts of the most
civilized of us when blows are flying, and life and
death tremble on the turn. My arms were round the two
swarthy demons, and I hugged them till I heard their
ribs crack and crunch up beneath my grip. They twisted
and writhed like snakes, and clawed and battered at me
with their fists, but I held on. Lying on my back
there, so that their bodies might protect me from
spear thrusts from above, I slowly crushed the life
out of them, and as I did so, strange as it may seem,
I thought of what the amiable head of my college at
Cambridge (who is a member of the Peace Society) and
my brother fellows would say if by clairvoyance they
could see me, of all men, playing such a bloody game.
Soon my assailants grew faint, and almost ceased to
struggle, their breath had failed them, and they were
dying, but still I dared not leave them, for they died
very slowly. I knew that if I relaxed my grip they
would revive. The other ruffians probably thought--for
we were all three lying in the shadow of the ledge--
that we were all dead together, at any rate they did
not interfere with our little tragedy.
I turned my head, and as I lay gasping in the throes
of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off
the rock now, for the lamplight fell full upon him. He
was still on his feet, but in the centre of a surging
mass of struggling men, who were striving to pull him
down as wolves pull down a stag. Up above them towered
his beautiful pale face crowned with its bright curls
(for Leo is six feet two high), and I saw that he was
fighting with a desperate abandonment and energy that
was at once splendid and hideous to behold. He drove
his knife through one man--they were so close to him
and mixed up with him that they could not get at him
to kill him with their big spears, and they had no
knives or sticks. The man fell, and then somehow the
knife was wrenched from his hand, leaving him
defenceless, and I thought the end had come. But no;
with a desperate effort he broke loose from them,
seized the body of the man he had just slain, and
lifting it high in the air hurled it right at the mob
of his assailants, so that the shock and weight of it
swept some five or six of them to the earth. But in a
minute they were all up again, except one, whose skull
was smashed, and had once more fastened upon him. And
then slowly, and with infinite labor and struggling,
the wolves bore the lion down. Once even then he
recovered himself, and felled an Amahagger with his
fist, but it was more than man could do to hold his
own for long against so many, and at last he came
crashing down upon the rock floor, falling as an oak
falls, and bearing with him to the earth all those who
clung about him. They gripped him by his arms and
legs, and then cleared off his body.
"A spear," cried a voice; "a spear to cut his throat,
and a vessel to catch his blood."
I shut my eyes, for I saw the man coming with a spear,
and myself, I could not stir to Leo's help, for I was
growing weak, and the two men on me were not yet dead,
and a deadly sickness overcame me.
Then suddenly there was a disturbance, and
involuntarily I opened my eyes again, and looked
towards the scene of murder. The girl Ustane had
thrown herself on Leo's prostrate form, covering his
body with her body, and fastening her arms about his
neck. They tried to drag her from him, but she twisted
her legs round his, and hung on like a bulldog, or
rather like a creeper to a tree, and they could not.
Then they tried to stab him in the side without
hurting her, but somehow she shielded him, and he was
only wounded.
At last they lost patience.
"Drive the spear through the man and the woman
together," said a voice, the same voice that had asked
the questions at that ghastly feast, "so of a verity
shall they be wed."
Then I saw the man with the weapon straighten himself
for the effort. I saw the cold steel gleam on high,
and once more I shut my eyes.
As I did so I heard the voice of a man thunder out in
tones that rang and echoed down the rocky ways--
" _i_ Cease! _i_ "
Then I fainted, and as I did so it flashed through my
darkening mind that I was passing down into the last
oblivion of death.
CHAPTER IX--
A LITTLE FOOT
WHEN I opened my eyes again I found myself lying on a
skin mat not far from the fire round which we had been
gathered for that dreadful feast.
Near me lay Leo, still apparently in a swoon, and over
him was bending the tall form of the girl Ustane, who
was washing a deep spear wound in his side with cold
water preparatory to binding it up with linen. Leaning
against the wall of the cave behind her was Job,
apparently uninjured, but bruised and trembling. On
the other side of the fire, tossed about this way and
that, as though they had thrown themselves down to
sleep in some moment of absolute exhaustion, were the
bodies of those whom we had killed in our frightful
struggle for life. I counted them; there were twelve,
besides the woman and the corpse of poor Mahomed, who
had died by my hand, which, the fire-stained pot at
its side, was placed at the end of the irregular line.
To the left a body of men were engaged in binding the
arms of the survivors of the cannibals behind them,
and then fastening them two and two. The villains were
submitting with a look of sulky indifference upon
their faces which accorded ill with the baffled fury
that gleamed in their sombre eyes. In front of these
men, directing the operations, stood no-other than our
friend Billali, looking rather tired, but particularly
patriarchal with his flowing beard, and as cool and
unconcerned as though he were superintending the
cutting-up of an ox.
Presently he turned, and, perceiving that I was
sitting up, advanced to me, and with the utmost
courtesy said that he trusted that I felt better. I
answered that at present I scarcely knew how I felt,
except that I ached all over.
Then he bent down and examined Leo's wound.
"It is a nasty cut," he said, "but the spear has not
pierced the entrails. He will recover."
"Thanks to thy arrival, my father," I answered. "In
another minute we should all have been beyond the
reach of recovery, for those devils of thine would
have slain us as they would have slain our servant,"
and I pointed towards Mahomed.
The old man ground his teeth, and I saw an
extraordinary expression of malignity light up his
eyes.
"Fear not, my son," he answered. "Vengeance shall be
taken on them such as would make the flesh twist upon
the bones merely to hear of it. To _i_ She _i_ shall
they go, and her vengeance shall be worthy of her
greatness. That man," pointing to Mahomed, "I tell
thee that man would have died a merciful death to the
death these hyena-men shall die. Tell me, I pray of
thee, how it came about."
In a few words I sketched what had happened.
"Ah, so," he answered. "Thou seest, my son, here there
is a custom that if a stranger comes into this country
he may be slain by 'the pot,' and eaten."
"It is hospitality turned upside down," I answered,
feebly. "In our country we entertain a stranger, and
give him food to eat. Here ye eat him, and are
entertained."
"It is a custom," he answered, with a shrug. "Myself I
think it an evil one; but then," he added, by an
afterthought, "I do not like the taste of strangers,
especially after they have wandered through the swamps
and lived on wild fowl. When _i_ She-who-must-be-
obeyed _i_ sent orders that ye were to be saved alive
she said naught of the black man, therefore, being
hyenas, these men lusted after his flesh, and the
woman it was, whom thou didst rightly slay, who put it
into their evil hearts to hot-pot him. Well, they will
have their reward. Better for them would it be if they
had never seen the light than that they should stand
before _i_ She _i_ in her terrible anger. Happy are
those of them who died by your hands."
"Ah," he went on, "it was a gallant fight that ye
fought. Knowest thou, that thou, long-armed old baboon
that thou art, hast crushed in the ribs of those two
who are laid out there as though they were but as the
shell on an egg? And the young one, the lion, it was a
beautiful stand that he made--one against so many--
three did he slay outright, and that one there"--and
he pointed to a body that was still moving a little--
"will die anon, for his head is cracked across, and
others of those who are bound are hurt. It was a
gallant fight, and thou and he have made a friend of
me by it, for I love to see a well-fought fray. But
tell me, my son, the Baboon--and now I think of it thy
face, too, is hairy, and altogether like a baboon's--
how was it that ye slew those with a hole in them? Ye
made a noise, they say, and slew them--they fell down
on their faces at the noise?"
I explained to him as well as I could, but very
shortly--I was terribly wearied, and only persuaded to
talk at all through of offending one so powerful if I
refused to do so--what were the properties of
gunpowder, and he instantly suggested that I should
illustrate what I said by operating on the person of
the prisoners. One, he said, never would be counted,
and it would not only very interesting to him, but
would give me an opportunity of an instalment of
revenge. He was greatly astonished when I told him
that it was not our custom to avenge ourselves in cold
blood and that we left vengeance to the law and a
higher power, of which he knew nothing. I added,
however, that when I recovered I would take him out
shooting with us, and he should kill an animal for
himself, and at this he was as pleased. as a child at
the promise of a new toy.
Just then Leo opened his eyes beneath the stimulus of
some brandy (of which we still had a little) that Job
had poured down his throat, and our conversation came
to an end.
After this we managed to get Leo, who was in a very
poor way indeed, and only half-conscious, safely off
to bed, supported by Job and that brave girl Ustane,
to whom, had I not been afraid she might resent it, I
would certainly have given a kiss for her splendid
behavior in saving my dear boy's life at the risk of
her own. But Ustane was not the sort of young person
with whom one would care to take liberties unless one
were perfectly certain that they would not be
misunderstood, so I repressed my inclinations. Then,
bruised and battered, but with a sense of safety in my
breast to which I had for some days been a stranger, I
crept off to my own little sepulchre, not forgetting
before I laid down in it to thank Providence from the
bottom of my heart that it was not a sepulchre indeed,
as, were it not for a merciful combination of events
that I can only attribute to its protection, it would
certainly have been for me that night. Few men have
been nearer their end and yet escaped it than we were
on that dreadful day.
I am a bad sleeper at the best of times, and my dreams
that night, when at last I got to rest, were not of
the pleasantest. The awful vision of poor Mahomed
struggling to escape the red-hot pot would haunt them,
and then in the background, as it were, a veiled form
was always hovering, which, from time to time, seemed
to draw the coverings from its body, revealing now the
perfect shape of a lovely blooming woman, and now
again the white bones of a grinning skeleton, and
which, as it veiled and unveiled, uttered the
mysterious and apparently meaningless sentence:
"That which is alive hath known death, and that which
is dead yet can never die, for in the Circle of the
Spirit life is naught and death is naught. Yea, all
things live forever, though at times they sleep and
are forgotten."
The morning came at last, but when it came I found
that I was too stiff and sore to rise. About seven Job
arrived, limping terribly, and with his face the color
of a rotten apple, and told me that Leo had slept
fairly, but was very weak. Two hours afterwards
Billali (Job called him "Billy-goat," to which indeed
his white beard gave him some resemblance, or more
familiarly "Billy") came too, bearing a lamp in his
hand, his towering form reaching nearly to the roof of
the little chamber. I pretended to be asleep, and
through the cracks of my eyelids watched his sardonic
but handsome old face. He fixed his hawk-like eyes
upon me, and stroked his glorious white beard, which,
by the way, would have been worth a hundred a year to
any London barber as an advertisement.
"Ah!" I heard him mutter (Billali had a habit of
muttering to himself), "he is ugly--ugly as the other
is beautiful--a very Baboon; it was a good name. But I
like the man. Strange now, at my age, that I should
like a man. What says the proverb--'Mistrust all men,
and slay him whom thou mistrustest overmuch; and as
for women, flee from them, for they are evil, and in
the end will destroy thee.' It is a good proverb,
especially the last part of it; I think it must have
come down from the ancients. Nevertheless I like this
Baboon, and I wonder where they taught him his tricks,
and I trust that _i_ She _i_ will not bewitch him.
Poor Baboon! he must be wearied after that fight. I
will go, lest I should awake him."
I waited till he had turned and was nearly through the
entrance, walking softly on tiptoe, and then I called
after him.
"My father," I said, "is it thou?"
"Yes, my son, it is I; but let me not disturb thee. I
did but come to see how thou didst fare, and to tell
thee that those who, would have slain thee, my Baboon,
are by now well on their road to _i_ She _i_ . _i_ She
_i_ said that ye also were to come at once, but I fear
ye cannot yet."
"Nay," I said, "not till we have recovered a little;
but have me borne out into the daylight, I pray thee,
my father. I love not this place."
"Ah, no," he answered, "it hath a sad air. I remember
when I was a boy I found the body of a fair woman
lying where thou liest now, yes, on that very bench.
She was so beautiful that I was wont to creep in
hither with a lamp and gaze upon her. Had it not been
for her cold hands, almost could I think that she
slept and would one day awake, so fair and peaceful
was she in her robes of white. White was she, too, and
her hair was yellow and lay down her almost to the
feet. There are many such still in the tombs at the
place where _i_ She _i_ is for those who set them
there had a way I know naught of, whereby to keep
their beloved out of the crumbling hand of Decay, even
when Death had slain them. Ay, day by day I came
hither, and gazed on her till at last, laugh not at
me, stranger, for I was but a silly lad, I learned to
love that dead form, that shell which once had held a
life that no more is. I would creep up to her and kiss
her cold face, and wonder how many men had lived and
died since she was, and who had loved her and embraced
her in the days that long had passed away. And, my
Baboon, I think I learned wisdom from that dead one,
for of a truth it taught me of the littleness of life,
and the length of death, and how all things that are
under the sun go down one path, and are forever
forgotten. And so I mused, and it seemed to me that
wisdom flowed into me from the dead, till one day my
mother, a watchful woman, but hasty minded, seeing I
was changed, followed me, and saw the beautiful white
one, and feared that I was bewitched, as, indeed, I
was. So half in dread, and half in anger, she took the
lamp, and, standing the dead woman up against the wall
there, set fire to her hair, and she burned fiercely,
even down to the feet, for those who are thus kept
burn excellently well.
"See, my son, there on the roof is yet the smoke of
her burning."
I looked up doubtfully, and there, sure enough, on the
roof of the sepulchre was a peculiarly unctuous and
sooty mark, three feet or more across. Doubtless it
had in the course of years been rubbed off the sides
of the little cave, but on the roof it remained, and
there was no mistaking its appearance.
"She burned," he went on in a meditative way, "even to
the feet, but the feet I came back and saved, cutting
the burned bone from them, and hid them under the
stone bench there, wrapped up in a piece of linen.
Surely, I remember it as though it were but yesterday.
Perchance they are there if none have found them, even
to this hour. Of truth I have not entered this chamber
from that time to this very day. Stay, I will look,
and, kneeling down, he groped about with his long arm
in the recess under the. stone bench. Presently his
face brightened, and with an exclamation he pulled
something forth that was caked in dust, which he shook
on to the floor. It was covered with the remains of a
rotting rag, which he undid, and revealed to my
astonished gaze a beautifully shaped and almost white
woman's foot, looking as fresh and firm as though it
had but now been placed there.
"Thou seest, my son, the Baboon," he said, in a sad
voice; "I spake the truth to thee, for here is yet one
foot remaining. Take it, my son, and gaze upon it."
I took this cold fragment of-mortality in my hand and
looked at it in the light of the lamp with feelings
which I cannot describe, so mixed up were they between
astonishment, fear, and fascination. It was light,
much lighter I should say than it had been in the
living state, and the flesh to all appearance was
still flesh, though about it there clung a faintly
aromatic odor. For the rest it was not shrunk or
shriveled, or even black and unsightly, like the flesh
of Egyptian mummies, but plump and fair, and, except
where it had been slightly burned, perfect as on the
day of death--a very triumph of embalming.
Poor little foot! I set it down upon the stone bench
where it had lain for so many thousand years, and
wondered whose was the beauty that it had upborne
through the pomp and pageantry of a forgotten
civilization--first as a merry child's, then as a
blushing maid's, and lastly as a perfect woman's.
Through what halls of Life had its soft step echoed,
and in the end, with what courage had it trodden down
the dusty ways of Death! To whose side had it stolen
in the hush of night when the black slave slept upon
the marble floor, and who had listened for its
stealing? Shapely little foot! Well might it have been
set upon the proud neck of a conqueror bent at last to
woman's beauty, and well might the lips of nobles and
of kings have been pressed upon its jewelled
whiteness.
I wrapped up this relic of the past in the remnants of
the old linen rag which had evidently formed a portion
of its owner's grave-clothes, for it was partially
burned, and put it away in my Gladstone bag, which I
had bought at the Army and Navy Stores--a strange
combination, I thought. Then with Billali's help I
staggered off to see Leo. I found him dreadfully
bruised, worse even than myself, perhaps owing to the
excessive whiteness of his skin, and faint and weak
with the loss of blood from the flesh wound in his
side, but for all that cheerful as a cricket, and
asking for some breakfast. Job and Ustane got him on
to the bottom, or rather the sacking of a litter,
which was removed from its pole for that purpose, and
with the aid of old Billali carried him out into the
shade at the mouth of the cave, from which, by the
way, every trace of the slaughter of the previous
night had now been removed, and there we all
breakfasted, and indeed spent that day, and most of
the two following ones.
On the third morning Job and myself were practically
recovered. Leo also was so much better that I yielded
to Billali's often expressed entreaty, and agreed to
start at once upon our journey to Ko^r, which we were
told was the name of the place where the mysterious
_i_ She _i_ lived, though I still feared for its
effects upon Leo, and especially lest the motion
should cause his wound, which was scarcely skinned
over, to break open again. Indeed, had it not been for
Billali's evident anxiety to get off, which led us to
suspect that some difficulty or danger might threaten
us if we did not comply with it, I would not have
consented to go.
CHAPTER X--
SPECULATIONS
WITHIN an hour of our finally deciding to start, five
litters were brought up to the door of the cave, each
accompanied by four regular bearers and two spare
hands, also a band of about fifty armed Amahagger, who
were to form the escort and carry the baggage. Three
of these litters, of course, were for us, and one for
Billali, who, I was immensely relieved to hear, was to
be our companion, while the fifth I presumed was for
the use of Ustane.
"Does the lady go with us, my father?" I asked of
Billali, as he stood superintending things generally.
He shrugged his shoulders as he answered,
"If she wills. In this country the women do what they
please. We worship them, and give them their way,
because without them the world could not go on; they
are the source of life."
"Ah," I said, the matter never having struck me quite
in that light before.
"We worship them," he went on, "up to a certain point,
till at last they get unbearable, which," he added,
"they do about every second generation."
"And then what do you do?" I asked, with curiosity.
"Then," he answered, with a faint smile, "we rise, and
kill the old ones as an example to the young ones, and
to show them that we are the strongest. My poor wife
was killed in that way three years ago. It was very
sad, but, to tell thee the truth, my son, life has
been happier since, for my age protects me from the
young ones."
"In short," I replied, quoting the saying of a great
man whose wisdom has not yet lightened the darkness of
the Amahagger, "thou hast found thy position one of
greater freedom and less responsibility."
This phrase puzzled him a little at first from its
vagueness, though I think my translation hit off its
sense very well, but at last he saw it, and
appreciated it.
"Yes, yes, my Baboon," he said, "I see it now, but all
the 'responsibilities' are killed, at least some of
them are, and that is why there are so few old women
about just now. Well, they brought it on themselves.
As for this girl," he went on, in a graver tone, "I
know not what to say. She is a brave girl, and she
loves the Lion (Leo); thou sawest how she clung to
him, and saved his life. Also, she is, according to
our custom, wed to him, and has a right to go where he
goes, unless," he added, significantly, " _i_ She _i_
would say her no, for her word overrides all rights."
"And if _i_ She _i_ bade her leave him; and the girl
refused? What then?"
"If," he said, with a shrug, "the hurricane bids the
tree to bend, and it will not; what happens?"
And then, without waiting for an answer, he turned and
walked to his litter, and in ten minutes from that
time we were all well under way.
It took us an hour and more to cross the cup of the
volcanic plain, and another half-hour or so to climb
the edge on the farther side. Once there, however, the
view was a very fine one. Before us was a long steep
slope of grassy plain, broken here and there by clumps
of trees mostly of the thorn tribe. At the bottom of
this gentle slope, some nine or ten miles away, we
could make out a dim sea of marsh, over which the foul
vapors hung like smoke about a city. It was easy going
for the bearers down the slopes, and by midday we had
reached the borders of the dismal swamp. Here we
halted to eat our midday meal, and then, following a
winding and devious path, plunged into the morass.
Presently the path, at any rate to our unaccustomed
eyes, grew so faint as to be almost indistinguishable
from those made by the aquatic beasts and birds, and
it is to this day a mystery to me how our bearers
found their way across the marshes. Ahead of the
cavalcade marched two men with long poles, which they
now and again plunged into the ground before them, the
reason of this being that the nature of the soil
frequently changed from causes with which I am not
acquainted, so that places which might be safe enough
to cross one month would certainly swallow the
wayfarer the next. Never did I see a more dreary and
depressing scene. Miles on miles of quagmire, varied
only by bright green strips of comparatively solid
ground, and by deep and sullen pools fringed with tall
rushes, in which the bitterns boomed and the frogs
croaked incessantly; miles on miles of it without a
break, unless the fever fog can be called a break. The
only life in this great morass was that of the aquatic
birds, and the animals that fed on them, of both of
which there were vast numbers. Geese, cranes, ducks,
teal, coot, snipe, and plover swarmed all around us,
many being of varieties that were quite new to me, and
all so tame that one could almost have knocked them
over with a stick. Among these birds I especially
noticed a very beautiful variety of painted snipe,
almost the size of woodcock, and with a flight more
resembling that bird's than an English snipe's. In the
pools, too, was a species of small alligator or
enormous iguana, I do not know which, that fed,
Billali told me, upon the waterfowl; also large
quantities of a hideous black water snake, of which
the bite is very dangerous, though not, I gathered, so
deadly as a cobra's or a puff adder's. The bullfrogs
were also very large, and with voices proportionate to
their size; and as for the mosquitoes--the
"musqueteers," as Job called them--they were, if
possible, even worse than they had been on the river,
and tormented us greatly. Undoubtedly, however, the
worst feature of the swamp was the awful smell of
rotting vegetation that hung about it, which was at
times positively overpowering, and the malarious
exhalations that accompanied it, which we were of
course obliged to breathe.
On we went through it all, till at last the sun sank
in sullen splendor just as we reached a spot of rising
ground about two acres in extent--a little oasis of
dry in the midst of the miry wilderness--where Billali
announced that we were to camp. The camping, however,
turned out to be a very simple process, and consisted,
in fact, in sitting down on the ground round a scanty
fire made of dry reeds and some wood that had been
brought with us. However, we made the best we could of
it, and smoked and ate with such appetite as the smell
of damp, stifling heat would allow, for it was very
hot on this low land, and yet, oddly enough, chilly at
times. But, however hot it was, we were glad enough to
keep near the fire, because we found that the
mosquitoes did not like the smoke. Presently we rolled
ourselves up in our blankets and tried to go to sleep,
but so far as I was concerned the bullfrogs, and the
extraordinary roaring and alarming sound produced by
hundreds of snipe hovering high in the air, made sleep
an impossibility, to say nothing of our other
discomforts. I turned and looked at Leo, who was next
to me; he was dozing, but his face had a flushed
appearance that I did not like, and by the flickering
firelight I saw Ustane, who was lying on the other
side of him, raise herself from time to time upon her
elbow, and look at him anxiously enough, However, I
could do nothing for him for we had all already taken
a good dose of quinine, which was the only preventive
we had; so I lay and watched the stars come out by
thousands, till all the immense arch of heaven was
sewn with glittering points, and every point a world!
Here was a glorious sight by which man might well
measure his own insignificance! Soon I gave up
thinking about it, for the mind wearies easily when it
strives to grapple with the Infinite, and to trace the
footsteps of the Almighty as he strides from sphere to
sphere, or deduce his purpose from his works. Such
things are not for us to know. Knowledge is to the
strong, and we are weak. Too much wisdom would
perchance blind our imperfect sight, and too much
strength would make us drunk, and overweight our
feeble reason till it fell, and we were drowned in the
depths of our own vanity. For what is the first result
of man's increased knowledge interpreted from Nature's
book by the persistent effort of his purblind
observation? Is it not but too often to make him
question the existence of his Maker, or indeed of any
intelligent purpose beyond his own? The truth is
veiled, because we could no more look upon her glory
than we can upon the sun. It would destroy us. Full
knowledge is not for man as man is here, for his
capacities, which he is apt to think so great, are
indeed but small. The vessel is soon filled, and, were
one thousandth part of the unutterable and silent
wisdom that directs the rolling of those shining
spheres, and the force which makes them roll, pressed
into it, it would be shattered into fragments. Perhaps
in some other place and time it may be otherwise, who
can tell? Herethe lot of man born of the flesh is but
to endure midst toil and tribulation, to catch at the
bubbles blown by Fate, which he calls pleasures,
thankful if before they burst they rest a moment in
his hand, and when the tragedy is played out, and his
hour comes to perish, to pass humbly whither he knows
not.
Above me, as I lay, shone the eternal stars, and there
at my feet the impish marsh-born balls of fire rolled
this way and that, vapor-tossed and earth-desiring,
and methought that in the two I saw a type and image
of what man is, and what perchance man may one day be,
if the living Force who ordained him and them should
so ordain this also. Oh, that it might be ours to rest
year by year upon that high level of the heart to
which at times we momentarily attain! Oh, that we
could shake loose the prisoned pinions of the soul and
soar to that superior point, whence, like to some
traveller looking out through space from Darien's
giddiest peak, we might gaze with the spiritual eyes
of noble thoughts deep into Infinity!
What would it be to cast off this earthy robe, to have
done forever with these earthy thoughts and miserable
desires; no longer, like those corpse candles, to be
tossed this way and that, by forces beyond our
control; or which, if we can theoretically control
them, we are at times driven by the exigencies of our
nature to obey! Yes, to cast them off, to have done
with the foul and thorny places of the world; and,
like to those glittering points above me, to rest on
high wrapped forever in the brightness of our better
selves, that even now shines in us as fire faintly
shines within those lurid balls, and lay down our
littleness in that wide glory of our dreams, that
invisible but surrounding good, from which all truth
and beauty comes!
These and many such thoughts passed through my mind
that night. They come to torment us all at times. I
say to torment, for, alas! thinking can only serve to
measure out the helplessness of thought. What is the
use of our feeble crying in the awful silences of
space! Can our dim intelligence read the secrets of
that star-strewn sky? Does any answer come out of it?
Never any at all, nothing but echoes and fantastic
visions. And yet we believe that there is an answer,
and that upon a time a new Dawn will come blushing
down the ways of our enduring night. We believe it,
for its reflected beauty even now shines up
continually in our hearts from beneath the horizon of
the grave, and we call it Hope. Without Hope we should
suffer moral death, and by the help of Hope we yet may
climb to heaven, or at the worst, if she also prove
but a kindly mockery given to hold us from despair, be
gently lowered into the abysses of eternal sleep.
Then I fell to reflecting upon the undertaking on
which we were bent, and what a wild one it was, and
yet how strangely the story seemed to fit in with what
had been written centuries ago upon the sherd. Who was
this extraordinary woman, queen over a people
apparently as extraordinary as herself, and reigning
amidst the vestiges of a lost civilization? And what
was the meaning of this story of the Fire that gave
unending life? Could it be possible that any fluid or
essence should exist which might so fortify these
fleshy walls that they should from age to age resist
the mines and batterings of decay? It was possible,
though not probable. The indefinite continuation of
life would not, as poor Vincey said, be so marvellous
a thing as the production of life and its temporary
endurance. And if it were true, what then? The person
who found it could no doubt rule the world. He could
accumulate all the wealth in the world, and all the
power, and all the wisdom that is power. He might give
a lifetime to the study of each art or science. Well,
if that were so, and this _i_ She _i_ were practically
immortal, which I did not for one moment believe, how
was it that, with all these things at her feet, she
preferred to remain in a cave among a society of
cannibals? This surely settled the question. The whole
story was monstrous, and only worthy of the
superstitious days in which it was written. At any
rate I was very sure that I would not attempt to
attain unending life. I had had far too many worries
and disappointments and secret bitternesses during my
forty odd years of existence to wish that this state
of affairs should be continued indefinitely. And yet I
suppose that my life has been, comparatively speaking,
a happy one.
And then, reflecting that at the present moment there
was far more likelihood of our earthly careers being
cut exceedingly short than of their being unduly
prolonged, I at last managed to get to sleep, a fact
for which anybody who reads this narrative, if anybody
ever does, may very probably be thankful.
When I woke again it was just dawning, and the guard
and bearers were moving about like ghosts through the
dense morning mists, getting ready for our start. The
fire had died quite down, and I rose and stretched
myself, shivering in every limb from the damp cold of
the dawn. Then I looked at Leo. He was sitting up,
holding his hands to his head, and I saw that his face
was flushed and his eye bright, and yet yellow round
the pupil.
"Well, Leo," I said, "how do you feel?"
"I feel as though I were going to die," he answered,
hoarsely. "My head is splitting, my body is trembling,
and I am as sick as a cat."
I whistled, or if I did not whistle I felt inclined
to--Leo had got a sharp attack of fever. I went to
Job, and asked him for the quinine, of which
fortunately we had still a good supply, only to find
that Job himself was not much better. He complained of
pains across the back, and dizziness, and was almost
incapable of helping himself. Then I did the only
thing it was possible to do under the circumstances--
gave them both about ten grains of quinine, and took a
slightly smaller dose myself as a matter of
precaution. After that I found Billali, and explained
to him how matters stood, asking at the same time what
he thought had best be done. He came with me, and
looked at Leo and Job (whom, by the way, he had named
the Pig, on account of his fatness, round face, and
small eyes).
"Ah," he said, when we were out of earshot, "the
fever! I thought so. The Lion has it badly, but he is
young, and he may live. As for the Pig, his attack is
not so bad; it is the little fever which he has; that
always begins with pains across the back; it will
spend itself upon his fat."
"Can they go on, my father?" I asked.
"Nay, my son, they must go on. If they stop here they
will certainly die; also, they will be better in the
litters than on the ground. By to-night, if all goes
well, we shall be across the marsh and in good air.
Come, let us lift them into the litters and start, for
it is very bad to stand still in this morning fog. We
can eat our meal as we go."
This we accordingly did, and with a heavy heart I once
more set out upon our strange journey. For the first
three hours all went as well as could be expected, and
then an accident happened that nearly lost us the
pleasure of the company of our venerable friend
Billali, whose litter was leading the cavalcade. We
were going through a particularly dangerous stretch of
quagmire, in which the bearers sometimes sank up to
their knees. Indeed, it was a mystery to me how they
contrived to carry the heavy litters at all over such
ground as that which we were traversing, though the
two spare hands, as well as the four regular ones, had
of course to put their shoulders to the pole.
Presently, as we blundered and floundered along, there
was a sharp cry, then a storm of exclamations, and,
last of all, a most tremendous splash, and the whole
caravan halted.
I jumped out of my litter and ran forward. About
twenty yards ahead was the edge of one of those sullen
peaty pools of which I have spoken, the path we were
following running along the top of its bank, that, as
it happened, was a steep one. Looking towards this
pool, to my horror I saw that Billali's litter was
floating on it, and as for Billali himself, he was
nowhere to be seen. To make matters clear I may as
well explain at once what had happened. One of.
Billali's bearers had unfortunately trodden on a
basking snake, which had bitten him in the leg,
whereon he had, not unnaturally, let go of the pole,
and then, finding that he was tumbling down the bank,
grasped at the litter to save himself. The result of
this was what might have been expected. The litter was
pulled over the edge of the bank, the bearers let go,
and the whole thing, including Billali and the man who
had been bitten, rolled into the slimy pool. When I
got to the edge of the water neither of them were to
be seen, and, indeed, the unfortunate bearer never was
seen again. Either he struck his head against
something, or got wedged in the mud, or possibly the
snake-bite paralyzed him. At any rate, he vanished.
But though Billali was not to be seen, his whereabouts
was clear enough from the agitation of the floating
litter, in the bearing cloth and curtains of which he
was entangled.
"He is there! Our father is there!" said one of the
men, but he did not stir a finger to help him, nor did
any of the others. They simply stood and stared at the
water.
"Out of the way, you brutes," I shouted in English,
and throwing off my hat I took a run and sprang well
out into the horrid, slimy-looking pool. A couple of
strokes took me to where Billali was struggling
beneath the cloth.
Somehow, I do not quite know how, I managed to push
this free of him, and his venerable head, all covered
with green slime, like that of a yellowish Bacchus
with ivy leaves, emerged upon the surface of the
water. The rest was easy, for Billali was an eminently
practical individual, and had the commonsense not to
grasp hold of me as drowning people often do, so I got
him by the arm, and towed him to the bank, through the
mud of which we were with difficulty dragged. Such a
filthy spectacle as we presented I have never seen
before or since, and it will perhaps give some idea of
the almost superhuman dignity of Billali's appearance
when I say that, coughing, half-drowned, and covered
with mud and green slime as he was, with his beautiful
beard coming to a dripping point, like a Chinaman's
freshly oiled pigtail, he still looked venerable and
imposing.
"Ye dogs," he said, addressing the bearers, as soon as
he had sufficiently recovered to speak, "ye left me,
your father, to drown. Had it not been for this
stranger, my son the Baboon, assuredly I should have
drowned. Well, I will remember it," and he fixed them
with his gleaming though slightly watery eye, in a way
I saw they did not like, though they tried to appear
sulkily indifferent.
'As for thee, my son," the old man went on, turning
towards me and grasping my hand, "rest assured that I
am thy friend through good and evil. Thou hast saved
my life: perchance a day may come when I shall save
thine."
After that we cleaned ourselves as best we could,
fished out the litter, and went on, minus the man who
had been drowned. I do not know if it was owing to his
being an unpopular character, or from native
indifference and selfishness of temperament, but I am
bound to say that nobody seemed to grieve much over
his sudden and final disappearance, unless, perhaps,
it was the men who had to do his share of the work.
CHAPTER XI--
THE PLAIN OF KO^R
ABOUT an hour before sundown we at last, to my
unbounded gratitude, emerged from the great belt of
marsh on to land that swelled upward in a succession
of rolling waves, Just on the hither side of the crest
of the first wave we halted for the night. My first
act was to examine Leo's condition. It was, if
anything, worse than in the morning, and a new and
very distressing feature, vomiting, set in, and
continued till dawn. Not one wink of sleep did I get
that night, for I passed it in assisting Ustane, who
was one of the most gentle and indefatigable nurses I
ever saw, to wait upon Leo and Job. However, the air
here was warm and genial without being too hot, and
there were no mosquitoes to speak of. Also we were
above the level of the marsh mist, which lay stretched
beneath us like the dim smoke-pall over a city, lit up
here and there by the wandering globes of fen fire.
Thus it will be seen that we were, speaking
comparatively, in clover.
By dawn on the following morning Leo was quite light-
headed, and fancied that he was divided into halves. I
was dreadfully distressed, and began to wonder with a
sort of sick fear what the termination of the attack
would be. Alas! I had heard but too much of how these
attacks generally terminate. As I was doing so Billali
came up and said that we must be getting on, more
especially as, in his opinion, if Leo did not reach
some spot where he could be quiet, and have proper
nursing, within the next twelve hours, his life would
only be a matter of a day or two. I could not but
agree with him, so we got him into the litter, and
started on, Ustane walking by Leo's side to keep the
flies off him, and see that he did not throw himself
out on to the ground.
Within half an hour of sunrise we had reached the top
of the rise of which I have spoken, and a most
beautiful view broke upon our gaze. Beneath us was a
rich stretch of country, verdant with grass and lovely
with foliage and flowers. In the background, at a
distance, so far as I could judge, of some eighteen
miles from where we then stood, a huge and
extraordinary mountain rose abruptly from the plain.
The base of this great mountain appeared to consist of
a grassy slope, but rising from this, I should say,
from subsequent observation, at a height of about five
hundred feet above the level of the plain, was a most
tremendous and absolutely precipitous wall of bare
rock, quite twelve or fifteen hundred feet in height.
The shape of the mountain, which was undoubtedly of
volcanic origin, was round, and of course, as only a
segment of its circle was visible, it was difficult to
estimate its exact size, which was enormous. I
afterwards discovered that it could not cover less
than fifty square miles of ground. Anything more grand
and imposing than the sight presented by this great
natural castle, starting in solitary grandeur from the
level of the plain, I never saw, and I suppose I never
shall. Its very solitude added to its majesty, and its
towering cliffs seemed to kiss the sky. Indeed,
generally speaking, they were clothed in clouds that
lay in fleecy masses upon their broad and level
battlements.
I sat up in my hammock and gazed out across the plain
at this thrilling and majestic sight, and I suppose
that Billali noticed it, for he brought his litter
alongside.
"Behold the House of ' _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_
!'" he said. "Had ever a queen such a throne before?"
"It is wonderful, my father," I answered. "But how do
we enter? Those cliffs look hard to climb."
"Thou shalt see, my Baboon. Look now at the plain
below us. What thinkest thou that it is? Thou art a
wise man. Come, tell me."
I looked, and saw what appeared to be the line of
roadway running straight towards the base of the
mountain, though it was covered with turf. There were
high banks on each side of it, broken here and there,
but fairly continuous on the whole, the meaning of
which I did not understand. It seemed so very odd that
anybody should embank a roadway.
"Well, my father," I answered, "I suppose that it is a
road, otherwise I should have been inclined to say
that it was the bed of a river, or, rather," I added,
observing the extraordinary directness of the cutting,
"of a canal."
Billali--who, by the way, was none the worse for his
immersion of the day before--nodded his head sagely as
he replied,
"Thou art right, my son. It is a channel cut out by
those who were before us in this place, to carry away
water. Of this am I sure: within the rocky circle of
the great mountain whither we journey was once a great
lake. But those who were before us, by wonderful arts
of which I know naught, hewed a path for the water
through the solid rock of the mountain, piercing even
to the bed of the lake. But first they cut the channel
that thou seest across the plain. Then, when at last
the water burst out, it rushed down the channel that
had been made to receive it, and crossed this plain
till it reached the low land behind the rise, and
there, perchance, it made the swamp through which we
have come. Then, when the lake was drained dry, the
people whereof I speak built a mighty city, whereof
naught but ruins and the name of Ko^r yet remaineth,
on its bed, and from age to age hewed the caves and
passages that thou wilt see."
"It may be," I answered; "but if so, how is it that
the lake does not fill up again with the rains and the
water of the springs?"
"Nay, my son, the people were a wise people, and they
left a drain to keep it clear. Seest thou the river to
the right?" and he pointed to a fair-sized stream that
wound away across the plain, some four miles from us.
"That is the drain, and it comes out through the
mountain wall where this cutting goes in. At first,
perhaps, the water ran down this canal, but afterwards
the people turned it, and used the cutting for a
road."
"And is there then no other place where one may enter
into the great mountain," I asked, "except through the
drain?"
"There is a place," he answered, "where cattle and men
on foot may cross with much labor, but it is a secret.
A year mightest thou search and shouldst never find
it. It is only used once a year, when the herds of
cattle that have been fattening on the slopes of the
mountain, and on this plain, are driven into the space
within."
"And does _i_ She _i_ live there always?" I asked, "or
does she come at times without the mountain?"
"Nay, my son, where she is, there she is!"
By now we were well on to the great plain, and I was
examining with delight the varied beauty of its semi-
tropical flowers and trees, the latter of which grew
singly, or at most in clumps of three or four, much of
the timber being of large size, and belonging
apparently to a variety of evergreen oak. There were
also many palms, some of them more than one hundred
feet high, and the largest and most beautiful tree-
ferns that I ever saw, about which hung clouds of
jewelled honey-suckers and great-winged butterflies.
Wandering about among the trees or crouching in the
long and leathered grass were all varieties of game,
from rhinoceroses down. I saw rhinoceros, buffalo (a
large herd), eland, quagga, and sable antelope, the
most beautiful of all the bucks, not to mention many
smaller varieties of game, and three ostriches which
scudded away at our approach like white drift before a
gale. So plentiful was the game that at last I could
stand it no longer. I had a single-barrel sporting
Martini with me in the litter, the "Express" being too
cumbersome, and, espying a beautiful fat eland rubbing
himself under one of the oak like trees, I jumped out
of the litter and proceeded to creep as near to him as
I could. He let me come within eighty yards, and then
turned his head and stared at me, preparatory to
running away. I lifted and taking him about midway
down the shoulder, for he was side on to me, fired. I
never made a cleaner shot or a better kill in all my
small experience, for the great buck sprang right up
into the air and fell dead. The bearers, who had all
halted to see the performance, gave a murmur of
surprise, an unwonted compliment from these sullen
people, who never appear to be surprised at anything,
and a party of the guard at once ran off to cut the
animal up. As for myself, though I was longing to have
a look at him, I sauntered back to my litter as though
I had been in the habit of killing eland all my life,
feeling that I had gone up several degrees in the
estimation of the Amahagger, who looked on the whole
thing as a very high-class manifestation of
witchcraft. As a matter of fact, however, I had never
seen an eland in a wild state before. Billali received
me with enthusiasm.
"It is wonderful, my son the Baboon," he cried;
"wonderful! Thou art a very great man, though so ugly.
Had I not seen, surely I would never have believed.
And thou sayest that thou wilt teach me to slay in
this fashion?"
"Certainly, my father," I said, airily; "it is
nothing."
But all the same I firmly made up my mind that when
"my father" Billali began to fire I would without fall
lie down or take refuge behind a tree.
After this little incident nothing happened of any
note till about an hour and a half before sundown,
when we arrived beneath the shadow of the towering
volcanic mass that I have already described. It is
quite impossible for me to describe its grim grandeur
as it appeared to me while my patient bearers toiled
along the bed of the ancient watercourse towards the
spot where the rich brown clad cliff shot up from
precipice to precipice till its crown lost itself in
cloud. All I can say is that it almost awed me by the
intensity of its lonesome and most solemn greatness.
On we went up the bright and sunny slope, till at last
the creeping shadows from above swallowed up its
brightness, and presently we began to pass through a
cutting hewn in the living rock. Deeper and deeper
grew this marvellous work, which must, I should say,
have employed thousands of men for many years. Indeed,
how it was ever executed at all without the aid of
blasting powder or dynamite I cannot to this day
imagine. It is and must remain one of the mysteries of
that wild land. I can only suppose that these cuttings
and the vast caves that had been hollowed out of the
rocks they pierced were the State undertakings of the
people of Ko^r, who lived here in the dim lost ages of
the world, and, as in the case of the Egyptian
monuments, were executed by the forced labor of tens
of thousands of captives, carried on through an
indefinite number of centuries. But who were the
people?
