CHAPTER LXXXVIIThey Draw Nigh To Flozella
As if Mardi were a poem, and every island a canto, the shore now insight was called Flozella-a-Nina, or The-Last-Verse-of-the-Song.
According to Mohi, the origin of this term was traceable to theremotest antiquity.
In the beginning, there were other beings in Mardi besides Mardians;winged beings, of purer minds, and cast in gentler molds, who wouldfain have dwelt forever with mankind. But the hearts of the Mardianswere bitter against them, because of their superior goodness. Yetthose beings returned love for malice, and long entreated to virtueand charity. But in the end, all Mardi rose up against them, andhunted them from isle to isle; till, at last, they rose from thewoodlands like a flight of birds, and disappeared in the skies.Thereafter, abandoned of such sweet influences, the Mardians fell intoall manner of sins and sufferings, becoming the erring things theirdescendants were now. Yet they knew not, that their calamities were oftheir own bringing down. For deemed a victory, the expulsion of thewinged beings was celebrated in choruses, throughout Mardi. And amongother jubilations, so ran the legend, a pean was composed,corresponding in the number of its stanzas, to the number of islands.And a band of youths, gayly appareled, voyaged in gala canoes allround the lagoon, singing upon each isle, one verse of their song. AndFlozella being the last isle in their circuit, its queen commemoratedthe circumstance, by new naming her realm.
That queen had first incited Mardi to wage war against the beings withwings. She it was, who had been foremost in every assault. And thatqueen was ancestor of Hautia, now ruling the isle.
Approaching the dominions of one who so long had haunted me,conflicting emotions tore up my soul in tornadoes. Yet Hautia had heldout some prospect of crowning my yearnings. But how connected wereHautia and Yillah? Something I hoped; yet more I feared. Direpresentiments, like poisoned arrows, shot through me. Had they piercedme before, straight to Flozella would I have voyaged; not waiting forHautia to woo me by that last and victorious temptation. But unchangedremained my feelings of hatred for Hautia; yet vague those feelings,as the language of her flowers. Nevertheless, in some mysterious wayseemed Hautia and Yillah connected. But Yillah was all beauty, andinnocence; my crown of felicity; my heaven below;--and Hautia, mywhole heart abhorred. Yillah I sought; Hautia sought me. One, openlybeckoned me here; the other dimly allured me there. Yet now was Iwildly dreaming to find them together. But so distracted my soul, Iknew not what it was, that I thought.
Slowly we neared the land. Flozella-a-Nina!--An omen? Was this isle,then, to prove the last place of my search, even as it was the Last-Verse-of-the-Song?
CHAPTER LXXXVIIIThey Land
A jeweled tiara, nodding in spray, looks flowery Flozella, approachedfrom the sea. For, lo you! the glittering foam all round its whitemarge; where, forcing themselves underneath the coral ledge, and upthrough its crevices, in fountains, the blue billows gush. While,within, zone above zone, thrice zoned in belts of bloom, all the isle,as a hanging-garden soars; its tapering cone blending aloft, withheaven's own blue.
"What flies through the spray! what incense is this?" cried Media.
"Ha! you wild breeze! you have been plundering the gardens of Hautia,"cried Yoomy.
"No sweets can be sweeter," said Braid-Beard, "but no Upas more deadly."
Anon we came nearer; sails idly flapping, and paddles suspended; sleekcurrents our coursers. And round about the isle, like winged rainbows,shoals of dolphins were leaping over floating fragments of wrecks:--dark-green, long-haired ribs, and keels of canoes. For many shallops,inveigled by the eddies, were oft dashed to pieces against thatflowery strand. But what cared the dolphins? Mardian wrecks were theirhomes. Over and over they sprang: from east to west: rising andsetting: many suns in a moment; while all the sea, like a harvestplain, was stacked with their glittering sheaves of spray.
And far down, fathoms on fathoms, flitted rainbow hues:--as seines-full of mermaids; half-screening the bones of the drowned.
Swifter and swifter the currents now ran; till with a shock, our prowswere beached.
There, beneath an arch of spray, three dark-eyed maidens stood;garlanded with columbines, their nectaries nodding like jesters'bells; and robed in vestments blue.
"The pilot-fish transformed!" cried Yoomy.
"The night-eyed heralds three!" said Mohi.
Following the maidens, we now took our way along a winding vale;where, by sweet-scented hedges, flowed blue-braided brooks; theirtributaries, rivulets of violets, meandering through the meads.
