Lilith: A Romance

by George MacDonald

  CHAPTER XXXIII. LONA'S NARRATIVE

  I lay down by a tree, and one and one or in little groups, the childrenleft me and climbed to their nests. They were always so tired at nightand so rested in the morning, that they were equally glad to go to sleepand to get up again. I, although tired also, lay awake: Lona had not bidme good night, and I was sure she would come.

  I had been struck, the moment I saw her again, with her resemblance tothe princess, and could not doubt her the daughter of whom Adam hadtold me; but in Lona the dazzling beauty of Lilith was softened bychildlikeness, and deepened by the sense of motherhood. "She isoccupied probably," I said to myself, "with the child of the woman I metfleeing!" who, she had already told me, was not half mother enough.

  She came at length, sat down beside me, and after a few moments ofsilent delight, expressed mainly by stroking my face and hands, began totell me everything that had befallen since I went. The moon appeared aswe talked, and now and then, through the leaves, lighted for a quiveringmoment her beautiful face--full of thought, and a care whose loveredeemed and glorified it. How such a child should have been born ofsuch a mother--such a woman of such a princess, was hard to understand;but then, happily, she had two parents--say rather, three! She drew myheart by what in me was likest herself, and I loved her as one who, growto what perfection she might, could only become the more a child. I knewnow that I loved her when I left her, and that the hope of seeingher again had been my main comfort. Every word she spoke seemed to gostraight to my heart, and, like the truth itself, make it purer.

  She told me that after I left the orchard valley, the giants began tobelieve a little more in the actual existence of their neighbours, andbecame in consequence more hostile to them. Sometimes the LittleOnes would see them trampling furiously, perceiving or imagining someindication of their presence, while they indeed stood beside, andlaughed at their foolish rage. By and by, however, their animosityassumed a more practical shape: they began to destroy the trees onwhose fruit the Little Ones lived. This drove the mother of them all tomeditate counteraction. Setting the sharpest of them to listen atnight, she learned that the giants thought I was hidden somewhere near,intending, as soon as I recovered my strength, to come in the dark andkill them sleeping. Thereupon she concluded that the only way to stopthe destruction was to give them ground for believing that they hadabandoned the place. The Little Ones must remove into the forest--beyondthe range of the giants, but within reach of their own trees, which theymust visit by night! The main objection to the plan was, that the foresthad little or no undergrowth to shelter--or conceal them if necessary.

  But she reflected that where birds, there the Little Ones could findhabitation. They had eager sympathies with all modes of life, and couldlearn of the wildest creatures: why should they not take refuge from thecold and their enemies in the tree-tops? why not, having lain in thelow brushwood, seek now the lofty foliage? why not build nests whereit would not serve to scoop hollows? All that the birds could do, theLittle Ones could learn--except, indeed, to fly!

  She spoke to them on the subject, and they heard with approval. Theycould already climb the trees, and they had often watched the birdsbuilding their nests! The trees of the forest, although large, did notlook bad! They went up much nearer the sky than those of the giants,and spread out their arms--some even stretched them down--as if invitingthem to come and live with them! Perhaps, in the top of the tallest,they might find that bird that laid the baby-eggs, and sat upon themtill they were ripe, then tumbled them down to let the little ones out!Yes; they would build sleep-houses in the trees, where no giant wouldsee them, for never by any chance did one throw back his dull head tolook up! Then the bad giants would be sure they had left the country,and the Little Ones would gather their own apples and pears and figs andmesples and peaches when they were asleep!

  Thus reasoned the Lovers, and eagerly adopted Lona's suggestion--withthe result that they were soon as much at home in the tree-tops as thebirds themselves, and that the giants came ere long to the conclusionthat they had frightened them out of the country--whereupon they forgottheir trees, and again almost ceased to believe in the existence oftheir small neighbours.

  Lona asked me whether I had not observed that many of the children weregrown. I answered I had not, but could readily believe it. She assuredme it was so, but said the certain evidence that their minds too hadgrown since their migration upward, had gone far in mitigation of thealarm the discovery had occasioned her.

  In the last of the short twilight, and later when the moon was shining,they went down to the valley, and gathered fruit enough to serve themthe next day; for the giants never went out in the twilight: that tothem was darkness; and they hated the moon: had they been able, theywould have extinguished her. But soon the Little Ones found that fruitgathered in the night was not altogether good the next day; so thequestion arose whether it would not be better, instead of pretending tohave left the country, to make the bad giants themselves leave it.

