by Edgar Saltus
CHAPTER III.
III.
In the distance the white and yellow limestone of the mountains rose. Nearby was a laughter of flowers, a tumult of green. Just beyond, in a borderof sedge and rushes, a lake lay, a mirror to the sky. In the backgroundwere the blue and white terraces of Magdala, and about a speaker wereclustered a handful of people, a group of laborers and of fishermen.
He was dressed as a rabbi, but he looked like a seer. In his face was theyouth of the world, in his eyes the infinite. As he spoke, his wordsthrilled and his presence allured. "Repent," he was saying; "the kingdomof heaven is at hand." And as the resplendent prophecy continued, youwould have said that a bird in his heart had burst into song.
A little to one side, in an attitude of amused contempt, a few of thetetrarch's courtiers stood; they were dressed in the Roman fashion, andone, Pandera, a captain of the guard, wore a cuirass that glittered as helaughed. He was young and very handsome. He had white teeth, red lips, afair skin, a dark beard, and, as he happened to be stationed in theprovinces, an acquired sneer. Dear old Rome, how vague it was! And as hejested with his comrades he thought of its delights, and wished himselfeither back again in the haunts he loved, or else, if he must be separatedfrom them, then, instead of vegetating in a tiresome tetrarchy, he feltthat it would be pleasant to be far off somewhere, where the uncouthBritons were, a land which it took a year of adventures to reach; on thebanks of the Betis, whence the girls came that charmed the lupanars; inNumidia, where the hunting was good; or in Thrace, where there was bloodin plenty--anywhere, in fact, save on the borders of the beautiful lakewhere he happened to be.
It was but the restlessness of youth, perhaps, that disturbed him so, forin Galilee there were oafs as awkward as any that Britannia could show;there was game in abundance; blood, too, was not as infrequent as it mighthave been; and as for women, there at his side stood one as appetizing asRome, Spain even, had produced. He turned to her now, and plucked at hisdark beard and showed his white teeth; he had caught a phrase of the rabbiin which the latter had mentioned the kingdoms of the earth, and thephrase amused him.
"I like that," he said. "What does he know about the kingdoms of theearth? Mary, I wager what you will that he has never been two leagues fromwhere he stands. Let's ask and see."
But Mary did not seem to hear. She was engrossed in the rabbi, and Panderahad to tug at her sleeve before she consented to return to a life in whichhe seemingly had a part.
"What do you say?" he asked.
Mary shook her head. She had the air of one whose mind is elsewhere. Intoher face a vacancy had come; she seemed incapable of reply; and as theguardsman scrutinized her it occurred to him that she might be on thepoint of having an attack of that catalepsy to which he knew her to besubject. But immediately she reassured him.
"Come, let us go."
And, the guardsman at her side, the others in her train, she ascended thelittle hill on which her castle was, and where the midday meal awaited.
It was a charming residence. Built quadrangularwise, the court held afountain which was serviceable to those that wished to bathe. The roof wasa garden. The interior facade was of teak wood, carved and colored; thefrontal was of stone. Seen from the exterior it looked the fortress ofsome umbrageous prince, but in the courtyard reigned the seduction of awoman in love. From without it menaced, within it soothed.
Her title to it was a matter of doubt. According to Pandera, who at themess-table at Tiberias had boasted his possession of her confidence, itwas a heritage from her father. Others declared that it had been given herby her earliest lover, an old man who since had passed away. Yet, afterall, no one cared. She kept open house; the tetrarch held her in highesteem; she was attached to the person of the tetrarch's wife; only alittle before, the emir of Tadmor had made a circuitous journey to visither; Vitellius, the governor of the province, had stopped time and againbeneath her roof; and--and here was the point--to see her was to acquire anew conception of beauty. Of human flowers she was the most fair.
Yet now, during the meal that followed, Mary, the toast of the tetrarchy,she whose wit and brilliance had been echoed even in Rome, wrapped herselfin a mantle of silence. The guardsman jested in vain. To the others shepaid as much attention as the sun does to a torch; and when at lastPandera, annoyed, perhaps, at her disregard of a quip of his, attempted towhisper in her ear, she left the room.
The nausea of the hour may have affected her, for presently, as she threwherself on her great couch, her thoughts forsook the present and went backinto the past, her childhood returned, and faces that she had lovedreappeared and smiled. Her father, for instance, Theudas, who had beensatrap of Syria, and her mother, Eucharia, a descendant of former kings.