At last we reached the face of the precipice itself,
and found ourselves looking into the mouth of a dark
tunnel that forcibly reminded me of those undertaken
by our nineteenth-century engineers in the
construction of railway lines. Out of this tunnel
flowed a considerable stream of water. Indeed, though
I do not think that I have mentioned it, we had
followed this stream, which ultimately developed into
the river I have already described as winding away to
the right, from the spot where the cutting in the
solid rock commenced. Half of this cutting formed a
channel for the stream, and half, which was placed on
a slightly higher level--eight feet perhaps--was
devoted to the purposes of a roadway. At the
termination of the cutting, however, the stream turned
off across the plain and followed a channel of its
own. At the mouth of the cave the cavalcade was
halted, and, while the men employed themselves in
lighting some earthenware lamps they had brought with
them, Billali, descending from his litter, informed me
politely but firmly that the orders of _i_ She _i_
were that we were now to be blindfolded, so that we
should not learn the secret of the paths through the
bowels of the mountains. To this I, of course,
assented cheerfully enough, but Job, who was now very
much better, notwithstanding the journey, did not like
it at all, fancying, I believe, that it was but a
preliminary step to being hot-potted. He was, however,
a little consoled when I pointed out to him that there
were no hot pots at hand, and, so far as I. knew, no
fire to heat them in. As for poor Leo, after turning
restlessly for hours, he had, to my deep thankfulness,
at last dropped off into a sleep or stupor, I do not
know which, so there was no need to blindfold him. The
blindfolding was performed by binding a piece of the
yellowish linen whereof those of the Amahagger who
condescended to wear anything in particular made their
dresses tightly round the eyes. This linen, I
afterwards discovered, was taken from the tombs, and
was not, as I had at first supposed, of native
manufacture. The bandage was then knotted at the back
of the head, and finally brought down again and the
ends bound under the chin to prevent its slipping.
Ustane was, by the way, also blindfolded, I do not
know why, unless it was from fear that she should
impart the secrets of the route to us.
This operation performed we started on once more, and
soon, by the echoing sound of the footsteps of the
bearers and the increased noise of the water caused by
reverberation in a confined space, I knew that we were
entering into the bowels of the great mountain. It was
an eerie sensation, being borne along into the dead
heart of the rock we knew not whither, but I was
getting used to eerie sensations by this time, and by
now was pretty well prepared for anything. So I lay
still, and listened to the tramp, tramp of the bearers
and the rushing of the water, and tried to believe
that I was enjoying myself. Presently the men set up
the melancholy little chant that I had heard on the
first night when we were captured in the whale-boat,
and the effect produced by their voices was very
curious, and quite indescribable on paper. After a
while the air began to get exceedingly thick and
heavy, so much so, indeed, that I felt as though I
were going to choke, till at length the litter took a
sharp turn, then another and another, and the sound of
the running water ceased. After this the air got
fresher again, but the turns were continuous, and to
me, blindfolded as I was, most bewildering. I tried to
keep a map of them in my mind in case it might ever be
necessary for us to try and escape by this route, but,
needless to say, failed utterly. Another half-hour or
so passed, and then suddenly I became aware that we
were once more in the open air. I could see the light
through my bandage and feel freshness on my face. A
few more and the caravan halted, and I heard Billali
order Ustane to remove her bandage and undo ours.
Without waiting for her attentions I got the knot of
mine loose, and looked out.
As I anticipated, we had passed right through the
precipice, and were now on the farther side, and
immediately beneath its beetling face. The first thing
I noticed was that the cliff was not nearly so high
here, not so high I should say by five hundred feet,
which proved that the bed of the lake, or rather of
the vast ancient crater in which we stood, was much
above the level of the surrounding plain. For the
rest, we found ourselves in a huge rock-surrounded
cup, not unlike that of the first place where we had
sojourned, only ten times the size. Indeed, I could
only just make out the frowning line of the opposite
cliffs. A great portion of the plain thus enclosed by
nature was cultivated, and fenced in with walls of
stone placed there to keep the cattle and goats, of
which there were large herds about, from breaking into
the gardens. Here and there rose great grass mounds,
and some miles away towards the centre I thought that
I could see the outline of colossal ruins. I had no
time to observe anything more at the moment, for we
were instantly surrounded by crowds of Amahagger,
similar in every particular to those with whom we were
already familiar, who, though they spoke little,
pressed round us so closely as to obscure the view to
a person lying in a hammock. Then all of a sudden a
number of armed men arranged in companies, and
marshalled by officers who held ivory wands in their
hands, came running swiftly towards us, having, so far
as I could make out, emerged from the face of the
precipice like ants from their burrows. These men, as
well as their officers, were all robed in addition to
the usual leopard skin, and, as I gathered, formed the
bodyguard of _i_ She _i_ herself.
Their leader advanced to Billali, saluted him by
placing his ivory wand transversely across his
forehead, and then asked some question which I could
not catch, and Billali having answered him, the whole
regiment turned and marched along the side of the
cliff, our cavalcade of litters following in their
track. After going thus for about half a mile we
halted once more in front of the mouth of a tremendous
cave, measuring about sixty feet in height by eighty
wide, and here Billali descended finally, and
requested Job and myself to do the same. Leo, of
course, was far too ill to do anything of the sort. I
did so, and we entered the great cave, into which the
light of the setting sun penetrated for some distance,
while beyond the reach of the light it was faintly
illuminated with lamps which seemed to me to stretch
away for an almost immeasurable distance, like the
gaslights of an empty London street. The first thing
that I noticed was that the walls were covered with
sculptures in bas-relief, of a sort, pictorially
speaking, similar to those that I have described upon
the vases--love-scenes principally, then hunting-
pictures, pictures of executions, and the torture of
criminals by the placing of a presumably red-hot pot
upon the head, showing whence our hosts had derived
this pleasant practice. There were very few battle-
pieces, though many of duels, and men running and
wrestling, and from this fact I am led to believe that
this people was not much subject to attack by exterior
foes, either on account of the isolation of their
position or because of their great strength. Between
the pictures were columns of stone characters of a
formation absolutely new to me: at any rate, they were
neither Greek, nor Egyptian, nor Hebrew, nor Assyrian-
-that I am sure of. They looked more like Chinese
writings than any other that I am acquainted with.
Near to the entrance of the cave both pictures and
writings were worn away, but farther in they were in
many cases absolutely fresh and perfect as the day on
which the sculptor had ceased work upon them.
The regiment of guards did not come farther than the
entrance to the cave, where they formed up to let us
pass through. On entering the place itself we were,
however, met by a man robed in white, who bowed
humbly, but said nothing, which, as it afterwards
appeared that he was a deaf mute, was not very
wonderful.
Running at right angles to the great cave, at a
distance of some twenty feet from the entrance, was a
smaller cave or wide gallery, that was pierced into
the rock both to the right and to the left of the main
cavern. In front of the gallery to our left stood two
guards, from which circumstance I argued that it was
the entrance to the apartments of _i_ She _i_ herself.
The mouth of the right-hand gallery was unguarded, and
along it the mute indicated that we were to proceed.
Walking a few yards down this passage, which was
lighted with lamps, we came to the entrance to a
chamber having a curtain made of some grass material,
not unlike a Zanzibar mat in appearance, hung over the
doorway.
This the mute drew back with another profound
obeisance, and led the way into a good-sized
apartment, hewn, of course, out of the solid rock,
but, to my great delight, lighted by means of a shaft
pierced in the face of the precipice. In this room was
a stone bedstead, pots full of water for washing, and
beautifully tanned leopard skins to serve as blankets.
Here we left Leo, who was still sleeping heavily, and
with him stopped Ustane. I noticed that the mute gave
her a very sharp look, as much as to say, "Who are
you, and by whose orders do you come here?" Then he
conducted us to another similar room which Job took,
and then to two more that were respectively occupied
by Billali and myself.
CHAPTER XII--
"SHE"
THE first care of Job and myself, after seeing to Leo,
was to wash ourselves and put on clean clothing, for
what we were wearing had not been changed since the
loss of the dhow. Fortunately, as I think that I have
said, by far the greater part of our personal baggage
had been packed into the whaleboat, and was therefore
saved--and brought hither by the bearers--although all
the stores laid in by us for barter and presents to
the natives were lost. Nearly all our clothing was
made of a well-shrunk and very strong gray flannel,
and excellent I found it for travelling in these
places, because though a Norfolk jacket, shirt, and
pair of trousers of it only weighed about four pounds,
a great consideration in a tropical country, where
every extra ounce tells on the wearer, it was warm,
and offered a good resistance to the rays of the sun,
and, best of all, to chills, which are so apt to
result from sudden changes of temperature.
Never shall I forget the comfort of the "wash and
brush-up," and of those clean flannels. The only thing
that was wanting to complete my joy was a cake of
soap, of which we had none.
Afterwards I discovered that the Amahagger, who do not
reckon dirt among their many disagreeable qualities,
use a kind of burned earth for washing purposes,
which, though unpleasant to the touch till one gets
accustomed to it, forms a very fair substitute for
soap.
By the time that I was dressed, and had combed and
trimmed my black beard, the previous condition of
which was certainly sufficiently unkempt to give
weight to Billali's appellation for me, the "Baboon,"
I began to feel most uncommonly hungry. Therefore I
was by no means sorry when, without the slightest
preparatory sound or warning, the curtain over the
entrance to my cave was flung aside, and another mute,
a young girl this time, announced to me by signs that
I could not misunderstand--that is, by opening her
mouth and pointing down it--that there was something
ready to eat. Accordingly I followed her into the next
chamber, which we had not yet entered, where I found
Job, who had also, to his great embarrassment, been
conducted thither by a fair mute. Job had never got
over the advances the former lady had made towards
him, and suspected every girl who came near to him of
similar designs.
"These young parties have a way of looking at one,
sir," he would say, apologetically, "which I don't
call respectable."
This chamber was twice the size of the sleeping-caves,
and I saw at once that it had originally served as a
refectory, and also probably as an embalming-room for
the Priests of the Dead; for I may as well say at once
that these hollowed-out caves were nothing more nor
less than vast catacombs, in which for tens of ages
the mortal remains of the great extinct race whose
monuments surrounded us had been first preserved, with
an art and a completeness that has never since been
equalled, and then hidden away for all time. On each
side of this particular rock-chamber was a long and
solid stone table, about three feet wide by three feet
six in height, hewn out of the living rock, of which
it had formed part, and was still attached to at the
base. These tables were slightly hollowed out or
curved inward, to give room for the knees of any one
sitting on the stone ledge that had been cut for a
bench along the side of the cave at a distance of
about two feet from them. Each of them, also, was so
arranged that it ended right under a shaft pierced in
the rock for the admission of light and air. On
examining them carefully, however, I saw that there
was a difference between them that had at first
escaped my attention; viz., that one of the tables,
that to the left as we entered the cave, had evidently
been used, not to eat upon, but for the purposes of
embalming. That this was beyond all question the case
was clear from five shallow depressions in the stone
of the table, all shaped like a human form, with a
separate place for the head to lie in, and a little
bridge to support the neck, each depression being of a
different size, so as to fit bodies varying in stature
from a full-grown man's to a small child's, and with
little holes bored at intervals to carry off fluid.
And, indeed, if any further confirmation were
required, we had but to look at the wall of the cave
above to find it. For there, sculptured all round the
apartment, and looking nearly as fresh as the day it
was done, was the pictorial representation of the
death, embalming, and burial of an old man with a long
beard, probably an ancient king or grandee of this
country.
The first picture represented his death. He was lying
upon a couch which had four short curved posts at the
corners coming to a knob at the end, in appearance
something like a written note of music, and was
evidently in the very act of expiring. Gathered round
the couch were women and children weeping, the former
with their hair hanging down their backs. The next
scene represented the embalmment of the body, which
lay nude upon a table with depressions in it, similar
to the one before us; probably, indeed, it was a
picture of the same table. Three men were employed at
the work--one superintending, one holding a funnel
shaped exactly like a port-wine strainer, of which the
narrow end was fixed in an incision in the breast, no
doubt in the great pectoral artery; while the third,
who was depicted as standing straddle legged over the
corpse, held a kind of large jug high in his hand, and
poured from it some steaming fluid which fell
accurately into the funnel. The most curious part of
this sculpture is that both the man with the funnel
and the man who poured the fluid are drawn holding
their noses, either I suppose because of the stench
arising from the body, or more probably to keep out
the aromatic fumes of the hot fluid which was being
forced into the dead man's veins. Another curious
thing which I am unable to explain is that all three
men were represented as having a band of linen tied
round the face with holes in it for the eyes.
The third sculpture was a picture of the burial of the
deceased. There he was, stiff and cold, clothed in a
linen robe, and laid out on a stone slab such as I had
slept upon at our first sojourning-place. At his head
and feet burned lamps, and by his side were placed
several of the beautiful painted vases that I have
described, which were perhaps supposed to be full of
provisions. The little chamber was crowded with
mourners, and with musicians playing on an instrument
resembling a lyre, while near the foot of the corpse
stood a man with a sheet, with which he was preparing
to cover it from view.
These sculptures, looked at merely as works of art,
were so remarkable that I make no apology for
describing them rather fully. They struck me also as
being of surpassing interest as representing, probably
with studious accuracy, the last rites of the dead as
practised among an utterly lost people, and even then
I thought how envious some antiquarian friends of my
own at Cambridge would be if ever I got an opportunity
of describing these wonderful remains to them.
Probably they would say that I was exaggerating,
notwithstanding that every page of this history must
bear so much internal evidence of its truth that it
would obviously have been quite impossible for me to
have invented it.
To return. As soon as I had hastily examined these
sculptures, which I think I omitted to mention were
executed in relief, we sat down to a very excellent
meal of boiled goat's-flesh, fresh milk, and cakes
made of meal, the whole being served upon clean wooden
platters.
When we had eaten we returned to see how poor Leo was
getting on, Billali saying that he must now wait upon
_i_ She _i_ , and hear her commands. On reaching Leo's
room we found the poor boy in a very bad way. He had
woke up from his torpor, and was altogether off his
head, babbling about some boat-race on the Cam, and
was inclined to be violent. Indeed, when we entered
the room Ustane was holding him down. I spoke to him,
and my voice seemed to soothe him; at any rate he grew
much quieter, and was persuaded to swallow a dose of
quinine.
I had been sitting with him for an hour, perhaps--at
any rate I know that it was getting so dark that I
could only just make out his head lying like a gleam
of gold upon the pillow we had extemporized out of a
bag covered with a blanket--when suddenly Billali
arrived with an air of great importance, and informed
me that _i_ She _i_ herself had deigned to express a
wish to see me--an honor, he added, accorded to but
very few. I think that he was a little horrified at my
cool way of taking the honor, but the fact was that I
did not feel overwhelmed with gratitude at the
prospect of seeing some savage, dusky queen, however
absolute and mysterious she might be, more especially
as my mind was full of dear Leo, for whose life I
began to have great fears. However, I rose to follow
him, and as I did so I caught sight of something
bright lying on the floor, which I picked up. Perhaps
the reader will remember that with the potsherd in the
casket was a composition scarabaeus marked with a
round O, a goose, and another curious hieroglyphic,
the meaning of which signs is "Suten se Ra^," or
"Royal Son of the Sun." This scarab, which is a very
small one, Leo had insisted upon having set in a
massive gold ring, such as is generally used for
signets, and it was this very ring that I now picked
up. He had pulled it off in the paroxysm of his fever,
at least I suppose so, and flung it down upon the
rock-floor. Thinking that if I left it about it might
get lost, I slipped it on to my own little finger, and
then followed Billali, leaving Job and Ustane with
Leo.
We passed down the passage, crossed the great aisle-
like cave, and came to the corresponding passage on
the other side, at the mouth of which the guards stood
like two statues. As we came they bowed their heads in
salutation, and then lifting their long spears placed
them transversely across their foreheads, as the
leaders of the troop that had met us had done with.
their ivory wands. We stepped between them, and found
ourselves in an exactly similar gallery to that which
led to our own apartments, only this passage was,
comparatively speaking, brilliantly lighted. A few
paces down it we were met by four mutes--two men and
two women--who bowed low and then arranged themselves,
the women in front and the men behind us, and in this
order we continued our procession past several
doorways hung with curtains resembling those leading
to our own quarters, and which I afterwards found
opened out into chambers occupied by the mutes who
attended on _i_ She _i_ . A few paces more and we came
to another doorway facing us, and not to our left like
the others, which seemed to mark the termination of
the passage. Here two more white, or rather yellow,
robed guards were standing, and they too bowed,
saluted, and let us pass through heavy curtains into a
great ante-chamber, quite forty feet long by as many
wide, in which some eight or ten women, most of them
young and handsome, with yellowish hair, sat on
cushions working with ivory needles at what had the
appearance of being embroidery-frames. These women
were also deaf and dumb. At the farther end of this
great lamp lit apartment was another doorway closed in
with heavy Oriental-looking curtains, quite unlike
those that hung before the doors of our own rooms, and
here stood two particularly handsome girl mutes, their
heads bowed upon their bosoms and their hands crossed
in an attitude of the humblest submission. As we
advanced they each stretched out an arm and drew back
the curtains. Thereupon Billali did a curious thing.
Down he went, that venerable-looking old gentleman--
for Billali is a gentleman at the bottom--down on to
his hands and knees, and in this undignified position,
with his long white beard trailing on the ground, he
began to creep into the apartment beyond. I followed
him, standing on my feet in the usual fashion. Looking
over his shoulder, he perceived it.
"Down, my son; down, my Baboon; down on to thy hands
and knees. We enter the presence of _i_ She _i_ , and,
if thou art not humble, of a surety she will blast
thee where thou standest."
I halted, and felt scared. Indeed, my knees began to
give way of their own mere motion; but reflection came
to my aid. I was an Englishman, and why, I asked
myself, should I creep into the presence of some
savage woman as though I were a monkey in fact as well
as in name? I would not and could not do it, that is,
unless I was absolutely sure that my life or comfort
depended upon it. If once I began to creep upon my
knees I should always have to do so, and it would be a
patent acknowledgment of inferiority. So, fortified by
an insular prejudice against "kootooing," which has,
like most of our so-called prejudices, a good deal of
common-sense to recommend it, I marched in boldly
after Billali. I found myself in another apartment,
considerably smaller than the ante-room, of which the
walls were entirely hung with rich-looking curtains of
the same make as those over the door, the work, as I
subsequently discovered, of the mutes who sat in the
ante-chamber and wove them in strips, which were
afterwards sewn together. Also, here and there about
the room, were settees of a beautiful black wood of
the ebony tribe, inlaid with ivory, and all over the
floor were other tapestries, or rather rugs. At the
top end of this apartment was what appeared to be a
recess, also draped with curtains, through which shone
rays of light. There was nobody in the place except
ourselves.
Painfully and slowly old Billali crept up the length
of the cave, and with the most dignified stride that I
could command I followed after him. But I felt that it
was more or less of a failure. To begin with, it is
not possible to look dignified when you are following
in the wake of an old man writhing along on his
stomach like a snake, and then, in order to go
sufficiently slowly, either I had to keep my leg some
seconds in the air at every step, or else to advance
with a full stop between each stride, like Mary Queen
of Scots going to execution in a play. Billali was not
good at crawling, I suppose his years stood in the
way, and our progress up that apartment was a very
long affair. I was immediately behind him, and several
times I was sorely tempted to help him on with a good
kick. It is so absurd to advance into the presence of
savage royalty after the fashion of an Irishman
driving a pig to market, for that is what we looked
like, and the idea nearly made me burst out laughing
then and there. I had to work off my dangerous
tendency to unseemly merriment by blowing my nose, a
proceeding which filled old Billali with horror, for
he looked over his shoulder and made a ghastly face at
me, and I heard him murmur, "Oh, my poor Baboon!"
At last we reached the curtains, and here Billali
collapsed flat on to his stomach, with his hands
stretched out before him as though he were dead, and
I, not knowing what to do, began to stare about the
place. But presently I dearly felt that somebody was
looking at me from behind the curtains. I could not
see the person, but I could distinctly feel his or her
gaze, and, what is more, it produced a very odd effect
upon my nerves. I was frightened, I do not know why.
The place was a strange one, it is true, and looked
lonely, notwithstanding its rich hangings and the soft
glow of the lamps--indeed, these accessories added to,
rather than detracted from its loneliness, just as a
lighted street at night has always a more solitary
appearance than a dark one. It was so silent in the
place, and there lay Billali like one dead before the
heavy curtains, through which the odor of perfume
seemed to float up towards the gloom of the arched
roof above. Minute grew into minute, and still there
was no sign of life, nor did the curtain move; but I
felt the gaze of the unknown being sinking through and
through me, and filling me with a nameless terror,
till the perspiration stood in beads upon my brow.
At length the curtain began to move. Who could be
behind it?--some naked savage queen, a languishing
Oriental beauty, or a nineteenth-century young lady,
drinking afternoon tea. I had not the slightest idea,
and should not have been astonished at seeing any of
the three. I was getting beyond astonishment. The
curtain agitated itself a little, then suddenly
between its folds there appeared a most beautiful
white hand (white as snow), and with long, tapering
fingers, ending in the pinkest nails. The hand grasped
the curtain and drew it aside, and as it did so I
heard a voice, I think the softest and yet most
silvery voice I ever heard. It reminded me of the
murmur of a brook.
"Stranger," said the voice in Arabic, but much purer
and more classical Arabic than the Amahagger talk--
"stranger, wherefore art thou so much afraid?"
Now I flattered myself that in spite of my inward
terrors I had kept a very fair command of my
countenance, and was, therefore, a little astonished
at this question. Before I had made up my mind how to
answer it, however, the curtain was drawn, and a tall
figure stood before us. I say a figure, for not only
the body, but also the face was wrapped up in soft,
white, gauzy material in such a way as at first sight
to remind me most forcibly of a corpse in its grave-
clothes. And yet I do not know why it should have
given me that idea, seeing that the wrappings were so
thin that one could distinctly see the gleam of the
pink flesh beneath them. I suppose it was owing to the
way in which they were arranged, either accidentally,
or more probably by design. Anyhow, I felt more
frightened than ever at this ghostlike apparition, and
my hair began to rise upon my head as the feeling
crept over me that I was in the presence of something
that was not canny. I could, however, clearly
distinguish that the swathed, mummy-like form before
me was that of a tall and lovely woman, instinct with
beauty in every part, and also with a certain
snakelike grace which I had never seen anything to
equal before. When she moved a hand or foot her entire
frame seemed to undulate, and the neck did not bend,
it curved.
"Why art thou so frightened, stranger?" asked the
sweet voice again--a voice which seemed to draw the
heart out of me, like the strains of softest music.
"Is there that about me that should affright a man?
Then surely are men changed from what they used to
be!" And with a little coquettish movement she turned
herself, and held up one arm, so as to show all her
loveliness and the rich hair of raven blackness that
streamed in soft ripples down her snowy robes, almost
to her sandalled feet.
"It is. thy beauty that makes me fear, oh, queen," I
answered, humbly, scarcely knowing what to say, and I
thought that as I did so I heard old Billali, who was
still lying prostrate on the floor, mutter, "Good, my
Baboon, good."
"I see that men still know how to beguile us women
with false words. Ah, stranger," she answered, with a
laugh that sounded like distant silver bells, "thou
wast afraid because mine eyes were searching out thine
heart, therefore wast thou afraid. But, being but a
woman, I forgive thee for the lie, for it was
courteously said. And now tell me, how came ye hither
to this land of the dwellers among caves--a land of
swamps and evil things and dead old shadows of the
dead? What came ye for to see? How is it that ye hold
your lives so cheap as to place them in the hollow of
the hand of _i_ Hiya, _i_ into the hand of ' _i_ She-
who-must-be obeyed _i_ '? Tell me also how come ye to
know the tongue I talk. It is an ancient tongue, that
sweet child of the old Syriac. Liveth it yet in the
world? Thou seest I dwell among the caves and the
dead, and nought know I of the affairs of men, nor
have I cared to know. I have lived, O stranger, with
my memories, and my memories are in a grave that mine
own hands hollowed, for truly hath it been said that
the child of man maketh his own path evil"; and her
beautiful voice quivered, and broke in a note as soft
as any wood-bird's. Suddenly her eye fell upon the
sprawling frame of Billali, and she seemed to
recollect herself.
"Ah! thou art there, old man. Tell me how it is that
things have gone wrong in thy household. Forsooth, it
seems that these my guests were set upon. Ay, and one
was nigh to being slain by the hot pot to be eaten of
those brutes, thy children, and had not the others
fought gallantly they too had been slain, and not even
I could have called back the life which had been
loosed from the body. What means it, old man? What
hast thou to say that I should not give thee over to
those who execute my vengeance?"
Her voice had risen in her anger, and it rang clear
and cold against the rocky walls. Also I thought I
could see her eyes flash through the gauze that hid
them. I saw poor Billali, whom I had believed to be a
very fearless person, positively quiver with terror at
her words.
"O 'Hiya'! O _i_ She _i_ !" he said, without lifting
his white head from the floor. "O _i_ She _i_ , as
thou art great, be merciful, for I am now as ever thy
servant to obey. It was no plan or fault of mine, O
_i_ She _i_ , it was those wicked ones who are called
my children. Led on by a woman whom thy guest the Pig
had scorned, they would have followed the ancient
custom of the land, and eaten the fat black stranger
who came hither with these thy guests the Baboon, and
the Lion who is sick, thinking that no word had come
from thee about the black one. But when the Baboon and
the Lion saw what they would do, they slew the woman,
and slew also their servant to save him from the
horror of the pot. Then those evil ones, ay, those
children of the Wicked One who lives in the Pit, they
went mad with the lust of blood, and flew at the
throats of the Lion and the Baboon and the Pig. But
gallantly they fought. O _i_ Hiya! _i_ they fought
like very men, and slew many, and held their own, and
then I came and saved them, and the evil-doers have I
sent on hither to Ko^r to be judged of thy greatness,
O _i_ She! _i_ and here they are."
"Ay, old man, I know it, and tomorrow will I sit in
the great hall and do justice upon them, fear not. And
for thee, I forgive thee, though hardly. See that thou
dost keep thine household better. Go."
Billali rose upon his knees with astonishing alacrity,
bowed his head thrice, and his white beard sweeping
the ground, crawled down the apartment as he had
crawled up it, till he finally vanished through the
curtains, leaving me, not a little to my alarm, alone
with this terrible but most fascinating person.
CHAPTER XIII--
AYESHA UNVEILS
"There," said _i_ She _i_ , "he has gone, the white-
bearded old fool! Ah, how little knowledge does a man
acquire in his life. He gathereth it up like water,
but like water it runneth through his fingers, and
yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew,
behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a
wise man!' Is it not so? But how call they thee?
'Baboon,' he says," and she laughed; "but that is the
fashion of these savages who lack imagination, and fly
to the beasts they resemble for a name. How do they
call thee in thine own country, stranger?"
"They call me Holly, O queen," I answered.
"Holly," she answered, speaking the word with
difficulty, and yet with a most charming accent; "and
what is Holly?"
"'Holly' is a prickly tree," I said.
"So. Well, thou hast a prickly and yet a treelike
look. Strong art thou, and ugly, but, if my wisdom be
not at fault, honest at the core, and a staff to lean
on. Also one who thinks. But stay, O Holly, stand not
there, enter with me and be seated by me. I would not
see thee crawl before me like those slaves. I am weary
of their worship and their terror; sometimes when they
vex me I could blast them for very sport, and to see
the rest turn white, even to the heart." And she held
the curtain aside with her ivory hand to let me pass
in.
I entered, shuddering. This woman was very terrible.
Within the curtains was a recess, about twelve feet by
ten, and in the recess was a couch and a table whereon
stood fruit and sparkling water. By it, at its end,
was a vessel like a font cut in carved stone, also
full of pure water. The place was softly lit with
lamps formed out of the beautiful vessels of which I
have spoken, and the air and curtains were laden with
a subtle perfume. Perfume too seemed to emanate from
the glorious hair and white, clinging vestments of _i_
She _i_ herself. I entered the little room, and there
stood uncertain.
"Sit," said _i_ She _i_ , pointing to the couch. "As
yet thou hast no cause to fear me. If thou hast cause,
thou shalt not fear for long, for I shall slay thee.
Therefore let thy heart be light."
I sat down on the end of the couch near to the font
like basin of water, and _i_ She _i_ sank down softly
on to the other end.
"Now, Holly," she said, "how comest thou to speak
Arabic ? It is my own dear tongue, for Arabian am I by
birth, even ' _i_ al Arab al Ariba _i_ '" (an Arab of
the Arabs), "and of the race of our father Yara`b, the
son of Ka^htan, for in that fair and ancient city Ozal
was I born, in the province of Yaman the Happy. Yet
dost thou not speak it as we used to speak. Thy talk
doth lack the music of the sweet tongue of the tribes
of Hamyar which I was wont to hear. Some of the words
too seem changed, even as among these Amahagger, who
have debased and defiled its purity, so that I must
speak with them in what is to to me another tongue."
"I have studied it," I answered, "for many years. Also
the language is spoken in Egypt and elsewhere."
"So it is still spoken, and there is yet an Egypt? And
what Pharaoh sits upon the throne? Still one of the
spawn of the Persian Ochus, or are the Achaemenians
gone, for so far is it to the days of Ochus?"
"The Persians have been gone from Egypt for nigh two
thousand years, and since then the Ptolemies, the
Romans, and many others have flourished and held sway
upon the Nile, and fallen when their time was ripe," I
said, aghast. "What canst thou know of the Persian
Artaxerxes?"
_i_ She _i_ laughed, and made no answer, and again a
cold chill went through me. "And Greece," she said;
"is there still a Greece? Ah, I loved the Greeks.
Beautiful were they as the day, and clever, but fierce
at heart and fickle, notwithstanding."
"Yes," I said, "there is a Greece; and, just now, it
is once more a people. Yet the Greeks of to-day are
not what the Greeks of the old time were, and Greece
herself is but a mockery of the Greece that was."
"So! The Hebrews, are they yet at Jerusalem? And does
the Temple that the wise king built stand? and if so,
what God do they worship therein? Is their Messiah
come, of whom they preached so much and prophesied so
loudly, and doth he rule the earth?"
"The Jews are broken and gone, and the fragments of
their people strew the world, and Jerusalem is no
more. As for the temple that Herod built--"
"Herod!" she said. "I know not Herod. But go on."
"The Romans burned it, and the Roman eagles flew
across its ruins, arid now Judaea is a desert."
"So, so! They were a great people, those Romans, and
went straight to their end--ay, they sped to it like
Fate, or like their own eagles on their prey!--and
left peace behind them."
"Solitudinera faciunt, pacem appellant," I suggested.
"Ah, thou canst speak the Latin tongue, too!" she
said; in surprise. "It hath a strange ring in my ears
after all these days, and it seems to me that thy
accent does not fall as the Romans put it. Who was it
wrote that? I know not the saying, but it is a true
one of that great people. It seems that I have found a
learned man--one whose hands have held the water of
the world's knowledge. Knowest thou Greek also?"
"Yes, O queen, and something of Hebrew, but not to
speak them well. They are all dead languages now."
_i_ She _i_ clapped her hands in childish glee. "Of a
truth, ugly tree that thou art, thou growest the
fruits of wisdom, O Holly," she said; "but of those
Jews whom I hated--for they called me 'heathen' when I
would have taught them my philosophy--did their
Messiah come, and doth he rule the world?"
"Their Messiah came," I answered, with reverence; "but
he came poor and lowly, and they would have none of
him. They scourged him, and crucified him upon a tree,
but yet his words and his works live on, for he was
the Son of God, and now of a truth he doth rule half
the world, but not with an empire of the world."
"Ah, the fierce-hearted wolves," she said, "the
followers of Sense and of many gods--greedy of gain
and faction torn. I can see their dark faces yet. So
they crucified their Messiah? Well can I believe it.
That he was a Son of the Living Spirit would be naught
to them, if indeed he was so, and of that we will talk
afterwards. They would care naught for any God if he
came not with pomp and power. They, a chosen people, a
vessel of him they call Jehovah! ay, and a vessel of
Baal, and a vessel of Astoreth, and a vessel of the
gods of the Egyptians--a high-stomached people, greedy
of aught that brought them wealth and power. So they
crucified their Messiah because he came in lowly
guise--and now are they scattered about the earth.
Why, if I remember, so said one of their prophets that
it should be. Well, let them go; they broke my heart,
those Jews, and made me look with evil eyes across the
world, ay, and drove me to this wilderness, this place
of a people that was before them. When I would have
taught them wisdom in Jerusalem they stoned me, ay, at
the gate of the Temple those white-bearded hypocrites
and rabbis hounded the people on to stone me! See,
here is the mark of it to this day!" and with a sudden
move she pulled up the gauzy wrapping on her rounded
arm, and pointed to a little scar that showed red
against its milky beauty. I shrank back horrified.
"Pardon me, O queen," I said, "but I am bewildered.
Nigh upon two thousand years have rolled across the
earth since the Jewish Messiah hung upon his cross at
Golgotha. How then canst thou have taught thy
philosophy to the Jews before he was? Thou art a
woman, and no spirit. How can a woman live two
thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, O queen?"
_i_ She _i_ leaned back on the couch, and once more I
felt the hidden eyes playing upon me and searching out
my heart.
"O man!" she said at last, speaking very slowly and
deliberately, "it seems that there are still things
upon the earth of which thou knowest naught. Dost thou
still believe that all things die, even as those very
Jews believed? I tell thee that naught really dies.
There is no such thing as Death, though there be a
thing called Change. See," and she pointed to some
sculptures on the rocky wall. "Three times two
thousand years have passed since the last of the great
race that hewed those pictures fell before the breath
of the pestilence which destroyed them, yet they are
not dead. E'en now they live; perchance their spirits
are drawn towards us at this very hour," and she
glanced round. "Of a surety it sometimes seems to me
that my eyes can see them."
"Yes, but to the world they are dead."
"Ay, for a time; but even to the world they are born
again and again. I, yes I, Ayesha--for that is my
name, stranger--I say to thee that I wait now for one
I loved to be born again, and here I tarry till he
finds me, knowing of a surety that hither he will
come, and that here, and here only, shall he greet me.
Why, dost thou suppose that I, who am all powerful, I,
whose loveliness is more than the loveliness of the
Grecian Helen, of whom they used to sing, and whose
wisdom is wider, ay, far more wide and deep than the
wisdom of Solomon the Wise--I, who know the secrets of
the earth and its riches, and can turn all things to
my uses--I, who have even for a while overcome Change,
that ye call Death--why, I say, O stranger, dost thou
think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the
beasts?"
"I know not," I said, humbly.
"Because I wait for him I love. My life has perchance
been evil, I know not--for who can say what is evil
and what good?--so I fear to die even if I could die,
which I cannot until mine hour comes, to go and seek
him where he is; for between us there might rise a
wall I could not climb; at least, I dread it. Surely
easy would it be also to lose the way in seeking in
those great spaces wherein the planets wander on
forever. But the day will come, it may be when five
thousand more years have passed, and are lost and
melted into the vault of Time, even as the little
clouds melt into the gloom of night, or it may be to-
morrow, when he, my love, shall be born again, and
then, following a law that is stronger than any human
plan, he shall find me here, where once he knew me,
and of a surety his heart will soften towards me
though I sinned against him; ay, even though he know
me not again, yet will he love me, if only for my
beauty's sake."
For a moment I was dumbfounded, and could not answer.
The matter. was too overpowering for my intellect to
grasp.
"But even so, O queen," I said at last, "even if we
men be born again and again, that is not so with thee,
if thou speakest truly." Here she looked up sharply,
and once more I caught the flash of those hidden eyes;
"thou," I went on, hurriedly, "who hast never died?"
"That is so," she said; "and it is so because I have,
half by chance and half by learning, solved one of the
great secrets of the world. Tell me, stranger: life
is--why therefore should not life be lengthened for a
while? What are ten or twenty or fifty thousand years
in the history of life? Why in ten thousand years
scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain-top
by a span in thickness? In two thousand years these
caves have not changed, nothing has changed, but the
beasts and man, who is as the beasts. There is naught
that is wonderful about the matter, couldst thou but
understand. Life is wonderful, ay, but that it should
be a little lengthened is not wonderful. Nature hath
her animating spirit as well as man, who is Nature's
child, and he who can find that spirit, and let it
breathe upon him, shall live with her life. He shall
not live eternally, for Nature is not eternal, and she
herself must die, even as the nature of the moon hath
died. _i_ She _i_ herself must die, I say, or rather
change and sleep till it be time for her to live
again. But when shall she die? Not yet, I ween, and
while she lives, so shall he who hath all her secret
live with her. All I have it not, yet have I some,
more perchance than any who were before me. Now, to
thee I doubt not that this thing is a great mystery,
therefore I will not overcome thee with it now.
Another time will I tell thee more if the mood be on
me, though perchance I shall never speak thereof
again. Dost thou wonder how I knew that ye were coming
to this land, and so saved your heads from the hot
pot?"
"Ay, O queen," I answered, feebly.
"Then gaze upon that water," and she pointed to the
font like vessel, and then, bending forward, held her
hand over it.
I rose and gazed, and instantly the water darkened.
Then it cleared and I saw as distinctly as I ever saw
anything in my life--I saw, I say, our boat upon that
horrible canal. There was Leo lying at the bottom
asleep in it, with a coat thrown over him to keep off
the mosquitoes, in such a fashion as to hide his face,
and myself, Job, and Mahomed towing on the bank.
I stared back aghast, and cried out that it was magic,
for I recognized the whole scene; it was one which had
actually occurred,
"Nay, nay, O Holly," she answered, "it is no magic;
that is a fiction of ignorance. There is no such thing
as magic, though there is such a thing as knowledge of
the secrets of Nature. That water is my glass; in it I
see what passes if I care to summon up the pictures,
which is not often. Therein I can show thee what thou
wilt of the past, if it be anything to do with this
country and with what I have known, or anything that
thou, the gazer, hast known. Think of a face if thou
wilt, and it shall be reflected from thy mind upon the
water. I know not all the secret yet--I can read
nothing in the future. But it is an old secret; I did
not find it. In Arabia and in Egypt the sorcerers knew
it centuries ago. So one day I chanced to bethink me
of that old canal--some twenty centuries ago I sailed
upon it, and I was minded to look thereon again. And
so I looked, and there I saw the boat and three men
walking, and one, whose face I could not see, but a
youth of a noble form, sleeping in the boat, and so I
sent and saved ye. And now, farewell. But stay, tell
me of this youth--the Lion, as the old man calls him.
I would look upon him, but he is sick, thou sayest--
sick with the fever, and also wounded in the fray."
"He is very sick," I answered, sadly; "canst thou do
nothing for him, O queen! who knowest so much?"
"Of a surety I can. I can cure him; but why speakest
thou so sadly? Doth thou love the youth? Is he
perchance thy son?"
"He is my adopted son, O queen! Shall he be brought in
before thee?"
"Nay. How long hath the fever taken him?"
"This is the third day."
"Good; then let him lie another day. Then will he
perchance throw it off by his own strength, and that
is better than that I should cure him, for my medicine
is of a sort to shake the life in its very citadel.
If, however, by tomorrow night, at that hour when the
fever first took him, he doth not begin to mend, then
will I come to him and cure him. Stay, who nurses
him?"
"Our white servant, him whom Billali names the Pig;
also," and here I spoke with some little hesitation,
"a woman named Ustane, a very handsome woman of this
country, who came and embraced him when first she saw
him, and hath stayed by him ever since, as I
understand is the fashion of thy people, O queen."
"My people! speak not to me of my people," she
answered, hastily;-"these slaves are no people of
mine, they are but dogs to do my bidding till the day
of my deliverance comes; and, as for their customs,
naught have I to do with them. Also, call me not
queen--I am sick of flattery and titles--call me
Ayesha, the name hath a sweet sound in mine ears, it
is an echo from the past. As for this Ustane, I know
not. I wonder if it be she against whom I was warned,
and whom I in turn did warn? Hath she--stay, I will
see"; and, bending forward, she passed her hand over
the font of water and gazed intently into it. "See,"
she said, quietly, "is that the woman?"
I looked into the water, and there, mirrored upon its
placid surface, was the silhouette of Ustane's stately
face. She was bending forward, with a look of infinite
tenderness upon her features, watching something
beneath her, and with her chestnut locks falling on to
her right shoulder.
"It is she," I said, in a low voice, for once more I
felt much disturbed at this most uncommon sight. "She
watches Leo asleep."
"Leo!" said Ayesha, in an absent voice; "why, that is
'lion'. in the Latin tongue. The old man hath named
happily for once. It is very strange," she went on,
speaking to herself, "very. So like--but it is not
possible!" With an impatient gesture she passed her
hand over the water once more. It darkened, and the
image vanished silently and mysteriously as it had
risen, and once more the lamplight, and the lamplight
only, shone on the placid surface of that limpid,
living mirror.
"Hast thou aught to ask me before thou goest, O
Holly?" she said, after a few moments' reflection. "It
is but a rude life that thou must live here, for these
people are savages, and know not the ways of
cultivated man. Not that I am troubled thereby, for,
behold my food," and she pointed to the fruit upon the
little table. "Naught but fruit doth ever pass my
lips--fruit and cakes of flour, and a little water. I
have bidden my girls to wait upon thee. They are
mutes, thou knowest, deaf are they and dumb, and
therefore the safest of servants; save to those who
can read their faces and their signs. I bred them so--
it hath taken many centuries and much trouble; but
last I have triumphed. Once I succeeded before, but
the race was too ugly, so I let it die away; but now,
as thou seest, they are otherwise. Once, too, I reared
a race of giants, but after a while Nature would no
more of it, and it died away. Hast thou aught to ask
of me?"
"Ay, one thing, O Ayesha," I said, boldly; but feeling
by no means as bold as I trust I looked. "I would gaze
upon thy face."
She laughed out in her bell-like notes. "Bethink thee,
Holly," she answered; "bethink thee. It seems that
thou knowest the old myths of the gods of Greece. Was
there not one Actaeon who perished miserably because
he looked on too much beauty? If I show thee my face,
perchance thou wouldst perish miserably also;
perchance thou wouldst eat out thy heart in impotent
desire; for know I am not for thee--I am for no man,
save one, who hath been, but is not yet."
"As thou wilt, Ayesha," I said. "I fear not thy
beauty. I have put my heart away from such vanity as
woman's loveliness, that passes like a flower."
"Nay, thou errest," she said; "that does not pass. My
beauty endures even as I endure; still if thou wilt, O
rash man, have thy will; but blame not me if passion
mount thy reason, as the Egyptian breakers used to
mount a colt, and guide it whither thou wilt not.
Never may the man to whom my beauty hath been unveiled
put it from his mind, and therefore even with these
savages do I go veiled, lest they vex me, and I should
slay them. Say, wilt thou see?"
"I will," I answered, my curiosity overpowering me.
She lifted her white and rounded arms--never had I
seen such arms before-and slowly, very slowly,
withdrew some fastening beneath her hair. Then all of
a sudden the long, corpse-like wrappings fell from her
to the ground, and my eyes travelled up her form, now
only robed in a garb of clinging white that did but
serve to show its perfect and imperial shape, instinct
with a life that was more than life, and with a
certain serpent-like grace that was more than human.