On one hand, forever glowed the rosy mountains with a tropic dawn; andon the other; lay an Arctic eve;--the white daisies drifted in longbanks of snow, and snowed the blossoms from the orange boughs. There,summer breathed her bridal bloom; her hill-top temples crowned withbridal wreaths.
We wandered on, through orchards arched in long arcades, that seemedbaronial halls, hung o'er with trophies:--so spread the boughs inantlers. This orchard was the frontlet of the isle.
The fruit hung high in air, that only beaks, not hands, might pluck.
Here, the peach tree showed her thousand cheeks of down, kissed oftenby the wooing winds; here, in swarms; the yellow apples hived, likegolden bees upon the boughs; here, from the kneeling, fainting trees,thick fell the cherries, in great drops of blood; and here, thepomegranate, with cold rind and sere, deep pierced by bills of birdsrevealed the mellow of its ruddy core. So, oft the heart, that coldand withered seems, within yet hides its juices.
This orchard passed, the vale became a lengthening plain, that seemedthe Straits of Ormus bared so thick it lay with flowery gems:torquoise-hyacinths, ruby-roses, lily-pearls. Here roved the vagrantvines; their flaxen ringlets curling over arbors, which laughed andshook their golden locks. From bower to bower, flew the wee bird, thatever hovering, seldom lights; and flights of gay canaries passed, likejonquils, winged.
But now, from out half-hidden bowers of clematis, there issued swarmsof wasps, which flying wide, settled on all the buds.
And, fifty nymphs preceding, who now follows from those bowers, withgliding, artful steps:--the very snares of love!--Hautia. A gorgeousamaryllis in her hand; Circe-flowers in her ears; her girdle tied withvervain.
She came by privet hedges, drooping; downcast honey-suckles; she trodon pinks and pansies, blue-bells, heath, and lilies. She glided on:her crescent brow calm as the moon, when most it works its evilinfluences.
Her eye was fathomless.
But the same mysterious, evil-boding gaze was there, which long beforehad haunted me in Odo, ere Yillah fled.--Queen Hautia the incognito!Then two wild currents met, and dashed me into foam.
"Yillah! Yillah!--tell me, queen!" But she stood motionless; radiant,and scentless: a dahlia on its stalk. "Where? Where?"
"Is not thy voyage now ended?--Take flowers! Damsels, give him wine todrink. After his weary hunt, be the wanderer happy."
I dashed aside their cups, and flowers; still rang the vale with Yillah!
"Taji! did I know her fate, naught would I now disclose; my heraldspledged their queen to naught. Thou but comest here to supplant thymourner's night-shade, with marriage roses. Damsels! give him wreaths;crowd round him; press him with your cups!"
Once more I spilled their wine, and tore their garlands. Is not that,the evil eye that long ago did haunt me? and thou, the Hautia who hastfollowed me, and wooed, and mocked, and tempted me, through all thislong, long voyage? I swear! thou knowest all."
"I am Hautia. Thou hast come at last. Crown him with your flowers!Drown him in your wine! To all questions, Taji! I am mute.--Away!--damsels dance; reel round him; round and round!"
Then, their feet made music on the rippling grass, like thousandleaves of lilies on a lake. And, gliding nearer, Hautia welcomedMedia; and said, "Your comrade here is sad:--be ye gay. Ho, wine!--Ipledge ye, guests!"
Then, marking all, I thought to seem what I was not, that I mightlearn at last the thing I sought.
So, three cups in hand I held; drank wine, a
nd laughed; and half-waymet Queen Hautia's blandishments.
CHAPTER LXXXIXThey Enter The Bower Of Hautia
Conducted to the arbor, from which the queen had emerged, we came to asweet-brier bower within; and reclined upon odorous mats.
Then, in citron cups, sherbet of tamarinds was offered to Media, Mohi,Yoomy; to me, a nautilus shell, brimmed with a light-like fluid, thatwelled, and welled like a fount.
"Quaff, Taji, quaff! every drop drowns a thought!"
Like a blood-freshet, it ran through my veins.
A philter?--How Hautia burned before me! Glorious queen! with all theradiance, lighting up the equatorial night.
"Thou art most magical, oh queen! about thee a thousand constellationscluster."
"They blaze to burn," whispered Mohi.
"I see ten million Hautias!--all space reflects her, as a mirror."