  They had already, she said, in exploring the forest, made acquaintancewith the animals in it, and with most of them personally. Knowingtherefore how strong as well as wise and docile some of them were, andhow swift as well as manageable many others, they now set themselvesto secure their aid against the giants, and with loving, playfulapproaches, had soon made more than friends of most of them, fromthe first addressing horse or elephant as Brother or Sister Elephant,Brother or Sister Horse, until before long they had an individual namefor each. It was some little time longer before they said Brother orSister Bear, but that came next, and the other day she had heard onelittle fellow cry, "Ah, Sister Serpent!" to a snake that bit him as heplayed with it too roughly. Most of them would have nothing to do with acaterpillar, except watch it through its changes; but when at length itcame from its retirement with wings, all would immediately address it asSister Butterfly, congratulating it on its metamorphosis--for whichthey used a word that meant something like REPENTANCE--and evidentlyregarding it as something sacred.

  One moonlit evening, as they were going to gather their fruit, they cameupon a woman seated on the ground with a baby in her lap--the womanI had met on my way to Bulika. They took her for a giantess that hadstolen one of their babies, for they regarded all babies as theirproperty. Filled with anger they fell upon her multitudinously, beatingher after a childish, yet sufficiently bewildering fashion. She wouldhave fled, but a boy threw himself down and held her by the feet.Recovering her wits, she recognised in her assailants the children whosehospitality she sought, and at once yielded the baby. Lona appeared, andcarried it away in her bosom.

  But while the woman noted that in striking her they were careful not tohurt the child, the Little Ones noted that, as she surrendered her,she hugged and kissed her just as they wanted to do, and came to theconclusion that she must be a giantess of the same kind as the goodgiant. The moment Lona had the baby, therefore, they brought the motherfruit, and began to show her every sort of childish attention.

  Now the woman had been in perplexity whither to betake herself, notdaring to go back to the city, because the princess was certain to findout who had lamed her leopardess: delighted with the friendliness ofthe little people, she resolved to remain with them for the present:she would have no trouble with her infant, and might find some wayof returning to her husband, who was rich in money and gems, and veryseldom unkind to her.

  Here I must supplement, partly from conjecture, what Lona told me aboutthe woman. With the rest of the inhabitants of Bulika, she was awareof the tradition that the princess lived in terror of the birth of aninfant destined to her destruction. They were all unacquainted, however,with the frightful means by which she preserved her youth and beauty;and her deteriorating physical condition requiring a larger use of thosemeans, they took the apparent increase of her hostility to children fora sign that she saw her doom approaching. This, although no one dreamedof any attempt against her, nourished in them hopes of change.

  Now arose in the mind of the woman
the idea of furthering the fulfilmentof the shadowy prediction, or of using the myth at least for her ownrestoration to her husband. For what seemed more probable than thatthe fate foretold lay with these very children? They were marvellouslybrave, and the Bulikans cowards, in abject terror of animals! If shecould rouse in the Little Ones the ambition of taking the city, thenin the confusion of the attack, she would escape from the little army,reach her house unrecognised, and there lying hidden, await the result!

  Should the children now succeed in expelling the giants, she wouldbegin at once, while they were yet flushed with victory, to suggest theloftier aim! By disposition, indeed, they were unfit for warfare; theyhardly ever quarrelled, and never fought; loved every live thing, andhated either to hurt or to suffer. Still, they were easily influenced,and could certainly be taught any exercise within their strength!--Atonce she set some of the smaller ones throwing stones at a mark; andsoon they were all engrossed with the new game, and growing skilful init.

  The first practical result was their use of stones in my rescue. Whilegathering fruit, they found me asleep, went home, held a council, camethe next day with their elephants and horses, overwhelmed the fewgiants watching me, and carried me off. Jubilant over their victory,the smaller boys were childishly boastful, the bigger boys lessostentatious, while the girls, although their eyes flashed more, werenot so talkative as usual. The woman of Bulika no doubt felt encouraged.

  We talked the greater part of the night, chiefly about the growth of thechildren, and what it might indicate. With Lona's power of recognisingtruth I had long been familiar; now I began to be astonished at herpractical wisdom. Probably, had I been more of a child myself, I shouldhave wondered less.