On her little feet were sandals, fastened with studs
of gold. Then came ankles more perfect than ever
sculptor dreamed of. About the waist her white kirtle
was fastened by a double-headed snake of solid gold,
above which her gracious form swelled up in lines as
pure as they were lovely, till the kirtle ended on the
snowy argent of her breast, whereon her arms were
folded. I gazed above them at her face, and--I do not
exaggerate shrank back blinded and amazed. I have
heard of the beauty of celestial beings, now I saw it;
only this beauty, with all its awful loveliness and
purity, was evil--at least, at the time, it struck me
as evil. How am I to describe it? I cannot--simply, I
cannot! The man does not live whose pen could convey a
sense of what I saw. I might talk of the great
changing eyes of deepest, softest black, of the tinted
face, of the broad and noble brow; on which the hair
grew low, and delicate, straight features. But,
beautiful, surpassingly beautiful as they all were,
her loveliness did not lie in them. It lay rather, if
it can be said to have had any fixed abiding-place, in
a visible majesty, in an imperial grace, in a godlike
stamp of softened power, which shone upon that radiant
countenance like a living halo. Never before had I
guessed what beauty made sublime could be, and yet the
sublimity was a dark one; the glory was not all of
heaven, though none the less was it glorious. Though
the face before me was that of a young woman of
certainly not more than thirty years, in perfect
health, and the first flush of ripened beauty, yet it
had stamped upon it a look of unutterable experience,
and of deep acquaintance with grief and passion. Not
even the lovely smile that crept about the dimples of
her mouth could hide this shadow of sin and sorrow. It
shone even in the light of the glorious eyes, it was
present in the air of majesty, and it seemed to say:
"Behold me, lovely as no woman was or is, undying and
half divine; memory haunts me from age to age, and
passion leads me by the hand; evil have I done, and
with sorrow have I made acquaintance from age to age,
and from age to age evil I shall do, and sorrow shall
I know till my redemption comes."
Drawn by some magnetic force which I could not resist,
I let my eyes rest upon her shining orbs, and felt a
current pass from them to me that bewildered and half
blinded me.
She laughed--ah, how musically! and nodded her little
head at me with an air of sublimated coquetry that
would have done credit to a Venus Victrix.
"Rash man!" she said; "like Actaeon, thou hast had thy
will; be careful lest, like Actaeon, thou too dost
perish miserably, torn to pieces by the ban-hounds of
thine own passions. I too, O Holly, am a virgin
goddess, not to be moved of any man, save one, and it
is not thou. Say, hast thou seen enough?"
"I have looked on beauty, and I am blinded," I said,
hoarsely, lifting my hand to cover up my eyes.
"So! what did I tell thee? Beauty is like the
lightning; it is lovely, but it destroys--specially
trees, O Holly!" And again she nodded and laughed.
Suddenly she paused, and through my fingers I saw an
awful change come over her countenance. Her great eyes
suddenly fixed themselves into an expression in which
horror seemed to struggle with some tremendous hope
arising through the depths of her dark soul. The
lovely face grew rigid, and the gracious, willowy form
seemed to erect itself.
"Man," she half whispered, half hissed, throwing back
her head like a snake about to strike--"man, where
didst thou get that scarab on thy hand? Speak, or by
the Spirit of Life I will blast thee where thou
standest!" and she took one light step towards me, and
from her eyes there shone such an awful light--to me
it seemed almost like a flame--that I fell, then and
there, on the ground before her, babbling confusedly
in my terror.
"Peace," she said, with a sudden change of manner, and
speaking in her former soft voice, "I did affright
thee! Forgive me! But at times, O Holly, the almost
infinite mind grows impatient of the slowness of the
very finite, and I am tempted to use my power out of
pure vexation--very nearly wast thou dead, but I
remembered--But the scarab--about the scarabaeus!"
"I picked it up," I gurgled feebly, as I got on to my
feet again, and it is a solemn fact that my mind was
so disturbed that at the moment I could remember
nothing else about the ring except that I had picked
it up in Leo's cave.
"It is very strange," she said, with a sudden access
of woman-like trembling and agitation which seemed out
of place in this awful woman--"but once I knew a
scarab like that. It--hung round the neck--of one I
loved," and she gave a little sob, and I saw that
after all she was only a woman, although she might be
a very old one. "There," she went on, "it must be one
like it, and yet never did I see one like it, for
thereto hung a history, and he who wrote it prized it
much. But the scarab that I knew was not set thus in
the bezel of a ring. Go now, Holly, go, and, if thou
canst, try to forget that thou hast looked upon
Ayesha's beauty," and, turning from me, she flung
herself on her couch, and buried her face in the
cushions.
As for me, I stumbled from her presence, and I do not
remember how I reached my own cave.
CHAPTER XIV--
A SOUL IN HELL
It was nearly ten o'clock at night when I cast myself
down upon my bed, and began to gather my scattered
wits, and reflect upon what I had seen and heard. But
the more I reflected the less I could make of it. Was
I mad, or drunk, or dreaming, or was I merely the
victim of a gigantic and most elaborate hoax? How was
it possible that I, a rational man, not unacquainted
with the leading scientific facts of our history, and
hitherto an absolute and utter disbeliever in all the
hocus-pocus that in Europe goes by the name of the
supernatural, could believe that I had, within the
last few minutes, been engaged in conversation with a
woman two thousand and odd years old? The thing was
contrary to the experience of human nature, and
absolutely and utterly impossible. It must be a hoax;
and yet, if it were a hoax, what was I to make of it?
What, too, was to be said of the figures on the water,
of the woman's extraordinary acquaintance with the
remote past, and, her ignorance, or apparent
ignorance, of any subsequent history? What, too, of
her wonderful and awful loveliness? This, at any rate,
was a patent fact, and beyond the experience of the
world. No merely mortal woman could shine with such a
supernatural radiance. About that she had, at any
rate, been in the right--it was not safe for any man
to look upon such beauty. I was a hardened vessel in
such matters, having, with the exception of one
painful experience of my green and tender youth, put
the softer sex (I sometimes think that this is a
misnomer) almost entirely out of my thoughts. But now,
to my intense horror, I _i_ knew _i_ that I could
never put away the vision of those glorious eyes; and,
alas! the very _i_ diablerie _i_ of the woman, while
it horrified and repelled, attracted in even a greater
degree. A person with the experience of two thousand
years at her back, with the command of such tremendous
powers and the knowledge of a mystery that could hold
off death, was certainly worth falling in love with,
if ever woman was. But, alas! it was not a question of
whether or not she was worth it, for, so far as I
could judge, not being versed in such matters, I, a
fellow of my college, noted for what my acquaintances
are pleased to call my misogyny, and a respectable man
now well on in middle life, had fallen absolutely and
hopelessly in love with this white sorceress.
Nonsense; it must be nonsense! She had warned me
fairly, and I had refused to take the warning. Curses
on the fatal curiosity that is ever prompting man to
draw the veil from woman, and curses on the natural
impulse that begets it! It is the cause of half--ay,
and more than half, of our misfortunes. Why cannot man
be content to live alone and be happy, and let the
women live alone and be happy too? but perhaps they
would not be happy, and I am not sure that we should
either. Here was a nice state of affairs. I, at my
age, to fall a victim to this modern Circe! But then
she was not modern, at least she said not. She was
almost as ancient as the original Circe.
I tore my hair, and jumped up from my couch, feeling
that if I did not do something I should go off my
head. What did she mean about the scarabaeus too? It
was Leo's scarabaeus, and had come out of the old
coffer that Vincey had left in my rooms nearly one-
and-twenty years before. Could it be, after all, that
the whole story was true, and the writing on the sherd
was not a forgery, or the invention of some crack
brained, long-forgotten individual? And if so, could
it be that _i_ Leo _i_ was the man that _i_ She _i_
was waiting for--the dead man who was to be born
again? Impossible again! The whole thing was
gibberish! Who ever heard of a man being born again?
But if it were possible that a woman could exist for
two thousand years, this might be possible also--
anything might be possible. I myself might, for aught
I knew, be a reincarnation of some other forgotten
self, or perhaps the last of a long line of ancestral
selves. Well, _i_ vive la guerre! _i_ why not? Only,
unfortunately, I had no recollection of these previous
conditions. The idea was so absurd to me that I burst
out laughing, and, addressing the sculptured picture
of a grim-looking warrior on the cave wall, called out
to him aloud, "Who knows, Old fellow?--perhaps I was
your contemporary. By Jove! perhaps I was you and you
are I," and then I laughed again at my own folly, and
the sound of my laughter rang dismally along the
vaulted roof, as though the ghost of the warrior had
uttered the ghost of a laugh.
Next I bethought me that I had not been to see how Leo
was, so, taking up one of the lamps which was burning
at my bedside, I slipped off my shoes and crept down
the passage to the entrance of his sleeping-cave. The
draught of the night air was lifting his curtain to
and fro gently, as though spirit hands were drawing
and redrawing it. I slid into the vault like
apartment, and looked round. There was a light by
which I could see that Leo was lying on the couch,
tossing restlessly in his fever, but asleep. At his
side, half-lying on the floor, half-leaning against
the stone couch, was Ustane. She held his hand in one
of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a
pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture. Poor Leo! his
cheek was burning red, there were dark shadows beneath
his eyes, and his breath came heavily. He was very,
very ill; and again the horrible fear seized me that
he might die, and I be left alone in the world. And
yet if he lived he would perhaps be my rival with
Ayesha; even if he were not the man, what chance
should I, middle-aged and hideous, have against his
bright youth and beauty? Well, thank Heaven! my sense
of right was not dead. _i_ She _i_ had not killed that
yet; and, as I stood there, I prayed to the Almighty
in my heart that my boy, my more than son, might live-
-ay, even if he proved to be the man.
Then I went back as softly as I had come, but still I
could not sleep; the sight and thought of dear Leo
lying there so ill had but added fuel to the fire of
my unrest. My wearied body and overstrained mind
awakened all my imagination into preternatural
activity. Ideas, visions, almost inspirations, floated
before it with startling vividness. Most of them were
grotesque enough, some were ghastly, some recalled
thoughts and sensations that had for years been buried
in the _i_ de'bris _i_ of my past life. But behind and
above them all hovered the shape of that awful woman,
and through them gleamed the memory of her entrancing
loveliness. Up and down the cave I strode--up and
down.
Suddenly I observed, what I had not noticed before,
that there was a narrow aperture in the rocky wall. I
took up the lamp and examined it; the aperture led to
a passage. Now, I was still sufficiently sensible to
remember that it is not pleasant, in such a situation
as ours was, to have passages running into one's bed-
chamber from no one knows where. If there are
passages, people can come up them; they can come up
when one is asleep. Partly to see where it went to,
and partly from a restless desire to be doing
something, I followed the passage. It led to a stone
stair, which I descended; the stair ended in another
passage, or rather tunnel, also hewn out of the bed-
rock, and running, so far as I could judge, exactly
beneath the gallery that led to the entrance of our
rooms, and across the great central cave. I went on
down it: it was as silent as the grave, but still,
drawn by some sensation or attraction that I cannot
describe, I followed on, my stockinged feet falling
without noise on the smooth and rocky floor. When I
had traversed some fifty yards of space, I came to
another passage running at right angles, and here an
awful thing happened to me: the sharp draught caught
my lamp and extinguished it, leaving me in utter
darkness in the bowels of that mysterious place. I
took a couple of strides forward so as to clear the
bisecting tunnel, being terribly afraid lest I should
turn up it in the dark if once I got confused as to
the direction, and then paused to think. What was I to
do? I had no match; it seemed awful to attempt that
long journey back through the utter gloom, and yet I
could not stand there all night, and, if I did,
probably it would not help me much, for in the bowels
of the rock it would be as dark at midday as at
midnight. I looked back over my shoulder--not a sight
or a sound. I peered forward down the darkness:
surely, far away, I saw something like the faint glow
of fire. Perhaps it was a cave where I could get a
light--at any rate, it was worth investigating. Slowly
and painfully I crept along the tunnel, keeping my
hand against its wall, and feeling at every step with
my foot before I put it down, fearing lest I should
fall into some pit. Thirty paces--there was a light, a
broad light that came and went, shining through
curtains! Fifty paces--it was close at hand! Sixty--
oh, great heaven!
I was at the curtains, and they did not hang close, so
I could see clearly into the little cavern beyond
them. It had all the appearance of being a tomb, and
was lit up by a fire that burned in its centre with a
whitish flame and without smoke. Indeed, there, to the
left, was a stone shelf with a little ledge to it
three inches or so high, and on the shelf lay what I
took to be a corpse; at any rate, it looked like one,
with something white thrown over it. To the right was
a similar shelf, on which lay some broidered
coverings. Over the fire bent the figure of a woman;
she was sideways to me and facing the corpse, wrapped
in a dark mantle that hid her like a nun's cloak. She
seemed to be staring at the flickering flame.
Suddenly, as I was trying to make up my mind what to
do, with a convulsive movement that somehow gave an
impression of despairing energy, the woman rose to her
feet and cast the dark cloak from her.
It was _i_ She _i_ herself!
She was clothed, as I had seen her when she unveiled,
in the kirtle of clinging white, cut low upon her
bosom, and bound in at the waist with the barbaric
double-headed snake, and, as before, her rippling
black hair fell in heavy masses down her back. But her
face was what caught my eye, and held me as in a vise,
not this time by the force of its beauty, but by the
power of fascinated terror. The beauty was still
there, indeed, but the agony, the blind passion, and
the awful vindictiveness displayed upon those
quivering features, and in the tortured look of the
upturned eyes, were such as surpass my powers of
description.
For a moment she stood still, her hands raised high
above her head, and as she did so the white robe
slipped from her down to her golden girdle, baring the
blinding loveliness of her form. She stood there, her
fingers clenched, and the awful look of malevolence
gathered and deepened on her face.
Suddenly, I thought of what would happen if she
discovered me, and the reflection made me turn sick
and faint. But even if I had known that I must die if
I stopped, I do not believe that I could have moved,
for I was absolutely fascinated. But still I knew my
danger. Supposing she should hear me, or see me
through the curtain, supposing I even sneezed, or that
her magic told her that she was being watched--swift
indeed would be my doom.
Down came the clinched hands to her sides, then up
again above her head, and, as I am a living and
honorable man, the white flame of the fire leaped up
after them, almost to the roof, throwing a fierce and
ghastly glare upon _i_ She _i_ herself, upon the white
figure beneath the covering, and every scroll and
detail of the rock work.
Down came the ivory arms again, and as they did so she
spoke, or rather hissed, in Arabic, in a note that
curdled my blood, and for a second stopped my heart,
"Curse her, may she be everlastingly accursed."
The arms fell and the flame sank. Up they went again,
and the broad tongue of fire shot up after them; then
again they fell.
"Curse her memory--accursed be the memory of the
Egyptian."
Up again, and again down.
"Curse her, the fair daughter of the Nile, because of
her beauty.
"Curse her, because her magic hath prevailed against
me.
"Curse her, because she kept my beloved from me."
And again the flame dwindled and shrank.
She put her hands before her eyes, and, abandoning the
hissing tone, cried aloud:
"What is the use of cursing?--she prevailed, and she
is gone."
Then she commenced with an even more frightful energy:
"Curse her where she is. Let my curses reach her where
she is and disturb her rest.
"Curse her through the starry spaces. Let her shadow
be accursed.
"Let my power find her even there.
"Let her hear me even there, Let her hide herself in
the blackness.
"Let her go down into the pit of despair, because I
shall one day find her."
Again the flame fell, and again she covered her eyes
with her hands.
"It is no use--no use," she wailed; "who can reach
those who sleep? Not even I can reach them."
Then once more she began her unholy rites.
"Curse her when she shall be born again. Let her be
born accursed.
"Let her be utterly accursed from the hour of her
birth until sleep finds her.
"Yea, then, let her be accursed; for then shall I
overtake her with my vengeance, and utterly destroy
her."
And so on. The flame rose and fell, reflecting itself
in her agonized eyes; the hissing sound of her
terrible maledictions, and no words of mine,
especially on paper, can convey how terrible they
were, ran round the walls and died away in little
echoes, and the fierce light and deep gloom alternated
themselves on the white and dreadful form stretched
upon that bier of stone.
But at length she seemed to wear herself out, and
ceased. She sat herself down upon the rocky floor, and
shook the dense cloud of her beautiful hair over her
face and breast, and began to sob terribly in the
torture of a heart-rending despair.
"Two thousand years," she moaned, "two thousand years
have I waited and endured; but though century doth
still creep on to century, and time give place to
time, the sting of memory hath not lessened, the light
of hope doth not shine more bright. Oh! to have lived
two thousand years, with my passion eating at my
heart, and with my sin ever before me. Oh, that for me
life cannot bring forgetfulness! Oh, for the weary
years that have. been and are yet to come, and
evermore to come, endless and without end!
"My love! my love! my love! Why did that stranger
bring thee back to me after this sort? For five
hundred years I have not suffered thus. Oh, if I
sinned against thee, have I not wiped away the sin?
When wilt thou come back to me who have all, and yet
without thee have naught? What is there that I can do?
What? What? What? And perchance she--perchance that
Egyptian doth abide with thee where thou art, and mock
my memory. Oh, why could I not die with thee, I who
slew thee? Alas, that I cannot die! Alas! Alas!" and
she flung herself prone upon the ground, and sobbed
and wept until I thought her heart must burst.
Suddenly she ceased, raised herself to her feet,
rearranged her robe, and, tossing back her long locks
impatiently, swept across to where the figure lay upon
the stone.
"Oh, Kallikrates,". she cried, and I trembled at the
name, "I must look upon thy face again, though it be
agony. It is a generation since I looked upon thee
whom I slew--slew with mine own hand," and with
trembling fingers she seized the corner of the
sheetlike wrapping that covered the form upon the
stone bier, and then paused. When she spoke again, it
was in a kind of awed whisper, as though her idea were
terrible even to herself.
"Shall I raise thee," she said, apparently addressing
the corpse, "so that thou standest there before me, as
of old? I can do it." and she held out her hands over
the sheeted dead, while her whole frame became rigid
and terrible to see, and her eyes grew fixed and dull.
I shrank in horror behind the curtain, my hair stood
up upon my head, and--whether it was my imagination or
a fact I am unable to say, but I thought that the
quiet form beneath the covering began to quiver, and
the winding sheet to lift as though it lay on the
breast of one who slept. Suddenly she withdrew her
hands, and the motion of the corpse seemed to me to
cease.
"What is the use?" she said, gloomily. "Of what use is
it to recall the semblance of life if I cannot recall
the spirit. Even if thou stoodest before me thou
wouldst not know me, and couldst but do what I bid
thee. The life in thee would be my life, and not thy
life, Kallikrates."
For a moment she stood there brooding, and then cast
herself down on her knees beside the form, and began
to press her lips against the sheet, and weep. There
was something so horrible about the sight of this awe-
inspiring woman letting loose her passion on the dead-
-so much more horrible even than anything that had
gone before, that I could no longer bear to look at it
and, turning, began to creep, shaking as I was in
every limb, slowly along the pitch-dark passage,
feeling in my trembling heart that I had had a vision
of a soul in Hell.
On I stumbled, I scarcely know how. Twice I fell, once
I turned up the bisecting passage, but fortunately
found out my mistake in time. For twenty minutes or
more I crept along, till at last it occurred to me
that I must have passed the little stair by which I
descended. So, utterly exhausted, and nearly
frightened to death, I sank down at length there on
the stone flooring, and passed into oblivion.
When I came to I noticed a faint ray of light in the
passage just behind me. I crept to it, and found it
was the little stair down which the weak dawn was
stealing. Passing up it, I gained my chamber in
safety, and, flinging myself on the couch, was soon
lost in slumber, or rather stupor.
CHAPTER XV--
AYESHA GIVES JUDGMENT
THE next thing that I remember was opening my eyes and
perceiving the form of Job, who had now practically
recovered from his attack of fever. He was standing in
the ray of light that pierced into the cave from the
outer air, shaking out my clothes as a makeshift for
brushing them, which he could not do because there was
no brush, and then folding them up neatly and laying
them on the foot of the stone couch. This done, he got
my travelling dressing-case out of the Gladstone bag,
and opened it ready for my use. First, he stood it on
the foot of the couch also, then, being afraid, I
suppose, that I should kick it off, he placed it on a
leopard skin on the floor, and stood back a step or
two to observe the effect. It was not satisfactory, so
he shut up the bag, turned it on end, and, having
rested it against the foot of the conch, placed the
dressing-case on it. Next, he looked at the pots full
of water, which constituted our washing apparatus.
"Ah!" I heard him murmur, "no hot water in this
beastly place. I suppose these poor creatures only use
it to boil each other in," and he sighed deeply.
"What is the matter, Job?" I said.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said, touching his hair. "I
thought you were asleep, sir; and I am sure you look
as though you want it. One might think from the look
of you that you had been having a night of it."
I only groaned by way of answer. I had, indeed, been
having a night of it, such as I hope never to have
again.
"How is Mr. Leo, Job?"
"Much the same, sir. If he don't soon mend, he'll end,
sir; and that's all about it; though I must say that
that there savage, Ustane, do do her best for him;
almost like a baptized Christian. She is always
hanging round and looking after him, and if I ventures
to interfere, it's awful to see her; her hair seems to
stand on end, and she curses and swears away in her
heathen talk--at least I fancy she must be cursing
from the look of her."
"And what do you do then?"
"I make her a perlite bow, and I say, 'Young woman,
your position is one that I don't quite understand,
and can't recognize. Let me tell you that I has a duty
to perform to my master as is incapacitated by
illness, and that I am going to perform it until I am
incapacitated too ; but she don't take no heed, not
she--only curses and swears away worse than ever. Last
night she put her hand under that sort of nightshirt
she wears and whips out a knife with a kind of a curl
in the blade, so I whips out my revolver, and we walks
round and round each other till at last she bursts out
laughing. It isn't nice treatment for a Christian man
to have to put up with from a savage, however handsome
she may be, but it is what people must expect as is
fools enough" (Job laid great emphasis on the "fools")
"to come to such a place to look for things no man is
meant to find. It's a judgment on us, sir--that's my
opinion; and I, for one, is of opinion that the
judgment isn't half done yet, and when it is done, we
shall be done too, and just stop in these beastly
caves with the ghosts and the corpses for once and
all. And now, sir, I must be seeing about Mr. Leo's
broth, if that wild-cat will let me; and perhaps you
would like to get up, sir, because it's past nine
o'clock."
Job's remarks were not of an exactly cheering order to
a man who had passed such a night as I had; and, what
is more, they had the weight of truth. Taking one
thing with another, it appeared to me to be an utter
impossibility that we should escape from the place
where we were. Supposing that Leo recovered, and
supposing that _i_ She _i_ would let us go, which was
exceedingly doubtful, and that she did not "blast" us
in some moment of vexation, and that we were not hot-
potted by the Amahagger, it would be quite impossible
for us to find our way across the network of marshes
which, stretching for scores and scores of miles,
formed a stronger and more impassable fortification
round the various Amahagger households than any that
could be built or designed by man. No, there was but
one thing to do--face it out; and, speaking for my own
part, I was so intensely interested in the whole weird
story that, so far as I was concerned, notwithstanding
the shattered state of my nerves, I asked nothing
better, even if my life paid forfeit to my curiosity.
What man for whom psychology has charms could forbear
to study such a character as that of this Ayesha when
the opportunity of doing so presented itself? The very
terror of the pursuit added to its fascination, and
besides, as I as forced to own to myself even now in
the sober light of day, she herself had attractions
that I could not forget. Not even the dreadful sight
which I had witnessed during the night could drive the
folly from my mind; and alas! that I should have to
admit it, it has not been driven thence to this hour.
After I had dressed myself I passed into the eating,
or, rather, embalming chamber, and had some food,
which was, as before, brought to me by the girl mutes.
When I had finished. I went and saw poor Leo, who was
quite off his head, and did not even know me. I asked
Ustane how she thought he was; but she only shook her
head and began to cry a little. Evidently her hopes
were small; and I then and there made up my mind that,
if it were in any way possible, I would get _i_ She
_i_ to come and see him. Surely she could cure him if
she chose--at any rate, she said she could. While I
was in the room, Billali entered, and also shook his
head.
"He will die at night," he said.
"God forbid, my father," I answered, and turned away
with a heavy heart.
" _i_ She-who-must-be-obeyed _i_ commands thy
presence, my Baboon," said the old man as soon as we
got to the curtain; "but, O my dear son, be more
careful. Yesterday I made sure in my heart that _i_
She _i_ would blast thee when thou didst not crawl
upon thy stomach before her. _i_ She _i_ is sitting in
the great hall even now to do justice upon those who
would have smitten thee and the Lion. Come on, my son;
come swiftly."
I turned, and followed him down the passage, and when
we reached the great central cave saw that many
Amahagger, some robed, and some merely clad in the
sweet simplicity of a leopard skin, were hurrying up
it. We mingled with the throng, and walked up the
enormous and, indeed, almost interminable cave. All
the way its walls were elaborately sculptured, and
every twenty paces or so passages opened out of it at
right angles, leading, Billali told me, to tombs,
hollowed in the rock by "the people who were before."
Nobody visited those tombs now, he said; and I must
say that my heart rejoiced when I thought of the
opportunities of antiquarian research which opened out
before me.
At last we came to the head of the cave, where there
was a rock dais almost exactly similar to the one on
which we had been so furiously attacked, a fact that
proved to me that these daises must have been used as
altars, probably for the celebration of religious
ceremonies, and more especially of rites connected
with the interment of the dead. On either side of this
dais were passages leading, Billali informed me, to
other caves full of dead bodies. "Indeed," he added,
"the whole mountain is full of dead, and nearly all of
them are perfect."
In front of the dais were gathered a great number of
people of both sexes, who stood staring about in their
peculiar gloomy fashion, which would have reduced Mark
Tapley himself to misery in about five minutes. On the
dais was a rude chair of black wood inlaid with ivory,
having a seat made of grass fibre, and a footstool
formed of a wooden slab attached to the framework of
the chair.
Suddenly there was a cry of " _i_ Hiya! Hiya! _i_ " ("
_i_ She _i_ ! _i_ She _i_ !"), and thereupon the
entire crowd of spectators instantly precipitated
itself upon the ground, and lay still as though it
were individually and collectively stricken dead,
leaving me standing there like some solitary survivor
of a massacre. As it did so a long string of guards
began to defile from a passage to the left, and ranged
themselves on either side of the dais. Then followed
about a score of male mutes, then as many women mutes
bearing lamps, and then a tall, white figure, swatbed
from head to foot, in whom I recognized _i_ She _i_
herself. _i_ She _i_ mounted the dais and sat-down
upon the chair, and spoke to me in Greek. I suppose
because she did not wish those present to understand
what she said.
"Come hither, O Holly," she said, "and sit thou at my
feet, and see me do justice on those who would have
slain thee. Forgive me if my Greek doth halt like a
lame man; it is so long since I have heard the sound
of it that my tongue is stiff, and will not bend
rightly to the words."
I bowed, and, mounting the dais, sat down at her feet.
"How didst thou sleep, my Holly?" she asked.
"I slept not well, O Ayesha!" I answered with perfect
truth, and with an inward fear that perhaps she knew
how I had passed the heart of the night.
"So," she said, with a little laugh, "I, too, have.
not slept well. Lest night I had dreams, and, methinks
that thou didst call them to me, O Holly."
"Of what didst thou dream, Ayesha?" I asked,
indifferently.
"I dreamed," she answered, quickly, "of one I hate and
one I love," and then, as though to turn the
conversation, she addressed the captain of her guard
in Arabic: "Let the men be brought before me."
The captain bowed low, for the guard and her
attendants did not prostrate themselves, but had
remained standing, and departed with his underlings
down a passage to the right.
Then came a silence. _i_ She _i_ leaned her swathed
head upon her hand and appeared to be lost in thought,
while the multitude before her continued to grovel
upon their stomachs, only screwing their heads round a
little so as to get a view of us with one eye. It
seemed that their queen so rarely appeared in public
that they were willing to undergo this inconvenience,
and even graver risks, to have the opportunity of
looking on her, or rather on her garments, for no
living man there except myself had ever seen her face.
At last we caught sight of the waving of lights, and
heard the tramp of men coming along the passage, and
in filed the guard, and with them the survivors of our
would-be murderers to the number of twenty or more, on
whose countenances the natural expression of
sullenness struggled with the terror that evidently
filled their savage hearts. They were ranged in front
of the dais, and would have cast themselves down on
the floor of the cave like the spectators, but _i_ She
_i_ stopped them.
"Nay," she said, in her softest voice, I pray you
stand. Perchance time will soon be when ye shall weary
of being stretched out," she laughed, melodiously. I
saw a cringe of terror run along the of the poor,
doomed wretches, wicked villains as they were, I felt
for them. Some minutes, perhaps two or three, passed
before anything occurred, during which _i_ She _i_
apppeared from the movement of her head, of course, we
could not see her face, to be slowly and carefully
examining each delinquent. At last she spoke,
addressing herself to me, in a quiet and deliberate
tone.
"Dost thou, O my guest, who art known in thine own
country by the name of the Prickly Tree, recognize
these men?"
"Ay, O queen, nearly all of them," I said, and I saw
them glower at me as I said it.
"Then tell to me, and this great company, the tale
whereof I have heard."
Thus adjured, I, in as few words as I could, related
the history of the cannibal feast, and of the
attempted torture of our poor servant. The narrative
was received in perfect silence, both by the accused
and by the audience, and also by _i_ She _i_ herself.
When I had done, Ayesha called upon Billali by name,
and, lifting his head from the ground, but without
rising, the old man confirmed my story. No further
evidence was taken.
"Ye have heard," said _i_ She _i_ , at length, in a
cold, clear voice, very different from her usual
tones--indeed, it was one of the most remarkable
things about this extraordinary creature that her
voice had the power of suiting itself in a wonderful
manner to the mood of the moment. "What have ye to
say, ye rebellions children, why vengeance should not
be done upon you?"
For some time there was no answer, but at last one of
the men, a fine, broad-chested fellow, well on in
middle life, with deep-graven features and an eye like
a hawk's, spoke, and said that the orders that they
had received were not to harm the white men; nothing
was said of their black servant, so, egged on thereto
by a woman who was now dead, they proceeded to try to
hot-pot him after the ancient and honorable custom of
their country, with a view of eating him in due
course. As for the attack upon ourselves, it was made
in an access of sudden fury, and they deeply regretted
it. He ended by humbly praying that mercy might be
extended to them; or, at least, that they might be
banished into the swamps, to live or die as it might
chance; but I saw it written on his face that he had
but little hope of mercy.
Then came a pause, and the most intense silence
reigned over the whole scene, which, illuminated as it
was by the flicker of the lamps striking out broad
patterns of light and shadow upon the rocky walls, was
as strange as any I ever saw, even in that unholy
land. Upon the ground before the dais were stretched
scores of the corpselike forms of the spectators, till
at last the long lines of them were lost in the gloomy
background. Before this outstretched audience were the
knots of evil-doers, trying to cover up their natural
terrors with a brave appearance of unconcern. On the
right and left stood the silent guards, robed in white
and armed with great spears and daggers, and men and
women mutes watching with hard, curious eyes. Then,
seated in her barbaric chair above them all, with
myself at her feet, was the veiled white woman, whose
loveliness and awesome power seemed to visibly shine
about her like a halo, or rather like the glow from
some unseen light. Never have I seen her veiled shape
look more terrible than it did in that space, while
she gathered herself up for vengeance.
At last it came.
"Dogs and serpents," _i_ She _i_ began, in a low voice
that gradually gathered power as she went on till the
place rang with it. "Eaters of human flesh, two things
have ye done. First, ye have attacked these strangers,
being white men, and would have slain their servant,
and for that alone death is your reward. But that is
not all. Ye have dared to disobey me. Did I not send
my word unto you by Billali, my servant, and the
father of your household? Did I not bid you to
hospitably entertain these strangers, whom now ye have
striven to slay, and whom, had not they been brave and
strong beyond the strength of men, ye would cruelly
have murdered? Hath it not been taught to you from
childhood that the law of _i_ She _i_ is an ever-fixed
law, and that he who breaketh it by so much as one jot
or tittle shall perish? And is not my lightest word a
law? Have not your fathers taught you this, I say,
while as yet ye were but children? Do ye not know that
as well might ye bid these great caves to fall upon
you, or the sun to cease its journeying, as to hope to
turn me from my courses, or make my word light or
heavy, according to your minds? Well do ye know it, ye
wicked ones. But ye are all evil--evil to the core--
the wickedness bubbles up in you like a fountain in
the spring-time. Were it not for me, generations since
had ye ceased to be, for of your own evil way had ye
destroyed each other. And now, because ye have done
this thing, because ye have striven to put these men,
my guests, to death, and yet more because ye have
dared to disobey my word, this is the doom that I doom
you to. That ye be taken to the cave of torture, and
given over to the tormentors, and that on the going
down of to-morrow's sun those of you who yet remain
alive be slain, even as ye would have slain the
servant of this my guest."
_i_ She _i_ ceased, and a faint murmur of horror ran
round the cave. As for the victims, as soon as they
realized the full hideousness of their doom, their
stoicism forsook them, and they flung themselves down
upon the ground, and wept and implored for mercy in a
way that was dreadful to behold. I, too, turned to
Ayesha, and begged her to spare them, or at least to
mete out their fate in some less awful way. But she
was hard as adamant about it.
"My Holly," she said, again speaking in Greek, which,
to tell the truth, although I have always been
considered a better scholar of that language than most
men, I found it rather difficult to follow, chiefly
because of the change in the fall of the accent.
Ayesha, of course, talked with the accent of her
contemporaries, whereas we have only tradition and the
modern accent to guide us as to the exact
pronunciation--"My Holly, it cannot be. Were I to show
mercy to those wolves, your lives would not be safe
among this people for a day. Thou knowest them not.
They are tigers to lap blood, and even now they hunger
for your lives. How thinkest thou that I rule this
people? I have but a regiment of guards to do my
bidding, therefore it is not by force. It is by
terror. My empire is of the imagination. Once in a
generation mayhap I do as I have done but now, and
slay a score by torture. Believe not that I would be
cruel, or take vengeance on anything so low. What can
it profit me to be avenged on such as these? Those who
live long, my Holly, have no passions, save where they
have interests. Though I may seem to slay in wrath, or
because my mood is crossed, it is not so. Thou hast
seen how in the heavens the little clouds blow this
way and that without a cause, yet behind them is the
great wind sweeping on its path whither it listeth. So
is it with me, O Holly. My moods and changes are the
little clouds, and fitfully these seem. to turn; but
behind them ever blows the great wind of my purpose.
Nay, the men must die; and die as I have said." Then,
suddenly turning to the captain of the guard-"As my
word is, so be it!"
CHAPTER X--
THE TOMBS OF KO^R
AFTER the prisoners had been removed, Ayesha waved her
hand, and the spectators turned round, and began to
crawl off down the cave like a scattered flock of
sheep. When they were a fair distance from the dais,
however, they rose and walked away, leaving the queen
and myself alone, with the exception of the mutes and
the few remaining guards, most of whom had departed
with the doomed men. Thinking this a good opportunity,
I asked _i_ She _i_ to come and see Leo, telling her
of his serious condition; but she would not, saying
that he certainly would not die before the night, as
people never died of that sort of fever except at
nightfall or dawn. Also she said that it would be
better to let the sickness spend its course as much as
possible before she cured it. Accordingly, I was
rising to leave, when she bade me follow her, as she
would talk with me, and show me the wonders of the
caves.
I was too much involved in the web of her fatal
fascinations to say her no, even if I had wished,
which I did not. _i_ She _i_ rose from her chair, and,
making some signs to the mutes, descended from the
dais. Thereon four of the girls took lamps, and ranged
themselves two in front and two behind us, but the
others went away, as also did the guards.
"Now," she said, "wouldst thou see some of the wonders
of this place, O Holly? Look upon this great cave.
Sawest thou ever the like? Yet was it, and many more
like it, hollowed by the hands of the dead race that
once lived here in the city on the plain. A great and
a wonderful people must? they have been, those men of
Ko^r, but, like the Egyptians, they thought more of
the dead than of the living. How many men, thinkest
thou, working for how many years, did it need to the
hollowing out this cave and all the. galleries
thereof?"
"Tens of thousands," I answered.
"So, O Holly. This people was an old people before the
Egyptians were. A little can I read of their
inscriptions, having found the key thereto--and, see
thou here, this was one of the last of the caves that
they hollowed," and, turning to the rock behind her,
she motioned the mutes to hold up the lamps. Carven
over the dais was the figure of an old man seated in a
chair, with an ivory rod in his hand. It struck me at
once that his features were exceedingly like those of
the man who was represented as being embalmed in the
chamber where we took our meals. Beneath the chair,
which, by the way, was shaped exactly like the one in
which Ayesha had sat to give judgment, was a short
inscription in the extraordinary characters of which I
have already spoken, but which I do not remember
sufficient of to illustrate. It looked more like
Chinese writing than any other that I am acquainted
with. This inscription Ayesha proceeded, with some
difficulty and hesitation, to read aloud and
translate. It ran as follows:
"In the year four thousand two hundred and ninety-nine
from the founding of the City of imperial Ko^r was
this cave (or burial-place) completed by Tisno, King
of Kar, the people thereoy and their slaves having
labored thereat for three generations, to be a tomb
for their citizens of rank who shall come after. May
the blessing of the heaven above the heaven rest upon
their work, and make the sleep of Tisno, the mighty
monarch, the likeness of whose features is graven
above, a sound and happy sleep till the day of
awakening, and also the sleep o! his servants, and of
those of his race who, rising up after him, shall yet
lay their heads as low."
"'Thou seest, O Holly," she said, "this people founded
the city, of which the ruins yet cumber the plain
yonder, four thousand years before this cave was
finished. Yet, when first mine eyes be held it two
thousand years ago, was it even as it is now. Judge,
therefore, how old must that city have been! And now,
follow thou me, and I will show thee after what
fashion this great people fell when the time was come
for it to fall," and she led the way down to the
centre of the cave, stopping at a spot where a round
rock had been let into a kind of large manhole in the
flooring, accurately filling it just as the iron
plates fill the spaces in the London pavements down
which the coals are thrown. "Thou seest," she said.
"Tell me, what is it?"
"Nay, I know not," I answered; whereon she crossed to
the left-hand side of the cave (looking towards the
entrance) and signed to the mutes to hold up the
lamps. On the wall was something painted with a red
pigment in similar characters to those hewn beneath
the sculpture of Tisno, King of Ko^r. This inscription
she proceeded to translate to me, the pigment still
being quite fresh enough to show the form of the
letters. It ran as follows:
"'I, Junis, a priest of the Great Temple of Ko^r,
write this upon the rock of the burying-place in the
year four thousand eight hundred and three from the
founding of Ko^r. Ko^r is fallen! No more shall the
mighty feast in her halls, no more shall she rule the
world, and her navies go out to commerce with the
world. Ko^r is fallen! and her mighty works and all
the cities of Ko^r, and all the harbors that she built
and the canals that she made, are for the wolf and the
owl and the wild swan, and the barbarian who comes
after. Twenty and five moons ago did a cloud settle
upon Ko^r, and the hundred cities of Ko^r, and out of
the cloud came a pestilence that slew people, old and
young, one with another. One with another turned black
and died--the young the old, the rich and the poor,
the the woman, the prince and the the pestilence slew
and slew, and not by day or by night, and those who
escaped from the pestilence were slain of the famine.
No longer could the bodies of the children of Ko^r be
preserved according to the ancient rites, because of
the number of the dead, therefore were they hurled
into the great pit beneath the cave through the hole
in the floor of the cave. Then at last, a remnant of
this the great people, the light of the whole world,
went down to the coast and took ship and sailed
northwards; and now am I, the Priest Junis, who write
this, the last man left alive of this great city of
men, but whether there be any yet left in the other
cities I know not. This do I write in misery of heart
before I die, because Ko^r the Imperial is no more,
and because there are none to worship in her temple,
and all her palaces are empty, and her princes and her
captains and her traders and her fair women have
passed off the face of the earth."
I gave a sigh of astonishment--the utter desolation
depicted in this rude scrawl was so overpowering. It
was terrible to think of this solitary survivor of a
mighty people recording its fate before he too went
down into darkness. What must the old man have felt
as, in ghastly, terrifying solitude, by the light of
one lamp feebly illumining a little space of gloom, he
in a few brief lines daubed the history of his
nation's death upon the cavern wall? What a subject
for the moralist, or the painter, or indeed for any
one who can think!
"Doth it not occur to thee, O Holly," said Ayesha,
laying her hand upon my shoulder, "that those men who
sailed north may have been the fathers of the first
Egyptians?"
"Nay, I know not," I said; "it seems that the world is
very old."
"Old? Yes, it is old. indeed. Time after time have
nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned in
the arts, been and passed away and been forgotten, so
that no memory of them remains. This is but one of
several; for Time eats up the works of man, unless,
indeed, he digs in caves like the people of Ko^r, and
then mayhap the sea swallows them, or the earthquake
shakes them in. Who knows what hath been on the earth,
or what shall be? There is no new thing under the sun,
as the wise Hebrew wrote long ago. Yet were not these
people utterly destroyed, as I think. Some few
remained in the other cities, for their cities were
many. But the barbarians from the south, or perchance
my people, the Arabs, came down upon them, and took
their women to wife, and the race of the Amahagger
that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of
Ko^r, and behold it dwelleth in the tombs with its
fathers' bones. But I know not: who can know? My arts
cannot pierce so far into the blackness of Time's
night. A great people were they. They conquered till
none were left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease
within their rocky mountain walls, with their
manservants and their maid-servants, their minstrels,
their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and
quarrelled, and ate and hunted and slept and made
merry till their time came. But come, I will show thee
the great pit beneath the cave whereof the writing
speaks. Never shall thine eyes witness such another
sight."
Accordingly I followed her to a side passage opening
out of the main cave, then down a great number of
steps, and along an underground shaft which cannot
have been less than sixty feet beneath the surface of
the rock, and was ventilated by curious borings that
ran upward, I do not know where. Suddenly the passage
ended, and she halted and bade the mutes hold up the
lamps, and, as she had prophesied, I saw a scene such
as I was not likely to see again. We were standing in
an enormous pit, or rather on the edge of it, for it
went down deeper--I do not know how much--than the
level on which we stood, and was edged in with a low
wall of rock. So far as I could judge, this pit was
about the size of the space beneath the dome of St.