But of these her memories were slight--they had died when she was stillvery young--and in their place came her sister, Martha, kind of heart andquick of temper, obdurate, indulgent, and continually perplexed; Simon,Martha's husband, a Libyan, born in Cyrene, called by many the Leperbecause of a former whiteness of his skin, a whiteness which had longsince vanished, for he was brown as a date; Eleazer, her brother, youngerthan herself, a delicate boy with blue pathetic eyes; and with them camethe delight of Bethany, that lovely village on the oriental slope of theMount of Olives, where the rich of Jerusalem had their villas, and whereher girlhood had been passed.
From the lattice at which she used to sit she could see the wide whiteroad begin its descent to the Jordan, a stretch of almond trees andoleanders; and just beyond, in a woody hollow, a little house in whichSephorah lived--a woman who came from no one knew where, and to whom Marthahad forbidden her to speak.
She could see her still, a gaunt, gray creature, with projectingcheek-bones, a skin of brick, and a low, insinuating voice. Thefascination which she had exercised over her partook both of wonder and offear, for it was rumored that she was a sorceress, and as old as theworld. To Mary, who was then barely nubile, and inquisitive as onlyfanciful children are, she manifested a great affection, enticing her toher dwelling with little cakes that were sweet to the tooth and fabuloustales that stirred the heart: the story of Stratonice and Combabus, forinstance, which Mary did not in the least understand, but which seemed toher intensely sad.
"And then what?" she would ask when the tale was done; and the woman wouldtell her of Ninus and Semiramis, of Sennachereb, of Sardanapalus,Belsarazzur, of Dagon, the fish-god of Philistia, by whom Goliath sworeand in whose temple Samson died, or of Sargon, who, placed by his motherin an ark of rushes, was set adrift in the Euphrates, yet, happilydiscovered by a water-carrier, afterwards became a leader of men.
"Why, that was Moses!" the child would exclaim.
"No, no," the woman invariably answered, "it was Sargon."
But that which pleasured Mary more highly even than these tales were thelegends of Hither Asia, the wonderlands of Babylon, and particularly thestory of the creation, for always the human mind has wished to read thebook of God.
"Where did they say the world came from?" she would ask.
And Sephorah, drawing a long breath, would answer: "Once all was darknessand water. In this chaos lived strange animals, and men with two wings,and others with four wings and two faces. Some had the thighs of goats,some had horns, and some had horses' feet, or were formed behind like ahorse and in front like a man; there were bulls with human faces, and menwith the heads of dogs, and other animals of human shape with fins likefishes, and fishes like sirens, and dragons, and creeping things, andserpents, and fierce creatures, the images of which are preserved in thetemple of Bel.
"Over all these ruled the great mother, Um Uruk. But Bel, whom your peoplecall Baal, divided the darkness and clove the woman asunder. Of one parthe made the earth, and of the other the sun, the moon, the planets. Hedrew off the water, apportioned it to the land, and prepared and arrangedthe world. The creatures on it could not endure the light of day andbecame extinct.
"Now when Bel saw the
land fruitful yet uninhabited, he cut off his headand made one of the gods mingle the blood which flowed from it with earthand form therewith men and animals that could endure the sun. PresentlyChaldaea was plentifully populated, but the inhabitants lived like animals,without order or rule. Then there appeared to them from the sea a monsterof the name of Yan. Its body was that of a fish, but under its headanother head was attached, and on its fins were feet, and its voice wasthat of a man. Its image is still preserved. It came at morning, passedthe day, and taught language and science, the harvesting of seeds and offruits, the rules for the boundaries of land, the mode of building citiesand temples, arts and writing and all that pertains to civilized life, andfor four hundred and thirty-two thousand years the world went very well.
"Then in a dream Bel revealed to Xisuthrus that there would be a greatstorm, and men would be destroyed. He bade him bury in Sepharvaim, thecity of the sun, all the ancient, mediaeval, and modern records, and builda ship and embark in it with his kindred and his nearest friends. He wasalso to take food and drink into the ship, and pairs of all creatureswinged and four-footed.
"Xisuthrus did as he was bidden, and from the ends of heaven the stormbegan to blow. Bin thundered; Nebo, the Revealer, came forth; Nergal, theDestroyer, overthrew; and Adar, the Sublime, swept in his brightnessacross the earth. The storm devoured the nations, it lapped the sky,turned the land into an ocean, and destroyed everything that lived. Eventhe gods were afraid. They sought refuge in the heaven of Anu, sovereignof the upper realms. As hounds draw in their tails, they seated themselveson their thrones, and to them Mylitta, the great goddess, spake: 'Theworld has turned from me, and ruin I have proclaimed.' She wept, and thegods on their thrones wept with her.