  It was yet far from morning when I became aware of a slight flutteringand scrambling. I rose on my elbow, and looking about me, saw manyLittle Ones descend from their nests. They disappeared, and in a fewmoments all was again still.

  "What are they doing?" I asked.

  "They think," answered Lona, "that, stupid as they are, the giantswill search the wood, and they are gone to gather stones with which toreceive them. Stones are not plentiful in the forest, and they have toscatter far to find enow. They will carry them to their nests, and fromthe trees attack the giants as they come within reach. Knowing theirhabits, they do not expect them before the morning. If they do come, itwill be the opening of a war of expulsion: one or the other people mustgo. The result, however, is hardly doubtful. We do not mean tokill them; indeed, their skulls are so thick that I do not think wecould!--not that killing would do them much harm; they are so littlealive! If one were killed, his giantess would not remember him beyondthree days!"

  "Do the children then throw so well that the thing MIGHT happen?" Iasked.

  "Wait till you see them!" she answered, with a touch of pride. "--But Ihave not yet told you," she went on, "of a strange thing that happenedthe night before last!--We had come home from gathering our fruit, andwere asleep in our nests, when we were roused by the horrid noisesof beasts fighting. The moon was bright, and in a moment our treesglittered with staring little eyes, watching two huge leopardesses, oneperfectly white, the other covered with black spots, which worried andtore each other with I do not know how many teeth and claws. To judge byher back, the spotted creature must have been climbing a tree when theother sprang upon her. When first I saw them, they were just under myown tree, rolling over and over each other. I got down on the lowestbranch, and saw them perfectly. The children enjoyed the spectacle,siding some with this one, some with that, for we had never seen suchbeasts before, and thought they were only at play. But by degrees theirroaring and growling almost ceased, and I saw that they were in deadlyearnest, and heartily wished neither might be left able to climb atree. But when the children saw the blood pouring from their flanks andthroats, what do you think they did? They scurried down to comfort them,and gathering in a great crowd about the terrible creatures, began topat and stroke them. Then I got down as well, for they were much tooabsorbed to heed my calling to them; but before I could reach them, thewhite one stopped fighting, and sprang among them with such a hideousyell that they flew up into the trees like birds. Before I got back intomine, the wicked beasts were at it again tooth and claw. Then Whiteyhad the best of it; Spotty ran away as fast as she could run, and Whiteycame and lay down at the foot of my tree. But in a minute or two she wasup again, and walking about as if she thought Spotty might be lurkingsomewhere. I waked often, and every time I looked out, I saw her. In themorning she went away."

  "I know both the beasts," I said. "Spotty is a bad beast. She hates thechildren, and would kill every one of them. But Whitey loves them. Sheran at them only to frighten them away, lest Spotty should get hold ofany of them. No one needs be afraid of Whitey!"

  By this time the Little Ones were coming back, and with much noise, forthey had no care to keep quiet now that they were at open war with thegiants, and laden with good stones. They mounted to their nests again,though with difficulty because of their burdens, and in a minute werefast asleep. Lona retired to her tree. I lay where I was, and sleptthe better that I thought most likely the white leopardess was stillsomewhere in the wood.

  I woke soon after the sun, and lay pondering. Two hours passed, and thenin truth the giants began to appear, in straggling companies of threeand four, until I counted over a hundred of them. The children werestill asleep, and to call them would draw the attention of the giants: Iwould keep quiet so long as they did not discover me. But by and by onecame blundering upon me, stumbled, fell, and rose again. I thought hewould pass heedless, but he began to search about. I sprang to my feet,and struck him in the middle of his huge body. The roar he gave rousedthe children, and a storm as of hail instantly came on, of which not astone struck me, and not one missed the giant. He fell and lay. Othersdrew near, and the storm extended, each purblind creature becoming,as he entered the range of a garrisoned tree, a target for convergingstones. In a short time almost every giant was prostrate, and a jubilantpaean of bird-song rose from the tops of fifty trees.

  Many elephants came hurrying up, and the children descending the treeslike monkeys, in a moment every elephant had three or four of them onhis back, and thus loaded, began to walk over the giants, who lay androared. Losing patience at length with their noise, the elephants gavethem a few blows of their trunks, and left them.

  Until night the bad giants remained where they had fallen, silent andmotionless. The next morning they had disappeared every one, and thechildren saw no more of them. They removed to the other end of theorchard valley, and never after ventured into the forest.