Then, in reels, the damsels once more mazed, the blossoms shaking fromtheir brows; till Hautia, glided near; arms lustrous as rainbows:chanting some wild invocation.
My soul ebbed out; Yillah there was none! but as I turned round open-armed, Hautia vanished.
"She is deeper than the sea," said Media.
"Her bow is bent," said Yoomy.
"I could tell wonders of Hautia and her damsels," said Mohi.
"What wonders?"
"Listen; and in his own words will I recount the adventure of theyouth Ozonna. It will show thee, Taji, that the maidens of Hautia areall Yillahs, held captive, unknown to themselves; and that Hautia,their enchantress, is the most treacherous of queens.
"'Camel-like, laden with woe,' said Ozonna, 'after many wild rovingsin quest of a maiden long lost--beautiful Ady! and after beingrepelled in Maramma; and in vain hailed to land at Serenia,represented as naught but another Maramma;--with vague promises ofdiscovering Ady, three sirens, who long had pursued, at last inveigledme to Flozella; where Hautia made me her thrall. But ere long, in Rea,one of her maidens, I thought I discovered my Ady transformed. My armsopened wide to embrace; but the damsel knew not Ozonna. And even, whenafter hard wooing, I won her again, she seemed not lost Ady, but Rea.Yet all the while, from deep in her strange, black orbs, Ady's blueeyes seemed pensively looking:--blue eye within black: sad, silentsoul within merry. Long I strove, by fixed ardent gazing, to break thespell, and restore in Rea my lost one's Past. But in vain. It was onlyRea, not Ady, who at stolen intervals looked on me now. One morningHautia started as she greeted me; her quick eye rested on my bosom;and glancing there, affrighted, I beheld a distinct, fresh mark, theimpress of Rea's necklace drop. Fleeing, I revealed what had passed tothe maiden, who broke from my side; as I, from Hautia's. The queensummoned her damsels, but for many hours the call was unheeded; andwhen at last they came, upon each bosom lay a necklace-drop likeRea's. On the morrow, lo! my arbor was strown over with bruisedLinden-leaves, exuding a vernal juice. Full of forbodings, again Isought Rea: who, casting down her eyes, beheld her feet stained green.Again she fled; and again Hautia summoned her damsels: malicioustriumph in her eye; but dismay succeeded: each maid had spotted feet.That night Rea was torn from my side by three masks; who, stifling hercries, rapidly bore her away; and as I pursued, disappeared in a cave.Next morning, Hautia was surrounded by her nymphs, but Rea was absent.Then, gliding near, she snatched from my hair, a jet-black tress,loose-hanging. 'Ozonna is the murderer! See! Rea's torn hair entangledwith his!' Aghast, I swore that I knew not her fate. 'Then let thewitch Larfee be called!' The maidens darted from the bower; and soonafter, there rolled into it a green cocoa-nut, followed by the witch,and all the damsels, flinging anemones upon it. Bowling this way andthat, the nut at last rolled to my feet.--'It is he!' cried all.--Thenthey bound me with osiers; and at midnight, unseen and irresistiblehands placed me in a shallop; which sped far out into the lagoon,where they tossed me to the waves; but so violent the shock, theosiers burst; and as the shallop fled one way, swimming another, erelong I gained land.
"'Thus in Flozella, I found but the phantom of Ady, and slew the lasthope of Ady the true.'"
This recital sank deep into my soul. In some wild way, Hautia had madea captive of Yillah; in some one of her black-eyed maids, the blue-eyed One was transformed. From side to side, in frenzy, I turned; butin all those cold, mystical eyes, saw not the warm ray that I sought.
"Hast taken root within this treacherous soil?" cried Media. "Away!thy Yillah is behind thee, not before. Deep she dwells in blueSerenia's groves; which thou would'st not search. Hautia mocks thee;away! The reef is rounded; but a strait flows between this isle andOdo, and thither its ruler must return. Every hour I tarry here, somewretched serf is dying there, for whom, from blest Serenia, _I carrylife and joy. Away!_"
"Art still bent on finding evil for thy good?" cried Mohi.--"How canYillah harbor here?--Beware!--Let not Hautia so enthrall thee."
"Come away, come away," cried Yoomy. "Far hence is Yillah! and he whotarries among these flowers, must needs burn juniper."
"Look on me, Media, Mohi, Yoomy. Here I stand, my own monument, tillHautia breaks the spell."
In grief they left me.
Vee-Vee's conch I heard no more.