"On the seventh day Xisuthrus perceived that the storm had abated and thatthe sea had begun to fall. He sent out a dove, it returned; next, aswallow, which also returned, but with mud on its feet; and again, araven, which saw the corpses in the water and ate them, and returned nomore. Then the boat was stayed and settled upon Mount Nasir. Xisuthruswent out and worshipped the recovered earth. When his companions went insearch of him he had disappeared, but his voice called to them saying thatfor his piety he had been carried away; that he was dwelling among thegods; and that they were to return to Sepharvaim and dig up the books andgive them to mankind. Which they did, and erected many cities and temples,and rebuilt Babylon and Mylitta's shrine."
"It is simpler in Genesis," Mary said, the first time she heard thismarvellous tale. For to her, as to Martha and Eleazer, the khazzan, theteacher of the synagogue, had read from the great square letters in whichthe Pentateuch was written another account of the commingling of Chaos andof Light.
At the mention of the sacred canon, Sephorah would smile with thatindulgence which wisdom brings, and smooth her scanty plaits, and draw theback of her hand across her mouth.
"Burned on tiles in the land of the magi are the records of a millionyears. In the unpolluted tombs of Osorapi the history of life and of timeis written on the cerements of kings. Where the bells ring at the neck ofthe camels of Iran is a stretch of columns on which are inscribed thewords of those that lived in Paradise. On a wall of the temple of Bel arethe chronicles of creation; in the palace of Assurbanipal, the narrativeof the flood. It is from these lands and monuments the Thorah comes; itsverses are made of their memories; it gathered whatever it found, andoverlooked the essential, immortal life."
And Sephorah added in a whisper, "For we are descended from gods, andimmortal as they."
The khazzan had disclosed to Mary no such prospect as that. To him as toall orthodox expounders of the Law man was essentially evanescent; helived his little day and disappeared forever. God alone was immortal, andan immortal being would be God. The contrary beliefs of the Egyptians andthe Aryans were to them abominations, and the spiritualistic doctrineinaugurated by Juda Maccabaeus and accepted by the Pharisees, an impiety.The Pentateuch had not a word on the subject. Moses had expressly declaredthat secret things belong to the Lord, and only visible things to man. Theprophets had indeed foretold a terrestrial immortality, but thatimmortality was the immortality of a nation; and the realization of theirprophecy the entire people awaited. Apart from that there was only Sheol,a sombre region of the under-earth, to which the dead descended, and thereremained without consciousness, abandoned by God.
"Immortal!" Mary, with great wondering eyes, would echo. "Immortal!"
"Yes; but to become so," Sephorah replied, "you must worship at anothershrine."
"Where is it?"
Sephorah answered evasively. Mary would find it in time--when the springcame, perhaps; and meanwhile she had a word or two to say of Baal to sucheffect even that Mary questioned the khazzan.
"However great the god of the Gentiles has been imagined," the khazzanannounced, "he is bounded by the earth and the sky. His feet may touch theone, his head the other, but of nature he is a part, and, to the Eternal,nature is not even a garment, it is a substance He made, and which He canremould at will. It is not in nature, it is in light, He is: in theburning bush in which He revealed Himself; in the stake at which Isaacwould have died; in the lightning in which the Law was declared, thecolumn of fire, the flame of the sacrifices, and the gleaming throne inwhich Isaiah saw Him sit--it is there that He is, and His shadow is thesun."
Of this Mary repeated the substance to her friend, and Sephorah mused.
"No," she said at last--"no, he is not in light, but in the desert wherenature is absent, and where the world has ceased to be. The threats of aland that never smiled are reflected in his face. The sight of him isdeath. No, Baal is the sun-god. His eyes fecundate."
And during the succeeding months Sephorah entertained Mary with Assyrianannals and Egyptian lore. She told her more of Baal, whose temple was inBabylon, and of Baaltis, who reigned at Ascalon. She told her of the womenwho wept for Tammuz, and explained the reason of their tears. She told herof the union of Ptah, the unbegotten begetter of the first beginning, andof Neith, mother of the sun; of the holy incest of Isis and Osiris; and ofLuz, called by the patriarchs Bethel, the House of God, the foothold of astraight stairway which messengers ceaselessly ascended and descended, andat whose summit the Elohim sat.
She told her of these things, of others as well; and now and then in thetelling of them a fat little man with beady eyes would wander in, thesmell of garlic about him, and stare at Mary's lips. His name was Pappus;by Sephorah he was treated with great respect, and Mary learned that hewas rich and knew that Sephorah was poor.
