CHAPTER X
Off into the forest I went, feeling a boyish elation to be so free nortaking heed or count of the reckless adventure before me. The Martianweather for the moment was lovely and the many-coloured grass lush andsoft under foot. Mile after mile I went, heeding the distance lightly,the air was so elastic. Now pressing forward as the main interest ofmy errand took the upper hand, and remembrance of poor Heru like acrushed white flower in the red grip of those cruel ravishers came uponme, and then pausing to sigh with pleasure or stand agape--forgetfuleven of her--in wonder of the unknown loveliness about me.
And well might I stare! Everything in that forest was wonderful!There were plants which turned from colour to colour with the varyinghours of the day. While others had a growth so swift it was dangerousto sit in their neighbourhood since the long, succulent tendrilsclambering from the parent stem would weave you into a helpless tanglewhile you gazed, fascinated, upon them. There were plants that climbedand walked; sighing plants who called the winged things of the air tothem with a noise so like to a girl sobbing that again and again Istopped in the tangled path to listen. There were green bladder-mosseswhich swam about the surface of the still pools like giganticfrog-broods. There were on the ridges warrior trees burning in thevindictiveness of a long forgotten cause--a blaze of crimson scimitarthorns from root to topmost twig; and down again in the cool hollowswere lady-bushes making twilight of the green gloom with their cloudyivory blossoms and filling the shadows with such a heavy scent thathead and heart reeled with fatal pleasure as one pushed aside theirbranches. Every river-bed was full of mighty reeds, whose stemsclattered together when the wind blew like swords on shields, and everynow and then a bit of forest was woven together with the ropey stems ofgiant creepers till no man or beast could have passed save for thepaths which constant use had kept open through the mazes.
All day long I wandered on through those wonderful woodlands, and infact loitered so much over their infinite marvels that when sundowncame all too soon there was still undulating forest everywhere, vistasof fairy glades on every hand, peopled with incredible things andechoing with sounds that excited the ears as much as other thingsfascinated the eyes, but no sign of the sea or my fishing villageanywhere.
It did not matter; a little of the Martian leisureliness was gettinginto my blood: "If not today, why then tomorrow," as An would havesaid; and with this for comfort I selected a warm, sandy hollow underthe roots of a big tree, made my brief arrangements for the night, atesome honey cakes, and was soon sleeping blissfully.
I woke early next morning, after many hours of interrupted dreams, andhaving nothing to do till the white haze had lifted and made itpossible to start again, rested idly a time on my elbow and watched thesunshine filter into the recesses.
Very pretty it was to see the thick canopy overhead, by star-light soimpenetrable, open its chinks and fissures as the searching sun cameupon it; to see the pin-hole gaps shine like spangles presently, thespaces broaden into lesser suns, and even the thick leafage brightenand shine down on me with a soft sea-green radiance. The sunward sidesof the tree-stems took a glow, and the dew that ran dripping down theirmossy sides trickled blood-red to earth. Elsewhere the shadows werestill black, and strange things began to move in them--things we in ourmiddle-aged world have never seen the likeness of: beasts half birds,birds half creeping things, and creeping things which it seemed to mepassed through lesser creations down to the basest life that crawlswithout interruption or division.
It was not for me, a sailor, to know much of such things, yet some Icould not fail to notice. On one grey branch overhead, jutting from atree-stem where a patch of velvet moss made in the morning glint afairy bed, a wonderful flower unfolded. It was a splendid bud, ivorywhite, cushioned in leaves, and secured to its place by naked whiteroots that clipped the branch like fingers of a lady's hand. Even as Ilooked it opened, a pale white star, and hung pensive and inviting onits mossy cushion. From it came such a ravishing odour that even I, atthe further end of the great scale of life, felt my pulses quicken andmy eyes brighten with cupidity. I was in the very act of climbing thetree, but before I could move hand or foot two things happened, whetheryou take my word for them or no.
Firstly, up through a glade in the underwood, attracted by the odour,came an ugly brown bird with a capacious beak and shining claws. Heperched near by, and peeped and peered until he made out the flowerpining on her virgin stem, whereat off he hopped to her branch andthere, with a cynical chuckle, strutted to and fro between her and themain stem like an ill genius guarding a fairy princess.