Paul's in London, and when the lamps were held up I
saw that it was nothing but one vast charnelhouse,
being literally full of thousands of human skeletons,
which lay piled up in an enormous gleaming pyramid,
formed by the slipping down of the bodies at the apex
as fresh ones were dropped in from above. Anything
more appalling than this jumbled mass of the remains
of a departed race I cannot imagine, and what made it
even more dreadful was that in this dry air a
considerable number of the bodies had simply become
desiccated with the skin on them, and now, fixed in
every conceivable position, stared at us out of the
mountain of white bones, grotesquely horrible
caricatures of humanity. In my astonishment I uttered
an ejaculation, and the echoes of my voice ringing in
the vaulted space disturbed a skull that had been
accurately balanced for many thousands of years near
the apex of the pile. Down it came with a run,
hounding along merrily towards us, and of course
bringing an avalanche of other bones after it, till at
last the whole pit rattled with their movement, even
as though the skeletons were getting up to greet us.
"Come," I said, "I have seen enough. These are the
bodies of those who died of the great sickness, is it
not so?" I added, as we turned away.
"Yes. The people of Ko^r ever embalmed their dead, as
did the Egyptians, but their art was greater than the
art of the Egyptians, for whereas the Egyptians
disembowelled and drew the brain, the people of Ko^r
injected fluid into the veins, and thus reached every
part. But stay, thou shalt see," and she halted at
haphazard at one of the little doorways opening out of
the passage along which we were walking, and motioned
to the mutes to light us in. We entered into a small
chamber similar to the one in which I had slept at our
first stopping-place, only instead of one there were
two stone benches or beds in it. On the benches lay
figures covered with yellow linen, on which a fine and
impalpable dust had gathered in the course of ages,
but nothing like to the extent that one would have
anticipated, for in these deep-hewn caves there is no
material to turn to dust. About the bodies on the
stone shelves and floor of the tomb were many painted
vases, but I saw very few ornaments or weapons in any
of the vaults.
"Uplift the cloths, O Holly," said Ayesha, but when I
put out my hand to do so I drew it back again. It
seemed like sacrilege, and to speak the truth I was
awed by the dread solemnity of the place, and of the
presences before us. Then, with a little laugh at my
fears, she drew them herself, only to discover other
and yet finer cloths lying over the forms upon the
stone bench. These also she withdrew, and then for the
first time for thousands upon thousands of years of
did living eyes look upon the face of that chilly
dead. It was a woman; she might have been thirty-five
years of age, or perhaps a little less, and had
certainly been beautiful. Even now her calm, clear-cut
features, marked out with delicate eyebrows and long
eyelashes which threw little lines of the shadow of
the lamplight upon the ivory face, were wonderfully
beautiful. There, robed in white, down which her blue
black hair was streaming, she slept her last long
sleep, and on her arm, its face pressed against her
breast, there lay a little babe. So sweet was the
sight, although so awful, that--I confess it without
shame--I could scarcely withhold my tears. It took me
back across the dim gulf of the ages to some happy
home in dead Imperial Ko^r, where this winsome lady
girt about with beauty had lived and died, and dying
taken her last-born with her to the tomb. There they
were before us, mother and babe, the white memories of
a forgotten human history speaking more eloquently to
the heart than could any written record of their
lives. Reverently I replaced the grave-cloths, and,
with a sigh that flowers so fair should, in the
purpose of the Everlasting, have only bloomed to be
gathered to the grave, I turned to the body on the
opposite shelf, and gently unveiled it. It was that of
a man in advanced life, with a long, grizzled beard,
and also robed in white, probably the husband of the
lady, who, after surviving her many years, came at
last to sleep once more for good and all beside her.
We left the place and entered others, It would be too
long to describe the many things I saw in them. Each
one had its occupants, for the fice hundred and odd
years that elapsed between the completion of the cave
and the destruction of the race had evidently sufficed
to fill these catacombs, numberless as they were, and
all appeared to have been undisturbed since the day
when they were placed there. I could fill a book with
the description of them, but to do so would only be to
repeat what I have said, with variations.
Nearly all the bodies, so masterly was the art with
which they had been treated, were as perfect as on the
day of death thousands of years before. Nothing came
to injure them in the deep silence of the living rock;
they were beyond the reach of heat and cold and damp,
and the aromatic drugs with which they had been
saturated were evidently practically everlasting in
their effect. Here and there, however, we saw an
exception, and in these cases, although the flesh
looked sound enough externally, if one touched it it
fell in, and revealed the fact that the figure was but
a pile of dust. This arose, Ayesha told me, from these
particular bodies having, either owing to haste in the
burial or other causes, been soaked in the
preservative, instead of its being injected into the
substance of the flesh.
About the last tomb we visited I must, however, say
one word, for its contents spoke even more eloquently
to the human sympathies than those of the first. It
had but two occupants, and they lay together on a
single shelf. I withdrew the grave-cloths, and there,
clasped heart to heart, were a young man and a
blooming girl. Her head rested on his arm, and his
lips were pressed against her brow. I opened the man's
linen robe, and there over his heart was a dagger-
wound, and beneath the girl's fair breast was a like
cruel stab, through which her life had ebbed away. On
the rock above was an inscription in three words.
Ayesha translated it. It was "Wedded in Death."
What was the life-history of these two, who, of a
truth, were beautiful in their lives, and in their
death were not divided?
I closed my eyelids, and imagination taking up the
thread of thought shot its swift shuttle back across
the ages, weaving a picture on their blackness so real
and vivid in its detail that I could almost for a
moment think that I had triumphed o'er the Past, and
that my spirit's eyes had pierced the mystery of Time.
I seemed to see this fair girl-form--the yellow hair
streaming down her, glittering against her garments
snowy-white, and the bosom that was whiter than the
robes, even dimming with its lustre her ornaments of
burnished gold. I seemed to see the great cave filled
with warriors, bearded and clad in mail, and, on the
lighted dais where Ayesha had given judgment, a man
standing, robed, and surrounded by the symbols of his
priestly office. And up the cave there came one clad
in purple, and before him and behind him came
minstrels and fait maidens, chanting a wedding song.
White stood the maid against the altar, fairer than
the fairest there--purer than a lily, and more cold
than the dew that glistens in its heart. But as the
man drew near she shuddered. Then out of the press and
throng there sprang a dark-haired youth, and put his
arm about this long-forgotten maid, and kissed her
pale face in which the blood shot up like lights of
the red dawn across the silent sky. And next there was
turmoil and uproar, and a flashing of swords, and they
tore the youth from her arms, and stabbed him, but
with a cry she snatched the dagger from his belt, and
drove it into her snowy breast, home to the heart, and
down she fell, and then, with cries and wailing, and
every sound of lamentation, the pageant rolled away
from the arena of my vision, and once more the Past
shut to its book.
Let him who reads forgive the intrusion of a dream
into a history of fact. But it come so home to me--I
saw it all so clear in a moment, as it were; and,
besides, who shall say what proportion of fact--past,
present, or to come, may lie in the imagination? What
is imagination? Perhaps it is the shadow of the
intangible truth, perhaps it is the soul's thought.
In an instant the whole thing had passed through my
brain, and _i_ She _i_ was addressing me.
"Behold the lot of man," said the veiled Ayesha, as
she drew the winding sheets back over the dead lovers,
speaking in a solemn, thrilling voice, which accorded
well with the dream that I had dreamed: "to the tomb,
and to the forgetfulness that hides the tomb, must we
all come at last! Ay, even I who live so long. Even
for me, O Holly, thousands upon thousands of years
hence; thousands of years after thou hast gone through
the gate and been lost in the mists, a day will dawn
whereon I shall die, and be even as thou and these
are. And then what will avail that I have lived a
little longer, holding off death by the knowledge I
have wrung from nature, since at last I too must die?
What is a span of ten thousand years, or ten times ten
thousand years, in the history of time? It is as
naught--it is as the mists that roll up in the
sunlight; it fleeth away like an hour of sleep or a
breath of the Eternal Spirit. Behold the lot of man!
Certainly it shall overtake us, and we shall sleep.
Certainly, too, we shall awake, and live again and
again shall sleep, and so on and on, through periods,
spaces, and times, from aeon unto aeon, till the world
is dead, and the worlds beyond the world are dead, and
naught liveth save the Spirit that is Life. But for us
twain and for these dead ones shall the end of ends be
Life, or shall it be Death? As yet Death is but Life's
Night, but out of the Night is the Morrow born again,
and both again beget the Night. Only when Day and
Night, and Life and Death, are ended and swallowed up
in that from which they came, what shall be our fate,
O Holly? Who can see so far? Not even I!"
And then, with a sudden change of tone and manner--
"Hast thou seen enough, my stranger guest, or shall I
show thee more of the wonders of these tombs that are
my palace halls? If thou wilt, I can lead thee to
where Tisno, the mightiest and most valorous King of
Ko^r, in whose day these caves were ended, lies in a
pomp that seems to mock at nothingness, and bid the
empty shadows of the past do homage to his sculptured
vanity!"
"I have seen enough, O queen," I answered. "My heart
is overwhelmed by the power of the present Death.
Mortality is weak, and easily broken down by a sense
of the companionship that waits upon its end. Take me
hence, O Ayesha!"
CHAPTER XVII--
THE BALANCE TURNS
IN a few minutes, following the lamps of the mutes,
which, held out from the body as a bearer holds water
in a vessel, had the appearance of floating down the
darkness by themselves, we came to a stair which led
us to _i_ She _i_ 's anteroom, the same that Billali
had crept up upon all fours on the previous day. Here
I would have bid the queen adieu, but she would not.
"Nay," she said, "enter with me, O Holly, for of a
truth thy conversation pleaseth me. Think, O Holly:
for two thousand years have I had none to converse
with save slaves and my own thoughts, and though of
all this thinking hath much wisdom come, and many
secrets been made plain, yet am I weary of my
thoughts, and have come to loathe mine own society,
for surely the food that memory gives to eat is bitter
to the taste, and it is only with the teeth of hope
that we can bear to bite it. Now though thy thoughts
are green and tender, as becometh one so young, yet
are they those of a thinking brain, and in truth thou
dost bring back to my mind certain of those old
philosophers with whom in days bygone I have disputed
at Athens, and at Becca in Arabia, for thou hast the
same crabbed air and dusty look, as though thou hadst
passed thy days in reading ill-writ Greek, and been
stained dark with the grime of manuscripts. So draw
the curtain, and sit here by my side, and we will eat
fruit, and talk of pleasant things. See, I will again
unveil to thee. Thou hast brought it on thyself, O
Holly; fairly have I warned thee--and thou shalt call
me beautiful as even those old philosophers were wont
to do. Fie upon them, forgetting their philosophy!"
And without more ado she stood up and shook the white
wrappings from her, and came forth shining and
splendid like some glittering snake when she has cast
her slough; ay, and fixed her wonderful eyes upon me--
more deadly than any basilisk's--and pierced me
through and through with their beauty, and sent her
light laugh ringing through the air like chimes of
silver bells.
A new mood was on her, and the very color of her mind
seemed to change beneath it. It was no longer torture-
torn and hateful, as I had seen it when she was
cursing her dead rival by the leaping flames, no
longer icily terrible as in the judgment-hall, no
longer rich and sombre and splendid, like a Tyrian
cloth, as in the dwellings of the dead. No, her mood
now was that of Aphrodite triumphing. Life--radiant,
ecstatic, wonderful--seemed to flow from her and
around her. Softly she laughed and sighed, and swift
her glances flew. _i_ She _i_ shook her heavy tresses,
and their perfume filled the place; she struck her
little sandalled foot upon the floor, and hummed a
snatch of some old Greek epithalamium. All the majesty
was gone, or did but lurk and faintly flicker through
her laughing eyes, like lightning seen through
sunlight. _i_ She _i_ had cast off the terror of the
leaping flame, the cold power of judgment that was
even now being done, and the wise sadness of the
tombs--cast them off and put them behind her, like the
white shroud she wore, and now stood out the
incarnation of lovely, tempting womanhood, made more
perfect--and in a way more spiritual--than ever woman
was before.
"There, my Holly, sit there where thou canst see me.
It is by thine own wish, remember--again I say, blame
me not if thou dost spend the rest of thy little span
with such a sick pain at the heart that thou wouldst
fain have died before ever thy curious eyes were set
upon me. There, sit so, and tell me, for in truth I am
inclined for praises--tell me, am I not beautiful?
Nay, speak not so hastily; consider well the point;
take me feature by feature, forgetting not my form,
and my hands and feet, and my hair, and the whiteness
of my skin, and then tell me truly hast thou ever
known a woman who in aught, ay, in one little portion
of her beauty, in the curve of an eyelash even, or the
modelling of a shell-Iike ear, is justified to hold a
light before my loveliness? Now, my waist! Perchance
thou thinkest it too large, but of a truth it is not
so; it is this golden snake that is too large, and
doth not bind it as it should. It is a wise snake, and
knoweth that it is ill to tie in the waist. But see,
give me thy hands--so--now press them round me, there,
with but a little force, thy fingers touch, O Holly."
I could bear it no longer. I am but a man, and she was
more than a woman. Heaven knows what she was--l do
not! But then and there I fell upon my knees before
her, and told her in a sad mixture of languages--for
such moments confuse the thoughts--that I worshipped
her as never woman was worshipped, and that I would
give my immortal soul to marry her, which at that time
I certainly would have done, and so, indeed, would any
other man, or all the race of men rolled into one. For
a moment she looked a little surprised, and then she
began to laugh, and clap her hands in glee.
"Oh, so soon, O Holly!" she said. "I wondered how many
minutes it would need to bring thee to thy knees. I
have not seen a man kneel before me for so many days,
and, believe me, to a woman's heart the sight is
sweet; ay, wisdom and length of days take not from
that dear pleasure which is our sex's only right.
"What wouldst thou?--what wouldst thou? Thou dost not
know what thou doest. Have I not told thee that I am
not for thee? I love but one, and thou art not the
man. Ah, Holly, for all thy wisdom-and in a way thou
art wise--thou art but a fool running after folly.
Thou wouldst look into mine eyes--thou wouldst kiss
me! Well, if it pleaseth thee, look," and she bent
herself towards me, and fixed her dark and thrilling
orbs upon my own; "ay, and kiss too, if thou wilt,
for, thanks be given to the scheme of things, kisses
leave no marks, except upon the heart. But if thou
dost kiss, I tell thee of a surety wilt thou eat out
thy breast with love of me, and die!" and she bent yet
farther towards me till her soft hair brushed my brow,
and her fragrant breath played upon my face, and made
me faint and weak. Then of a sudden, even as I
stretched out my arms to clasp, she straightened
herself, and a quick change passed over her. Reaching
out her hand, she held it over my head, and it seemed
to me that something flowed from it that chilled me
back to common-sense, and a knowledge of propriety and
the domestic virtues.
"Enough of this wanton play," she said, with a touch
of sternness. "Listen, Holly. Thou art a good and
honest man, and I fain would spare thee; but, oh! it
is so hard for a woman to be merciful. I have said I
am not for thee, therefore let thy thoughts pass by me
like an idle wind, and the dust of thy imagination
sink again into the depths--well, of despair, if thou
wilt. Thou dost not know me, Holly. Hadst thou seen me
but ten hours past when my passion seized me, thou
hadst shrunk from me in fear and trembling. I am a
woman of many moods, and, like the water in that
vessel, I reflect many things; but they pass, my
Holly; they pass, and are forgotten. Only the water is
the water still, and I still am I, and that which
maketh the water maketh it, and that which maketh me
maketh me, nor can my quality be altered. Therefore,
pay no heed to what I seem, seeing that thou canst not
know what I am. If thou troublest me again I will veil
myself, and thou shalt behold my face no more."
I rose, and sank on the cushioned couch beside her,
yet quivering with emotion, though for a moment my mad
passion had left me, as the leaves of a tree quiver
still, although the gust begone that stirred them. I
did not dare to tell her that I had seen her in that
deep and hellish mood, muttering incantations to the
fire in the tomb.
"So," she went on, "now eat some fruit; believe me, it
is the only true food for man. Oh, tell me of the
philosophy of that Hebrew Messiah, who came after me,
and whom thou sayest doth now rule Rome and Greece and
Egypt and the barbarians beyond. It must have been a
strange philosophy that he taught, for in my day the
peoples would have naught of our philosophies. Revel
and lust and drink, blood and cold steel, and the
shock of men gathered in the battle--these were the
canons of their creeds."
I had recovered myself a little by now, and feeling
bitterly ashamed of the weakness into which I had been
betrayed, I did my best to expound to her the
doctrines of Christianity, to which, however, with the
single exception of our conception of heaven and hell,
I found that she paid but faint attention, her
interest being all directed towards the Man who taught
them. Also I told her that among her own people, the
Arabs, another prophet, one Mohammed, had arisen and
preached a new faith to which many millions of mankind
now adhered.
"Ah!" she said; "I see--two new religions! I have
known so many, and doubtless there have been many more
since I knew aught beyond these caves of Ko^r. Mankind
asks ever of the skies to vision out what lies behind
them. It is terror for the end, and but a subtler form
of selfishness--this it is that breeds religions.
Mark, my Holly, each religion claims the future for
its followers; or, at the least, the good thereof. The
evil is for those benighted ones who will have none of
it; seeing the light the true believers worship, as
the fishes see the stars, but dimly. The religions
come and the religions pass, and the civilizations
come and pass, and naught endures but the world and
human nature. Ah! if man would but see that hope is
from within and not from without--that he himself must
work out his own salvation! He is there, and within
him is the breath of life and a knowledge of good and
evil as good and evil is to him. Thereon let him build
and stand erect, and not cast himself before the image
of some unknown God, modelled like his poor self, but
with a bigger brain to think the evil thing; and a
longer arm to do it."
I thought to myself, which shows how old such
reasoning is, being, indeed, one of the recurring
quantities of theological discussion, that her
argument sounded very like some that I have heard in
the nineteenth century, and in other places than the
caves of Ko^r, and with which, by the way, I totally
disagree, but I did not care to try and discuss the
question with her. To begin with, my mind was too
weary with all the emotions through which I had
passed, and, in the second place, I knew that I should
get the worst of it, It is weary work enough to argue
with an ordinary materialist, who hurls statistics and
whole strata of geological facts at your head, while
you can only buffet him with deductions and instincts
and the snowflakes of faith, that are, alas! so apt to
melt in the hot embers of our troubles. How little
chance, then, should I have against one whose brain
was supernatural sharpened, and who had two thousand
years of experience, besides all manner of knowledge
of the secrets of Nature at her command! Feeling that
she would be more likely to convert me than I should
to convert her, I thought it best to leave the matter
alone, and so sat silent. Many a time since then have
I bitterly regretted that I did so; for thereby I lost
the only opportunity I can remember having had of
ascertaining what Ayesha really believed, and what her
"philosophy" was.
"Well, my Holly," she continued, "and so those people
of mine have also found a prophet, a false prophet
thou sayest, for he is not thine own, and, indeed, I
doubt it not. Yet in my day was it otherwise, for then
we Arabs had many gods. Alla^t there was, and Saba,
the Host of Heaven, AI Uzza, and Manah the stony one,
for whom the blood of victims flowed, and Wadd and
Sawa^, and Yaghuth the Lion of the dwellers in Yaman,
and Yauk the Horse of Morad, and Nasr the Eagle of
Hamyar; ay, and many more. Oh, the folly of it all,
the shame and the pitiful folly! Yet when I rose in
wisdom and spoke thereof, surely they would have slain
me in the name of their outraged gods. Well, so hath
it ever been; but, my Holly, art thou weary of me
already, that thou dost sit so silent? Or dost thou
fear lest I should teach thee my philosophy? for know
I have a philosophy. What would a teacher be without
her own philosophy? and if thou dost vex me overmuch,
beware! for I will have thee learn it, and thou shalt
be my disciple, and we twain will found a faith that
shall swallow up all others. Faithless man! And but
half an hour since thou wast upon thy knees--the
posture does not suit thee, Holly--swearing that thou
didst love me. What shall we do? Nay, I have it. I
will come and see this youth, the Lion, as the old
man. Billali calls him, who came with thee, and who is
so sick. The fever must have run its course by now,
and if he is about to die I will recover him. Fear
not, my Holly, I shall use no magic. Have I not told
thee that there is no such thing as magic, though
there is such a thing as understanding and applying
the forces which are in Nature? Go now; and presently
when I have made the drug ready I will follow thee."
Accordingly I went, only to find Job and Ustane in a
great state of grief, declaring that Leo was in the
throes of death, and that they had been searching for
me everywhere. I rushed to the couch, and glanced at
him: clearly he was dying. He was senseless, and
breathing heavily, but his lips were quivering, and
every now and again a little shudder ran down his
frame. I knew enough of doctoring to see that in
another hour he would be beyond the reach of earthly
help--perhaps in another five minutes. How I cursed my
selfishness and the folly that had kept me lingering
by Ayesha's side while my dear boy lay dying! Alas and
alas! how easily the best of us are lighted down to
evil by the gleam of a woman's eyes! What a wicked
wretch was I! Actually, for the last half-hour I had
scarcely thought of Leo, and this, be it remembered,
of the man who for twenty years had been my dearest
companion, and the chief interest of my existence. And
now, perhaps, it was too late!
I wrung my hands, and glanced round. Ustane was
sitting by the couch, and in her eyes burned the dull
light of despair. Job was blubbering--I am sorry I
cannot name his distress by any more delicate word--
audibly in the corner. Seeing my eye fixed upon him he
went outside to give way to his grief in the passage.
Obviously the only hope lay in Ayesha. _i_ She _i_ ,
and she alone--unless, indeed, she was an impostor,
which I could not believe--could save him. I would go
and implore her to come. As I stared to do so,
however, Job came flying into the room, his hair
literally standing on end with terror.
"Oh, God help us, sir!" he ejaculated, in a frightened
whisper, "here's a corpse a-coming sliding down the
passage!"
For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course,
it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in
her grave like garment, and been deceived by the
extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a
belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.
Indeed, at that very moment the question was settled,
for Ayesha herself was in the apartment, or rather
cave. Job turned, and saw her sheeted form, and then,
with a convulsive howl of "Here it comes!" sprang into
a corner, and jammed his face against the wall, and
Ustane, guessing whose the dread presence must be,
prostrated herself upon her face.
"Thou comest in a good time, Ayesha," I said, "for my
boy lies at the point of death."
"So," she said, softly; "provided he be not dead, it
is no matter, for I can bring him back to life, my
Holly. Is that man there thy servant, and is that the
method wherewith thy servants greet strangers in thy
country?"
"He is frightened of thy garb--it hath a deathlike
air," I answered. _i_ She _i_ laughed.
"And the girl? Ah, I see now. It is her of whom thou
didst speak to me. Well, bid them both to leave us,
and we will see to this sick Lion of thine. I love not
that underlings should perceive my wisdom."
Thereon I told Ustane in Arabic and Job in English
both to leave the room; an order which the latter
obeyed readily enough, and was glad to obey, for he
could not in any way subdue his fear. But it was
otherwise with Ustane.
"What does _i_ She _i_ want?" she whispered, divided
between her fear of the terrible queen and her anxiety
to remain near Leo. "It is surely the right of a wife
to be near her husband when he dieth. Nay, I will not
go, my lord, the Baboon."
"Why doth not that woman leave us, my Holly?" asked
Ayesha, from the other end of the cave, where she was
engaged in carelessly examining some of the sculptures
on the wall.
" _i_ She _i_ is not willing to leave Leo," I
answered, not knowing what to say. Ayesha wheeled
round, and, pointing to the girl Ustane, said one
word, and one only, but it was quite enough, for the
tone in which it was said meant volumes.
"Go!"
And then Ustane crept past her on her hands and knees,
and went.
"Thou seest, my Holly," said Ayesha, with a little
laugh, "it was needful that I should give these people
a lesson in obedience. That girl went nigh to
disobeying me, but then she did not learn this morn
how I treat the disobedient. Well, she has gone; and
now let me see the youth," and she glided towards the
couch on which Leo lay, with his face h the shadow and
turned towards the wall.
"He hath a noble shape," she said, as she bent over
him to look upon his face.
Next second her tall and willowy form was staggering
back across the room, as though she had been shot or
stabbed, staggering back till at last she struck the
cavern wall and then there burst from her lips the
most awful and unearthly scream that I ever heard in
all my life.
"What is it, Ayesha?" I cried. "Is he dead?"
_i_ She _i_ turned, and sprang towards me like a
tigress. "Thou dog!" she said, in her terrible
whisper, which sounded like the hiss of a snake, "why
didst thou hide this from me?" And she stretched out
her arm, and I thought that she was about to slay me.
"What?" I ejaculated, in the most lively terror;
"what?"
"Ah!" she said, "perchance thou didst not know. Learn,
my Holly, learn: there lies--there lies my lost
Kallikrates. Kallikrates, who has come back to me at
last, as I knew he would, as I knew he would;" and she
began to sob and to laugh, and generally to conduct
herself like any other lady who is a little upset,
murmuring "Kallikrates, Kallikrates!"
"Nonsense," thought I to myself, but I did not like to
say it; and, indeed, at that moment I was thinking of
Leo's life, having forgotten everything else in that
terrible anxiety. What I feared now was that he should
die while she was "carrying on."
"Unless thou art able to help him, Ayesha," I put in,
by way of a reminder, "thy Kallikrates will soon be
far beyond thy calling. Surely he dieth even now."
"True," she said, with a start. "Oh, why did I not
come before! I am unnerved--my hand trembles, even
mine--and yet it is very easy. Here, thou Holly, take
this phial," and she produced a tiny jar of pottery
from the folds of her garment, "and pour the liquid in
it down his throat. It will cure him if he be not
dead. Swift, now! Swift! The man dies!"
I glanced towards him; it was true enough, Leo was in
his death-struggle. I saw his poor face turning ashen,
and heard the breath begin to rattle in his throat.
The phial was stoppered with a little piece of wood. I
drew it with my teeth, and a drop of the fluid within
flew out upon my tongue. It had a sweet flavor, and
for a second made my head swim, and a mist gather
before my eyes, but happily the effect passed away as
swiftly as it had arisen.
When I reached Leo's side he was plainly expiring--his
golden head was slowly turning from side to side, and
his mouth was slightly open. I called to Ayesha to
hold his head, and this she managed to do, though the
woman was quivering from head to foot, like an aspen-
leaf or a startled horse. Then, forcing the jaw a
little more open, I poured the contents of the phial
into his mouth. Instantly a little vapor arose from
it, as happens when one disturbs nitric acid, and this
sight did not increase my hopes, already faint enough,
of the efficacy of the treatment.
One thing, however, was certain, the death-throes
ceased--at first I thought because he had got beyond
them, and crossed the awful river. His face turned to
a livid pallor, and his heart-beats, which had been
feeble enough before, seemed to die away altogether--
only the eyelid still twitched a little. In my doubt I
looked up at Ayesha, whose head wrapping had slipped
back in her excitement when she went reeling across
the room. _i_ She _i_ was still holding Leo's head,
and, with a face as pale as his own, watching his
countenance with such an expression of agonized
anxiety as I have never seen before. Clearly she did
not know if he would live or die. Five minutes slowly
passed, and I saw that she was abandoning hope; her
lovely oval face seemed to fall in and grow visibly
thinner beneath the pressure of a mental agony whose
pencil drew black lines about the hollows of her eyes.
The coral faded even from her lips, till they were as
white as Leo's face, and quivering pitifully. It was
shocking to see her: even in my own grief I felt for
hers.
"Is it too late?" I gasped.
_i_ She _i_ hid her face in her hands and made no
answer, and I too turned away. But as I did so I heard
a deep-drawn breath, and looking down perceived a line
of color creeping up Leo's face, then another and
another, and then, wonder of wonders, the man we had
thought dead turned-over on his side.
"Thou seest," I said, in a whisper.
"I see," she answered, hoarsely. "He is saved. I
thought we were too late--another moment--one little
moment more--and he had been gone!" and she burst into
an awful flood of tears, sobbing as though her heart
would break, and yet looking lovelier than ever as she
did it. At last she ceased.
"Forgive me, my Holly--forgive me for my weakness,"
she said. "Thou seest after all I am a very woman.
Think--now think of it! This morning didst thou speak
of the place of torment appointed by this new religion
of thine. Hell or Hades thou didst call it--a place
where the vital essence lives and retains an
individual memory, and where all the errors and faults
of judgment, and unsatisfied passions and the
unsubstantial terrors of the mind wherewith it hath at
any time had to do, come to mock and haunt and gibe
and wring the heart forever and forever with the
vision of its own hopelessness. Thus, even thus, have
I lived for full two thousand years--for some six-and-
sixty generations, as ye reckon time--in a Hell, as
thou callest it--tormented by the memory of a crime,
tortured day and night with an unfulfilled desire--
without companionship, without comfort, without death,
and led on only down my dreary road by the marsh
lights of Hope, which, though they flickered here and
there, and now glowed strong, and now were not, yet,
as my skill told me, would one day lead unto my
deliverer.
"And then--think of it still, O Holly, for never shalt
thou hear such another tale, or see such another
scene, nay, not even if I give thee ten thousand years
of life--and thou shalt have it in payment if thou
wilt--think: at last my deliverer came--he for whom I
had watched and waited through the generations--at the
appointed time he came to seek me, as I knew that he
must come, for my wisdom could not err, though I knew
not when or how. Yet see how ignorant I was! See how
small my knowledge, and how faint my strength! For
hours he lay here sick unto death, and I felt it not--
I who had waited for him for two thousand years--I
knew it not. And then at last I see him, and behold,
my chance is gone but by a hair's-breadth even before
I have it, for he is in the very jaws of death; whence
no power of mine can draw him. And if he die, surely
must the Hell be lived through once more--once more
must I face the weary centuries, and wait, and wait
till the time in its fulness shall bring my beloved
back to me. And then thou gavest him the medicine, and
that five minutes dragged along before I knew if he
would live or die, and I tell thee that all the sixty
generations that are gone were not so long as that
five minutes. But they passed at length, and still he
showed no sign, and I knew that if the drug works not
then, so far as I have had knowledge, it works not at
all. Then thought I that he was once more dead, and
all the tortures of all the years gathered themselves
into a single venomed spear, and pierced me through
and through, because once again I had lost
Kallikrates! And then, when all was done, behold! he
sighed; behold! he lived, and I knew that he would
live, for none die on whom the drug takes hold. Think
of it now, my Holly--think of the wonder of it! He
will sleep for twelve hours, and then the fever will
have left him!"
_i_ She _i_ stopped, and laid her hand upon the
golden head, and then bent down and kissed the brow
with a chastened abandonment of tenderness that would
have been beautiful to behold had not the sight cut me
to the heart--for I was jealous!
CHAPTER XVIII--
GO, WOMAN!
THEN followed a silence of a minute or so, during
which _i_ She _i_ appeared, if one might judge from
the almost angelic rapture of her face--for she looked
angelic sometimes--to be plunged in a happy ecstasy.
Suddenly, however, a new thought struck her, and her
expression became the very reverse of angelic.
"Almost had I forgotten," she said, "that woman,
Ustane. What is she to Kallikrates--his servant, or--"
and she paused, and her voice trembled.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I understand that she is wed
to him according to the custom of the Amahagger," I
answered; "but I know not."
Her face grew dark as a thundercloud. Old as she was,
Ayesha had not outlived jealousy.
"Then there is an end," she said; "she must die, even
now!"
"For what crime?" I asked, horrified. "She is guilty
of naught that thou art not guilty of thyself, O
Ayesha. She loves the man, and he has been pleased to
accept her love: where, then, is her Sin?"
"Truly, O Holly, thou art foolish," she answered,
almost petulantly. "Where is her sin? Her sin is that
she stands between me and my desire. Well I know that
I can take him from her--for dwells there a man upon
this earth, O Holly, who could resist me if I put out
my strength? Men are faithful for so long only as
temptations pass them by. If the temptation be but
strong enough, then will the man yield, for every man,
like every rope, hath his breaking strain, and passion
is to men what gold and power are to women--the weight
upon their weakness. Believe me, ill will it go with
mortal women in that heaven of which thou speakest, if
only the spirits be more fair, for their lords will
never turn to look upon them, and their heaven will
become their hell. For man can be bought with woman's
beauty, if it be but beautiful enough; and woman's
beauty can be ever bought with gold, if only there be
gold enough. So was it in my day, and so it will be to
the end of time. The world is a great mart, my Holly,
where all things are for sale to him who bids the
highest in the currency of our desires."
These remarks, which were as cynical as might have
been expected from a woman of Ayesha's age and
experience, jarred upon me, and I answered, testily,
that in our heaven there was no marriage or giving in
marriage.
"Else would it not be heaven, dost thou mean?" she put
in. "Fie upon thee, Holly, to think so ill of us poor
women! Is it, then, marriage that marks the line
between thy heaven and thy hell? But enough of this.
This is no time for disputing and the challenge of our
wits. Why dost thou always dispute? Art thou also a
philosopher of these latter days? As for this woman,
she must die; for though I can take her lover from
her, yet, while she lived, might he think tenderly of
her, and that I cannot away with. No other woman shall
dwell in my lord's thoughts; my empire shall be all my
own. She hath had her day, let her be content; for
better is an hour with love than a century of
loneliness--now the night shall swallow her."
"Nay, nay," I cried, "it would be a wicked crime; and
from a crime naught comes but what is evil. For thine
own sake do not this deed."
"Is it, then, a crime, O foolish man, to put away that
which stands between us and our ends? Then is our life
one long crime, my Holly; for day by day we destroy
that we may live, since in this world none save the
strongest can endure. Those who are weak must perish;
the earth is to the strong, and the fruits thereof.
For every tree that grows, a score shall wither, that
the strong ones may take their share. We run to place
and power over the dead bodies of those who fail and
fall; ay, we win the food we eat from out the mouths
of starving babes. It is the scheme of things. Thou
sayest, too, that a crime breeds evil, but therein
thou dost lack experience; for out of crimes come many
good things, and out of good grows much evil. The
cruel rage of the tyrant may prove a blessing to
thousands who come after him, and the sweet-
heartedness of a holy man may make a nation slaves.
Man doeth this and doeth that from the good or evil of
his heart; but he knoweth not to what end his moral
sense doth prompt him; for when he striketh he is
blind to where the blow shall fall, nor can he count
the airy threads that weave the web of circumstance.
Good and evil, love and hate, night and day, sweet and
bitter, man and woman, heaven above and earth beneath-
-all these things are necessary one to the other, and
who knows the end of each? I tell thee that there is a
hand of Fate that twines them up to bear the burden of
its purpose, and all things are gathered in that great
rope to which all things are needful. Therefore doth
it not become us to say this thing is evil and this
good, or the dark is hateful and the light lovely; for
to other eyes than ours the evil may be the good and
the darkness more beautiful than the day, or all alike
be fair. Hearest thou, my Holly?"
I felt it was hopeless to argue against casuistry of
this nature, which, if it were carried to its logical
conclusion, would absolutely destroy all morality, as
we understand it. But her talk gave me a fresh thrill
of fear; for what may not be possible to a being who,
unconstrained by human law, is also absolutely
unshackled by a moral sense of right and wrong, which,
however partial and conventional it may be, is yet
based, as our conscience tells us, upon the great wall
of individual responsibility that marks off mankind
from the beasts.
But I was deeply anxious to save Ustane, whom I liked
and respected, from the dire fate that overshadowed
her at the hands of her mighty rival. So I made one
more appeal.
"Ayesha," I said, "thou art too subtle for me; but
thou thyself hast told me that each man should be a
law unto himself, and follow the teaching of his
heart. Hath thy heart no mercy towards her whose place
thou wouldst take? Bethink thee, as thou sayest--
though to me the thing is incredible--him whom thou
desirest has returned to thee after many ages, and but
now thou hast, as thou sayest also, wrung him from the
jaws of death. Wilt thou celebrate his coming by the
murder of one who loved him, and whom perchance he
loved--one, at the least who saved his life for thee
when the spears of thy slaves would have made an end
thereof? Thou sayest also that in past days thou didst
grievously wrong this man, that with thine own hand
thou didst slay him because of the Egyptian Amenartas
whom he loved."
"How knowest thou that, O stranger? How knowest thou
that name? I spoke it not to thee," she broke in with
a cry, catching at my arm.
"Perchance I dreamed it," I answered; "strange dreams
do hover about these caves of Ko^r. It seems that the
dream was, indeed, a shadow of the truth. What came to
thee of thy mad crime?--two thousand years of waiting,
was it not? And now wouldst thou repeat the history?
Say what thou wilt, I tell thee that evil will come of
it; for to him who doeth, at the least, good breeds
good and evil evil, even though in after-days out of
evil cometh good. Offences must needs come; but woe to
him by whom the offence cometh. So said that Messiah
of whom I spoke to thee, and it was truly said. If
thou slayest this innocent woman, I say unto thee that
thou shalt be accursed, and pluck no fruit from thine
ancient tree of love. Also, what thinkest thou? How
will this man take thee redhanded from the slaughter
of her who loved and tended him?''
"As to that," she answered, "I have already answered
thee. Had I slain thee as well as her, yet should he
love me, Holly, because he could not save himself
therefrom any more than thou couldst save thyself from
dying, if by chance I slew thee, O Holly. And yet,
maybe there is truth in what thou dost say; for in
some way it presseth on my mind. If it may be I will
spare this woman; for have I not told thee that I am
not cruel for the sake of cruelty? I love not to see
suffering or to cause it. Let her come before me--
quick, now, before my mood changes," and she hastily
covered her face with its gauzy wrapping.
Well pleased to have succeeded even to this extent, I
passed out into the passage and called to Ustane,
whose white garment I caught sight of some yards away,
huddled up against one of the earthenware lamps that
were placed at intervals along the tunnel. She rose,
and ran towards me.
"Is my lord dead? Oh, say not he is dead," she cried,
lifting her noble-looking face, all stained as it was
with tears, up to me with an air of infinite
beseeching that went straight to my heart.
"Nay, he lives," I answered. " _i_ She _i_ hath saved
him. Enter."
She sighed deeply, entered, and fell upon her hands
and knees, after the custom of the Amahagger people,
in the presence of the dread _i_ She _i_.
"Stand," said Ayesha, in her coldest voice, "and come
hither."
Ustane obeyed, standing before her with bowed head.
Then came a pause, which Ayesha broke.
"Who is this man?" she said, pointing to the sleeping
form of Leo.
"The man is my husband," she answered in a low voice.
"Who gave him to thee for a husband?"
"I took him according to the custom of our country, O
_i_ She _i_ ."
"Thou hast done evil, woman, in taking this man, who
is a stranger. He is not a man of thine own race, and
the custom fails. Listen: perchance thou didst this
thing through ignorance, therefore, woman, do I spare
thee; otherwise hadst thou died. Listen again. Go from
hence back to thine own place, and never dare to speak
to or set thine eyes upon this man again. He is not
for thee. Listen a third time. If thou breakest this
my law, that moment thou diest. Go."
But Ustane did not move.
"Go, woman!"
Then she looked up, and I saw that her face was torn
with passion.
"Nay, O _i_ She _i_ , I will not go," she answered, in
a choked voice: "the man is my husband, and I love
him--I love him, and I will not leave him. What right
hast thou to command me to leave my husband?"
I saw a little quiver pass down Ayesha's frame, and
shuddered myself, fearing the worst.
"Be pitiful," I said in Latin; "it is but Nature
working."
"I am pitiful," she answered, coldly, in the same
language; "had I not been pitiful she had been dead
even now." Then addressing Ustane: "Woman, I say to
thee, go before I destroy thee where thou art!"
"I will not go! He is mine--mine!" she cried, in
anguish. "I took him, and I saved his life! Destroy
me, then, if thou hast the power! I will not give thee
my husband--never--never!"
Ayesha made a movement so swift that I could scarcely
follow it, but it seemed to me that she lightly struck
the poor girl upon the head with her hand. I looked at
Ustane, and then staggered back in horror, for there
upon her hair, right across her bronze-like tresses,
were three finger-marks white as snow. As for the girl
herself, she had put her hands to her head, and was
looking dazed.
"Great heavens!" I said, perfectly aghast at this
dreadful manifestation of inhuman power; but _i_ She
_i_ did but laugh a little.
"Thou thinkest, poor, ignorant fool," she said to the
bewildered woman, "that I have not power to slay.
Stay, there lies a mirror," and she pointed to Leo's
round shaving-glass that had been arranged by Job with
other things upon his portmanteau; "give it to this
woman, my Holly, and let her see that which lies
across her hair, and whether or not I have power to
slay."
I picked up the glass, and held it before Ustane's
eyes. She gazed, then felt at her hair, then gazed
again, and then sank upon the ground with a sort of
sob.
"Now, wilt thou go, or must I strike a second time?"
asked Ayesha, in mockery. "Look, I have set my seal
upon thee so that I may know thee till thy hair is all
as white as it. If I see thy face here again, be sure
too, that thy bones shall soon be whiter than my mark
upon thy hair."
Utterly awed and broken down, the poor creature rose
and, marked with that awful mark, crept from the room
sobbing bitterly.
"Look not so frighted, my Holly," said Ayesha, when
She had gone. "I tell thee I deal not in magic--there
is no such thing. 'Tis only a force that thou dost not
understand. I marked her to strike terror to her
heart, else must I have slain her. And now I will bid
my servants bear my Lord Kallikrates to a chamber near
mine own, that I may watch over him, and be ready to
greet him when he wakes; and thither, too, shalt thou
come, my Holly, and the white man, thy servant. But
one thing remember at thy peril. Naught shalt thou say
to Kallikrates as to how this woman went, and as
little as may be of me. Now, I have warned thee!" and
she slid away to give her orders, leaving me more
absolutely confounded than ever. Indeed, so bewildered
was I, and racked and torn with such a succession of
various emotions, that I began to think that I must be
going mad. However, perhaps fortunately, I had but
little time to reflect, for presently the mutes
arrived to carry the sleeping Leo and our possessions
across the central cave, so for a while all was
bustle. Our new rooms were situated immediately behind
what we used to call Ayesha's boudoir--the curtained
space where I had first seen her. Where she herself
slept I did not then know, but it was somewhere quite
close.
That night I passed in Leo's room, but he slept
through it like the dead, never once stirring. I also
slept fairly well, as, indeed, I needed to do, but my
sleep was full of dreams of all the horrors and
wonders I had undergone. Chiefly, however, I was
haunted by that frightful piece of _i_ diablerie _i_
by which Ayesha left her finger-marks upon her rival's
hair. There was something so terrible about the swift,
snakelike movement, and the instantaneous blanching of
that threefold line, that, if the results to Ustane
had been much more tremendous, I doubt if they would
have impressed me so deeply. To this day I often dream
of that awful scene, and see the weeping woman,
bereaved, and marked like Cain, cast a last look at
her lover, and creep from the presence of her dread
queen.