When the Passover had come and gone, Sephorah detected that Mary hadceased to be a child; and of the gods and goddesses with whose adventuresshe was wont to entertain her, gradually she confined herself to Mylitta;and in describing the wonderlands which she knew so well, she spoke nowonly of Babylon, where the great tower was, and the gardens that hung inthe air.
It was all very marvellous and beautiful, and Sephorah described it infitting terms. There was the Temple of the Seven Spheres, where thepriests offered incense to the Houses of the Planets, to the whole host ofheaven, and to Bel, Lord of the Sky. There was the Home of the Height, asheer flight of solid masonry extending vertiginously, and surmounted byturrets of copper capped with gold. In its utmost pinnacle were asanctuary and a dazzling couch. There the priests said that sometimes Belcame and rested. For the truth of that statement, however, Sephorahdeclined to vouch. She had never seen him; but the hanging gardens she hadseen, long before they were demolished. She had walked in them, and shedescribed their loveliness, and related that they were erected to pleasurea Persian princess whose eyes had wearied of the monotony of theBabylonian plain.
Once when Pappus was present--and latterly he had been often there--shepassed from the gardens to the grove where the temple of Mylitta stood. Atthe steps of the shrine, she declared, were white-winged lions, andimmense bulls with human heads. Within were dovecotes and cisterns, theemblems of fecundity, and a block of stone which she did not describe.Without, among the terebi
nths and evergreens, were little cabins and anavenue bordered by cypress trees, in which men with pointed hats and longembroidered gowns passed slowly, for there the maidens of Babylon sat,chapleted with cords, burning bran for perfume, awaiting the will of thefirst who should toss a coin in their lap and in the name of Mylittainvite them to perform the sacred rite.
"That," said Sephorah, "is the worship Mylitta exacts." As she spoke shedrew herself up, her height increased, an unnatural splendor filled hereyes. "I," she continued, "am her priestess. I sacrificed at Byblus, butyou may sacrifice here. There is a dovecote, yonder is a cistern, beyondare the cypress and the evergreens that she loves. Mary, do you wish to beimmortal? Do you see the way?"
Mary smiled vaguely, and with the serenity of one worshipping a divinityshe suffered the fat Jerusalemite to take her in his arms.
And now as she lay on her great couch these things returned to her, andsubsequent episodes as well. There had been the lamentable grief ofMartha, the added pathos in her brother's eyes. The estate of her fatherhad been divided, and the castle of Magdala had fallen to her share.Meanwhile she had been at Jerusalem, and from there she had journeyed toAntioch, where she had heard the beasts roar in the arena. She had lookedon blood, on the honey-colored moon that effaced the stars, and everywhereshe had encountered love.
Since then her hours had been grooved in revolving circles of alternatingdelights, and delights to which no shadow of regret had come. To her,youth had been a chalice of aromatic wine. She had drained it and found nodregs. Day had been interwoven with splendors, and night with the rays ofthe sun. Where she passed she conquered; when she smiled there were slavesready-made. There had been hot brawls where she trod, the gleam of whiteknives. Men had killed each other because of her eyes, and women had weptthemselves to death. For her a priest had gone mad, and a betrothed hadhid herself in the sea. In Hierapolis the galli had fancied her Ashtaroth;and at Capri, where Tiberius lounged, a villa awaited her will.
Her life had indeed been full, yet that morning its nausea had mounted toher heart. At the words of the rabbi the horizon had expanded, the dreamof immortality returned. It had been forgot long since and abandoned, butnow, for the first time since her childhood, something there was whichadmonished her that perhaps she still might stroll through lands wheredreams come true. The path was not wholly clear as yet, and as in hertroubled mind she tried to disentangle the past from the present the sunwent down behind the castle, the crouching shadows elongated and possessedthe walls.
An echo came to her, Repent, and the prophecy continuing danced in herears; yet still the way was obscure. In the echo she divined merely thatthe past must be put from her like a garment that is stained. The rest wasvague. Then suddenly she was back again in Machaerus, and she heard theringing words of John. Could this be the Messiah her nation awaited? wasthere a kingdom coming, and immortality too?
Her thoughts entangled and grew confused. There was a murmur of harps inthe distance, and she wondered whence it could come. Some one wasspeaking; she tried to rouse herself and listen. The room was filled withbats that changed to butterflies. The murmur of harps continued, andthrough the wall before her issued a litter in which a woman lay.