Surely Heaven would not allow him to tamper with so chaste a bud! Myhand reached for a stone to throw at him when happened the secondthing. There came a gentle pat upon the woodland floor, and from atree overhead dropped down another living plant like to the one aboveyet not exactly similar, a male, my instincts told me, in full solitaryblossom like her above, cinctured with leaves, and supported by half ascore of thick white roots that worked, as I looked, like the limbs ofa crab. In a twinkling that parti-coloured gentleman vegetable near mewas off to the stem upon which grew his lady love; running andscrambling, dragging the finery of his tasselled petals behind, it waslaughable to watch his eagerness. He got a grip of the tree and up hewent, "hand over hand," root over root. I had just time to note othersof his species had dropped here and there upon the ground, and werehurrying with frantic haste to the same destination when he reached thefatal branch, and was straddling victoriously down it, blind to all butlove and longing. That ill-omened bird who stood above themaiden-flower let him come within a stalk's length, so near that thewhite splendour of his sleeping lady gleamed within arms' reach, thenthe great beak was opened, the great claws made a clutch, the gallant'shead was yanked from his neck, and as it went tumbling down the maw ofthe feathered thing his white legs fell spinning through space, and layknotting themselves in agony upon the ground for a minute or two beforethey relaxed and became flaccid in the repose of death. Another andanother vegetable suitor made for that fatal tryst, and as each came upthe snap of the brown bird's beak was all their obsequies. At last nomore came, and then that Nemesis of claws and quills walked over to thegirl-flower, his stomach feathers ruffled with repletion, the greenblood of her lovers dripping from his claws, and pulled her goldenheart out, tore her white limbs one from the other, and swallowed herpiecemeal before my very eyes! Then up in wrath I jumped and yelled athim till the woods echoed, but too late to stay his sacrilege.
By this time the sun was bathing everything in splendour, and turningaway from the wonders about me, I set off at best pace along thewell-trodden path which led without turning to the west coast villagewhere the canoes were.
It proved far closer than expected. As a matter of fact the forest inthis direction grew right down to the water's edge; the salt-lovingtrees actually overhanging the waves--one of the pleasantest sights innature--and thus I came right out on top of the hamlet before there hadbeen an indication of its presence. It occupied two sides of a prettylittle bay, the third side being flat land given over to thecultivation of an enormous species of gourd whose characteristic yellowflowers and green, succulent leaves were discernible even at thisdistance.
I branched off along the edge of the surf and down a dainty littleflowery path, noticing meanwhile how the whole bay was filled byhundreds of empty canoes, while scores of others were drawn up on thestrand, and then the first thing I chanced upon was a group ofpeople--youthful, of course, with the eternal Martian bloom--and in thesplendid simplicity of almost complete nakedness. My first idea wasthat they were bathing, and fixing my eyes on the tree-tops with greatpropriety, I gave a warning cough. At that sound instead of getting tocover, or clothes, all started up and stood staring for a time like aherd of startled cattle. It was highly embarrassing; they were rightin the path, a round dozen of them, naked and so little ashamed thatwhen I edged away modestly they began to run after me. And the fartherthey came forward the more I retire
d, till we were playing a kind ofgame of hide-and-seek round the tree-stems. In the middle of it my heelcaught in a root and down I went very hard and very ignominiously,whereon those laughing, light-hearted folk rushed in, and with smilesand jests helped me to my feet.
"Was I the traveller who had come from Seth?"
"Yes."
"Oh, then that was well. They had heard such a traveller was on theroad, and had come a little way down the path, as far as might bewithout fatigue, to meet him."
"Would I eat with them?" these amiable strangers asked, pushing theirsoft warm fingers into mine and ringing me round with a circle. "Butfirstly might they help me out of my clothes? It was hot, and thesethings were cumbersome." As to the eating, I was agreeable enoughseeing how casual meals had been with me lately, but my clothes, thoughHeaven knows they were getting horribly ragged and travel-stained, Iclung to desperately.
My new friends shrugged their dimpled shoulders and, arguments beingtedious, at once squatted round me in the dappled shade of a big treeand produced their stores of never failing provisions. After apleasant little meal taken thus in the open and with all the simplicityMartians delight in, we got to talking about those yellow canoes whichwere bobbing about on the blue waters of the bay.
"Would you like to see where they are grown?" asked an individualbasking by my side.
"Grown!" I answered with incredulity. "Built, you mean. Never in mylife did I hear of growing boats."