Another dream that troubled me originated in the huge
pyramid of bones. I dreamed that they all stood up and
marched past me in thousands and tens of thousands--in
squadrons, companies, and armies--with the sunlight
shining through their hollow ribs. On they rushed
across the plain to Ko^r, their imperial home; I saw
the drawbridges fall before them, and heard their
bones clank through the brazen gates. On they went, up
the splendid streets, on past fountains, palaces, and
temples such as the eye of man never saw. But there
was no man to greet them in the market-place, and no
woman's face appeared at the windows--only a bodiless
voice went before them, calling: "Fallen is Imperial
Ko^r--fallen!--fallen!--fallen!" On, right through the
city, marched those gleaming phalanxes, and the rattle
of their bony tread echoed through the silent air as
they pressed grimly on. They passed through the city
and climbed the wall, and marched along the great
roadway that was made upon the wall, till at length
they once more reached the drawbridge. Then, as the
sun was sinking, they returned again towards their
sepulchre, and luridly his light shone in the sockets
of their empty eyes, throwing gigantic shadows of
their bones, that stretched away, and crept and crept
like huge spider's legs as their armies wound across
the plain. Then they came to the cave, and once more
one by one flung themselves in unending files through
the hole into the pit of bones, and I awoke,
shuddering, to see _i_ She _i_ , who had evidently
been standing between my couch and Leo's, glide like a
shadow from the room.
After this I slept again, soundly this time, till
morning, when I awoke much refreshed, and got up. At
last the hour drew near at which, according to Ayesha,
Leo was to awake, and with it came _i_ She _i_
herself, as usual, veiled.
"Thou shalt see, O Holly," she said; "presently shall
he awake in his right mind, the fever having left
him."
Hardly were the words out of her mouth, when Leo
turned round and stretched out his arms, yawned,
opened his eyes, and, perceiving a female form bending
over him, threw his arms round her and kissed her,
mistaking her, perhaps, for Ustane. At any rate, he
said, in Arabic, "Hullo! Ustane, why have you tied
your head up like that? Have you got the toothache?"
and then, in English, "I say, I'm awfully hungry. Why,
Job, you old son-of-a-gun, where the deuce have we got
to now--eh?"
"I am sure I wish I knew, Mr. Leo," said Job, edging
suspiciously past Ayesha, whom he still regarded with
the utmost disgust and horror, being by no means sure
that she was not an animated corpse; "but you mustn't
talk, Mr. Leo, you've been very ill, and given us a
great deal of hanxiety, and, if this lady," looking at
Ayesha, "would be so kind as to move, I'll bring you
your soup."
This turned Leo's attention to the "lady," who was
standing by in perfect silence. "Hullo!" he said;
"that is not Ustane--where is Ustane?"
Then, for the first time, Ayesha spoke to him, and her
first words were a lie. "She has gone from hence upon
a visit," she said; "and, behold, in her place am I
here as thine handmaid."
Ayesha's silver notes seemed to puzzle Leo's half-
awakened intellect, as also I did her corpselike
wrappings. However, he said nothing at the time, but
drank off his soup greedily enough, and then turned
over and slept again till the evening. When he woke
for the second time he saw me, and began to question
me as to what had happened, but I had to put him off
as best I could till the morrow, when he awoke almost
miraculously better. Then I told him something of his
illness and of my doings, but as Ayesha was present I
could not tell him much except that she was the queen
of the country, and well disposed towards us, and that
it was her pleasure to go veiled; for, though of
course I spoke in English, I was afraid that she might
understand what we were saying from the expression of
our faces, and, besides, I remembered her warning.
On the following day Leo got up almost entirely
recovered. The flesh wound in his side was healed, and
his constitution, naturally a vigorous one, had shaken
off the exhaustion consequent on his terrible fever
with a rapidity that I can only attribute to the
effects of the wonderful drug which Ayesha had given
to him, and also to the fact that his illness had been
too short to reduce him very much. With his returning
health came back full recollection of all his
adventures up to the time when he had lost
consciousness in the marsh, and of course of Ustane
also, to whom I had discovered he had grown
considerably attached. Indeed, he overwhelmed me with
questions about the poor girl, which I did not dare to
answer, for after Leo's first wakening _i_ She _i_ had
sent for me, and again warned me solemnly that I was
to reveal nothing of the story to him, delicately
hinting that if I did it would be the worse for me.
_i_ She _i_ also, for the second time, cautioned me
not to tell Leo anything more than I was obliged about
herself, saying that she would reveal herself to him
in her own time.
Indeed, her whole manner changed. After all that I had
seen I had expected that she would take the earliest
opportunity of claiming the man she believed to be her
old-world lover, but this, for some reason of her own,
which was at the time quite inscrutable to me, she did
not do. All that she did was to attend to his wants
quietly, and with a humility which was in striking
contrast with her former imperious bearing, addressing
him always in a tone of something very like respect,
and keeping him with her as much as possible. Of
course his curiosity was as much excited about this
mysterious woman as my own had been, and he was
particularly anxious to see her face, which I had,
without entering into particulars, told him was as
lovely as her form and voice. This in itself was
enough to raise the expectations of any young man to a
dangerous pitch, and had it not been that he had not
as yet completely shaken off the effects of illness,
and was much troubled in his mind about Ustane, of
whose affection and brave devotion he spoke in
touching terms, I have no doubt that he would have
entered into her plans, and fallen in love with her by
anticipation. As it was, however, he was simply wildly
curious, and also, like myself, considerably awed, for
though no hint had been given to him by Ayesha of her
extraordinary age, he not unnaturally came to identify
her with the woman spoken of on the potsherd. At last,
quite driven into a corner by his continual questions,
which he showered on me while he was dressing on this
third morning, I referred him to Ayesha, saying, with
perfect truth, that I did not know where Ustane was.
Accordingly, after Leo had eaten a hearty breakfast,
we adjourned into _i_ She _i_ 's presence, for her
mutes had orders to admit us at all hours.
_i_ She _i_ was, as usual, seated in what, for want
of a better term, we called her boudoir, and on the
curtains being drawn she rose from her couch and,
stretching out both hands, came forward to greet us,
or rather Leo; for I, as may be imagined, was now
quite left in the cold. It was a pretty sight to see
her veiled form gliding towards the sturdy young
Englishman, dressed in his gray-flannel suit; for
though he is half a Greek in blood, Leo is, with the
exception of his hair, one of the most English-looking
men I ever saw. He has nothing of the supple form or
slippery manner of the modern Greek about him, though
I presume that he got his remarkable personal beauty
from his foreign mother, whose portrait he resembles
not a little. He is very tall and big-chested, and yet
not awkward, as so many big men are, and his head is
set upon him in such a fashion as to give him a proud
and vigorous air, which was well translated in his
Amahagger name of the "Lion."
"Greeting to thee, my young stranger lord," she said,
in her softest voice. "Right glad am I to see thee
upon thy feet. Believe me, had I not saved thee at the
last, never wouldst thou have stood upon those feet
again. But the danger is done, and it shall be my
care"--and she flung a world of meaning into the
words--"that it doth return no more."
Leo bowed to her, and then, in his best Arabic,
thanked her for all her kindness and courtesy in
caring for one unknown to her.
"Nay," she answered, softly, "ill could the world
spare such a man. Beauty is too rare upon it. Give me
no thanks, who am made happy by thy coming."
"Humph! old fellow," said Leo aside to me, in English,
"the lady is very civil. We seem to have tumbled into
clover. I hope that you have made the most of your
opportunities. By Jove! what a pair of arms she has
got!"
I nudged him in the ribs to make him keep quiet, for I
caught sight of a gleam from Ayesha's veiled eyes,
which were regarding me curiously.
"I trust," went on Ayesha, "that my servants have
attended well upon thee; if there can be comfort in
this poor place, be sure it waits on thee. Is there
aught that I can do for thee more?"
"Yes, O _i_ She _i_ ," answered Leo, hastily. "I would
fain know whither the young lady who was looking after
me has gone to."
"Ah," said Ayesha: "the girl---yes, I saw her. Nay, I
know not; she said that she would go, I know not
whither. Perchance she will return, perchance not. It
is wearisome waiting on the sick, and these savage
women are fickle."
Leo looked both sulky and distressed at this
intelligence.
"It's very odd," he said to me, in English; and then
addressing _i_ She _i_ , "I cannot understand," he
said; "the young lady and I--well, in short, we had a
regard for each other."
Ayesha laughed a little very musically, and then
turned the subject.
CHAPTER XIX--
"GIVE ME A BLACK GOAT!"
THE, conversation after this was of such a desultory
order that I do not quite recollect it. For some
reason, perhaps from a desire to keep her identity and
character in reserve, Ayesha did not talk freely, as
she usually did. Presently, however, she informed Leo
that she had arranged a dance that night for our
amusement. I was astonished to hear this, as: I
fancied that the Amahagger were much too gloomy a folk
to indulge in any such frivolity; but, as will
presently more clearly appear, it turned out an
Amahagger dance has little in common with such
fantastic festivities in other countries, savage or
civilized. Then, as we were about to withdraw, she
suggested that Leo might like to see some of the
wonders of the caves, and, as he gladly assented,
thither we departed, accompanied by Job and Billali.
To describe our visit would only be to repeat a great
deal of what I have already said. The tombs we entered
were indeed. different, for the whole rock was a
honeycomb of sepulchres, but the contents were nearly
always similar. Afterwards we visited the pyramid of
bones that had haunted my dreams on the previous
night, and from thence went down a long passage to one
of the great vaults occupied by the bodies of the
poorer citizens of Imperial Ko^r. These bodies were
not nearly so well preserved as were those of the
wealthier classes. Many of them had no linen covering
on them, also they were buried from five hundred to
one thousand in a single large vault, the corpses in
some instances being thickly piled one upon another,
like a heap of slain.
Leo was of course intensely interested in this
stupendous and unequalled sight, which was, indeed,
enough to awaken all the imagination a man had in him
into the most active life. But to poor Job it did not
prove attractive. His nerves--already seriously shaken
by what he had undergone since we had arrived in this
terrible country--were, as may be imagined, still
further disturbed by the spectacle of these masses of
departed humanity, whereof the forms still remained
perfect before his eyes, though their voices were
forever lost in the eternal silence of the tomb. Nor
was he comforted when old Billali, by way of soothing
his evident agitation, informed him that he should not
be frightened at these dead things, as he would soon
be like them himself.
"There's a nice thing to say of a man, sir," he
ejaculated, when I translated this little remark; "but
there, what can one expect of an old man-eating
savage? Not but what I dare say he's right," and Job
sighed.
When we had finished inspecting the caves we returned
and had our meal, for it was now past four in the
afternoon, and we all--specially Leo--needed some food
and rest. At six o'clock we, together with Job, waited
on Ayesha, who set to work to terrify our poor servant
still further by showing him pictures on the pool of
water in the font like vessel. _i_ She _i_ learned
from me that he was one of seventeen children, and
then bid him think of all his brothers and sisters, or
as many of them as he could, gathered together in his
father's cottage. Then she told him to look in the
water, and there, reflected from its stilly surface,
was that dead scene of many years gone by, as it was
recalled to our retainer's brain. Some of the faces
were clear enough, but some were mere blurs and
splotches, or with one feature grossly exaggerated;
the fact being that, in these instances, Job had been
unable to recall the exact appearances of the
individuals, or remembered them only by a peculiarity
of his tribe, and the water could only reflect what he
saw with his mind's eye. For it must be remembered
that _i_ She _i_ 's power in this matter was strictly
limited; she could, apparently, except in very rare
instances, only photograph upon the water what was
actually in the mind of some one present, and then
only by his will. But if she was personally acquainted
with a locality she could, as in the case of ourselves
and the whale-boat, throw its reflection upon the
water, and also it seems the reflection of anything
extraneous that was passing there at the time. This
power, however, did not extend to the minds of others.
For instance, she could show me the interior of my
college chapel, as I remembered it, but not as it was
at the moment of reflection; for, where other people
were concerned, her art was strictly limited to the
facts or memories present to their consciousness at
the moment. So much was this so that, when we tried,
for her amusement, to show her pictures of noted
buildings, such as St. Paul's or the Houses of
Parliament, the result was most imperfect; for, of
course, though we had a good general idea of their
appearance, we could not recall all the architectural
details, and therefore the minutiae necessary to a
perfect reflection were wanting. But Job could not be
got to understand this, and so far from accepting a
natural explanation of the matter, which was, after
all, though strange enough in all conscience, nothing
more than an instance of glorified and perfected
telepathy, he set the whole thing down as a
manifestation of the blackest magic. I shall never
forget the howl of terror which he uttered when he saw
the more or less perfect portraits of his long-
scattered brethren staring at him from the quiet
water, or the merry peal of laughter with which Ayesha
greeted his consternation. As for Leo, he did not
altogether like it either, but ran his fingers through
his yellow curls, and remarked that it gave him the
creeps.
After about an hour of this amusement, in the latter
part of which Job did not participate, the mutes by
signs indicated that Billali was waiting for an
audience. Accordingly he was told to "crawl up," which
he did as awkwardly as usual, and announced that the
dance was ready to begin if She and the white
strangers would be pleased to attend. Shortly
afterwards we all rose, and Ayesha having thrown a
dark cloak (the same, by the way, that she had worn
when I saw her cursing by the fire) over her white
wrappings, we started. The dance was to be held in the
open air, on the smooth rocky plateau in front of the
great cave, and thither we made our way. About fifteen
paces from the mouth of the cave we found three chairs
placed, and here we sat and waited, for as yet no
dancers were to be seen. The night was almost, but not
quite, dark, the moon not having risen as yet, which
made us wonder how we should be able to see the
dancing.
"Thou wilt presently understand," said Ayesha, with a
little laugh, when Leo asked her; and we certainly
did. Scarcely were the words out of her mouth when
from every point we saw dark forms rushing up, each
bearing with him what we at first took to be an
enormous flaming torch. Whatever they were they were
burning furiously, for the flames stood out a yard or
more behind each bearer. On they came, fifty or more
of them, carrying their flaming burdens and looking
like so many devils from hell. Leo was the first to
discover what these burdens were.
"Great heaven!" he said, "they are corpses on fire!"
I stared and stared again--he was perfectly right--the
torches that were to light our entertainment were
human mummies from the caves!
On rushed the bearers of the flaming corpses, and,
meeting at a spot about twenty paces in front of us,
built their ghastly burdens crossways into a huge
bonfire. Heavens! how they roared and flared! No tar
barrel could have burned as those mummies did: Nor was
this all. Suddenly I saw one great fellow seize a
flaming human arm that had fallen from its parent
frame; and rush off into the darkness. Presently he
stopped, and a tall streak of fire shot up into the
air, illumining the gloom, and also the lamp from
which it sprang. That lamp was the mummy of a woman
tied to a stout stake let into the rock, and he had
fired her hair. On he went a few paces and touched a
second, then a third, and a fourth, till at last we
were surrounded on all three sides by a great ring of
bodies flaring furiously, the material with which they
were preserved having rendered them so inflammable
that the flames would literally spout out of the ears
and mouth in tongues of fire a foot or more in length.
Nero illuminated his gardens with live Christians
soaked in tar, and we were now treated to a similar
spectacle, probably for the first time since his day,
only happily our lamps were not living ones.
But although this element of horror was fortunately
wanting, to describe the awful and hideous grandeur of
the spectacle thus presented to us is, I feel, so
absolutely beyond my poor powers, that I scarcely dare
attempt it. To begin with, it appealed to the moral as
well as the physical susceptibilities. There was
something very terrible, and yet very fascinating,
about the employment of the remote dead to illumine
the orgies of the living; in itself the thing was a
satire, both on the living and the dead. Caesar's
dust--or is it Alexander's? may stop a bunghole, but
the functions of these dead Caesars of the past was to
light up a savage fetish dance. To such base uses may
we come, of so little account may we be in the minds
of the eager multitudes that we shall breed, many of
whom, so far from revering our memory, will live to
curse us for begetting them into such a world of woe.
Then there was the physical side of the spectacle, and
a weird and splendid one it was. Those old citizens of
Ko^r burned as, to judge from their sculptures and
inscriptions, they had lived, very fast, and with the
utmost liberality. What is more, there were plenty of
them. As soon as ever a mummy had burned down to the
ankles, which it did in about twenty minutes, the feet
were kicked away, and another one put in its place.
The bonfire was kept going on the same generous scale,
and its flames shot up, with a hiss and a crackle,
twenty or thirty feet into the air, throwing great
flashes of light far out into the gloom, through which
the dark forms of the Amahagger flitted to and fro
like devils replenishing the infernal fires. We all
stood and stared aghast--shocked, and yet fascinated
at so strange a spectacle, and half expecting to see
the spirits those flaming forms had once enclosed come
creeping from the shadows to work vengeance on their
desecraters.
"I promised thee a strange sight, my Holly," laughed
Ayesha, whose nerves alone did not seem to be
affected; "and, behold, I have not failed thee. Also,
it hath its lesson. Trust not to the future, for who
knows what the future may bring! Therefore, live for
the day, and endeavor not to escape the dust which
seems to be man's end. What thinkest thou those long-
forgotten nobles and ladies would have felt had they
known that they should one day flare to light the
dance or boil the pot of savages? But see, here come
the dancers; a merry crew--are they not? The stage is
lit--now for the play."
As she spoke, we perceived two lines of figures, one
male and the other female, to the number of about a
hundred, each advancing round the human bonfire,
arrayed only in the usual leopard and buck skins. They
formed up, in perfect silence, in two lines, facing
each other, between us and the fire, and then the
dance--a sort of infernal and fiendish cancan--began.
To describe it is quite impossible, but, though there
was a good deal of tossing of legs and double-
shuffling, it seemed to our untutored minds to be more
of a play than a dance, and, as usual with this
dreadful people, whose minds seem to have taken their
color from the caves in which they live, and whose
jokes and amusements are drawn from the inexhaustible
stores of preserved mortality with which they share
their homes, the subject appeared to be a most ghastly
one. I know that it represented an attempted murder
first of all, and then the burial alive of the victim
and his struggling from the grave; each act of the
abominable drama, which was carried on in perfect
silence, being rounded off and finished with a furious
and most revolting dance round the supposed victim,
who writhed upon the ground in the red light of the
bonfire.
Presently, however, this pleasing piece was
interrupted. Suddenly there was a slight commotion,
and a large, powerful woman, whom I had noticed as one
of the most vigorous of the dancers, came, made mad
and drunken with unholy excitement, bounding and
staggering towards us, shrieking out as she came:
"I want a black goat, I must have a black goat, bring
me a black goat!" and down she fell upon the rocky
floor foaming and writhing and shrieking for a black
goat, about as hideous a spectacle as can well be
conceived.
Instantly most of the dancers came up and got round
her, though some still continued their capers in the
background.
"She has got a Devil," called out one of them. "Run
and get a black goat. There, Devil, keep quiet! keep
quiet! You shall have the goat presently. They have
gone to fetch it, Devil."
"I want a black goat, I must have a black goat!"
shrieked the foaming, rolling creature again.
"All right, Devil, the goat will be here presently;
keep quiet, there's a good Devil!"
And so on till the goat, taken from a neighboring
kraal, did at last arrive, being dragged bleating on
to the scene by its horns.
"Is it a black one, is it a black one?" shrieked the
possessed.
"Yes, yes, Devil, as black as night;" then aside,
"keep it behind thee, don't let the Devil see that it
has got a white spot on its rump and another on its
belly. In one minute, Devil. There, cut his throat
quick. Where is the saucer?"
"The goat! the goat! the goat! Give me the blood of my
black goat! I must have it, don't you see I must have
it? Oh! oh! oh! give me the blood of the goat."
At this moment a terrified _i_ bah! _i_ announced that
the poor goat had been sacrificed, and the next minute
a woman ran up with a saucer full of the blood. This
the possessed creature, who was then raving and
foaming her wildest, seized and drank, and was
instantly recovered, and without a trace of hysteria,
or fits, or being possessed, or whatever dreadful
thing it was she was suffering from. She stretched her
arms, smiled faintly, and walked quietly back to the
dancers, who presently withdrew in a double line as
they had come, leaving the space between us and the
bonfire deserted.
I thought that the entertainment was now over, and,
feeling rather queer, was about to ask _i_ She _i_ if
we could rise, when suddenly what at first I took to
be a baboon came hopping round the fire, and was
instantly met upon the other side by a lion, or rather
a human being dressed in a lion's skin. Then came a
goat, then a man wrapped in an ox's hide, with the
horns wobbling about in a ludicrous way. After him
followed a blesbok, then an impala, then a koodoo,
then more goats, and many other animals, including a
girl sewn up in the shining scaly hide of a boa
constrictor, several yards of which trailed along the
ground behind her. When all the beasts had collected
they began to dance about in a lumbering, unnatural
fashion, and to imitate the sounds produced by the
respective animals they represented, till the whole
air was alive with roars and bleating and the hissing
of snakes. This went on for a long time, till, getting
tired of the pantomime, I asked Ayesha if there would
be any objection to Leo and myself walking round to
inspect the human torches, and as she had nothing to
say against it, we started, striking round to the
left. After looking at one or two of the flaming
bodies, we were about to return, thoroughly disgusted
with the grotesque weirdness of the spectacle, when
our attention was attracted by one of the dancers, a
particularly active leopard, that had separated itself
from its fellow-beasts, and was whisking about in our
immediate neighborhood, but gradually drawing into a
spot where the shadow was darkest, equidistant between
two of the flaming mummies. Drawn by curiosity, we
followed it, when suddenly it darted past us into the
shadows beyond, and as it did so erected itself and
whispered, "Come," in a voice that we both recognized
as that of Ustane. Without waiting to consult me Leo
turned and followed her into the outer darkness, and
I, feeling sick enough at heart, went after them. The
leopard crawled on for about fifty paces--a sufficient
distance to be quite beyond the light of the fire and
torches--and then Leo came up with it, or, rather,
with Ustane.
"O my lord," I heard her whisper, "so I have found
thee! Listen, I am in peril of my life from _i_ She
_i_ -who-must-be-obeyed.' Surely the Baboon has told
thee how she drove me from thee? I love thee, my lord,
and thou art mine according to the custom of the
country. I saved thy life! My Lion, wilt thou cast me
off now?"
"Of course not," ejaculated Leo; "I have been
wondering whither thou hadst gone. Let us go and
explain matters to the queen."
"Nay, nay; she would slay us. Thou knowest not her
power--the Baboon there, he knoweth, for he saw. Nay;
there is but one way: if thou wilt cleave to me, thou
must flee with me across the marshes even now, and
then perchance we may escape."
"For Heaven's sake, Leo," I began, but she broke in--
"Nay, listen not to him. Swift--be swift--death is in
the air we breathe. Even now, mayhap, _i_ She _i_
heareth us," and without more ado she proceeded to
back her arguments by throwing herself into his arms.
As she did so the leopard's head slipped from her
hair, and I saw the three white finger-marks upon it
gleaming faintly in the starlight. Once more realizing
the desperate nature of the position, I was about to
interpose, for I knew that Leo was not too strong-
minded where women were concerned, when--oh! horror!--
I heard a little silvery laugh behind me. I turned
round, and there was _i_ She _i_ herself, and with her
Billali and two male mutes. I gasped and nearly sank
to the ground, for I knew that such a situation must
result in some dreadful tragedy, of which it seemed
exceedingly probable to me that I should be the first
victim.
As for Ustane, she untwined her arms and covered her
eyes with her hands, while Leo, not knowing the full
terror of the position, merely colored up, and looked
as foolish as a man caught in such a trap would
naturally do.
CHAPTER XX--
TRIUMPH
THEN followed a moment of the most painful silence
that I ever endured. It was broken by Ayesha, who
addressed herself to Leo.
"Nay, now my lord and guest," she said, in her softest
tones, which yet had the ring of steel about them,
"look not so bashful. Surely the sight was a pretty
one--the leopard and the lion!"
"Oh, hang it all!" said Leo, in English.
"And thou, Ustane," she went on, "surely I should have
passed thee by had not the light fallen on the white
across thy hair," and she pointed to the bright edge
of the rising moon which was now appearing above the
horizon. "Well! well! the dance is done--see, the
tapers have burned down, and all things end in silence
and in ashes. So thou thoughtest it a fit time for
love, Ustane, my servant--and I, dreaming not that I
could be disobeyed, thought thee already far away."
"Play not with me," moaned the wretched woman; "slay
me, and let be an end."
"Nay, why? It is not well to go so swift from the hot
lips of love down to the cold mouth of the grave," and
she made a motion to the mutes, who instantly stepped
up and caught the girl by either arm. With an oath Leo
sprang upon the nearest, and hurled him to the ground,
and then stood over him with his face set, and his
fist ready.
Again Ayesha laughed. "It was well thrown, my guest;
thou hast a strong arm for one who so late was sick.
But now out of thy courtesy I pray thee let that man
live and do my bidding. He shall not harm the girl;
the night air grows chill, and I would welcome her in
mine own place. Surely she whom thou dost favor shall
be favored of me also."
I took Leo by the arm, and pulled him from the
prostrate mute, and he, half bewildered, obeyed the
pressure. Then we all set out for the cave across the
plateau, where a pile of white human ashes was all
that remained of the fire that had lit the dancing,
for the dancers had vanished.
In due course we gained Ayesha's boudoir--all too soon
it seemed to me, having a sad presage of what was to
come lying heavy on my heart.
Ayesha seated herself upon her cushions, and, having
dismissed Job and Billali, by signs bade the mutes
tend the lamps and retire. all save one girl, who was
her favorite personal attendant. We three remained
standing, the unfortunate Ustane a little to the left
of the rest of us.
"Now, O Holly," Ayesha began, "how came it that thou,
who didst hear my words bidding this evil-doer"--and
she pointed to Ustane--"to go from hence-thou at whose
prayer I did weakly spare her life-how came it, I say,
that thou wast a sharer in what I saw to-night?
Answer, and for thine own sake, I say, speak all the
truth, for I am not minded to hear lies upon this
matter!"
"It was by accident, O queen," I answered. "I knew
naught of it."
"I do believe thee, O Holly," she answered, coolly,
"and well it is for thee that I do--then does the
whole guilt rest upon her."
"I do not find any guilt therein," broke in Leo. "She
is not another man's wife, and it appears that she has
married me according to the custom of this awful
place, so who is the worse? Any way, madam," he went
on, "whatever she has done I have done too, so if she
is to be punished let me be punished also; and I tell
thee," he went on, working himself up into a fury,
"that if thou biddest one of those deaf-and-dumb
villains to touch her again, I will tear him to
pieces!" And he looked as though he meant it.
Ayesha listened in icy silence, and made no remark.
When he had finished, however, she addressed Ustane.
"Hast thou aught to say, woman? Thou silly straw, thou
feather, who didst think to float towards thy
passion's petty ends, even against the great wind of
my will! Tell me, for I fain would understand. Why
didst thou this thing?"
And then I think I saw the most tremendous exhibition
of moral courage and intrepidity that it is possible
to conceive. For the poor, doomed girl, knowing what
she had to expect at the hands of her terrible queen,
knowing, too, from bitter experience how great was her
adversary's power, yet gathered herself together, and
out of the very depths of her despair drew materials
to defy her.
"I did it, O _i_ She _i_ ," she answered, drawing
herself up to the full of her stately height, and
throwing back the leopard skin from her head, "because
my love is stronger than the grave. I did it because
my life without this man whom my heart chose would be
but a living death. Therefore did I risk my life, and
now that I know that it is forfeit to thine anger, yet
am I glad that I did risk it, and pay it away in the
risking, ay, because he embraced me once, and told me
that he loved me yet."
Here Ayesha half rose from her couch, and then sank
down again.
"I have no magic," went on Ustane, her rich voice
ringing strong and full, "and I am not a queen, nor do
I live forever, but a woman's heart is heavy to sink
through waters, however deep, O queen! and a woman's
eyes are quick to see, even through thy veil, O queen!
"Listen: I know it; thou dost love this man thyself,
and therefore wouldst thou destroy me who stand across
thy path. Ay, I die--I die, and go into the darkness,
nor know I whither I go. But this I know. There is a
light shining in my breast, and by that light, as by a
lamp, I see the truth, and the future that I shall not
share unroll itself before me like a scroll. When
first I knew my lord," and she pointed to Leo, "I knew
also that death would be the bridal gift he gave me--
it rushed upon me of a sudden, but I turned not back,
being ready to pay the price, and, behold, death is
here! And now, even as I knew that, so do I, standing
on the steps of doom, know that thou shalt not reap
the profits of thy crime. Mine he is, and, though thy
beauty shine like a sun among the stars, mine shall he
remain for thee. Never here in this life shall he look
thee in the eyes and call thee spouse. Thou too art
doomed, I see--" and her voice rang like the cry of an
inspired prophetess; "ah, I see--"
Then came an answering cry of mingled rage and terror.
I turned my head. Ayesha had risen, and was standing
with her outstretched hand pointing at Ustane, who had
suddenly stopped speaking. I gazed at the poor woman,
and as I gazed there came upon her face that same
woeful, fixed expression of terror that I had seen
once before when she had broken out into her wild
chant. Her eyes grew large, her nostrils dilated, and
her lips blanched.
Ayesha said nothing, she made no sound she only drew
herself up, stretched out her arm, and, her tall,
veiled frame quivering like an aspen leaf, appeared to
look fixedly at her victim. Even as she did so Ustane
put her hands to her head, uttered one piercing
scream, turned round twice, and then fell backward
with a thud--prone upon the floor. Both Leo and myself
rushed to her--she was stone dead--blasted into death
by some mysterious electric agency or overwhelming
will-force whereof the dread _i_ She _i_ had command.
For a moment Leo did not quite realize what had
happened. But when he did his face was awful to see.
With a savage oath he rose from beside the corpse and,
turning, literally sprang at Ayesha. But she was
watching, and, seeing him come, stretched out her hand
again, and he went staggering back towards me, and
would have fallen, had I not caught him. Afterwards he
told me that he felt as though he had suddenly
received a violent blow in the chest, and, what is
more, utterly cowed, as if all the manhood had been
taken out of him.
Then Ayesha spoke. "Forgive me, my guest," she said,
softly, addressing him, "if I have shocked thee with
my justice."
"Forgive thee, thou fiend!" roared poor Leo, wringing
his hands in his rage and grief. "Forgive thee, thou
murderess! By Heaven I will kill thee if I can! '
"Nay, nay," she answered, in the same soft voice,
"thou dost not understand--the time has come for thee
to learn. Thou art my love, my Kallikrates, my
Beautiful, my Strong! For two thousand years,
Kallikrates, have I waited for thee, and now at length
thou hast come back to me; and as for this woman,"
pointing to the corpse, "she stood between me and
thee, and therefore have I removed her, Kallikrates."
"It is an accursed lie!" said Leo. "My name is not
Kallikrates! I am Leo Vincey; my ancestor was
Kallikrates--at least, I believe he was."
"Ah, thou sayest it--thine ancestor was Kallikrates,
and thou, even thou, art Kallikrates reborn, come
back--and mine own dear lord!"
"I am not Kallikrates, and as for being thy lord, or
having aught to do with thee, I had sooner be the lord
of a fiend from hell, for she would be better than
thou."
"Sayest thou so--sayest thou so, Kallikrates? Nay, but
thou hast not seen me for so long a time that no
memory remains. Yet I am very fair, Kallikrates!"
"I hate thee, murderess, and I have no wish to see
thee. What is it to me how fair thou art? I hate thee,
I say."
"Yet within a very little space shalt thou creep to my
knee, and swear that thou dost love me," answered
Ayesha, with a sweet, mocking laugh. "Come, there is
no time like the present time; here, before this dead
girl who loved thee, let us put it to the proof.
"Look now on me, Kallikrates!" and with a sudden
motion she shook her gauzy covering from her, and
stood forth in her low kirtle and her snaky zone, in
her glorious, radiant beauty and her imperial grace,
rising from her wrappings, as it were, like Venus from
the wave, or Galatea from her marble, or a beatified
spirit from the tomb, _i_ She _i_ stood forth, and
fixed her deep and glowing eyes upon Leo's eyes, and I
saw his clenched fists unclasp, and his set and
quivering features relax beneath her gaze. I saw his
wonder and astonishment grow into admiration, and then
into fascination, and the more he struggled the more I
saw the power of her dread beauty fasten on him and
take possession of his senses, drugging them, and
drawing the hear out of him. Did I not know the
process? Had not I, who was twice his age, gone
through it myself? Was I not going through it afresh
even then, although her sweet and passionate gaze was
not for me? Yes, alas, I was! Alas, that I should have
to confess that at that very moment I was rent by mad
and furious jealousy. I could have flown at him, shame
upon me! The woman had confounded and almost destroyed
my moral sense, as she was bound to confound all who
looked upon her superhuman loveliness. But--I do not
quite know how I got the better of myself, and once
more turned to see the climax of the tragedy.
"Oh, great Heaven!" gasped Leo, "art thou a woman?"
"A woman in truth--in very truth-and thine own spouse,
Kallikrates!" she answered, stretching out her rounded
ivory arms towards him, and smiling, ah, so sweetly!
He looked and looked, and slowly I perceived that he
was drawing nearer to her. Suddenly his eye fell upon
the corpse of poor Ustane, and he shuddered and
stopped.
"How can I?" he said, hoarsely. "Thou art a murderess;
she loved me."
Observe, he was already forgetting that he had loved
her.
"It is naught," she murmured, and her voice sounded
sweet as the night wind passing through the trees. "It
is naught at all. If I have sinned, let my beauty
answer for my sin. If I have sinned, it is for love of
thee; let my sin, therefore, be put away and
forgotten;" and once more she stretched out her arms
and whispered "Come," and then in another few seconds
it was over. I saw him struggle--I saw him even turn
to fly; but her eyes drew him more strongly than iron
bonds, and the magic of her beauty and concentrated
will and passion entered into him and overpowered him-
-ay, even there, in the presence of the body of the
woman who had loved him well enough to die for him. It
sounds horrible and wicked enough, but he cannot be
blamed too much, and be sure his sin will find him
out. The temptress who drew him into evil was more
than human, and her beauty was greater than the
loveliness of the daughters of men.
I looked up again, and now her perfect form lay in his
arms, and her lips were pressed against his own; and
thus, with the corpse of his dead love for an altar,
did Leo Vincey plight his troth to her red-handed
murderess--plight it forever and a day. For those who
sell themselves into a like dominion, paying down the
price of their own honor, and throwing their soul into
the balance to sink the scale to the level of their
lusts, can hope for no deliverance here or hereafter.
As they have sown, so shall they reap and reap, even
when the poppy flowers of passion have withered in
their hands, and their harvest is but bitter tares,
garnered in satiety.
Suddenly, with a snakelike motion, she seemed to slip
from his embrace, and then again broke out into her
low laugh of triumphant mockery.
"Did I not tell thee that within a little space thou
wouldst creep to my knee, oh Kallikrates? And surely
the space has not been a great one!"
Leo groaned in shame and misery, for though he was
overcome and stricken down he was not so lost as to be
unaware of the depth of the degradation to which he
had sunk. On the contrary, his better nature rose up
in arms against his fallen self, as I saw clearly
enough later on.
Ayesha laughed again, and then quickly veiled herself,
and made a sign to the girl mute, who had been
watching the whole scene with curious, startled eyes.
The girl left, and presently returned, followed by two
male mutes, to whom the queen made another sign.
Thereon they all three seized the body of poor Ustane
by the arms, and dragged it heavily down the cavern
and away through the curtains at the end. Leo watched
it for a little while, and then covered his eyes with
his hand, and it too, to my excited fancy, seemed to
watch us as it went.
"There passes the dead past," said Ayesha, solemnly,
as the curtains shook and fell back into their places,
when the ghastly procession had vanished behind them.
And then, with one of those extraordinary transitions
of which I have already spoken, she again threw off
her veil, and broke out, after the ancient and poetic
fashion of the dwellers in Arabia, into a paean of
triumph, or epithalamium, which, wild and beautiful as
it was, is exceedingly difficult to render into
English, and ought by rights to be sung to the music
of a cantata, rather than written and read. It was
divided into two parts-one descriptive or definitive,
and the other personal; and, as nearly as I can
remember, ran as follows:
"Love is like a flower in the desert.
It is like the aloe of Arabia that blooms but once and
dies; it blooms in the salt emptiness of Life, and the
brightness of its beauty is set upon the waste as a
star is set upon a storm.
It hath the sun above that is the spirit, and above it
blows the air of its divinity.
At the echoing of a step, Love blooms, I say; I say
Love blooms, and bends her beauty down to him who
passeth by.
He plucketh it, yea, he plucketh the red cup that is
lull of honey, and beareth it away; away across the
desert, away till the flower be withered, away till
the desert be done.
There is only one perfect flower in the wilderness of
Life.
That flower is Love!
There is only one fixed star in the mists of our
wandering.
That star is Love!
There is only one hope in our despairing night.
That hope is Love!
All else is false. All else is shadow moving upon
water. All else is wind and vanity.
Who shall say what is the weight or the measure of
Love?
It is born of the flesh, it dwelleth in the spirit.
From each doth it draw its comfort.
For beauty it is as a star.
Many are its shapes, but all are beautiful, and none
know where the star rose, or the horizon where it
shall set."
Then, turning to Leo, and laying her hand upon his
shoulder, she went on in a fuller and more triumphant
tone, speaking in balanced sentences that gradually
grew and swelled from idealized prose into pure and
majestic verse:
"Long have I loved thee, O my love; yet has my love
not lessened.
Long have I waited for thee, and behold my reward is
at hand--is here!
Far away I saw thee once, and thou wast taken from me.
Then in a grave sowed I the seed of patience, and
shone upon it with the sun of hope, and watered it
with tears of repentance, and breathed on it with the
breath of my knowledge. And now lo! it hath sprung up,
and borne fruit. Lo! out of the grave hath it sprung.
Yea, from among the dry bones and ashes of the dead.
I have waited and my reward is with me.
I have overcome Death, and Death brought back to me
him that was dead.
Therefore do I rejoice, for fair is the future.
Green are the paths that we shall tread across the
everlasting meadows.
The hour is at hand. Night hath fled away into the
valleys.
The dawn kisseth the mountain-tops.
Soft shall we lie, my love, and easy shall we go.
Crowned shall we be with the diadem of Kings.
Worshipping and wonderstruck all peoples of the world,
Blinded, shall fall before our beauty and our might.
From time unto times shall our greatness thunder on,
Rolling like a chariot through the dust of endless
days.
Laughing shall we speed in our victory and pomp,
Laughing like the Daylight as he leaps along the
hills.
Onward, still triumphant to a triumph ever new!
Onward, in our power to a power unattained!
Onward, never weary, clad with splendor for a robe!
Till accomplished be our late, and the night is
rushing down."
_i_ She _i_ paused in her strange and most thrilling
allegorical chant, of which I am, unfortunately, only
able to give the burden, and that feebly enough, and
then said,
"Perchance thou dost not believe my word, Kallikrates-
-perchance thou thinkest that I do delude thee, and
that I have not lived these many years, and that thou
hast not been born again to me. Nay, look not so--put
away that pale cast of doubt, for oh, be sure herein
can error find no foothold! Sooner shall the suns
forget their course and the swallow miss her nest,
than my soul shall swear a lie and be led astray from
thee, Kallikrates. Blind me, take away mine eyes, and
let the darkness utterly fence me in, and still mine
ears would catch the tone of thine unforgotten voice,
striking more loud against the portals of my sense
than can the call of brazen-throated clarions--stop up
mine hearing also, and let a thousand touch me on the
brow, and I would name thee out of all--yea, rob me of
every sense, and see me stand deaf and blind and dumb,
and with nerves that cannot weigh the value of a
touch, yet would my spirit leap within me like a
quickening child and cry unto my heart, behold
Kallikrates! behold, thou watcher, the watches of thy
night are ended! behold, thou who seekest in the night
season, thy morning Star ariseth."
_i_ She _i_ paused awhile and then continued,
"But stay, if thy heart is yet hardened against the
mighty truth and thou dost require a further pledge of
that which thou dost find too deep to understand,
even: now shall it be given to thee, and to thee also,
O my Holly. Bear each one of you a lamp, and follow
after me whither I shall lead you."
Without stopping to think--indeed, speaking for
myself, I had almost abandoned the function in
circumstances under which to think seemed to be
absolutely useless, since thought fell, hourly,
helpless against a black wall of wonder--we took the
lamps and followed her. Going to the end of her
"boudoir," she raised a curtain and revealed a little
stair of the sort that was so common in these dim
caves of Ko^r. As we hurried down the stair I observed
that the steps were worn in the centre to such an
extent that some of them had been reduced from seven
and a half inches, at which I guessed their original
height, to about three and a halt. Now, all the other
steps that I had seen in the caves had been
practically unworn, as was to be expected, seeing that
the only traffic which ever passed upon them was that
of those who bore a fresh burden to the tomb.
Therefore this fact struck my notice with that curious
force with which little things do strike us when our
minds are absolutely overwhelmed by a sudden rush of
powerful sensations; beaten flat, as it were, like a
sea beneath the first burst of a hurricane, so that
every little object on the surface starts into an
unnatural prominence.
At the bottom of the staircase I stood and stared at
the worn steps, and Ayesha, turning, saw me.
"Wonders thou whose are the feet that have worn away
the rock, my Holly?" she asked. "They are mine--even
mine own light feet! I can remember when these stairs
were fresh and level, but for two thousand years and
more have I gone down hither day by day, and see, my
sandals have worn out the solid rock!"
I made no answer, but I do not think that anything
that I had heard or seen brought home to my limited
understanding so clear a sense of this being's
overwhelming antiquity as that hard rock hollowed out
by her soft, white feet. How many millions of times
must she have passed up and down that stair to bring
about such a result?
The stair led to a tunnel, and a few paces down the
tunnel was one of the usual curtain-hung doorways, a
glance at which told me that it was the same where I
had been a witness of that terrible scene by the
leaping flame. I recognized the pattern of the
curtain, and the sight of it brought the whole event
vividly before my eyes, and made me tremble even at
its memory. Ayesha entered the tomb (for it was a
tomb), and we followed her--I, for one, rejoicing that
the mystery of the place was about to be cleared up,
and yet afraid to face its solution.