A circle of slaves surrounded her. She was pale, and her eyes closedlanguorously. "I am Indolence," she said. "Sleep is not softer than mycouch. My lightest wish is law to kings. I live on perfumes; my days areas shadows on glass. Mary, come with me, and I will teach you to forget."
She vanished, and where the litter had been stood a eunuch. "I am Envy,"he said, and his eyes drooped sullenly. "I separate those that love; Idismantle altars and dismember nations. I corrode and corrupt; I destroy,and I never rebuild. My joy is malice, and my creed false-witnessing.Mary, come with me, and you will learn to hate."
He disappeared, and where his slime had dripped stood a being with fingersintertwisted and a back that bent. "I am Greed," it said. "I sap the veinsof youth; I drain the hearts of women; I bring contention where peaceshould be. I make fathers destroy their sons, and daughters betray theirmother. I never forget, and I never release. I am the master. Mary, comewith me, and you shall own the world."
The fetor of the presence went, and in its place came one whose footstepsthundered. "I am Anger," he declared. "I exterminate and rejoice. I battenon blood. In my heart is suspicion, in my hand is flame. It is I that amwar and disaster and regret. My breath consumes, and my voice affrights.Mary, come with me, and you will learn to quell."
He dissolved, and in the shadows stood one whose hands were ample, andwhose wide mouth laughed. "I am Gluttony," he announced, and as he spokehis voice was thick. "I fatten and forsake. I offer satrapies for one newdish. I invite and alienate, I welcome and repel. It is I that bringdisease and disorders. I am the harbinger of Death. Mary, come with me,and you shall taste of Life."
He also disappeared, and two heralds entered with trumpets on which theyblew, and one exclaimed, "Make way for Assurbanipal, ruler of land and ofsea." Then, with horsemen riding royally, Sardanapalus advanced throughthe fissure in the wall. On his head a high and wonderful tiara shone withzebras that had wings and horns. His hair was long, and his beard curledin overlapping rings. His robe dazzled, and the close sleeves werefastened over his knuckles with bracelets of precious stones. In one handhe held a sceptre, in the other a chart.
"I," he cried--"I am Assurbanipal; the progeny of Assur and of Baaltis, sonof the great king Riduti, whom the lord of crowns, in days remoteprophesying in his name, raised to the kingdom, and in the womb of hismother created to rule. The man of war, the joy of Assur and of Istar, theroyal offspring, am I. When the gods seated me on the throne of the fathermy begetter, Bin poured down his rain, Hea feasted the people. My enemiesI destroyed, and their gods glorified me before my camp. The god of theiroracles, whose image no man had seen, I took, and the goddesses whom thekings worshipped I dishonored."
He paused and looked proudly about, then he continued:
"That which is in the storehouse of heaven is kindled, and to the city ofcities my glory flies. The queens above and below proclaim my glory. I amGlory, and I am Pride. Mary, come with me, and you shall disdain the sky."
But Mary gave no sign. The clattering horses vanished, and two men dressedin women's clothes appeared. They bowed to the ground and chanted:
"The holy goddess, our Lady Mylitta, whose sacrificants we are."
Then came a form so luminous that Mary hid her face and listened merely.
"I," said a voice--"I am Desire. In Greece I am revered, and there I amAphrodite. In Italy I am Venus; in Egypt, Hathor; in Armenia, Anaitis; inPersia, Anahita; Tanit in Carthage; Baaltis in Byblus; Derceto in Ascalon;Atargatis in Hierapolis; Bilet in Babylon; Ashtaroth to the Sidonians; andAschera in the glades of Judaea. And everywhere I am worshipped, andeverywhere I am Love. I bring joy and torture, delight and pain. I appeaseand appal. It is I that create and undo. It is I that make heaven andpeople hell. I am the mistress of the world. Without me time would ceaseto be. I am the germ of stars, the essence of things. I am all that is,will be, and has been, and my robe no mortal has raised. I breathe, andnations are; in my parturitions are planets; my home is space. My lips areblissfuller than any bloom of bliss; my arms the opening gates of life.The Infinite is mine. Mary, come with me, and you shall measure it."
When Mary ventured to look again the vision had gone. They had all gonenow. She had made no effort to detain them. They were tempters of whichshe was freed, in which she believed, and which were real to her. The wallthrough which they had come and departed was vague and in the darknessremote, but presently it dissolved again, and afar in the beckoningdistance was one breathing a soul into decrepit rites. "Come unto me, allye that sorrow and are heavy-laden," she heard him say; and, as with agreat sob of joy she rose to that gracious summons, night seized her. Whenshe awoke, a newer dawn had come.