"But then, sir," observed the girl as she sucked the honey out of thestalk of an azure convolvulus flower and threw the remains at abutterfly that sailed across the sunshine, "you know so little! Youhave come from afar, from some barbarous and barren district. Here weundoubtedly grow our boats, and though we know the Thither folk andsuch uncultivated races make their craft by cumbrous methods of flatplanks, yet we prefer our own way, for one thing because it savestrouble," and as she murmured that all-sufficient reason the gentledamsel nodded reflectively.
But one of her companions, more lively for the moment, tickled her witha straw until she roused, and then said, "Let us take the stranger tothe boat garden now. The current will drift us round the bay, and wecan come back when it turns. If we wait we shall have to row in bothdirections, or even walk," and again planetary slothfulness carried theday.
So down to the beach we strolled and launched one of the golden-huedskiffs upon the pretty dancing wavelets just where they ran, lippedwith jewelled spray, on the shore, and then only had I a chance toscrutinise their material. I patted that one we were upon inside andout. I noted with a seaman's admiration its lightness, elasticity, andsupreme sleekness, its marvellous buoyancy and fairy-like "lines," andafter some minutes' consideration it suddenly flashed across me that itwas all of gourd rind. And as if to supply confirmation, the flat landwe were approaching on the opposite side of the bay was covered by thecharacteristic verdure of these plants with a touch here and there ofsplendid yellow blossoms, but all of gigantic proportions.
"Ay," said a Martian damsel lying on the bottom, and taking and kissingmy hand as she spoke, in the simple-hearted way of her people, "I seeyou have guessed how we make our boats. Is it the same in your distantcountry?"
"No, my girl, and what's more, I am a bit uneasy as to what the fellowson the Carolina will say if they ever hear I went to sea in ahollowed-out pumpkin, and with a young lady--well, dressed as youare--for crew. Even now I cannot imagine how you get your ships sotrim and shapely--there is not a seam or a patch anywhere, it looks asif you had run them into a mould."
"That's just what we have done, sir, and now you will witness themoulds at work, for here we are," and the little skiff was pulledashore and the Martians and I jumped out on the shelving beach, hauledour boat up high and dry, and there right over us, like great greenumbrellas, spread the fronds of the outmost garden of this strangest ofall ship-building yards. Briefly, and not to make this part of my storytoo long, those gilded boys and girls took me ashore, and chatteringlike finches in the evening, showed how they planted their gourd seed,nourished the gigantic plants as they grew with brackish water and theburnt ashes; then, when they flowered, mated the male and femaleblossoms, glorious funnels of golden hue big enough for one to live in;and when the young fruit was of the bigness of an ordinary bolster, howthey slipped it into a double mould of open reed-work something likethe two halves of a walnut-shell; and how, growing day by day in this,it soon took every curve and line they chose to give it, even thehanging keel below, the strengthened bulwarks, and tall prow-piece. Itwas so ingenious, yet simple; and I confess I laughed over my firstskiff "on the stalk," and fell to bantering the Martians, askingwhether it was a good season for navies, whether their Cunarders werespreading nicely, if they could give me a pinch of barge seed, or ayacht in bud to show to my friends at home.
But those lazy people took the matter seriously enough. They led medown green alleys arched over with huge melon-like leaves; they led mealong innumerable byways, making me peep and peer through the chequeredsunlight at ocean-growing craft, that had budded twelve months before,already filling their moulds to the last inch of space. They told methat when the growing process was sufficiently advanced, they loosenedthe casing, and cutting a hole into the interior of each giant fruit,scooped out all its seed, thereby checking more advance, and throwinginto the rind strength that would otherwise have gone toreproductiveness. They said each fruit made two vessels, but the upperhalf was always best and used for long salt-water journeys, the lowerpiece being but for punting or fishing on their lakes. They cut themin half while still green, scraped out the light remaining pulp whendry, and dragged them down with the minimum of trouble, light asfeathers, tenacious as steel plate, and already in the form and fashionof dainty craft from five to twenty feet in length, when the processwas completed.
By the time we had explored this strangest of ship-building yards, andI had seen last year's crop on the stocks being polished and fittedwith seats and gear, the sun was going down; and the Martian twilight,owing to the comparative steepness of the little planet's sides, beingbrief, we strolled back to the village, and there they gave meharbourage for the night, ambrosial supper, and a deep draught of thewine of Forgetfulness, under the gauzy spell of which the real andunreal melted into the vistas of rosy oblivion, and I slept.
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