CHAPTER XXI--
THE DEAD AND LIVING MEET
"SEE now the place where I have slept for these two
thousand years," said Ayesha, taking the lamp from
Leo's hand and holding it above her head. Its rays
fell upon a little hollow in the floor, where I had
seen the leaping flame, but the fire was out now. They
fell upon the white form stretched there beneath its
wrappings upon its bed of stone, upon the fretted
carving of the tomb, and upon another shelf of stone
opposite the one on which the body lay, and separated
from it by the breadth of the cave.
"Here," went on Ayesha, laying her hand upon the rock-
-"here have I slept night by night for all these
generations, with but a cloak to cover me. It did not
become me that I should lie soft when my spouse
yonder," and she pointed to the rigid form, "lay stiff
in death. Here night by night have I slept in his cold
company--till, thou seest, this thick slab, like the
stairs down which we passed, has worn thin with the
tossing of my form--so faithful have I been to thee
even in thy space of sleep, Kallikrates. And now, mine
own, thou shalt see a wonderful thing--living, thou
shalt behold thyself dead--for well have I tended thee
during all these years, Kallikrates. Art thou
prepared?"
We made no answer, but gazed at each other with
frightened eyes, the whole scene was so dreadful and
so solemn. Ayesha advanced, and laid her hand upon the
corner of the shroud, and once more spoke.
"Be not affrighted," she said; "though the thing seem
wonderful to thee--all we who live have thus lived
before; nor is the very shape that holds us a stranger
to the sun! Only we know it not, because memory writes
no record, and earth hath gathered in the earth she
lent us, for none have saved our glory from the grave.
But I, by my arts and by the arts of those dead men of
Ko^r which I have learned, have held thee back, O
Kallikrates, from the dust, that the waxen stamp of
beauty on thy face should ever rest before mine eye.
'Twas a mask that memory might fill, serving to
fashion out thy presence from the past, and give it
strength to wander in the habitations of my thought,
clad in a mummery of life that stayed my appetite with
visions of dead days.
"Behold now, let the Dead and Living meet! Across the
gulf of Time they still are one. Time hath no power
against identity, though sleep the merciful hath
blotted out the tablets of our mind, and with oblivion
sealed the sorrows that else would hound us from life
to life, stuffing the brain with gathered griefs till
it burst in the madness of uttermost despair. Still
are they one, for the wrappings of our sleep shall
roll away as thunder-clouds before the wind; the
frozen voices of the past shall melt in music like
mountain snows beneath the sun; and the weeping and
the laughter of the lost hours shall be heard once
more most sweetly echoing up the cliffs of
immeasurable time.
"Ay, the sleep shall roll away, and the voices shall
be heard, when down the completed chain, whereof our
each existence is a link, the lightning of the Spirit
hath passed to work out the purpose of our being;
quickening and fusing those separated days of life,
and shaping them to a staff whereon we may safely lean
as we wend to our appointed fate.
"Therefore, have no fear, Kallikrates, when thou--
living, and but lately born--shalt look upon thine own
departed self, who breathed and died so long ago. I do
but turn one page in thy Book of Being, and show thee
what is writ thereon.
" _i_ Behold _i_ "
With a sudden motion she drew the shroud from the cold
form, and let the lamplight play upon it. I looked,
and then shrank back terrified; since, say what she
might in explanation, the sight was an uncanny one--
for her explanations were beyond the grasp of our
finite minds, and when they were stripped from the
mists of vague esoteric philosophy, and brought into
conflict with the cold and horrifying fact, did not do
much to break its force. For there, stretched upon the
stone bier before us, robed in white and perfectly
preserved, was what appeared to be the body of Leo
Vincey. I stared from Leo, standing there alive, to
Leo lying there dead, and could see no difference;
except, perhaps, that the body on the bier looked
older. Feature for feature they were the same, even
down to the crop of little golden curls, which was
Leo's most uncommon beauty. It even seemed to me, as I
looked, that the expression on the dead man's face
resembled that which I had sometimes seen upon Leo's
when he was plunged into profound sleep. I can only
sum up the closeness of the resemblance by saying that
I never saw twins so exactly similar as that dead and
living pair.
I turned to see what effect was produced upon Leo by
this sight of his dead self, and found it to be one of
partial stupefaction. He stood for two or three
minutes staring and said nothing, and when at last he
spoke it was only to ejaculate--
"Cover it up and take me away."
"Nay, wait, Kallikrates," said Ayesha, who, standing
with the lamp raised above her head, flooding with its
light her own rich beauty and the cold wonder of the
death-clothed form upon the bier, resembled an
inspired Sibyl rather than a woman, as she rolled out
her majestic sentences with a grandeur and a freedom
of utterance which I am, alas! quite unable to
reproduce.
"Wait; I would show thee something, that no tittle of
my crime may. be hidden from thee. Do thou, O Holly,
open the garment on the breast of the dead
Kallikrates, for perchance my lord may fear to touch
himself."
I obeyed with trembling hands. It seemed a desecration
and an unhallowed thing to touch that sleeping image
of the live man by my side. Presently his broad chest
was bare, and there upon it, right over the heart, was
a wound, evidently inflicted with a spear.
"Thou seest, Kallikrates," she said. "Know then that
it was I who slew thee; in the Place of Life I gave
thee death. I slew thee because of the Egyptian
Amenartas, whom thou didst love, for by her wiles she
held thy heart, and her I could not smite as but now I
smote the woman, for she was too strong for me. In my
haste and bitter anger I slew thee, and now for all
these days have I lamented thee, and waited for thy
coming. And thou hast come, and none can stand between
thee and me, and of a truth now for death I will give
thee life--not life eternal, for that none can give,
but life and youth that shall endure for thousands
upon thousands of years, and with it pomp and power
and wealth, and all things that are good and
beautiful, such as have been to no man before thee,
nor shall be to any man who comes after. And now one
thing more, and thou shalt rest and make ready for the
day of thy new birth. Thou seest this body, which was
thine own. For all these centuries it hath been my
cold comfort and my companion, but now I need it no
more, for I have thy living presence, and it can but
serve to stir up memories of that which I would fain
forget. Let it therefore go back to the dust from
which I held it.
"Behold! I have prepared against this happy hour!" and
going to the other shelf or stone ledge, which, she
said, had served her for a bed, she took from it a
large vitrified double-handed vase, the mouth of which
was tied up with a bladder. This she loosed, and then,
having bent down and gently kissed the white forehead
of the dead man, she undid the vase, and sprinkled its
contents carefully over the form, taking, I observed,
the greatest precautions against any drop of it
touching us or herself, and then poured out what
remained of the liquid upon the chest and head.
Instantly a dense vapor arose, and the cave was filled
with choking fumes that prevented us from seeing
anything while the deadly acid (for I presume it was
some tremendous preparation of that sort) did its
work. From the spot where the body lay came a fierce
fizzing and cracking sound, which ceased, however,
before the fumes had cleared away. At last they were
all gone, except a little cloud that still hung over
the corpse. In a couple of minutes more this too had
vanished, and, wonderful as it may seem, it is a fact
that on the stone bench that had supported the mortal
remains of the ancient Kallikrates for so many
centuries there was now nothing to be seen but a few
handfuls of smoking white powder. The acid had utterly
destroyed the body, and even in places eaten into the
stone. Ayesha stooped down, and, taking a handful of
this powder in her grasp, threw it into the air,
saying at the same time, in a voice of calm solemnity-
-
"Dust to dust! the past to the past! the dead to the
dead! Kallikrates is dead, and is born again!"
The ashes floated noiselessly to the rocky floor, and
we stood in awed silence and watched them fall, too
overcome for words.
"Now leave me," she said, "and sleep if ye may. I must
watch and think, for to-morrow night we go hence, and
the time is long since I trod the path that we must
follow."
Accordingly we bowed, and left her. As we passed to
our own apartment I peeped into Job's sleeping-place
to see how he fared, for he had gone away just before
our interview with the murdered Ustane, quite
prostrated by the terrors of the Amahagger festivity.
He as sleeping soundly, good honest fellow that he
was, and I rejoiced to think that his nerves, which,
like those of most uneducated people, were far from
strong, had been spared the closing scenes of this
dreadful day. Then. we entered our own chamber, and
here at last poor Leo, who, ever since he had looked
upon that frozen image of his living self, had been in
a state not far removed from stupefaction, burst out
into a torrent of grief. Now that he was no longer in
the presence of the dread _i_ She _i_ , his sense of
the awfulness of all that had happened, and more
especially of the wicked murder of Ustane, who was
bound to him by ties so close, broke upon him like a
storm, and lashed him into an agony of remorse and
terror which was painful to witness. He cursed
himself--he cursed the hour when we had first seen the
writing on the sherd, which was being so mysteriously
verified, and bitterly he cursed his own weakness.
Ayesha he dared not curse--who dared speak evil of
such a woman, whose consciousness, for aught we knew,
was watching us at the very moment?
"What am I to do, old fellow?" he groaned, resting his
head against my shoulder in the extremity of his
grief. "I let her be killed--not that I could help
that, but within five minutes I was kissing her
murderess over her body. I am a degraded brute, but I
cannot resist that" (and here his voice sank)--"that
awful sorceress. I know I shall do it again to-morrow;
I know that I am in her power for always; if I never
saw her again I should never think of anybody else
during all my life; I must follow her as a needle
follows a magnet; I would not go away now if I could;
I could not leave her, my legs would not carry me, but
my mind is still clear enough, and in my mind I hate
her--at least, I think so. It is all so horrible; and
that--that body! What can I make of it? It was me! I
am sold into bondage, old fellow, and she will take my
soul as the price of herself."
Then, for the first time, I told him that I was in a
but very little better position; and I am bound to say
that, notwithstanding his own infatuation, he had the
decency to sympathize with me. Perhaps he did not
think it worth while being jealous, realizing that he
had no cause so far as the lady was concerned. I went
on to suggest that we should try to run away, but we
soon rejected the project as futile, and, to be
perfectly honest, I do not believe that either of us
would really have left Ayesha even if some superior
power had suddenly offered to convey us from these
gloomy caves and set us down in Cambridge. We could no
more have left her than a moth can leave the light
that destroys it. We were like confirmed opium eaters;
in our moments of reason we well knew the deadly
nature of our pursuit, but we certainly were not
prepared to abandon its terrible delights.
No man who once had seen _i_ She _i_ unveiled, and
heard the music of her voice, and drunk in the bitter
wisdom of her words, would willingly give up the sight
for a whole sea of placid joys. How much more then was
this likely to be so when, as in Leo's case, to put
myself out of the question, this extraordinary
creature declared her utter and absolute devotion, and
gave what appeared to be proofs of its having lasted
for some two thousand years?
No doubt she was a wicked person, and no doubt she had
murdered Ustane when she stood in her path, but then
she was very faithful, and by a law of nature man is
apt to think but lightly of a woman's crimes,
especially if that woman be beautiful, and the crime
be committed for the love of him.
And then for the rest, when had such a chance ever
come to a man before as that which now lay in Leo's
hand? True, in uniting himself to this dread woman, he
would place his life under the influence of a
mysterious creature of evil tendencies, but then that
would be likely enough to happen to him in any
ordinary marriage. On the other hand, however, no
ordinary marriage could bring him such awful beauty--
for awful is the only word that can describe it--such
divine devotion, such wisdom, and command over the
secrets of nature, and the place and power that they
must win, or, lastly, the royal crown of unending
youth, if indeed she could give that. No, on the
whole, it is not wonderful that though Leo was plunged
in bitter shame and grief, such as any gentleman would
have felt under the circumstances, he was not ready to
entertain the idea of running away from his
extraordinary fortune.
My own opinion is that he would have been mad if he
had done so. But then I confess that my statement on
the matter must be accepted with qualifications. I am
in love with Ayesha myself to this day, and I would
rather have been the object of her affection for one
short week than that of any other woman in the world
for a whole lifetime. And let me add that if anybody
who doubts this statement, and thinks me foolish for
making it, could have seen Ayesha draw her veil and
flash out in beauty on his gaze, his view would
exactly coincide with my own. Of course I am speaking
of any man. We never had the advantage of a lady's
opinion of Ayesha, but I think it quite possible that
she would have regarded the queen with dislike, would
have expressed her disapproval in some more or less
pointed manner, and ultimately have got herself
blasted.
For two hours or more Leo and I sat with shaken nerves
and frightened eyes, and talked over the miraculous
events through which we were passing. It seemed like a
dream or a fairy tale, instead of the solemn, sober
fact. Who would have believed that the writing on the
potsherd was not only true, but that we should live to
verify its truth, and that we two seekers should find
her who was sought, patiently awaiting our coming in
the tombs of Ko^r? Who would have thought that in the
person of Leo this mysterious woman should, as she
believed, discover the being whom she awaited from
century to century, and whose former earthly
habitation she had till this very night preserved? But
so it was. In the face of all we had seen it was
difficult for us as ordinary reasoning men any longer
to doubt its truth, and therefore at last, with humble
hearts and a deep sense of the impotence of human
knowledge, and the insolence of its assumption that
denies that which it has no experience of to be
possible, we laid ourselves down to sleep, leaving our
fates in the hands of that watching Providence which
had thus chosen to allow us to draw the veil of human
ignorance, and reveal to us for good or evil some
glimpse of the possibilities of life.
CHAPTER XXII--
JOB HAS A PRESENTIMENT
IT was nine o'clock on the following morning when Job,
who still looked scared and frightened, came in to
call me, and at the same time breathe his gratitude at
finding us alive in our beds, which it appeared was
more than he had expected. When I told him of the
awful end of poor Ustane he was even more grateful at
our survival, and much shocked, though Ustane had been
no favorite of his, or he of hers, for the matter of
that. She called him "pig" in bastard Arabic, and he
called her "hussy" in good English, but these
amenities were forgotten in the face of the
catastrophe that had overwhelmed her at the hands of
her queen.
"I don't want to say anything as mayn't be agreeable,
sir," said Job, when he had finished exclaiming at my
tale, "but it's my opinion that that there _i_ She _i_
is the old gentleman himself, or perhaps his wife, if
he has one, which I suppose he has, for he couldn't be
so wicked all by himself. The Witch of Endor was a
fool to her, sir; bless you, she would make no more of
raising every gentleman in the Bible out of these here
beastly tombs than I should of growing cress on an old
flannel. It's a country of devils, this is, sir, and
she's the master one of the lot; and if ever we get
out of it it will be more than I expect to do. I don't
see no way out of it. That witch isn't likely to let a
fine young man like Mr. Leo go."
"Come," I said, "at any rate she saved his life."'
"Yes, and she'll take his soul to pay for it. _i_ She
_i_ 'll make him a witch, like herself. I say it's
wicked to have anything to do with those sort of
people. Last night, sir, I lay awake and read in my
little Bible that my poor old mother gave me about
what is going to happen to sorceresses and them sort
till my hair stood on end. Lord, how the old lady
would stare if she saw where her Job had got to!"
"Yes, it's a queer country, and a queer people too,
Job," I answered, with a sigh, for, though I am not
superstitious like Job, I admit to a natural shrinking
(which will not bear investigation) from the things
that are above Nature.
"You are right, sir," he answered, "and if you won't
think me very foolish, I should like to say something
to you now that Mr. Leo is out of the way"--(Leo had
got up early and gone for a stroll)--"and that is that
I know it is the last country as ever I shall see in
this world. I had a dream last night, and I dreamed
that I saw my old father with a kind of night-shirt on
him, something like these folks wear when they want to
be in particular full-dress, and a bit of that
feathery grass in his hand, which he may have gathered
on the way, for I saw lots of it yesterday about three
hundred yards from the mouth of this beastly cave.
"'Job,' he said to me, solemn-like, and yet with a
kind of satisfaction shining through him, more like a
Methody parson when he has sold a neighbor a marked
horse for a sound one and cleared twenty pounds by the
job than anything I can think on--'Job, time's up,
Job; but I never did expect to have to come and hunt
you out in this 'ere place, Job. Such ado as I have
had to nose you up; it wasn't friendly to give your
poor old father such a run, let alone that a wonderful
lot of bad characters hail from this place Ko^r.'"
"Regular cautions," I suggested.
"Yes, sir--of course, sir, that's just what he said
they was--'cautions, downright scorchers'--sir, and
I'm sure I don't doubt it, seeing what I know of them
and their hot-potting ways," went on Job, sadly.
"Anyway, he was sure that time was up, and went away
saying that we should see more than we cared for of
each other soon, and I suppose he was a-thinking of
the fact that father and I never could hit it off
together for longer nor three days, and I dare say
that things will be similar when we meet again."
"Surely," I said, "you don't think that you are going
to die because you dreamed you saw your old father; if
one dies because one dreams of one's father, what
happens to a man who dreams of his mother-in-law?"
"Ah, sir, you're laughing at me," said Job; "but, you
see, you didn't know my old father. If it had been
anybody else--my Aunt Mary, for instance, who never
made much of a job--I should not have thought so much
of it; but my father was that idle, which he shouldn't
have been with seventeen children, that he would never
have put himself out to come here just to see the
place. No, sir; I know that he meant business. Well,
sir, I can't help it; I suppose every man must go some
time or other, though it is a hard thing to die in a
place like this, where Christian burial isn't to be
had for its weight in gold. I've tried to be a good
man, sir, and do my duty honest, and if it wasn't for
the supercilus kind of way in which father carried on
last night--a sort of sniffing at me, as it were, as
though he hadn't no opinion of my references and
testimonials--I should feel easy enough in my mind.
Any way, sir, I've been a good servant to you and Mr.
Leo, bless him! Why, it seems but the other day that I
used to lead him about the streets with a penny whip;
and if ever you get out of this place--which, as
father didn't allude to you, perhaps you may--I hope
you will think kindly of my whitened bones, and never
have anything more to do with Greek writing on flower-
pots, sir, if I may make so bold as to say so."
"Come, come, Job," I said, seriously, "this is all
nonsense, you know. You mustn't be silly enough to go
getting such ideas into your head. We've lived through
some queer things, and I hope that we may go on doing
so."
"No, sir," answered Job, in a tone of conviction that
jarred on me unpleasantly, "it isn't nonsense. I'm a
doomed man, and I feel it, and a wonderful
uncomfortable feeling it is, sir, for one can't help
wondering how it's going to come about. If you are
eating your dinner you think of poison and it goes
against your stomach, and if you are walking along
these dark rabbit burrows you think of knives, and
Lord, don't you just shiver about the back! I ain't
particular, sir, provided it's sharp, like that poor
girl, who, now that she's gone, I am sorry to have
spoke hard on, though I don't approve of her morals in
getting married, which I consider too quick to be
decent. Still, sir," and poor Job turned a shade paler
as he said it, "I do hope it won't be that hot-pot
game."
"Nonsense," I broke in, angrily, "nonsense."
"Very well, sir," said Job, "it isn't my place to
differ from you, sir, but if you happen to be going
anywhere, sir, I should be obliged if you could manage
to take me with you, seeing that I shall be glad to
have a friendly face to look at when the time comes,
just to help one through, as it were. And now, sir,
I'll be getting the breakfast," and he went, leaving
me in a very uncomfortable state of mind. I was deeply
attached to old Job, who was one of the best and
honestest men I have ever had to do with in any class
of life, and really more of a friend than a servant,
and the mere idea of anything happening to him brought
a lump into my throat. Beneath all his ludicrous talk
I could see that he himself was quite convinced that
something was going to happen, and though in most
cases these convictions turn out to be utter
moonshine--and this particular one especially was to
be amply accounted for by the gloomy and unaccustomed
surroundings in which its victim was placed--still it
did more or less carry a chill to my heart, as any
dread that is obviously a genuine object of belief is
apt to do, however absurd the belief may be. Presently
the breakfast arrived, and with it Leo, who had been
taking a walk outside the cave--to clear his mind, he
said--and very glad I was to see both, for they gave
me a respite from my gloomy thoughts. After breakfast
we went for another walk, and watched some of the
Amahagger sowing a plot of ground with the grain from
which they make their beer. This they did in
scriptural fashion--a man with a bag made of goat's-
hide fastened round his waist walking up and down the
plot and scattering the seed as he went. It was a
positive relief to see one of these dreadful people do
anything so homely and pleasant as sow a field,
perhaps because it seemed to link them, as it were,
with the rest of humanity.
As we were returning Billali met us, and informed us
that it was _i_ She _i_ 's pleasure that we should
wait upon her, and accordingly we entered her
presence, not without trepidation, for Ayesha was
certainly an exception to the rule. Familiarity with
her might and did breed passion and wonder and horror,
but it certainly did not breed contempt.
We were as usual shown in by the mutes, and after
these had retired Ayesha unveiled, and once more bade
Leo embrace her, which, notwithstanding his heart-
searchings of the previous night, he did with more
alacrity and fervor than strict courtesy required.
_i_ She _i_ laid her white hand on his head, and
looked him fondly in the eyes. "Dost thou wonder, my
Kallikrates," she said, "when thou shalt call me all
thine own, and when we shall of a truth be for one
another and to one another? I will tell thee. First,
must thou be even as I am, not immortal indeed, for
that I am not, but so cased and hardened against the
attacks of Time that his arrows shall glance from the
armor of thy vigorous life as the sunbeams glance from
water. As yet I may not mate with thee, for thou and I
are different, and the very brightness of my being
would burn thee up, and perchance destroy thee. Thou
couldst not even endure to look upon me for too long a
time lest thine eyes should ache; and thy senses swim,
and therefore (with a little coquettish nod) shall I
presently veil myself again." (This, by the way, she
did not do.) "No: listen, thou shalt not be tried
beyond endurance, for this very evening, an hour
before the sun goes down, shall we start hence, and by
to-morrow's dark, if all goes well, and the road is
not lost to me, which I pray it may not be, shall we
stand in the Place of Life, and thou shalt bathe in
the fire, and come forth glorified, as no man ever was
before thee, and then, Kallikrates, shalt thou call me
wife, and I will call thee husband."
Leo muttered something in answer to this astonishing
statement, I do not know what, and she laughed a
little at his confusion, and went on.
"And thou, too, O Holly; on thee also will I confer
this boon, and then of a truth shalt thou be an
evergreen tree, and this will I do--well, because thou
hast pleased me, Holly, for thou art not altogether a
fool, like most of the sons of men, and because,
though thou hast a school of philosophy as full of
nonsense as those of the old days, yet hast thou not
forgotten how to turn a pretty phrase about a lady's
eyes."
"Hullo, old fellow!" whispered Leo, with a return of
his old cheerfulness, "have you been paying
compliments? I should never have thought it of you!"
"I thank thee, O Ayesha," I replied, with as much
dignity as I could command, "but if there be such a
place as thou dost describe, and if in this strange
place there may be found a fiery virtue that can hold
off Death when he comes to pluck us by the hand, yet
would I none of it. For me, O Ayesha, the world has
not proved so soft a nest that I would lie in it
forever. A stony-hearted mother is our earth, and
stones are the bread she gives her children for their
daily food. Stones to eat and bitter water for their
thirst, and stripes for tender nurture. Who would
endure this for many lives? Who would so load up his
back with memories of lost hours and loves, and of his
neighbor's sorrows that he cannot lessen, and wisdom
that brings not consolation? Hard is it to die,
because our delicate flesh doth shrink back from the
worm it will not feel, and from that unknown which the
winding-sheet doth curtain from our view. But harder
still, to my fancy, would it be to live on, green in
the leaf and fair, but dead and rotten at the core,
and feel that other secret worm of recollection
gnawing ever at the heart."
"Bethink thee, Holly," she said; "yet doth long life
and strength and beauty beyond measure mean power and
all things that are dear to man."
"And what O queen," I answered, "are those things that
are dear to man? Are they not bubbles? Is not ambition
but an endless ladder by which no height is ever
climbed till the last unreachable rung is mounted? For
height leads on to height, and there is no resting-
place upon them, and rung doth grow upon rung, and
there is no limit to the number. Doth not wealth
satiate and become nauseous, and no longer serve to
satisfy or pleasure, or to buy an hour's ease of mind?
And is there any end to wisdom that we may hope to
reach it? Rather, the more we learn shall we not
thereby be able only to better compass out our
ignorance? Did we live ten thousand years could we
hope to solve the secrets of the suns, and of the
space beyond the suns, and of the Hand that hung them
in the heavens? Would not our wisdom be but as a
gnawing hunger calling our consciousness day by day to
a knowledge. of the empty craving of our souls? Would
it not be but as a light in one of these great
caverns, that though bright it burn, and brighter yet,
doth but the more serve to show the depths of the
gloom around it? And what good thing is there beyond
that we may gain by length of days?"
"Nay, my Holly, there is love--love which makes all
things beautiful, and doth breathe divinity into the
very dust we tread. With love shall life roll
gloriously on from year to year, like the voice of
some great music that hath power to hold the hearer's
heart poised on eagle's wings above the sordid shame
and folly of the earth."
"It may be so," I answered; "but if the loved one
prove a broken reed to pierce us, or if the love be
loved in vain--what then? Shall a man grave his
sorrows upon a stone when he hath but need to write
them on the water? Nay, O _i_ She _i_ , I will live my
day and grow old with my generation, and die my
appointed death, and be forgotten. For I do hope for
an immortality to which the little span that perchance
thou canst confer will be but as a finger's length
laid against the measure of the great world; and, mark
this! the immortality to which I look, and which my
faith doth promise to me, shall be free from the bonds
that here must tie my spirit down. For, while the
flesh endures, sorrow and evil and the scorpion whips
of sin must endure also; but when the flesh hath
fallen from us, then shall the spirit shine forth clad
in the brightness of eternal good, and for its common
air shall breathe so rare an ether of most noble
thoughts that the highest aspiration of our manhood,
or the purest incense of a maiden's prayer, would
prove too earthly gross to float therein."
"Thou lookest high," answered Ayesha, with a little
laugh, "and speakest clearly as a trumpet and with no
uncertain sound. And yet methinks that but now didst
thou talk of that Unknown from which the winding-sheet
doth curtain us. But perchance thou seest with the
eye, of Faith, gazing on this brightness that is to
be, through the painted glass of thy imagination.
Strange are the pictures of the future that mankind
can thus draw with this brush of faith and this many-
colored pigment of imagination! Strange, too, that no
one of them doth agree with another! I could tell
thee--but there, what is the use? why rob a fool of
his bauble? Let it pass, and I pray, O Holly, that
when thou dost feel old age creeping slowly towards
thyself, and the confusion of senility making havoc in
thy brain, thou mayest not bitterly regret that thou
didst cast away the imperial boon I would have given
to thee. But so it hath ever been; man can never be
content with that which his hand can pluck. If a lamp
be in his reach to light him through the darkness, he
must needs cast it down because it is no star.
Happiness danceth ever a pace before him, like the
marsh-fires in the swamps, and he must catch the fire,
and he must hold the star! Beauty is naught to him,
because there are lips more honey-sweet; and wealth is
naught, because others can weigh him down with heavier
shekels; and fame is naught, because there have been
greater men than he. Thyself thou saidst it, and I
turn thy words against thee. Well, thou dreamest that
thou shalt pluck the star. I believe it not, and I
think thee a fool, my Holly, to throw away the lamp."
I made no answer, for I could not--especially before
Leo--tell her that since I had seen her face I knew
that it would always be before my eyes, and that I had
no wish to prolong an existence which must always be
haunted and tortured by her memory, and by the last
bitterness of unsatisfied love. But so it was, and so,
alas, is it to this hour!
"And now," went on _i_ She _i_ , changing her tone and
the subject together, "tell me, my Kallikrates, for as
yet I know it not, how came ye to seek me here?
Yesternight thou didst say that Kallikrates--him whom
thou sawest--was thine ancestor. How was it? Tell me--
thou dost not speak overmuch!"
Thus adjured, Leo told her the wonderful story of the
casket and of the potsherd that, written on by his
ancestress, the Egyptian Amenartas, had been the means
of guiding us to her. Ayesha listened intently, and,
when he had finished; spoke to me.
"Did I not tell thee one day, when we did talk of good
and evil, O Holly--it was when my beloved lay so ill--
that out of good came evil, and out of evil good--that
they who sowed knew not what the crop should be, nor
he who struck where the blow should fall? See, now:
this Egyptian Amenartas, this royal child of the Nile
who hated me, and whom even now I hate, for in a way
she did prevail against me--see, now, she herself hath
been the very means to bring her lover to mine arms!
For her sake I slew him, and now, behold, through her
he hath come back to me! She would have done me evil,
and sowed her seeds that I might reap tares, and
behold she hath given me more than all the world can
give, and there is a strange square for thee to fit
into thy circle of good and evil, O Holly!
"And so," she went on, after a pause--"and so she bade
her son destroy me if he might, because I slew his
father. And thou, my Kallikrates, art the father, and
in a sense thou art likewise the son; and wouldst thou
avenge thy wrong, and the wrong of that far-off mother
of thine upon me, O Kallikrates? See," and she slid to
her knees, and drew the white corsage still farther
down her ivory bosom--"see, here beats my heart, and
there by thy side is a knife, heavy and long and
sharp, the very knife to slay an erring woman with.
Take it now, and be avenged. Strike, and strike home!-
-so shalt thou be satisfied, Kallikrates, and go
through life a happy man, because thou hast paid back
the wrong, and obeyed the mandate of the past."
He looked at her, and then stretched out his hand and
lifted her to her feet.
"Rise, Ayesha," he said, sadly; "well thou knowest
that I cannot strike thee, no, not even for the sake
of her whom thou slewest but last night. I am in thy
power, and a very slave to thee. How can I kill thee?-
-sooner should I slay myself."
"Almost dost thou begin to love me, Kallikrates," she
answered, smiling. "And now tell me of thy country--
'tis a great people, is it not? with an empire like
that of Rome! Surely thou wouldst return thither, and
it is well, for I mean not that thou shouldst dwell in
these caves of Ko^r. Nay, when once thou art even as I
am, we will go hence--fear not but that I shall find a
path--and then shall we cross to this England of
thine, and live as it becometh us to live. Two
thousand years have I waited for the day when I should
see the last of these hateful caves and this gloomy-
visaged folk, and now it is at hand, and my heart
bounds up to meet it like a child's towards its
holiday. For thou shalt rule this England--"
"But we have a queen already," broke in Leo, hastily.
"It is naught, it is naught," said Ayesha, "she can be
overthrown." At this we both broke out into an
exclamation of dismay, and explained that we should as
soon think of overthrowing ourselves.
"But here is a strange thing," said Ayesha, in
astonishment; "a queen whom her people love! Surely
the world must have changed since I dwelt in Ko^r."
Again we explained that it was the character of
monarchs that had changed, and that the one under whom
we lived was venerated and beloved by all right-
thinking people in her vast realms. Also, we told her
that real power in our country rested in the hands of
the people, and that we were in fact ruled by the
votes of the lower and least educated classes of the
community.
"Ah," she said, "a democracy--then surely there is a
tyrant, for I have long since seen that democracies,
having no clear will of their own, in the end set up a
tyrant, and worship him."
"Yes," I said, "we have our tyrants."
"Well," she answered, resignedly, "we can at any rate
destroy these tyrants, and Kallikrates shall rule the
land."
I instantly informed Ayesha that in England "blasting"
was not an amusement that could be indulged in with
impunity, and that any such attempt would meet with
the consideration of the law and probably end upon a
scaffold.
"The law," she laughed, with scorn-"the law! Canst
thou not understand, O Holly, that I am above the law,
and so shall my Kallikrates be also? All human law
will be to us as the north wind to a mountain. Does
the wind bend the mountain, or the mountain the wind?
"And now leave me, I pray thee, and thou too, my own
Kallikrates, for I would get me ready against our
journey, and so must ye both, and your servant also.
But bring no great quantity of things with. thee, for
I trust that we shall be but three days gone. Then
shall we return hither, and I will make a plan whereby
we can bid farewell forever to these sepulchres of
Ko^r. Yes, surely thou mayst kiss my hand!"
So we went, I, for one, meditating deeply on the awful
nature of the problem that now opened out before us.
The terrible _i_ She _i_ had evidently made up her
mind to go to England, and it made me absolutely
shudder to think what would be the result of her
arrival there. What her powers were I knew, and I
could not doubt but that she would exercise them to
the full. It might be possible to control her for a
while, but her proud, ambitious spirit would be
certain to break loose and avenge itself for the long
centuries of its solitude. _i_ She _i_ would, if
necessary, and if the power of her beauty did not
unaided prove equal to the occasion, blast her way to
any end she set before her, and, as she could not die,
and for aught I knew could not even be killed, what
was there to stop her? In the end she would, I had
little doubt, assume absolute rule over the British
dominions, and probably over the whole earth, and,
though I was sure that she would speedily make ours
the most glorious and prosperous empire that the world
has ever seen, it would be at the cost of a terrible
sacrifice of life.
The whole thing sounded like a dream or some
extraordinary invention of a speculative brain, and
yet it was a fact--a wonderful fact--which the whole
world would soon be called on to take notice. What was
the meaning of it all? After much thinking I could
only conclude that this wonderful creature, whose
passion had kept her for so many centuries chained, as
it were, and comparatively harmless, was now about to
be used by Providence as a means to change the order
of the world, and possibly, by the building up of a
power that could no more be rebelled against or
questioned than the decrees of Fate, to change it
materially for the better.
CHAPTER XXIII--
THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH
Our preparations did not take us very long. We put a
change of clothing apiece and some spare boots into my
Gladstone bag, also we took our revolvers and an
express rifle each, together with a good supply of
ammunition, a precaution to which, under Providence,
we subsequently owed our lives over and over again.
The rest of our gear, together with our heavy rifles,
we left behind us.
A few minutes before the appointed time we once more
attended in Ayesha's boudoir, and found her also
ready, her dark cloak thrown over her winding sheet-
like wrappings.
"Are ye prepared for the great venture?" she said.
"We are," I answered, "though for my part, Ayesha, I
have no faith in it."
"Ah, my Holly," she said, "thou art of a truth like
those old Jews--of whom the memory vexes me so sorely-
-unbelieving, and hard to accept that which they have
not known. But thou shalt see; for unless my mirror
yonder lies," and she pointed to the font of crystal
water, "the path is yet open as it was of old time.
And now let us start upon the new life which shall
end--who knoweth where?"
"Ah," I echoed, "who knoweth where?" and we passed
down into the great central cave, and out into the
light of day. At the mouth of the cave we found a
single litter with six bearers, all of them mutes,
waiting, and with them I was relieved to see our old
friend Billali, for whom I had conceived a sort of
affection. It appeared that, for reasons not necessary
to explain at length, Ayesha had thought it best that,
with the exception of herself, we should proceed on
foot, and this we were nothing loath to do, after our
long confinement in these caves, which, however
suitable they might be for sarcophagi--a singularly
inappropriate word, by the way, for these particular
tombs, which certainly did not consume the bodies
given to their keeping--were depressing habitations
for breathing mortals like ourselves. Either by
accident or by the orders of _i_ She _i_ , the space
in front of the cave where we had beheld that awful
dance was perfectly clear of spectators. Not a soul
was to be seen, and consequently I do not believe that
our departure was known to anybody, except perhaps the
mutes who waited on _i_ She _i_ , and they were, of
course, in the habit of keeping what they saw to
themselves.
In a few minutes' time we were stepping out sharply
across the great cultivated plain or lake bed, framed
like a vast emerald in its setting of frowning cliff,
and had another opportunity of wondering at the
extraordinary nature of the site chosen by these old
people of Ko^r for their capital, and at the
marvellous amount of labor, ingenuity, and engineering
skill that must have been brought into requisition by
the founders of the city to drain so huge a sheet of
water, and to keep it clear of subsequent
accumulations. It is, indeed, so far as my experience
goes, an unequalled instance of what man can do in the
face of nature, for in my opinion such achievements as
the Suez Canal or even the Mont Cenis Tunnel do not
approach this ancient undertaking in magnitude and
grandeur of conception.
When we had been walking for about half an hour,
enjoying ourselves exceedingly in the delightful cool
which about this time of the day always appeared to
descend upon the great plain of Ko^r, and which in
some degree atoned for the want of any kind or sea
breeze--for all wind was kept off by the rocky
mountain wall--we began to get a clear view of what
Billali had informed us were the ruins of the great
city. And even from that distance we could see how
wonderful those ruins were, a fact which with every
step we took became more evident. The city was not
very large if compared to Babylon or Thebes, or other
cities of remote antiquity; perhaps its outer wall
contained some twelve square miles of ground, or a
little more. Nor had the walls, so far as we could
judge when we reached them, been very high, probably
not more than forty feet, which was about their
present height where they had not, through the sinking
of the ground or some such cause, fallen into ruin.
The reason of this, no doubt, was that the people of
Ko^r, being protected from any outside attack by far
more tremendous ramparts than any that the hand of man
could rear, only required them for show and to guard
against civil discord. But, on the other hand, they
were as broad as they were high, built entirely of
dressed stone, hewn, no doubt, from the vast caves,
and surrounded by a great moat about sixty feet in
width, some reaches of which were still filled with
water. About ten minutes before the sun finally sank
we reached this moat, and passed down and through it,
clambering across what evidently were the piled-up
fragments of a great bridge in order to do so, and
then with some little difficulty up the slope of the
wall to its summit. I wish that it lay within the
power of my pen to give some idea of the grandeur of
the sight that then met our view. There, all bathed in
the red glow of the sinking sun, were miles upon miles
of ruins--columns, temples, shrines, and the palaces
of kings, varied with patches of green bush. Of
course, the roofs of these buildings had long since
fallen into decay and vanished, but owing to the
extreme massiveness of the style of building, and to
the hardness and durability of the rock employed, most
of the party walls and great columns still remained
standing.
Straight before us stretched away what had evidently
been the main thoroughfare of the city, for it was
very wide, wider than the Thames Embankment, and
regular. Being, as we afterwards discovered, paved, or
rather built, throughout of blocks of dressed stone,
such as were employed in the walls, it was but little
overgrown even now with grass and shrubs, that could
get no depth of soil to live in. What had been the
parks and gardens, on the contrary, were now dense
jungle. Indeed, it was easy even from a distance to
trace the course of the various roads by the burned-up
appearance of the scanty grass that grew upon them. On
either side of this great thoroughfare were vast
blocks of ruins, each block, generally speaking, being
separated. from its neighbor by a space of what had
once, I suppose, been garden-ground, but was now dense
and tangled bush. They were all built of the same
colored stone, and most of them had pillars, which was
as much as we could make out in the fading light as we
passed swiftly up the main road, that I believe I am
right in saying no living foot had pressed for
thousands of years.
Presently we came to an enormous pile, which we
rightly took to be a temple covering at least four
acres of ground, and apparently arranged in a series
of courts, each one enclosing another of smaller size,
on a principle of a Chinese nest of boxes, which were
separated one from the other by rows of huge columns.
And, while I think of it, I may as well state a
remarkable thing about the shape of these columns,
which resembled none that I have ever seen or heard
of, being fashioned with a kind of waist in the
centre, and swelling out above and below. At first we
thought that this shape was meant to roughly symbolize
or suggest the female form, as was a common habit
among the ancient religious architects of many creeds.
On the following day, however, as we went up the
slopes of the mountain, we discovered a large quantity
of the most stately looking palms, of which the trunks
grew exactly in this shape, and I have now no doubt
but that the first designer of those columns drew his
inspiration from the graceful bends of those very
palms, or rather of their ancestors, which then, some
eight or ten thousand years ago, as now, beautified
the slopes of the mountain that had once formed the
shores of the volcanic lake.
At the facade of this huge temple, which, I should
imagine, is almost as large as that of El-Karnac, at
Thebes, some of the largest columns, which I measured,
being between eighteen to twenty feet in diameter at
the base, by about seventy feet in height, our little
procession was halted, and Ayesha descended from her
litter.
"There used to be a spot here, Kallikrates," she said
to Leo, who had run up to help her down, "where one
might sleep. Two thousand years ago did thou and I and
that Egyptian asp rest therein, but since then have I
not set foot here, nor any man, and perchance it has
fallen," and. followed by the rest of us, she passed
up a vast flight of broken and ruined steps into the
outer court, and looked round into the gloom,
Presently she seemed to recollect, and, walking a few
paces along the wall to the left, halted.
"It is here," she said, and at the same time beckoned
to the two mutes, who were loaded with provisions and
our little belongings, to advance. One of them came
forward, and, producing a lamp, lit it from his
brazier (for the Amahagger when on a journey nearly
always carried with them a little lighted brazier from
which to provide fire). The tinder of this brazier was
made of broken fragments of mummy carefully damped,
and, if the admixture of moisture was properly
managed, this unholy compound would smoulder away for
hours. As soon as the lamp was lit we entered the
place before which Ayesha had halted. It turned out to
be a chamber hollowed in the thickness of the wall,
and, from the fact of there still being a massive
stone table in it, I should think that it had probably
served as a living-room, perhaps for one of the door-
keepers of the great temple.
Here we stopped, and after cleaning the place out and
making it as comfortable as circumstances and the
darkness would permit, we ate some cold meat, at least
Leo, Job, and I did, for Ayesha, as I think I have
said elsewhere, never touched anything except cakes of
flour, fruit, and water. While we were still eating,
the moon, which was at her full, rose above the
mountain-wall, and began to flood the place with
silver.
"Wot ye why I have brought you here to-night, my
Holly?" said Ayesha, leaning her head upon her hand
and watching the great orb as she rose, like some
heavenly queen, above the solemn pillars of the
temple. "I brought you--nay, it is strange, but
knowest thou, Kallikrates, that thou liest at this
moment upon the very spot where thy dead body lay when
I bore thee back to those caves of Ko^r so many years
ago? It all returns to my mind now. I can see it, and
horrible is it to my sight!" and she shuddered.
Here Leo jumped up and hastily changed his seat.
However the reminiscence might affect Ayesha, it
clearly had few charms for him.
"I brought you," went on Ayesha, presently, "that ye
might look upon the most wonderful sight that ever the
eye of man beheld--the full moon shining over ruined
Ko^r. When ye have done your eating--I would that I
could teach thee to eat naught but fruit, Kallikrates,
but that will come after thou hast laved in the fire.
Once I, too, ate flesh like a brute beast. When ye
have done we will go out, and I will show you this
great temple and the god whom men once worshipped
therein."