CHAPTER XCTaji With Hautia
As their last echoes died away down the valley, Hautia glided near;--zone unbound, the amaryllis in her hand. Her bosom ebbed and flowed;the motes danced in the beams that darted from her eyes.
"Come! let us sin, and be merry. Ho! wine, wine, wine! and lapfuls offlowers! let all the cane-brakes pipe their flutes. Damsels! dance;reel, swim, around me:--I, the vortex that draws all in. Taji! Taji!--as a berry, that name is juicy in my mouth!--Taji, Taji!" and inchoruses, she warbled forth the sound, till it seemed issuing from hersyren eyes.
My heart flew forth from out its bars, and soared in air; but as myhand touched Hautia's, down dropped a dead bird from the clouds.
"Ha! how he sinks!--but did'st ever dive in deep waters, Taji? Did'stever see where pearls grow?--To the cave!--damsels, lead on!"
Then wending through constellations of flowers, we entered deepgroves. And thus, thrice from sun-light to shade, it seemed threebrief nights and days, ere we paused before the mouth of the cavern.
A bow-shot from the sea, it pierced the hill-side like a vaulted way;and glancing in, we saw far gleams of water; crossed, here and there,by long-flung distant shadows of domes and columns. All Venice seemedwithin.
From a stack of golden palm-stalks, the damsels now made torches; thenstood grouped; a sheaf of sirens in a sheaf of frame.
Illuminated, the cavern shone like a Queen of Kandy's casket: full ofdawns and sunsets.
From rocky roof to bubbling floor, it was columned with stalactites;and galleried all round, in spiral tiers, with sparkling, coral ledges.
And now, their torches held aloft, into the water the maidens softlyglided; and each a lotus floated; while, from far above, into the airHautia flung her flambeau; then bounding after, in the lake, twometeors were quenched.
Where she dived, the flambeaux clustered; and up among them, Hautiarose; hands, full of pearls.
"Lo! Taji; all these may be had for the diving; and Beauty, Health,Wealth, Long Life, and the Last Lost Hope of man. But through mealone, may these be had. Dive thou, and bring up one pearl if thoucanst."
Down, down! down, down, in the clear, sparkling water, till I seemedcrystalized in the flashing heart of a diamond; but from thosebottomless depths, I uprose empty handed.
"Pearls, pearls! thy pearls! thou art fresh from the mines. Ah, Taji!for thee, bootless deep diving. Yet to Hautia, one shallow plungereveals many Golcondas. But come; dive with me:--join hands--let meshow thee strange things."
"Show me that which I seek, and I will dive with thee, straightthrough the world, till we come up in oceans unknown."
"Nay, nay; but join hands, and I will take thee, where thy Past shallbe forgotten; where thou wilt soon learn to love the living, not thedead."
"Better to me, oh Hautia! all the bitterness of my buried dead, thanall the sweets of th
e life thou canst bestow; even, were it eternal."
CHAPTER XCIMardi Behind: An Ocean Before
Returned from the cave, Hautia reclined in her clematis bower,invisible hands flinging fennel around her. And nearer, and nearer,stole dulcet sounds dissolving my woes, as warm beams, snow. Strangelanguors made me droop; once more within my inmost vault, side byside, the Past and Yillah lay:--two bodies tranced;--while like arounding sun, before me Hautia magnified magnificence; and through herfixed eyes, slowly drank up my soul.
Thus we stood:--snake and victim: life ebbing out from me, to her.
But from that spell, I burst again, as all the Past smote all thePresent in me.
"Oh Hautia! thou knowest the mystery I die to fathom. I see itcrouching in thine eye:--Reveal!"
"Weal or woe?"
"Life or death!"
"See, see!" and Yillah's rose-pearl danced before me.
I snatched it from her hand:--"Yillah! Yillah!"
"Rave on: she lies too deep to answer; stranger voices than thine shehears:--bubbles are bursting round her."
"Drowned! drowned then, even as she dreamed:--I come, I come!--Ha,what form is this?--hast mosses? sea-thyme? pearls?--Help, help! Isink!--Back, shining monster!---What, Hautia,--is it thou?--Ohvipress, I could slay thee!"
"Go, go,--and slay thyself: I may not make thee mine;--go,--dead todead!--There is another cavern in the hill." Swift I fled along thevalley-side; passed Hautia's cave of pearls; and gained a twilightarch; within, a lake transparent shone. Conflicting currents met, andwrestled; and one dark arch led to channels, seaward tending.
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