Of course we got up at once, and started. And here
again my pen fails me. To give a string of
measurements and details of the various courts of the
temple would only be wearisome, supposing that I had
them, and yet I know not how I am to describe what we
saw, magnificent as it was even in its ruin, almost
beyond the power of realization. Court upon dim court,
row upon row of mighty pillars--some of them
(especially at the gateways) sculptured from pedestal
to capital--space upon space of empty chambers that
spoke more eloquently to the imagination than any
crowded streets. And over all, the dead silence of the
dead, the sense of utter loneliness, and the brooding
spirit of the Past! How beautiful it was, and yet how
drear! We did not dare to speak aloud. Ayesha herself
was awed in the presence of an antiquity compared to
which even her length of days was but a little thing;
we only whispered, and our whispers seemed to run from
column to column, till they were lost in the quiet
air. Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and
shattered wall, hiding all their rents and
imperfections in its silver garment, and clothing
their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the
night. It was a wonderful sight to see the full moon
looking down on the ruined fane of Ko^r. It was a
wonderful thing to think for how many thousands of
years the dead orb above and the dead city below had
gazed thus upon each other, and in the utter solitude
of space poured forth each to each the tale of their
lost life and long-departed glory. The white light
fell, and minute by minute the quiet shadows crept
across the grassgrown courts like the spirits of old
priests haunting the habitations of their worship--the
white light fell, and the long shadows grew till the
beauty and grandeur of the scene and the untamed
majesty of its present death seemed to sink into our
very souls, and speak more loudly than the shouts of
armies concerning the pomp and splendor that the grave
had swallowed, and even memory had forgotten.
"Come," said Ayesha, after we had gazed and gazed, I
know not for how long, "and I will show you the stony
flower of Loveliness and Wonder's very crown, if yet
it stands to mock time with its beauty and fill the
heart of man with longing for that which is behind the
veil," and, without waiting for an answer, she led us
through two more pillared courts into the inner shrine
of the old fane.
And there, in the centre of the inmost court, that
might have been some fifty yards square, or a little
more, we stood face to face with what is perhaps the
grandest allegorical work of art that the genius of
her children has ever given to the world. For in the
exact centre of the court, placed upon a thick, square
slab of rock, was a huge round ball of dark stone,
some forty feet in diameter, and standing on the ball
was a colossal winged figure of a beauty so entrancing
and divine that when I first gazed upon it,
illuminated and shadowed as it was by the soft light
of the moon, my breath stood still, and for an instant
my heart ceased its beating.
The statue was hewn from marble so pure and white that
even now, after all those ages, it shone as the
moonbeams danced upon it, and its height was, I should
say, a trifle under twenty feet. It was the winged
figure of a woman of such marvellous loveliness and
delicacy of. form that the size seemed rather to add
to than to detract from its so human and yet more
spiritual beauty. She was bending forward and poising
herself upon her half-spread wings as though to
preserve her balance as she leaned. Her arms were
outstretched like those of some woman about to embrace
one she dearly loved, while her whole attitude gave an
impression of the tenderest beseeching. Her perfect
and most gracious form was naked, save--and here came
the extraordinary thing--the face, which was thinly
veiled, so that we could only trace the marking of her
features. A gauzy veil was thrown round and about the
head, and of its two ends one fell down across her
left breast, which was outlined beneath it, and one,
now broken, streamed away upon the air behind her.
"Who is she?" I asked, as soon as I could take my eyes
off the statue.
"Canst thou not guess, O Holly?" answered Ayesha.
"Where then is thy imagination? It is Truth standing
on the World, and calling to its children to veil her
face. See what is writ upon the pedestal. Without
doubt it is taken from the book of the Scriptures of
these men of Ko^r," and she led the way to the foot of
the statue, where an inscription of the usual Chinese-
looking hieroglyphics was so deeply graven as to be
still quite legible, at least to Ayesha. According to
her translation it ran thus:
"'Is there no man that will draw my veil and look upon
my face, lo! it is very fair? Unto him who draws my
veil shall I be, and peace will I give him, and sweet
children of knowledge and good works.'
"And a voice cried, 'Though all those who seek alter
thee desire thee, behold! Virgin art thou, and Virgin
shalt thou go till Time be done. No man is there born
of woman who may draw thy veil and live, nor shall be.
By Death only can thy veil be drawn, oh Truth!'
"And Truth stretched out her arms and wept, because
those who sought her might not find her, nor look upon
her face to face."
"Thou seest," said Ayesha, when she had finished
translating, "Truth was the Goddess of the people of
old Ko^r, and to her they built their shrines, and her
they sought; knowing that they should never find,
still sought they."
"And so," I added, sadly, "do men seek to this very
hour, but they find not; and, as this scripture saith,
nor shall they; for in Death only is Truth found."
Then, with one more look at this veiled and
spiritualized loveliness--which was so perfect and so
pure that one might almost fancy that the light of a
living spirit shone through the marble prison to lead
man on to high and ethereal thoughts--this poet's
dream of beauty frozen into stone, which I never shall
forget while I live, though I find myself so helpless
when I attempt to describe it, we turned and went back
through the vast moonlit courts to the spot whence we
had started. I never saw the statue again, which I the
more regret, because on the great ball of stone
representing the World whereon the figure stood, lines
were drawn, that probably, had there been light
enough, we should have discovered to be a map of the
Universe as it was known to the people of Ko^r. It is,
at any rate, suggestive of some scientific knowledge
that these long-dead worshippets of Truth had
recognized the fact that the globe is round.
CHAPTER XXIV--
WALKING THE PLANK
NEXT day the mutes woke us before the dawn; and by the
time that we had got the sleep out of our eyes, and
gone through a perfunctory wash at a spring which
still welled up into the remains of a marble basin in
the centre of the north quadrangle of the vast outer
court, we found _i_ She _i_ standing by the litter
ready to start, while old Billali and the two bearer
mutes were busy collecting the baggage. As usual,
Ayesha was veiled like the marble Truth (by the way, I
wonder if she originally got the idea of covering up
her beauty from that statue?). I noticed, however,
that she seemed very depressed, and had none of that
proud and buoyant bearing which would have betrayed
her among a thousand women of the same stature, even
if they had been veiled like herself. She looked up as
we came--for her head was bowed--and greeted us. Leo
asked her how she had slept.
"Ill, my Kallikrates," she answered, "ill. This night
have strange and hideous dreams come creeping through
my brain, and I know not what they may portend. Almost
do I feel as though some evil overshadowed me; and yet
how can evil touch me? I wonder," she went on, with a
sudden outbreak of womanly tenderness, "I wonder if,
should aught happen to me, so that I slept awhile and
left thee waking, wouldst thou think gently of me? I
wonder, my Kallikrates, if thou wouldst tarry till I
came again, as for so many centuries I have tarried
for thy coming?"
Then, without waiting for an answer, she went on:
"Come, let us be setting forth, for we have far to go,
and before another day is born in yonder blue should
we stand in the Place of Life."
In another five minutes we were once more on our way
through the vast ruined city, which loomed at us on
either side in the gray dawning in a way that was at
once grand and oppressive. Just as the first ray of
the rising sun shot like a golden arrow athwart this
storied desolation we gained the farther gateway of
the outer wall, and having given one more glance at
the hoar and pillared majesty through which we had
passed, and (with the exception of Job, for whom ruins
had no charms) breathed a sigh of regret that we had
not had more time to explore it, passed through the
great moat, and on to the plain beyond.
As the sun rose so did Ayesha's spirits, till by
breakfast-time they had regained their normal level,
and she laughingly set down her previous depression to
the associations of the spot where she had slept.
"These barbarians declare that Ko^r is haunted," she
said, "and of a truth I do believe their saying, for
never did I know so ill a night save once. I remember
it now. It was on that very spot when thou didst lie
dead at my feet, Kallikrates. Never will I visit it
again; it is a place of evil omen."
After a very brief halt for breakfast we pressed on
with such good will that by two o'clock in the
afternoon we were at the foot of the vast wall of rock
that formed the lip of the volcano, and which at this
point towered up precipitously above us for fifteen
hundred or two thousand feet. Here we halted,
certainly not to my astonishment, for I did not see
how it was possible that we should go any farther.
"Now," said Ayesha, as she descended from her litter,
"doth our labor but commence, for here do we part with
these men, and henceforward must we bear ourselves;"
and then, addressing Billali, "do thou and these
slaves remain here, and abide our coming. By to-morrow
at the midday shall we be with thee--if not, wait."
Billali bowed humbly, and said that her august bidding
should be obeyed if they stopped there till they grew
old.
"And this man, O Holly," said _i_ She _i_ , pointing
to Job; "best is it that he should tarry also, for if
his heart be not high and his courage great, perchance
some evil might overtake him. Also, the secrets of the
place whither we go are not fit for common eyes."
I translated this to Job, who instantly and earnestly
entreated me, almost with tears in his eyes, not to
leave him behind. He said he was sure that he could
see nothing worse than he had already seen, and that
he was terrified to death at the idea of being left
alone with those "dumb folk," who, he thought, would
probably take the opportunity to hot-pot him.
I translated what he said to Ayesha, who shrugged her
shoulders, and answered, "Well, let him come, it is
naught to me; on his own head be it, and he will serve
to bear the lamp and this," and she pointed to a
narrow plank, some sixteen feet in length, which had
been bound above the long bearing-pole of her hammock,
as I had thought to make the curtains spread out
better, but, as it now appeared, for some unknown
purpose connected with our extraordinary undertaking.
Accordingly, the plank, which, though tough, was very
light, was given to Job to carry, and also one of the
lamps. I slung the other on to my back, together with
a spare jar of oil, while Leo loaded himself with the
provisions and some water in a kid's skin. When this
was done _i_ She _i_ bade Billali and the six bearer
mutes to retreat behind a grove of flowering magnolias
about a hundred yards away, and remain there under
pain of death till we had vanished. They bowed humbly,
and went, and, as he departed, old Billali gave me a
friendly shake of the hand, and whispered that he had
rather that it was I than he who was going on this
wonderful expedition with " _i_ She _i_ -who-must-be-
obeyed," and upon my word I felt inclined to agree
with him. In another minute they were gone, and then,
having briefly asked us if we were ready, Ayesha
turned, and gazed up the towering cliff.
"Goodness me, Leo," I said, "surely we are not going
to climb that precipice!"
Leo shrugged his shoulders, being in a condition of
half-fascinated, half-expectant mystification, and as
he did so Ayesha with a sudden move began to climb the
cliff, and of course we had to follow her. It was
perfectly marvellous to see the ease and grace with
which she sprang from rock to rock, and swung herself
along the ledges. The ascent was not, however, so
difficult as it seemed, although there were one or two
nasty places where it did not do to look behind you,
the fact being that the rock still sloped here, and
was not absolutely precipitous, as it was higher up.
In this way we, with no great labor, mounted to the
height of some fifty feet above our last standing-
place, the only really troublesome thing to manage
being Job's board, and in doing so drew some fifty or
sixty paces to the left of our starting-point, for we
went up like a crab, sideways. Presently we reached a
ledge, narrow enough at first, but which widened as we
followed it, and moreover sloped inward like the petal
of a flower, So that as we followed it we gradually
got into a kind of rut or fold of rock that grew
deeper and deeper, till at last it resembled a
Devonshire lane in stone, and hid us perfectly from
the gaze of anybody on the slope below, if there had
been anybody to gaze. This lane (which appeared to be
a natural formation) continued for some fifty or sixty
paces, and then suddenly ended in a cave, also
natural, running at right angles to it. I am sure that
it was a natural cave, and not hollowed by the hand of
man, because of its irregular and contorted shape and
course, which gave it the appearance of having been
blown bodily in the mountain by some frightful
eruption of gas following the line of least
resistance. All the caves hollowed by the ancients of
Ko^r, on the contrary, were cut out with the most
perfect regularity and symmetry. At the mouth of this
cave Ayesha halted, and bade us light the two lamps,
which I did, giving one to her and keeping the other
myself. Then, taking the lead, she advanced down the
cavern, picking her way with great care, as indeed it
was necessary to do, for the floor was most irregular-
-strewn with boulders like the bed of a stream, and in
some places pitted with deep holes, in which it would
have been easy to break one's leg.
This cavern we pursued for twenty minutes or more; it
being, so far as I could form a judgment--owing to its
numerous twists and turns no easy task--about a
quarter of a mile long.
At last, however, we halted at its farther end, and
while I was still trying to pierce the gloom a great
gust of air came tearing down it, and extinguished
both the lamps.
Ayesha called to us, and we crept up to her, for she
was a little in front, and were rewarded with a view
that was positively appalling in its gloom and
grandeur. Before us was a mighty chasm in the black
rock, jagged and torn and splintered through it in a
far-past age by some awful convulsion of nature, as
though it had been cleft by stroke upon stroke of the
lightning. This chasm, which was bounded by a
precipice on the hither, and presumably, though we
could not see it, on the farther side also, may have
measured any width across, but from its darkness I do
not think that it can have been very broad. It was
impossible to make out much of its outline, or how far
it ran, for the simple reason that the point where we
were standing was so far from the upper surface of the
cliff, at least fifteen hundred or two thousand feet,
that only a very dim light struggled down to us from
above. The mouth of the cavern that we had been
following gave on to a most curious and tremendous
spur of rock, which jutted out in mid-air into the
gulf before us for a distance of some fifty yards,
coming to a sharp point at its termination, and
resembling nothing that I can think of so much as the
spur upon the leg of a cock in shape. This huge spur
was attached only to the parent precipice at its base,
which was, of course, enormous, just as the cock's
spur is attached to its leg. Otherwise it was utterly
unsupported.
"Here we must pass," said Ayesha. "Be careful lest
giddiness overcome you, or the wind sweep you into the
gulf beneath, for of a truth it hath no bottom;" and,
without giving us any further time to get scared, she
started walking along the spur, leaving us to follow
her as best we might. I was next to her, then came
Job, painfully dragging his plank, while Leo brought
up the rear. It was a wonderful sight to see this
intrepid woman gliding fearlessly along that dreadful
place. For my part, when I had gone but a very few
yards, what between the pressure of the air and the
awful sense of the consequences that a slip would
entail, I found it necessary to go down on my hands
and knees and crawl, and so did the other two.
But Ayesha never condescended to this. On she went,
leaning her body against the gusts of wind, and never
seeming to lose her head or her balance.
In a few minutes we had crossed some twenty paces of
this awful bridge, which got narrower at every step,
and then all of a sudden a great gust came tearing
along the gorge. I saw Ayesha lean herself against it,
but the strong draught got under her dark cloak, and
tore it from her, and away it went down the wind
flapping like a wounded bird. It was dreadful to see
it go till it was lost in the blackness. I clung to
the saddle of rock and looked round, while the great
spur vibrated with a humming sound beneath us, like a
living thing. The sight was a truly awesome one. There
we were poised in the gloom between earth and heaven.
Beneath us were hundreds upon hundreds of feet of
emptiness that gradually grew darker, till at last it
was absolutely black, and at what depth it ended is
more than I can guess. Above were space upon space of
giddy air, and far, far away a line of blue sky. And
down this vast gulf upon which we were pinnacled the
great draught dashed and roared, driving clouds and
misty wreaths of vapor before it, till we were nearly
blinded and utterly confused.
The whole position was so tremendous and so absolutely
unearthly that I believe it actually lulled our sense
of terror, but to this hour I often see it in my
dreams, and wake up covered with cold perspiration at
its mere fantasy.
"On! on!" cried the white form before us, for now the
cloak had gone _i_ She _i_ was robed in white, and
looked more like a spirit riding down the gale than a
woman; "On, or ye will fall and be dashed to pieces.
Keep your eyes fixed upon the ground, and closely hug
the rock."
We obeyed her, and crept painfully along the quivering
path, against which the wind shrieked and wailed as it
shook it, causing it to murmur like a vast tuning-
fork. On we went, I do not know for how long, only
gazing round now and again, when it was absolutely
necessary, until at last we saw that we were on the
very tip of the spur, a slab of rock little larger
than an ordinary table, and that throbbed and jumped
like any over-engined steamer. There we lay on our
stomachs, clinging to the ground, and looked about us,
while Ayesha stood leaning out against the wind, down
which her long hair streamed, and, absolutely heedless
of the hideous depth that yawned beneath, pointed
before her. Then we saw why the narrow plank, which
Job and I had painfully dragged along between us, had
been provided. Before us was an empty space, on the
other side of which was something, as yet we could not
see what, for here either owing to the shadow of the
opposite cliff, or from some other cause-the gloom was
that of night.
"We must wait awhile," called Ayesha; "soon there will
be light."
At the moment I could not imagine what she meant. How
could more light than there was ever come to this
dreadful spot? While I was still debating in my mind,
suddenly, like a great sword of flame, a beam from the
setting sun pierced the Stygian gloom, and smote upon
the point of rock whereon we lay illumining Ayesha's
lovely form with an unearthly splendor. I only wish
that I could describe the wild and marvellous beauty
of that sword of fire, laid across the darkness and
rushing mist-wreaths of the gulf. How it got there I
do not to this moment know, but I presume that there
was some cleft or hole in the opposing cliff, through
which it. pierced when the setting orb was in a direct
line therewith. All I say is, that the effect was the
most wonderful that I ever saw. Right through the
heart of the darkness that flaming sword was stabbed,
and where it lay there was the most surpassingly vivid
light, so vivid that even at a distance one could see
the grain of the rock, while, outside of it--yes,
within a few inches of its keen edge--was naught but
clustering shadows.
And now, by this ray of light, for which _i_ She _i_
had been waiting, and timed our arrival to meet,
knowing that at this season for thousands of years it
had always struck thus at sunset, we saw what was
before us. Within eleven or twelve feet of the very
tip of the tongue-like rock whereon we stood there
arose, presumably from the far bottom of the gulf, a
sugar loaf-shaped cone, of which the summit was
exactly opposite to us. But had there been a summit
only it would not have helped us much, for the nearest
point of its circumference was some forty feet from
where we were. On the lip of this summit, however,
which was circular and hollow, rested a tremendous
flat stone, something like a glacier stone--perhaps it
was one, for all I know to the contrary--and the end
of this stone approached to within twelve feet or so
of us. This huge boulder was nothing more or less than
a gigantic rocking-stone, accurately balanced upon the
edge of the cone or miniature crater, like a half
crown on the rim of a wineglass; for, in the fierce
light that played upon it and us, we could see it
oscillating in the gusts of wind.
"Quick!" said Ayesha; "the plank--we must cross while
the light endures; presently it will be gone."
"Oh, Lord, sir!" groaned Job, "surely she don't mean
us to walk across that there place on that there
thing," as in obedience to my direction he pushed the
long board towards me.
"That's it, Job," I halloaed, in ghastly merriment,
though the idea of walking the plank was no pleasanter
to me than to him.
I pushed the board on to Ayesha, who deftly ran it
across the gulf so that one end of it rested on the
rocking-stone, the other remaining on the extremity of
the trembling spur. Then, placing her foot upon it to
prevent it from being blown away, she turned to me.
"Since last I was here, O Holly," she called, "the
support of the moving stone hath lessened somewhat, so
that I am not sure if it will bear our weight and fall
or not. Therefore will I cross first, because no harm
will come unto me," and, without further ado, she trod
lightly but firmly across the frail bridge, and in
another second was standing safe upon the heaving
stone.
"It is safe," she called. "See, hold thou the plank! I
will stand on the farther side of the stone so that it
may not overbalance with your greater weights. Now
come, O Holly, for presently the light will fail us."
I struggled to my knees, and if ever I felt sick in my
life I felt sick then, and I am not ashamed to say
that I hesitated and hung back.
"Surely thou art not afraid," called this strange
creature in a lull of the gale, from where she stood,
poised like a bird on the highest point of the rocking
stone. "Make then way for Kallikrates."
This settled me; it is better to fall down a precipice
and die than to be laughed at by such a woman; so I
clinched my teeth, and in another instant I was on
that horrible, narrow, bending plank, with bottomless
space beneath and around me. I have always hated a
great height, but never before did I realize the full
horrors of which such a position is capable. Oh, the
sickening sensation of that yielding board resting on
the two moving supports. I grew dizzy, and thought
that I must fall; my spine crept; it seemed to me that
I was falling, and my delight at finding myself
sprawling upon that stone, which rose and fell beneath
me like a boat in a swell, cannot be expressed in
words. All I know is that briefly, but earnestly
enough, I thanked Providence for preserving me so far.
Then came Leo's turn, and, though he looked rather
queer, he came across like a rope-dancer. Ayesha
stretched out her hand to clasp his own, and I heard
her say, "Bravely done, my love--bravely done! The old
Greek spirit lives in thee yet!"
And now only poor Job remained on the farther side of
the gulf. He crept up to the plank, and yelled out, "I
can't do it, sir. I shall fall into that beastly
place."
"You must," I remember saying with inappropriate
facetiousness--"you must, Job, it's as easy as
catching flies." I suppose that I said it to satisfy
my conscience, because although the expression conveys
a wonderful idea of facility, as a matter of fact I
know no more difficult operation in the whole world
than catching flies--that is, in warm weather, unless,
indeed, it is catching mosquitoes.
"I can't, sir--I can't, indeed.
"Let the man come, or let him stop and perish there.
See, the light is dying! In a moment it will be gone!"
said Ayesha.
I looked. _i_ She _i_ was right. The sun was passing
below the level of the hole or cleft in the precipice
through which the ray reached us.
"If you stop there, Job, you will die alone," I
called; "the light is going."
"Come, be a man, Job," roared Leo; "it's quite easy."
Thus adjured, the miserable Job, with a most awful
yell, precipitated himself face downwards on the
plank--he did not dare, small blame to him, to try to
walk it, and commenced to draw himself across in
little jerks, his poor legs hanging down on either
side into the nothingness beneath.
His violent jerks at the frail board made the great
stone, which was only balanced on a few inches of
rock, oscillate in a most sickening manner, and, to
make matters worse, when he was half-way across the
flying ray of lurid light suddenly went out, just as
though a lamp had been extinguished in a curtained
room, leaving the whole howling wilderness of air
black with darkness.
"Come on, Job, for God's sake!" I shouted, in an agony
of fear, while the stone, gathering motion with every
swing, rocked so violently that it was difficult to
hang on to it. It was a truly awful position.
"Lord have mercy on me!" cried poor Job from the
darkness. "Oh, the plank's slipping!" and I heard a
violent struggle, and thought that he was gone.
But at that moment his outstretched hand, clasping in
agony at the air, met my own, and I hauled--ah, how I
did haul, putting out all the strength that it has
pleased Providence to give me in such abundance--and,
to my joy, in another minute Job was gasping on the
rock beside me. But the plank! I felt it slip, and
heard it knock against a projecting knob of rock, and
it was gone.
"Great heavens!" I exclaimed. "How are we going to get
back?"
"I don't. know," answered Leo, out of the gloom.
"'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof'. I am
thankful enough to be here."
But Ayesha merely called to me to take her hand and
creep after her.
CHAPTER XXV--
THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
I DID as I was bid, and in fear and trembling felt
myself guided over the edge of the stone. I sprawled
my legs out, but could touch nothing.
"I am going to fall!" I gasped.
"Nay, let thyself go, and trust to me," answered
Ayesha.
Now, if the position is considered, it will be easily
understood that this was a greater demand upon my
confidence than was justified by my knowledge of
Ayesha's character. For all I knew she might be in the
very act of consigning me to a horrible doom. But in
life we sometimes have to lay our faith upon strange
altars, and so it was now.
"Let thyself got" she cried, and, having no choice, I
did.
I felt myself slide a pace or two down the sloping
surface of the rock, and then pass into the air, and
the thought flashed through my brain that I was lost.
But no! In another instant my feet struck against a
rocky floor, and I felt that I was standing on
something solid, and out of reach of the wind, which I
could hear singing away overhead. As I stood there
thanking Heaven for these small mercies, there was a
slip and a scuffle, and down came Leo alongside of me.
"Hullo, old fellow!" he called out, "are you there?
This is getting interesting, is it not?"
Just then, with a terrific yell, Job arrived right on
the top of us, knocking us both down. By the time that
we had struggled to our feet again Ayesha was standing
among us, and bidding us light the lamps, which
fortunately remained uninjured, as also did the spare
jar of oil.
I got out my box of Bryant and May's wax matches, and
they struck as merrily there, in that awful place, as
they could have done in a London drawing-room.
In a couple of minutes both the lamps were alight; and
a curious scene they revealed. We were huddled
together in a rocky chamber, some ten feet square, and
scared enough we looked; that is, except Ayesha, who
was standing calmly with her arms folded, and waiting
for the lamps to burn up. The chamber appeared to be
partly natural, and partly hollowed out of the top of
the cone. The roof of the natural part was formed of
the swinging stone, and that of the back part of the
chamber, which sloped downward, was hewn from the live
rock. For the rest, the place was warm and dry--a
perfect haven of rest compared to the giddy pinnacle
above, and the quivering spur that shot out to meet it
in mid-air.
"So!" said _i_ She _i_ , "safely have we come, though
once I feared that the rocking stone would fall with
you, and precipitate you into the bottomless depths
beneath, for I do believe that the cleft goeth down to
the very womb of the world. The rock whereon the stone
resteth hath crumbled beneath the swinging weight. And
now that he," nodding towards Job, who was sitting on
the floor, feebly wiping his forehead with a red
cotton pocket-handkerchief, "whom they rightly call
the 'Pig' for as a pig is he stupid, hath let fall the
plank, it will not be easy to return across the gulf,
and to that end must I make a plan. But now rest
awhile, and look upon this place. What think ye that
it is?"
"We know not," I answered.
"Wouldst thou believe, O Holly, that once a man did
choose this airy nest for a daily habitation, and did
here endure for many years; leaving it only but one
day in every twelve to seek food and water and oil
that the people brought, more than he could carry, and
laid as an offering in the mouth of the tunnel through
which we passed hither?"
We looked up wonderingly. and she continued--
"Yet so it was. There was a man--Noot, he named
himself--who, though he lived in the latter days, had
of the wisdom of the sons of Ko^r. A hermit was he,
and a philosopher, and skilled in the secrets of
Nature, and he it was who discovered the Fire that I
shall show you, which is Nature's blood and life, and
also that he who bathed therein, and breathed thereof,
should live while Nature lives. But like unto thee, O
Holly, this man, Noot, would not turn his knowledge to
account. 'Ill,' he said, 'was it for man to live, for
man was born to die.' Therefore did he tell his secret
to none, and therefore did he come and live here,
where the seeker after Life must pass, and was revered
of the Amahagger of the day as holy, and a hermit. And
when first I came to this country--knowest thou how I
came, Kallikrates? Another time will I tell thee, it
is a strange tale--I heard of this philosopher, and
waited for him when he came to fetch his food, and
returned with him hither, though greatly did I fear to
tread the gulf. Then did I beguile him with my beauty
and my wit, and flatter him with my tongue, so that he
led me down and showed me the Fire, and told me the
secrets of the Fire, but he would not suffer me to
step therein, and, fearing lest he should slay me, I
refrained, knowing that the man was very old, and soon
would die. And I returned, having learned from him all
that he knew of the wonderful Spirit of the World, and
that was much, the man was wise and very ancient, and
by purity and abstinence, and the contemplations of
his innocent mind, had worn thin the veil between that
which we see and the great invisible truths, the
whisper of whose wings at times we hear as they sweep
through the gross air of the world. Then--it was but a
very few days after, I met thee, my Kallikrates, who
hadst wandered hither with the beautiful Egyptian
Amenartas, and I learned to love for the first and
last time, once and forever, so that it entered into
my mind to come hither with thee, and receive the gift
of Life for thee and me. Therefore came we, with that
Egyptian who would not be left behind, and, behold, we
found the old man Noot lying but newly dead. There he
lay, and his white beard covered him like a garment,"
and she pointed to a spot near where I was sitting;
"but surely he hath long since crumbled into dust, and
the wind hath borne his ashes hence."
Here I put out my hand and felt in the dust, and
presently my fingers touched something. It was a human
tooth, very yellow, but sound. I held it up and showed
it to Ayesha, who laughed.
"Yes," she said, "it is his without a doubt. Behold
what remaineth of Noot and the wisdom of Noot--one
little tooth! And yet that man had all life at his
command, and for his conscience sake would have none
of it. Well, he lay there newly dead, and we descended
whither I shall lead you, and then, gathering up all
my courage, and courting death that I might perchance
win so glorious a crown of life, I stepped into the
flames, and behold! life such as ye can never know
until ye feel it also, flowed into me, and I came
forth undying, and lovely beyond imagining. Then did I
stretch out mine arms to thee, Kallikrates, and bid
thee take thine immortal bride, and behold, as I
spoke, thou, blinded by my beauty, didst turn from me
and throw thine arms about the neck of Amenartas. And
then a great fury filled me, and made me mad, and I
seized the javelin that thou didst bear, and stabbed
thee, so that there, at my very feet, in the Place of
Life, thou didst groan and go down into death. I knew
not then that I had strength to slay with mine eyes
and by the power of my will, therefore in my madness
slew I with the javelin.
"And when thou wast dead, ah! I wept, because I was
undying and thou wast dead. I wept there in the Place
of Life, so that had I been mortal any more my heart
had surely broken. And she, the swart Egyptian--she
cursed me by her gods. By Osiris did she curse me, and
by Isis, by Nephthys and by Hekt, by Sekhet, the lion-
headed, and by Set, calling down evil on me, evil and
everlasting desolation. Ah! I can see her dark face
now lowering o'er me like a storm, but she could not
hurt me, and I--I know not if I could hurt her. I did
not try; it was naught to me then; so together we bore
thee hence. And afterwards I sent her--the Egyptian--
away through the swamps, and it seems that she lived
to bear a son and to write the tale that should lead
thee, her husband, back to me, her rival and thy
murderess.
"Such is the tale, my love, and now is the hour at
hand that shall set a crown upon it. Like all things
on the earth, it is compounded of evil and good--more
of evil than of good, perchance; and writ in letters
of blood. It is the truth; naught have I hidden from
thee, Kallikrates. And now one thing before the final
moment of thy trial. We go down into the presence of
Death, for Life and Death are very near together, and-
-who knoweth?--that might happen which should separate
us for another space of waiting. I am but a woman, and
no prophetess, and I cannot read the future. But this
I know--for I learned it from the lips of the wise man
Noot--that my life is but prolonged and made more
bright. I cannot live for aye. Therefore, before we
go, tell me, O Kallikrates, that of a truth thou
dost forgive me, and dost love me from thy heart. See,
Kallikrates: much evil have I done--perchance it was
evil but two nights gone to strike that girl who loved
thee cold in death--but she disobeyed me and angered
me, prophesying misfortune to me, and I smote. Be
careful when power comes to thee also, lest thou too
shouldst smite in thine anger or thy jealousy, for
unconquerable strength is a sore weapon in the hands
of erring man. Yea, I have sinned--out of the
bitterness born of a great love have I sinned--but yet
do I know the good from the evil, nor is my heart
altogether hardened. Thy love, O Kallikrates, shall be
the gate of my redemption, even as aforetime my
passion was the path down which I ran to evil. For
deep love unsatisfied is the hell of noble hearts and
a portion for the accursed, but love that is mirrored
back more perfect from the soul of our desired doth
fashion wings to lift us above ourselves, and make us
what we might be. Therefore, Kallikrates, take me by
the hand, and lift my veil with no more fear than
though I were some peasant girl, and not the wisest
and most beauteous woman in this wide world, and look
me in the eyes, and tell me that thou dost forgive me
with all thine heart, and that with all thine heart
thou dost worship me."
_i_ She _i_ paused, and the strange tenderness in her
voice seemed to hover round us like a memory. I know
that the sound of it moved me more even than her
words, it was so very human--so very womanly. Leo,
too, was strangely touched. Hitherto he had been
fascinated against his better judgment, something as a
bird is fascinated by a snake, but now I think that
all this passed away, and he realized that he really
loved this strange and glorious creature, as, alas! I
loved her also. At any rate, I saw his eyes fill with
tears, and he stepped swiftly to her and undid the
gauzy veil, and then took her by the hand, and, gazing
into her deep eyes, said aloud,
"Ayesha, I love thee with all my heart, and so far as
forgiveness is possible I forgive thee the death of
Ustane. For the rest, it is between thee and thy
Maker; I know naught of it. I only know that I love
thee as I never loved before, and that I will cleave
to thee to the end."
"Now," answered Ayesha, with proud humility--"now when
my lord doth speak thus royally and give with so free
a hand, it cannot become me to lag behind in words,
and be beggared of my generosity. Behold!" and she
took his hand and placed it upon her shapely head, and
then bent herself slowly down till one knee for an
instant touched the ground--"Behold! in token of
submission do I bow me to my lord! Behold!" and she
kissed him on the lips, "in token of my wifely love do
I kiss my lord. Behold!" and she laid her hand upon
his heart, "by the sin I sinned, by my lonely
centuries of waiting wherewith it was wiped out, by
the great love wherewith I love, and by the Spirit--
the Eternal Thing that doth beget all life, from whom
it ebbs, to whom it doth return again--I swear:
"I swear, even in this first most holy hour of
completed womanhood, that I will abandon Evil and
cherish Good. I swear that I will be ever guided by
thy voice in the straightest path of Duty. I swear
that I will eschew Ambition, and through all my length
of endless days set Wisdom over me as a guiding star
to lead me unto Truth and a knowledge of the Right. I
swear also that I will honor and will cherish thee,
Kallikrates, who hast been swept by the wave of time
back into my arms, ay, till the very end, come it soon
or late. I swear--nay, I will swear no more, for what
are words? Yet shalt thou learn that Ayesha hath no
false tongue.
"So I have sworn, and thou, my Holly, art witness to
my oath. Here, too, are we wed, my husband, with the
gloom for bridal canopy--wed till the end of all
things; here do we write our marriage vows upon the
rushing winds which shall bear them up to heaven, and
round and continually round this rolling world.
"And for a bridal gift I crown thee with my beauty's
starry crown, and enduring life, and wisdom without
measure, and wealth that none can count. Behold! the
great ones of the earth shall creep about thy feet,
and their fair women shall cover up their eyes because
of the shining glory of thy countenance, and their
wise ones shall be abased before thee. Thou shalt read
the hearts of men as an open writing, and hither and
thither shalt thou lead them as thy pleasure listeth.
Like that old Sphinx of Egypt shalt thou sit aloft
from age to age, and ever shall they cry to thee to
solve the riddle of thy greatness that doth not pass
away, and ever shalt thou mock them with thy silence!
"Behold! once more I kiss thee, and by that kiss I
give to thee dominion over sea and earth, over the
peasant in his hovel, over the monarch in his palace
halls, and cities crowned with towers, and those who
breathe therein. Whate'er the sun shakes out his
spears, and the lonesome waters mirror up the moon,
whate'er storms roll, and heaven's painted bows arch
in the sky--from the pure North clad in snows, across
the middle spaces of the world, to where the amorous
South, lying like a bride upon her blue couch of seas,
breathes in sighs made sweet with the odor of myrtles-
-there shall thy power pass and thy dominion find a
home. Nor sickness, nor icy-fingered fear, nor sorrow,
and pale waste of form and mind hovering ever o'er
humanity, shall so much as shadow thee with the shadow
of their wings. As a god shalt thou be, holding good
and evil in the hollow of thy hand, and I, even I, I
humble myself before thee. Such is the power of Love,
and such is the bridal gift I give unto thee,
Kallikrates, beloved of Ra, my Lord and Lord of All.
"And now it is done, and, come storm, come shine, come
good, come evil, come life, come death, it never,
never can be undone. For, of a truth, that which is,
is, and being done, is done for aye, and cannot be
altered. I have said--Let us hence, that all things
may be accomplished in their order;" and, taking one
of the lamps, she advanced towards the end of the
chamber that was roofed in by the swaying stone, where
she halted.
We followed her, and perceived that in the wall of the
cone there was a stair, or, to be more accurate, that
some projecting knobs of rock had been so shaped as to
form a good imitation of a stair. Down this Ayesha
began to climb, springing from step to step, like a
chamois, and after her we followed with less grace.
When we had descended some fifteen or sixteen steps we
found that they ended in a tremendous rocky slope,
running first outward and then inward--like the slope
of an inverted cone, or tunnel. The slope was very
steep, and often precipitous, but it was nowhere
impassable, and by the light of the lamps we went down
it with no great difficulty, though it was gloomy work
enough travelling on thus, no one of us knew whither,
into the dead heart of a volcano. As we went, however,
I took the precaution of noting our route as well as I
could; and this was not difficult, owing to the
extraordinary and most fantastic shape of the rocks
that were strewn about, many of which, in that dim
light, looked more like the grim faces carven upon
mediaeval gargoyles than ordinary boulders.
For a long period we travelled on thus, half an hour I
should say, till, after we had descended for many
hundreds of feet, I perceived that we were reaching
the point of the inverted cone. In another minute we
were there, and found that at the very apex of the
funnel was a passage, so low and narrow that we had to
stoop as we crept along it in Indian file. After some
fifty yards of this creeping, the passage suddenly
widened into a cave, so huge that we could see neither
the roof nor the sides. We only knew that it was a
cave by the echo of our tread and the perfect quiet of
the heavy air. On we went for many minutes in absolute
awed silence, like lost souls in the depths of Hades,
Ayesha's white and ghostlike form flitting in front of
us, till once more the cavern ended in a passage which
opened into a second cavern much smaller than the
first. Indeed, we could clearly make out the arch and
stony banks of this second cave, and, from their rent
and jagged appearance, discovered that, like the first
long passage down which we had passed through the
cliff before we reached the quivering spur, it had to
all appearance been torn in the bowels of the rock by
the terrific force of some explosive gas. At length
this cave ended in a third passage, through which
gleamed a faint glow of light.
I heard Ayesha give a sigh of relief as this light
dawned upon us.
"It is well," she said; "prepare to enter the very
womb of the Earth, wherein she doth conceive the Life
that ye see brought forth in man and beast--ay, and in
every tree and flower."
Swiftly she sped along, and after her we stumbled as
best we might, our hearts filled like a cup with
mingled dread and curiosity. What were we about to
see? We passed down the tunnel; stronger and stronger
the light beamed, reaching us in great flashes like
the rays from a lighthouse, as one by one they are
thrown wide upon the darkness of the waters. Nor was
this all, for with the flashes came a soul-shaking
sound like that of thunder and of crashing trees. Now
we were through it, and--oh, heavens!
We stood in a third cavern, some fifty feet in length
by perhaps as great a height, and thirty wide. It was
carpeted with fine white sand, and its walls had been
worn smooth by the action of I know not what. The
cavern was not dark like the others, it was filled
with a soft glow of rose-colored light, more beautiful
to look on than anything that can be conceived. But at
first we saw no flashes, and heard no more of the
thunderous sound. Presently, however, as we stood in
amaze, gazing at the wonderful sight, and wondering
whence the rosy radiance flowed, a dread and beautiful
thing happened. Across the far end of the cavern, with
a grinding and crashing noise--a noise so dreadful and
awe-inspiring that we all trembled, and Job actually
sank to his knees--there flamed out an awful cloud or
pillar of fire, like a rainbow many-colored, and like
the lightning bright. For a space, perhaps forty
seconds, it flamed and roared thus, turning slowly
round and round, and then by degrees the terrible
noise ceased, and with the fire it passed away--I know
not where--leaving behind it the same rosy glow that
we had first seen.
"Draw near, draw near!" cried Ayesha, with a voice of
thrilling exultation. "Behold the very Fountain and
Heart of Life as it beats in the bosom of the great
world. Behold the substance from which all things draw
their energy, the bright Spirit of the Globe, without
which it cannot live, but must grow cold and dead as
the dead moon. Draw near, and wash you in the living
flames, and take their virtue into your poor frames in
all its virgin strength--not as it now feebly glows
within your bosoms, filtered thereto through all the
fine strainers of a thousand intermediate lives, but
as it is here in the very fount and seat of earthly
Being."
We followed her through the rosy glow up to the head
of the cave, till at last we stood before the spot
where the great pulse beat and the great flame passed.
And as we went we became sensible of a wild and
splendid exhilaration, of a glorious sense of such a
fierce intensity of Life that the most buoyant moments
of our strength seemed flat and tame and feeble beside
it. It was the mere effluvium of the flame, the subtle
ether that it cast off as it passed, working on us,
and making us feel strong as giants and swift as
eagles. We reached the head of the cave, and gazed at
each other in the glorious glow, and laughed aloud--
even Job laughed, and he had not laughed for a week--
in the lightness of our hearts and the divine
intoxication of our brains. I know that I felt as
though all the varied genius of which the human
intellect is capable had descended upon me. I could
have spoken in blank verse of Shakespearian beauty,
all sorts of great ideas flashed through my mind; it
was as though the bonds of my flesh had been loosened,
and left the spirit free to soar to the empyrean of
its native power. The sensations that poured in upon
me are indescribable. I seemed to live more keenly, to
reach to a higher joy, and sip the goblet of a subtler
thought than ever it had been my lot to do before. I
was another and most glorified self, and all the
avenues of the Possible were for a space laid open to
the footsteps of the Real. Then, suddenly, while I
rejoiced in this splendid vigor of a new-found self,
from far, far away there came a dreadful muttering
noise, that grew and grew to a crash and a roar, which
combined in itself all that is terrible and yet
splendid in the possibilities of sound. Nearer it
came, and nearer yet, till it was close upon us,
rolling down like all the thunder-wheels of heaven
behind the horses of the lightning. On it came, and
with it came the glorious blinding cloud of many-
colored light, and stood before us for a space,
turning, as it seemed to us, slowly round and round,
and then, accompanied by its attendant pomp of sound,
passed away I know not whither.
So astonishing was the wondrous sight that one and all
of us, save _i_ She _i_ , who stood up and stretched
her hands towards the fire, sank down before it, and
hid our faces in the sand.
When it was gone, Ayesha spoke. "Now, Kallikrates,"
she said, "the mighty moment is at hand. When the
great flame comes again thou must stand in it. First
throw aside thy garments, for it will burn them,
though thee it will not hurt. Thou must stand in the
flame while thy senses will endure, and when it
embraces thee suck the fire down into thy very heart,
and let it leap and play around thy every part, so
that thou lose no moiety of its virtue. Hearest thou
me, Kallikrates?"
"I hear thee, Ayesha," answered Leo, "but, of a truth-
-I am no coward--but I doubt me of that raging flame.
How know I that it will not utterly destroy me, so
that I lose myself and lose thee also? Nevertheless
will I do it," he added.
Ayesha thought for a minute, and then said,
"It is not wonderful that thou shouldst doubt. Tell
me, Kallikrates, if thou seest me stand in the flame
and come forth unharmed, wilt thou enter also?'
"Yes," he answered, "I will enter, even if it slay me.
I have said that I will enter now."
"And that will I also," I cried.
"What, my Holly!" she laughed aloud; "methought that
thou wouldst naught of length of days. Why, how is
this?"
"Nay, I know not," I answered, "but there is that in
my heart that calleth to me to taste of the flame, and
live."
"It is well," she said. "Thou art not altogether lost
in folly. See now; I will for the second time bathe me
in this living bath. Fain would I add to my beauty and
my length of days if that be possible. If it be not
possible, at the least it cannot harm me.
"Also," she continued, after a momentary pause, "is
there another and a deeper cause why I would once
again dip me in the flame. When first I tasted of its
virtue full was my heart of passion and of hatred of
that Egyptian Amenartas, and therefore, despite my
strivings to be rid thereof, have passion and hatred
been stamped upon my soul from that sad hour to this.
But now it is otherwise. Now is my mood a happy mood,
and filled am I with the purest part of thought, and
so would I ever be. Therefore, Kallikrates, will I
once more wash and make me pure and clean, and yet
more fit for thee. Therefore also, when thou dost in
turn stand in the fire, empty all thy heart of evil,
and let sweet contentment hold the balance of thy
mind. Shake loose thy spirit's wings, and take thy
stand upon the utter verge of holy contemplation; ay,
dream upon thy mother's kiss, and turn thee towards
the vision of the highest good that hath ever swept on
silver wings across the silence of thy dreams. For
from the germ of what thou art in that dread moment
shall grow the fruit of what thou shalt be for all
unreckoned time.
"Now prepare thee, prepare! even as though thy last
hour were at hand, and thou wast about to cross to the
land of shadows, and not through the gates of glory
into the realms of Life made beautiful. Prepare, I
say!"
CHAPTER XXVI--
WHAT WE SAW
THEN came a few moments' pause, during which Ayesha
seemed to be gathering up her strength for the fiery
trial, while we clung to each other, and waited in
utter silence.
At last, from far, far away, came the first murmur of
sound, that grew and grew till it began to crash and
bellow in the distance. As she heard it, Ayesha
swiftly threw off her gauzy wrapping, loosened the
golden snake from her kirtle, and then, shaking her
lovely hair about her like a garment, beneath its
cover slipped the kirtle off and replaced the snaky
belt around her and outside the masses of falling
hair. There she stood before us as Eve might have
stood before Adam, clad in nothing but her abundant
locks, held round her by the golden band; and no words
of mine can tell how sweet she looked--and yet how
divine. Nearer and nearer came the thunder wheels of
fire, and as they came she pushed one ivory arm
through the dark masses of her hair and flung it round
Leo's neck.
"Oh, my love, my love!" she murmured, "wilt thou ever
know how I have loved thee?" and she kissed him on the
forehead, and then went and stood in the pathway of
the flame of Life.
There was, I remember, to my mind something very
touching about her words and that embrace upon the
forehead. It was like a mother's kiss, and seemed to
convey a benediction with it.
On came the crashing, rolling noise, and the sound
thereof was as the sound of a forest being swept flat
by a mighty wind, and then tossed up by it like so
much grass, and thundered down a mountain-side. Nearer
and nearer it came; now flashes of light, forerunners
of the revolving pillar of flame, were passing like
arrows through the rosy air; and now the edge of the
pillar itself appeared. Ayesha turned towards it, and
stretched out her arms to greet it. On it came very
slowly, and lapped her round with flame. I saw the
fire run up her form. I saw her lift it with both
hands as though it were water, and pour it over her
head. I even saw her open her mouth and draw it down
into her lungs, and a dread and wonderful sight it
was.
Then she paused, and stretched out her arms, and stood
there quite still, with a heavenly smile upon her
face, as though she were the very Spirit of the Flame.
The mysterious fire played up and down her dark and
rolling locks, twining and twisting itself through and
around them like threads of golden lace; it gleamed
upon her ivory breast and shoulder, from which the
hair had slipped aside; it slid along her pillared
throat and delicate features, and seemed to find a
home in the glorious eyes that shone and shone, more
brightly even than the spiritual essence.
Oh, how beautiful she looked there in the flame! No
angel out of heaven could have worn a greater
loveliness. Even now my heart faints before the
recollection of it, as she stood and smiled at our
awed faces, and I would give half my remaining time
upon this earth to see her once like that again.
But suddenly--more suddenly than I can describe--a
kind of change came over her face, a change which I
could not define or explain on paper, but none the
less a change. The smile vanished, and in its place
there came a dry, hard look; the rounded face seemed
to grow pinched, as though some great anxiety were
leaving its impress upon it. The glorious eyes, too,
lost their light, and, as I thought, the form its
perfect shape and erectness.
I rubbed my eyes, thinking that I was the victim of
some hallucination, or that the refraction from the
intense light produced an optical delusion; and, as I
did so, the flaming pillar slowly twisted and
thundered off whithersoever it passes to in the bowels
of the great earth, leaving Ayesha standing where it
had been.
As soon as it was gone, she stepped forward to Leo's
side--it seemed to me that there was no spring in her
step and stretched out her hand to lay it on his
shoulder. I gazed at her arm. Where was its wonderful
roundness and beauty? It was getting thin and angular.
And her face--by Heaven!-- _i_ her face was growing
old before my eyes! _i_ I suppose that Leo saw it
also--certainly he recoiled a step or two.
"What is it, my Kallikrates?" she said, and her voice-
-what was the matter with those deep and thrilling
notes? They were quite high and cracked.
"Why, what is it--what is it?" she said, confusedly.
"I feel dazed. Surely the quality of the fire hath not
altered. Can the principle of Life alter? Tell me,
Kallikrates, is there aught wrong with my eyes? I see
not clear," and she put her hand to her head and
touched her hair--and oh, _i_ horror of horrors! _i_
it all fell upon the floor.
"Oh, _i_ look!--look!--look! _i_ " shrieked Job, in a
shrill falsetto of terror, his eyes nearly dropping
out of his head, and foam upon his lips. " _i_ Look!--
look!--look! _i_ she's shrivelling up! she's turning
into a monkey;" and down he fell upon the ground,
foaming and gnashing in a fit.
True enough--I faint even as I write it in the living
presence of that terrible recollection--she was
shrivelling up; the golden snake that had encircled
her gracious form slipped over her hips and to the
ground; smaller and smaller she grew; her skin changed
color, and in place of the perfect whiteness of its
lustre it turned dirty brown and yellow, like an old
piece of withered parchment. _i_ She _i_ felt at her
head: the delicate hand was nothing but a claw now, a
human talon like that of a badly preserved Egyptian
mummy, and then she seemed to realize what kind of
change was passing over her, and she shrieked--ah, she
shrieked!--she rolled upon the floor and shrieked!
Smaller she grew, and smaller yet, till she was no
larger than a baboon. Now the skin was puckered into a
million wrinkles, and on the shapeless face was the
stamp of unutterable age. I never saw anything like
it; nobody ever saw anything like the frightful age
that was graven on that fearful countenance, no bigger
now than that of a two months' child, though the skull
remained the same size, or nearly so, and let all men
pray to God they never may, if they wish to keep their
reason.
At last she lay still, or only feebly moving. _i_ She
_i_ , who but two minutes before had gazed upon us the
loveliest, noblest, most splendid woman the world has
ever seen, she lay still before us, near the masses of
her own dark hair, no larger than a big monkey, and
hideous--ah, too hideous for words. And yet, think of
this--at that very moment I thought of it--it was the
same woman!
_i_ She _i_ was dying: we saw it, and thanked God--
for while she lived she could feel, and what must she
have felt? _i_ She _i_ raised herself upon her bony
hands, and blindly gazed around her, swaying her head
slowly from side to side, as a tortoise does. _i_ She
_i_ could not see, for her whitish eyes were covered
with a horny film. Oh, the horrible pathos of the
sight! But she could still speak.
"Kallikrates," she said, in husky, trembling notes.
"Forget me not, Kallikrates. Have pity on my shame; I
shall come again, and shall once more be beautiful, I
swear it--it is true! _i_ Oh--h--h-- _i_ " and she
fell upon her face, and was still.
On the very spot where more than twenty centuries
before she had slain Kallikrates the priest, she
herself fell down and died.
Overcome with the extremity of horror, we too fell on
the sandy floor of that dread place, and swooned away.
I know not how long we remained thus. Many hours, I
suppose. When at last I opened my eyes, the other two
were still outstretched upon the floor. The rosy light
yet beamed like a celestial dawn, and the thunder-
wheels of the Spirit of Life yet rolled upon their
accustomed track, for as I awoke the great pillar was
passing away. There, too, lay the hideous little
monkey frame, covered with crinkled yellow parchment,
that once had been the glorious _i_ She _i_ . Alas! it
was no hideous dream--it was an awful and unparalleled
fact!
What had happened to bring this shocking change about?
Had the nature of the life-giving Fire changed! Did
it, perhaps, from time to time send forth an essence
of Death instead of an essence of Life? Or was it that
the frame once charged with its marvellous virtue
could bear no more, so that were the process repeated-
-it mattered not at what lapse of time--the two
impregnations neutralized each other, and left the
body on which they acted as it was before it ever came
into contact with the very essence of life? This, and
this alone, would account for the sudden and terrible
aging of Ayesha, as the whole length of her two
thousand years took effect upon her. I have not the
slightest doubt myself but that the frame now lying
before me was just what the frame of a woman would be
by any extraordinary means life could preserved in her
till at length she died at the age of two-and-twenty
centuries.
But who can tell what had happened? There was the
fact. Often since that awful hour I have reflected
that it requires no great stretch of imagination to
see the finger of Providence in the matter.
Ayesha locked up in her living tomb, waiting from age
to age for the coming of her lover, worked but a small
change in the order of the World. But Ayesha strong
and happy in her love, clothed in immortal youth and
godlike beauty, and the wisdom of the centuries, would
have revolutionized society, and even perchance have
changed the destiny of mankind. Thus she opposed
herself against the eternal Law, and, strong though
she was, by it was swept back to nothingness--swept
back with shame and hideous mockery!
For some minutes I lay faintly turning these terrors
over in my mind, while my physical strength came back
to me, which it quickly did in that buoyant
atmosphere. Then I bethought me of the others, and
staggered to my feet, to see if I could arouse them.
But first I took up Ayesha's kirtle and the gauzy
scarf with which she had been wont to hide her
dazzling loveliness from the eyes of men, and,
averting my head so that I might not look upon it,
covered up that dreadful relic of the glorious dead,
that shocking epitome of human beauty and human life.
I did this hurriedly, fearing lest Leo should recover,
and see it again.
Then, stepping over the perfumed masses of dark hair
that lay I upon the sand, I stooped down by Job, who
was lying upon his face, and turned him over. As I did
so his arm fell back in a way that I did not like, and
which sent a chill through me, and I glanced sharply
at him. One look was enough. Our old and faithful
servant was dead. His nerves, already shattered by all
he had seen and undergone, had utterly broken down
beneath this last dire sight, and he had died of
terror, or in a fit brought on by terror. One had only
to look at his face to see it.
It was another blow; but perhaps it may help people to
understand how overwhelmingly awful was the experience
through which we had passed--we didn't feel it much at
the time. It seemed quite natural that the poor old
fellow should be dead. When Leo came to himself, which
he did with a groan and trembling of the limbs about
ten minutes afterwards, and I told him that job was
dead, he merely said, "Oh!" And, mind you, this was
from no heartlessness, for he and Job were much
attached to each other; and he often talks of him now
with the deepest regret and affection. It was only
that his nerves would bear no more. A harp can give
out but a certain quantity of sound, however heavily
it is smitten.
Well, I set myself to recovering Leo, who, to my
infinite relief, I found was not dead, but only
fainting, and in the end I succeeded, as I have said,
and he sat up; and then I saw another dreadful thing.
When we entered that awful place his curling hair had
been of the ruddiest gold, now it was turning gray,
and by the time we gained the outer air it was snow
white. Besides, he looked twenty years older.
"What is to be done, old fellow?" he said, in a
hollow, dead sort of voice, when his mind had cleared
a little, and a recollection of what had happened
forced itself upon it.
"Try and get out, I suppose," I answered; "that is,
unless you would like to go in there," and I pointed
to the column of fire that was once more rolling by.
"I would go in if I were sure that it would kill me,"
he said, with a little laugh. "It was my cursed
hesitation that did this. If I had not been doubtful
she might never have tried to show me the road. But I
am not sure. The fire might have the opposite effect
upon me. It might make me immortal; and, old fellow, I
have not the patience to wait a couple of thousand
years for her to come back again as she did for me. I
had rather die when my hour comes--and I should fancy
that it isn't far off either--and go my ways to look
for her. Do you go in if you like."
But I merely shook my head; my excitement was as dead
as ditch-water, and my distaste for the prolongation
of my mortal span had come back upon me more strongly
than ever. Besides, we neither of us knew what the
effects of the fire might be. The result upon _i_ She
_i_ had not been of an encouraging nature, and of the
exact causes that produced that result we were, of
course, ignorant.
"Well, my boy," I said, "we cannot stop here till we
go the way of those two," and I pointed to the little
heap under the white garment and to the stiffening
corpse of poor Job. "If we are going we had better go.
But, by the way, I expect that the lamps have burned
out," and I took one up and looked at it, and sure
enough it had.
"There is some more oil in the vase," said Leo,
indifferently--"if it is not broken, at least."
I examined the vessel in question--it was intact. With
a trembling hand I filled the lamps--luckily there was
still some of the linen wick unburned. Then I lit them
with one of our wax matches. While I did so we heard
the pillar of fire approaching once more as it went on
its never-ending journey, if, indeed, it was the same
pillar that passed and repassed in a circle.
"Let's see it come once more," said Leo; "we shall
never look upon its like again in this world."
It seemed a bit of idle curiosity, but somehow I
shared it, and we so waited till, turning slowly round
upon its own axis, it had flamed and thundered by; and
I remember wondering for how many thousands of years
this same phenomenon had been taking place in the
bowels of the earth, and for how many more thousands
it would continue to take place. I wondered also if
any mortal eyes would ever again mark its passage, or
any mortal ears be thrilled and fascinated by the
swelling volume of its majestic sound. I do not think
that they will. I believe that we are the last human
beings who will ever see that unearthly sight.
Presently it had gone, and we too turned to go.
But before we did so we each took Job's cold hand in
ours and shook it. It was a rather ghastly ceremony,
but it was the only means in our power of showing our
respect to the faithful dead and of celebrating his
obsequies. The heap beneath the white garment we did
not uncover. We had no wish to look upon that terrible
sight again. But we went to the pile of rippling hair
that had fallen from her in the agony of that hideous
change which was worse than a thousand natural deaths,
and each of us drew from it a shining lock, and these
locks we still have, the sole memento that is left to
us of Ayesha as we knew her in the fulness of her
grace and glory. Leo pressed the perfumed hair to his
lips.
" _i_ She _i_ called to me not to forget her," he
said, hoarsely, "and swore that we should meet again.
By Heaven! I never will forget her. Here I swear that,
if we live to get out of this, I will not for all my
days have anything to say to another living woman, and
that wherever I go I will wait for her as faithfully
as she waited for me."
"Yes," I thought to myself, "if she comes back as
beautiful as we knew her. But supposing she came back
like that!"
Well, and then we went. We went, and left those two in
the presence of the very well and spring of Life, but
gathered to the cold company of Death. How lonely they
looked as they lay there, and how ill-assorted! That
little heap had been for two thousand years the
wisest, loveliest, proudest creature--I can hardly
call her woman--in the whole universe. _i_ She _i_ had
been wicked, too, in her way; but, oh! such is the
frailty of the human heart, her wickedness had not
detracted from her charm. Indeed, I am by no means
certain that it did not add to it. It was, after all,
of a grand order; there was nothing mean or small
about Ayesha.
And poor Job, too! His presentiment had come true, and
there was an end of him. Well, he has a strange burial
place--no Norfolk hind ever had a stranger, or ever
will--and it is something to lie in the same sepulchre
with the poor remains of the imperial _i_ She _i_ .
We looked our last upon them and the indescribable
rosy glow in which they lay, and then with hearts far
too heavy for words we left them, and crept thence
broken-down men--so broken down that we even renounced
the chance of practically immortal life, because all
that made life valuable had gone from us, and we knew
even then that to prolong our days indefinitely would
only be to prolong our sufferings. For we felt--yes,
both of us--that, having once looked Ayesha in the
eyes, we could not forget her forever and ever while
memory and identity remained. We both loved her now
and for always; she was stamped and carven on our
hears, and no other woman or interest could ever raze
that splendid die. And I--there lies the sting--I had
and have no right to think thus of her. As she told
me, I was naught to her, and never shall be through
the unfathomed depth of Time, unless, indeed,
conditions alter, and a day comes at last when two men
may love one woman, and all three be happy in the
fact. It is the only hope of my broken-heartedness,
and a rather faint one. Beyond it I have nothing. I
have paid down this heavy price, all that I am worth
here and hereafter, and that is my sole reward. With
Leo it is different, and often and often I bitterly
envy him. his happy lot, for if _i_ She _i_ was right,
and her wisdom and knowledge did not fail her at the
last, which, arguing from the precedent of her own
case, I think most unlikely, he has some future to
look forward to. But I have none, and yet--mark the
folly and the weakness of the human heart, and let him
who is wise learn wisdom from it--yet I would not have
it otherwise. I mean that I am content to give what I
have given and must always give, and take in payment
those crumbs that fall from my mistress's table, the
memory of a few kind words, the hope one day in the
far undreamed future of a sweet smile or two of
recognition, a little gentle friendship, and a little
show of thanks for my devotion to her--and Leo.
If that does not constitute true love, I do not know
what does, and all I have to say is that it is a very
bad state of mind for a man on the wrong side of
middle age to fall into.
CHAPTER XXVII--
WE LEAP
WE passed through the caves without trouble, but when
we came to the slope of the inverted cone two
difficulties stared us in the face. The first of these
was the laborious nature of the ascent, and the next
the extreme difficulty of finding our way. Indeed, had
it not been for the mental notes that I had
fortunately taken of the shape of various rocks, etc.,
I am sure that we never should have managed it at all,
but have wandered about in the dreadful womb of the
volcano--for I suppose it must once have been
something of the sort--until we died of exhaustion and
despair. As it was we went wrong several times, and
once nearly fell into a huge crack or crevasse. It was
terrible work creeping about in the dense gloom and
awful stillness from boulder to boulder, and examining
it by the feeble light of the lamps to see if I could
recognize its shape. We rarely spoke, our hearts were
too heavy for speech, we simply stumbled about falling
sometimes and cutting ourselves, in a rather dogged
sort of way. The fact was that our spirits were
utterly crushed, and we did not greatly care what
happened to us. Only we felt bound to try and save our
lives while we could, and, indeed, a natural instinct
prompted us to it. So for some three or four hours, I
should think--I cannot tell exactly how long, for we
had no watch left that would go--we blundered on.
During the last two hours we were completely lost, and
I began to fear that we had got into the funnel of
some subsidiary cone, when at last I suddenly
recognized a very large rock which we had passed in
descending but a little way from the top. It is a
marvel that I should have recognized it, and, indeed,
we had already passed it going at right angles to the
proper path, when something about it struck me, and I
turned back and examined it in an idle sort of way,
and, as it happened, this proved our salvation.
After this we gained the rocky natural stair without
much further trouble, and in due course found
ourselves back in the little chamber where the
benighted Noot had lived and died
But now--a fresh terror stared us in the face. It will
be remembered that, owing to Job's fear and
awkwardness, the plank upon which we had crossed from
the huge spur to the rocking-stone had been whirled
off into the tremendous gulf below.
How were we to cross without the plank?
There was only one answer--we must try and _i_ jump
_i_ it, or else stop there till we starved. The
distance in itself was not so very great, between
eleven and twelve feet I should think, and I have seen
Leo jump over twenty when he was a young fellow at
college; but, then, think of the conditions. Two
weary, worn-out men, one of them on the wrong side of
forty, a rocking-stone to take off from, a trembling
point of rock some few feet across to land upon, and a
bottomless gulf to be cleared in a raging gale! It was
bad enough, God knows, but when I pointed out these
things to Leo, he put the whole matter in a nutshell
by replying that, merciless as the choice was, we must
choose between the certainty of a lingering death in
the chamber and the risk of a swift one in the air. Of
course, there was no arguing against this, but one
thing was clear, we could not attempt that leap in the
dark; the only thing to do was to wait for the ray of
light which pierced through the gulf at sunset. How
near to or how far from sunset we might be, neither of
us had the faintest notion; all we did know was, that
when at last the light came it would not endure more
than a couple of minutes at the outside, so that we
must be prepared to meet it. Accordingly, we made up
our minds to creep on to the top of the rocking-stone
and lie there in readiness. We were the more easily
reconciled to this course by the fact that our lamps
were once more nearly exhausted--indeed, one had gone
out bodily and the other was jumping up and down as
the flame of a lamp does when the oil is done. So, by
the aid of its dying light, we hastened to crawl out
of the little chamber and clamber up the side of the
great stone.
As we did so the light went out. The difference in our
position was a sufficiently remarkable one. Below, in
the little chamber, we had only heard the roaring of
the gale overhead--here, lying on our faces on the
swinging stone, we were exposed to its full force and
fury, as the great draught drew first from this
direction and then from that, howling against the
mighty precipice and through the rocky cliffs like ten
thousand despairing souls. We lay there hour after
hour in terror and misery of mind so deep that I will
not attempt to describe it, and listened to the wild
storm-voices of that Tartarus, as, set to the deep
undertone of the spur opposite, against which the wind
hummed like some awful harp, they called to each other
from precipice to precipice. No nightmare dreamed by
man, no wild invention of the romancer, can ever equal
the living horror of that place, and the weird crying
of those voices of the night, as we clung like
shipwrecked mariners to a raft, and tossed on the
black, unfathomed wilderness of air. Fortunately the
temperature was not a low one; indeed, the wind was
warm, or we should have perished. So we clung and
listened, and while we were stretched out upon the
rock a thing happened which was so curious and
suggestive in itself, though doubtless a mere
coincidence, that, if anything, it added to, rather
than deducted from, the burden on our nerves.
It will be remembered that when Ayesha was standing on
the spur, before we crossed to the stone, the wind
tore her cloak from her, and whirled it away into the
darkness of the gulf, we could not see whither. Well--
I hardly like to tell the story; it is so strange. As
we lay there upon the rocking-stone, this very cloak
came floating out of the black space, like a memory
from the dead, and fell on Leo--so that it covered him
nearly from head to foot: We could not at first make
out what it was, but soon discovered by its feel, and
then poor Leo, for the first time, gave way, and I
heard him sobbing there upon the stone. No doubt the
cloak had been caught upon some pinnacle of the cliff,
and was thence blown hither by a chance gust; but
still, it was a most curious and touching incident.
Shortly after this, suddenly, without the slightest
previous warning, the great red knife of light came
stabbing the darkness through and through--struck the
swaying stone on which we were, and rested its sharp
point upon the spur opposite.
"Now for it," said Leo, "now or never."
We rose and stretched ourselves, and looked at the
cloud-wreaths stained the color of blood by that red
ray as they tore through the sickening depths beneath;
and then at the empty space between the swaying stone
and the quivering rock, and, in our hearts, despaired,
and prepared for death. Surely we could not clear it--
desperate though we were.
"Who is to go first?" said I.
"Do you, old fellow," answered Leo. "I will sit upon
the other side of the stone to steady it. You must
take as much run as you can, and jump high; and God
have mercy on us, say I."
I acquiesced with a nod, and then I did a thing I had
never done since Leo was a little boy. I turned and
put my arm round him, and kissed him on the forehead.
It sounds rather French, but as a fact I was taking my
last farewell of a man whom I could not have loved
more if he had been my own son twice over.
"Good-bye, my boy," I said, "I hope that we shall meet
again, wherever it is that we go to."
The fact was I did not expect to live another two
minutes.
Next I retreated to the far side of the rock, and
waited till one of the chopping gusts of wind got
behind me, and then, commending my soul to God, I ran
the length of the huge stone, some three or four and
thirty feet, and sprang wildly out into the dizzy air.
Oh! the sickening terrors that I felt as I launched
myself at that little point of rock, and the horrible
sense of despair that shot through my brain as I
realized that I had _i_ jumped short _i_ . But so it
was, my feet never touched the point, they went down
into space, only my hands and body came in contact
with it. I gripped at it with a yell, but one hand
slipped, and I swung right round, holding by the
other, so that I faced the stone from which I had
sprung. Wildly I stretched up with my left hand, and
this time managed to grasp a hob of rock, and there I
hung in the fierce red light, with thousands of feet
of empty air beneath me. My hands were holding to
either side of the under part of the spur, so that its
point was touching my head. Therefore, even if I could
have found the strength, I could not pull myself up.
The most that I could do would be to hang for about a
minute, and then drop down, down into the bottomless
pit. If any man can imagine a more hideous position,
let him speak! All I know is that the torture of that
half-minute nearly turned my brain.
I heard Leo give a cry, and then suddenly saw him in
mid-air springing up and out like a chamois. It was a
splendid leap that he took under the influence of his
terror and despair, clearing the horrible gulf as
though it were nothing, and, landing well on to the
rocky point, he threw himself upon his face, to
prevent his pitching off into the depths. I felt the
spur above me shake beneath the shock of his impact,
and as it did so I saw the huge rocking-stone, that
had been violently depressed by him as he sprang, fly
back when relieved of his weight till, for the first
time during all these centuries, it got beyond its
balance, and fell with a most awful crash right into
the rocky chamber which had once served the
philosopher Noot for a hermitage, as I have no doubt
forever hermetically sealing the passage that leads to
the Place of Life with some hundreds of tons of rock.
All this happened in a second, and curiously enough,
notwithstanding my terrible position, I noted it
involuntarily, as it were. I even remember thinking
that no human being would go down that dread path
again.
Next instant I felt Leo seize me by the right wrist
with both hands. By lying flat on the point of rock he
could just reach me.
"You must let go and swing yourself clear," he said,
in a calm and collected voice, "and then I will try
and pull you up, or we will both go together. Are you
ready?"
By way of answer I let go, first with my left hand and
then with the right, and swayed out as a consequence
clear of the overshadowing rock, my weight hanging
upon Leo's arms. It was a dreadful moment. He was a
very powerful man, I knew, but would his strength be
equal to lifting me up till I could get a hold on the
top of the spur, when owing to his position he had so
little purchase?
For a few seconds I swung to and fro, while he
gathered himself for the effort, and then I heard his
sinews cracking above me, and felt myself lifted up as
though I were a little child, till I got my left arm
around the rock, and my chest was resting on it. The
rest was easy; in two or three more seconds I was up,
and we were lying panting side by side, trembling like
leaves, and with the cold perspiration of terror
pouring from our skins.
And then, as before, the light went out like a lamp.
For some half-hour we lay thus without speaking a
word, and then at length began to creep along the
great spur as best we might in the dense gloom. As we
drew towards the face of the cliff, however, from
which the spur sprang out like a spike from a wall,
the light increased, though only a very little, for it
was night overhead. After that the gusts of wind
decreased, and we got along rather better, and at last
reached the mouth of the first cave or tunnel. But now
a fresh trouble stared us in the face: our oil was
gone, and the lamps were, no doubt, crushed to powder
beneath the fallen rocking-stone. We were even without
a drop of water to stay our thirst, for we had drunk
the last in the chamber of Noot. How were we to see to
make our way through this last boulder-strewn tunnel?
Clearly all that we could do was to trust to our sense
of feeling, and attempt the passage in the dark; so in
we crept, fearing that if we delayed to do so our
exhaustion would overcome us, and we should probably
lie down and die where we were.
Oh, the horrors of that last tunnel! The place was
strewn with rocks, and we fell over them, and knocked
ourselves up against them till we were bleeding from a
score of wounds. Our only guide was the side of the
cavern, which we kept touching, and so bewildered did
we grow in the darkness that we were several times
seized with the terrifying thought that we had turned,
and were travelling the wrong way. On we went, feebly,
and still more feebly, for hour after hour, stopping
every few minutes to rest, for our strength was spent.
Once we fell asleep, and, I think, must have slept for
some hours, for, when we woke, our limbs were quite
stiff, and the blood from our blows and scratches had
caked, and was hard and dry upon our skin. Then we
dragged ourselves on again, till at last, when despair
was entering into our hears, we once more saw the
light of day, and found ourselves outside the tunnel
in the rocky fold on the outer surface of the cliff
that, it will be remembered, led into it.
It was early morning--that we could tell by the feel
of the sweet air and the look of the blessed sky,
which we had never hoped to see again. It was, so near
as we knew, an hour after sunset when we entered the
tunnel, so it followed that it had taken us the entire
night to crawl through that dreadful place.
"One more effort, Leo," I gasped, "and we shall reach
the slope where Billali is, if he hasn't gone. Come,
don't give way," for he had cast himself upon his
face. He got up, and, leaning on each other, we got
down that fifty feet or so of cliff--somehow, I have
not the least notion how. I only remember that we
found ourselves lying in a heap at the bottom, and
then once more began to drag ourselves along on our
hands and knees towards the grove where _i_ She _i_
had told Billali to wait her rearrival, for we could
not walk another foot. We had not gone fifty yards in
this fashion when suddenly one of the mutes emerged
from some trees on our left, through which, I presume,
he had been taking a morning stroll, and came running
up to see what sort of strange animals we were. He
stared and stared, and then held up his hands in
horror, and nearly fell to the ground. Next, he
started off as hard as he could for the grove, some
two hundred yards away. No wonder that he was
horrified at our appearance, for we must have been a
shocking sight. To begin, Leo, with his golden curls
turned a snowy white, his clothes nearly rent from his
body, his worn face and his hands a mass of bruises,
cuts, and blood-encrusted filth, was a sufficiently
alarming spectacle, as he painfully dragged himself
along the ground, and I have no doubt that I was
little better to look on. I know that two days
afterwards when I looked at my face in some water I
scarcely recognized myself. I have never been famous
for beauty, but there was something besides ugliness
stamped upon my features that I have never got rid of
until this day, something resembling that wild look
with which a startled person wakes from deep sleep
more than anything else that I can think of. And
really it is not to be wondered at. What I do wonder
at is that we escaped at all with our reason.
Presently, to my intense relief, I saw old Billali
hurrying towards us, and even then I could scarcely
help smiling at the expression of consternation on his
dignified countenance.
"Oh, my Baboon; my Baboon!" he cried, "my dear son, is
it indeed thee and the Lion? Why, his mane that was
ripe as corn is white like the snow. Whence come ye?
and where is the Pig and where too _i_ She _i_ -who-
must-be-obeyed?"
"Dead, both dead," I answered; "but ask no questions;
help us, and give us food and water, or we too shall
die before thine eyes. Seest thou not that our tongues
are black for want of water? How can we talk then?"
"Dead!" he gasped. "impossible. _i_ She _i_ who never
dies--dead, how can it be?" and then, perceiving, I
think, that his face was being watched by the mutes
who had come running up, he checked himself, and
motioned to them to carry us to the camp, which they
did.
Fortunately when we arrived some broth was boiling on
the fire, and with this Billali fed us, for we were
too weak to feed ourselves, thereby, I firmly believe,
saving us from death by exhaustion. Then he bade the
mutes wash the blood and grime from us with wet
cloths, and after that we were laid down upon piles of
aromatic grass, and instantly fell into the dead sleep
of absolute exhaustion of mind and body.
CHAPTER XXVIII--
OVER THE MOUNTAIN
THE next thing I recollect is a feeling of the most
dreadful stiffness, and a sort of vague idea passing
through my half-awakened brain that I was a carpet
that had just been beaten. I opened my eyes, and the
first thing they fell on was the venerable countenance
of our old friend Billali, who was seated by the side
of the improvised bed upon which I was sleeping, and
thoughtfully stroking his long beard. The sight of him
at once brought back to my mind a recollection of all
that we had recently passed through, which was
accentuated by the vision of poor Leo lying opposite
to me, his face knocked almost to a jelly, and his
beautiful crown of curls turned from yellow to white,
and I shut my eyes again and groaned.
"Thou hast slept long, my Baboon," said old Billali.
"How long, my father?" I asked.
"A round of the sun and a round of the moon, a day and
a night hast thou slept, and the Lion also. See, he
sleepeth yet."
"Blessed is sleep," I answered, "for it swallows up
recollection."
"Tell me," he said, "what hath befallen ye, and what
is this strange story of the death of her who dieth
not. Bethink thee, my son: if this be true, then is
thy danger and the danger of the Lion very great--nay,
almost is the pot red wherewith ye shall be potted,
and the stomachs of those who shall eat ye are already
hungry for the feast. Knowest thou not that these
Amahagger, my children, these dwellers in the caves,
hate ye? They hate ye as strangers, they hate ye more
because of their brethren whom _i_ She _i_ put to the
torment for your sake. Assuredly, if once they learn
that there is naught to fear from Hiya, from the
terrible _i_ One-who-must-be-obeyed _i_ , they will
slay ye by the pot. But let me hear thy tale, my poor
Baboon."
Thus adjured, I set to work and told him--not
everything, indeed, for I did not think it desirable
to do so, but sufficient for my purpose, which was to
make him understand that _i_ She _i_ was really no
more, having fallen into some fire, and, as I put it--
for the real thing would have been incomprehensible to
him--been burned up. I also told him some of the
horrors we had undergone in effecting our escape, and
these produced a great impression on him. But I
clearly saw that he did not believe in the report of
Ayesha's death. He believed, indeed, that we thought
that she was dead, but his explanation was that it had
suited her to disappear for a while. Once, he said, in
his father's time, she had done so for twelve years,
and there was a tradition in the country that many
centuries back no one had seen her for a whole
generation, when she suddenly reappeared, and
destroyed a woman who had assumed the position of
queen. I said nothing to this, but only shook my head
sadly. Alas! I knew too well that Ayesha would appear
no more, or, at any rate, that Billali would see her
again.
"And now," concluded Billali, "what wouldst thou do,
my Baboon?"
"Nay," I said, "I know not, my father. Can we not
escape from this country?"
He shook his head. "It is very difficult. By Ko^r ye
cannot pass, for ye would be seen, and as soon as
those fierce ones found that ye were alone, well," and
he smiled significantly, and made a movement as though
he were placing a hat on his head. "But there is a way
over the cliff whereof I once spake to thee, where
they drive the cattle out to pasture. Then beyond the
pastures are three days journey through the marshes,
and after that I know not, but I have heard that seven
days' journey from thence is a mighty river, which
floweth to the black water. If ye could come thither,
perchance ye might escape, but how can ye come
thither?"
"Billali," I said, "once, thou knowest, I did save thy
life. Now pay back the debt, my father, and save me
mine and my friend's, the Lion's. It shall be a
pleasant thing for thee to think of when thine hour
comes, and something to set in the scale against the
evil doing of thy days, if perchance thou hast done
any evil. Also, if thou be right, and if _i_ She _i_
doth but hide herself, surely when she comes again she
shall reward thee."
"My son the Baboon," answered the old man, "think not
that I have an ungrateful heart. Well do I remember
how thou didst rescue me when those dogs stood by to
see me drown. Measure for measure will I give thee,
and if thou canst be saved, surely I will save thee.
listen: by dawn to-morrow be prepared, for litters
shall be here to bear ye away across the mountains,
and through the marshes beyond. This will I do, saying
that it is the word of _i_ She _i_ that it be done,
and he who obeyeth not the word of _i_ She _i_ food is
he for the hyenas. Then when ye have crossed the
marshes, ye must strike with your own hands, so that
perchance, if good fortune go with you, ye may live to
come to that black water whereof ye told me. And now,
see, the Lion wakes, and ye must eat the food I have
made ready for you."
Leo's condition, when once he was fairly aroused,
proved not to be so bad as might have been expected
from his appearance, and we both of us managed to eat
a hearty meal, which, indeed, we needed sadly enough.
After this we limped down to the spring and bathed,
and then came back and slept again till evening, when
we once more ate enough for five. Billali was away all
that day, no doubt making arrangements about litters
and bearers, for we were awakened in the middle of the
night by the arrival of a considerable number of men
in the little camp.
At dawn the old man himself appeared, and told us that
he had, by using _i_ She _i_ 's dreaded name, though
with some difficulty, succeeded in getting the
necessary men and two guides to conduct us across the
swamps, and that he urged us to start at once, at the
same time announcing his intention of accompanying us
so as to protect us against treachery. I was much
touched by this act of kindness on the part of that
wily old barbarian towards two utterly defenceless
strangers. A three--or in his case, for he would have
to return, six--days' journey through those deadly
swamps was no light undertaking for a man of his age,
but he consented to do it cheerfully in order to
promote our safety. It shows that even among those
dreadful Amahagger--who are certainly, with their
gloom and their devilish and ferocious rites, by far
the most terrible savages that I ever heard of--there
are people with kindly hearts. Of course self-interest
may have had something to do with it. He may have
thought that _i_ She _i_ would suddenly reappear and
demand an account of us at his hands, but still,
allowing for all deductions, it was a great deal more
than we could expect under the circumstances, and I
can only say that I shall, for as long as I live,
cherish a most affectionate remembrance of my nominal
parent, old Billali.
Accordingly, after swallowing some food, we started in
the litters, feeling, so far as our bodies went,
wonderfully like our old selves after our long rest
and sleep. I must leave the condition of our minds to
the imagination.
Then came a terrible pull up the cliff. Sometimes the
ascent was natural, more often it was a zigzag roadway
cut, no doubt, in the first instance by the old
inhabitants of Ko^r. The Amahagger say they drive
their spare cattle over it once a year to pasture
outside; all I know is that those cattle must be
uncommonly active on their feet. Of course the litters
were useless here, so we had to walk.
By midday, however, we reached the great flat top of
that mighty wail of rock, and grand enough the view
was from it, with the plain of Ko^r, in the centre of
which we could clearly make out the pillared ruins of
the Temple of Truth to the one side, and the boundless
and melancholy marsh on the other. This wall of rock,
which had no doubt once formed the lip of the crater,
was about a mile and a half thick, and still covered
with clinker. Nothing grew there, and the only thing
to relieve our eyes were occasional pools of rain-
water (for rain had lately fallen) wherever there was
a little hollow. Over the flat crest of this mighty
rampart we went, and then came the descent, which, if
not so difficult a matter as the getting up, was still
sufficiently break-neck, and took us till sunset. That
night, however, we camped in safety upon the mighty
slopes that roiled away to the marsh beneath.
On the following morning, about eleven o'clock, began
our dreary journey across those awful seas of swamps
which I have already described.
For three whole days, through stench and mire, and the
all-prevailing flavor of fever, did our bearers
struggle along, till at length we came to open,
roiling ground, quite uncultivated and mostly
treeless, but covered with game of all sorts, which
lies beyond that most desolate, and without guides,
utterly impracticable, district. And here on the
following morning we bade farewell, not without some
regret, to old Billali, who stroked his white beard
and solemnly blessed us.
"Farewell, my son the Baboon," he said, "and farewell
to thee too, O Lion. I can do no more to help you. But
if ever ye come to your country, be advised, and
venture no more into lands that ye know not, lest ye
come back no more, but leave your white bones to mark
the limit of your journeyings. Farewell once more;
often shall I think of you, nor wilt thou forget me,
my Baboon, for though thy face is ugly thy heart is
true." And then he turned and went, and with him went
the tall and sullen-looking bearers, and that was the
last that we saw of the Amahagger. We watched them
winding away with the empty litters like a procession
bearing dead men from a battle, till the mists from
the marsh gathered round them and hid them, and then,
left utterly desolate in the vast wilderness, we
turned and gazed around us and at each other.
Three weeks or so before four men had entered the
marshes of Ko^r, and now two of us were dead, and the
other two had gone through adventures and experiences
so strange and terrible that Death himself hath not a
more fearful countenance. Three weeks--and only three
weeks! Truly time should be measured by events, and
not by the lapse of hours. It seemed like thirty years
since we saw the last of our whaleboat.
"We must strike out for the Zambesi, Leo," I said,
"but God knows if we shall ever get there."
Leo nodded. He had become very silent of late, and we
started with nothing but the clothes we stood in, a
compass, our revolvers and express rifles, and about
two hundred rounds of ammunition, and so ended the
history of our visit to the ancient ruins of mighty
and imperial Ko^r.
As for the adventures that subsequently befell us,
strange and varied as they were, I have, after
deliberation, determined not to record them here. In
these pages I have only tried to give a short and
clear account of an occurrence which I believe to be
unprecedented, and this I have done, not with a view
to immediate publication, but merely to put on paper
while they are yet fresh in our memories the details
of our journey and its result, which will, I believe,
prove interesting to the world if ever we determine to
make them public. This, as at present advised, we do
not intend should be done during our joint lives.
For the rest, it is of no public interest, resembling
as it does the experience of more than one Central
African traveller. Suffice it to say, that we did,
after incredible hardships and privations, reach the
Zambesi, which proved to be about a hundred and
seventy miles south of where Billali left us. There we
were for six months imprisoned by a savage tribe, who
believed us to be supernatural beings, chiefly on
account of Leo's youthful face and snow-white hair.
From these people we ultimately escaped, and, crossing
the Zambesi, wandered off southward, where, when on
the point of starvation, we were sufficiently
fortunate to fall in with a half-caste Portuguese
elephant-hunter who had followed a troop of elephants
farther inland than he had ever been before. This man
treated us most hospitably, and ultimately through his
assistance we, after innumerable sufferings and
adventures, reached Delagoa Bay, more than eighteen
months from the time when we emerged from the marshes
of Ko^r, and the very next day managed to catch one of
the steamboats that run round the Cape to England. Our
journey home was a prosperous one, and we set our foot
on the quay at Southampton exactly two years from the
date of our departure upon our wild and seemingly
ridiculous quest, and I now write these last words
with Leo leaning over my shoulder in my old room in my
college, the very same into which, some two-and-twenty
years ago, my poor friend Vincey came stumbling on the
memorable night of his death, bearing the iron chest
with him.
And that is the end of this history so far as it
concerns science and the outside world. What its end
will be as regards Leo and myself is more than I can
guess at. But we feel that it is not reached yet. A
story that began more than two thousand years ago may
stretch a long way into the dim and distant future.
Is Leo really a reincarnation of the ancient
Kallikrates of whom the inscription tells? Or was
Ayesha deceived by some strange hereditary
resemblance? The reader must form his own opinion on
this as on many other matters. I have mine, which is
that she made no such mistake.
Often I sit alone at night, staring with, the eyes of
the mind into the blackness of unborn time, and
wondering in what shape and form the great drama will
be finally developed, and where the scene of its next
act will be laid. And when that final development
ultimately occurs, as I have no doubt it must and will
occur, in obedience to a fate that never swerves and a
purpose that cannot be altered, what will be the part
played therein by that beautiful Egyptian Amenartas,
the princess of the royal race of the Pharaohs, for
the love of whom the Priest Kallikrates broke his vows
to Isis, and, pursued by the inexorable vengeance of
the outraged goddess, fled down the coast of Libya to
meet his doom at Ko^r?