The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

by Jan Potocki

  ‘Well,’ I exclaimed, ‘she certainly succeeded in what she did. This place could be called paradise on earth.’ At these words the princess rose up indignantly and said, ‘Romati, I asked you not to use that term again.’

  And then she began to laugh, a convulsive, horrible laugh, saying again and again, ‘Oh yes, paradise, paradise. It’s all very well for him to talk of paradise.’

  The scene was becoming distressing. Eventually the princess recovered herself, threw me a severe glance and ordered me to follow her.

  She opened the door and we found ourselves in underground vaults, beyond which was what looked like a silver lake, but was actually a lake of quicksilver. The princess clapped her hands, and a boat propelled by a yellow dwarf appeared. We stepped into the boat, and I saw that the dwarf’s face was of gold, with diamond eyes and a coral mouth. In other words it was an automaton who rowed through the quicksilver with his little oars and skilfully made the boat skim along. This novel pilot took us to the foot of a rock which opened up to allow us to pass into another chamber, in which there was the amazing spectacle of countless other automata: peacocks spreading enamel tails which were studded with jewels, parrots with emeralds for plumage flying above our heads, negroes made of ebony proffering golden platters laden with ruby cherries and sapphire grapes. There were numerous other astonishing objects in these magical vaults which stretched further than the eye could see.

  At that moment I was unaccountably tempted to repeat the word ‘paradise’ to see what effect it would have on the princess. I yielded to this fatal curiosity and said, ‘Signora, one can truthfully say that you are living in paradise on earth.’

  The princess smiled in the most charming manner and said, ‘So that you can better judge the delights of this place, I shall introduce you to my six ladies-in-waiting.’

  She took a golden key from her belt and opened a huge chest which was covered in black velvet and decorated with solid silver.

  When the chest was opened, a skeleton appeared, who came towards me in a menacing way. I drew my sword. The skeleton ripped off its left arm and, using it as a weapon, launched a furious attack on me. I put up a good fight, but a second skeleton emerged from the chest, tore a rib off the first skeleton and hit me over the head with it. I grabbed it by the throat but it clasped me in its fleshless arms and tried to throw me to the ground. I managed to get clear of it, but a third skeleton emerged from the trunk to join the other two. Then the other three appeared. Seeing no chance of coming away alive from so unequal a combat, I fell to my knees and begged the princess to spare me.

  The princess ordered the skeletons to return to the chest, then said, ‘Romati, never forget as long as you live what you have seen here.’

  As she said this she grasped my arm. I felt it burn to the bone and I fainted.

  I do not know how long I remained in that state. When eventually I came round, I heard chanting nearby and saw that I was in the midst of vast ruins. I tried to get out and I came to an inner courtyard where I saw a chapel, and monks singing matins. When the service was over the superior invited me into his cell. I followed him there and tried to pull my wits together and tell him what had happened to me. When I had finished my account the superior said, ‘My son, do you bear a mark on your arm where the princess grasped it?’

  I drew up my sleeve and indeed saw that my arm was burnt and that it bore the marks of the princess’s five fingers.

  Then the superior opened a chest which was by his bed and took an old parchment from it. ‘Here is the bull of our foundation,’ he said. ‘It may explain to you what you have seen.’

  I rolled out the parchment scroll and read the following:

  In the one thousand, five hundred and third year of Our Lord, and the ninth year of the reign of Frederick, King of Naples and Sicily, Elfrida de Monte Salerno, in an act of outrageous impiety, boasted publicly that she possessed paradise on earth and of her own free will renounced the one we all await in the life eternal. But during the night between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday an earthquake destroyed her palace, and their ruins have become an abode of Satan and a place in which the enemy of mankind has lodged countless demons, who for long have haunted and continue to haunt by numerous devilish devices not only those who dare to approach Monte Salerno but even good Christians living close by. We, Pius III, Servant of Servants, etc., therefore authorize by these presents the foundation of a chapel in the precincts of the ruined castle etc.

  I do not remember the rest of the bull. All I recall is that the superior assured me that such hauntings had become much less frequent, though they did still recur from time to time, especially in the night between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. At the same time he advised me to have Masses said for the repose of the soul of the princess and to attend them myself. I followed his advice and then continued on my journey, but what I saw on that fateful night has left me with an impression of melancholy so deep that nothing can dispel it. And my arm is still very painful.

  Having said this, Romati drew back his sleeve and showed us his arm, on which we could see the marks of the princess’s fingers and something like the scars from a burn.

  At this point I interrupted the gypsy chief to tell him that I had glanced through Happelius’s collection of tales whilst staying with the cabbalist, and that I had found a more or less identical story among them.3

  ‘Perhaps that is so,’ said the chief. ‘Perhaps Romati took his story from that book. He may have made it up. But what is certain is that his tale contributed greatly to giving me a taste for travel as well as a vague hope that strange adventures might befall me, which they never have. But such is the force of the impressions we receive in childhood that this unreasonable hope obsessed me for a long time, and I have never been wholly cured of it.’

  ‘Señor Pandesowna,’ I said to the gypsy chief, ‘didn’t you lead me to think that since you have been living in these mountains you have seen things which might be called marvellous?’

  ‘That is so,’ he replied. ‘I have seen things which have reminded me of Romati’s story.’

  At that moment a gypsy came and interrupted us. After that, we dined, and then as the chief had other things to do I took my gun and went hunting. I climbed several peaks. From one of them I looked down into the valley which stretched out below my feet and thought that I recognized the ill-starred gallows of Zoto’s brothers. The sight of this made me curious. I hastened down and indeed came to the foot of the gallows from which the two hanged men were suspended.

  I looked away and sadly climbed back up to the camp. The gypsy chief asked where I had been. I replied that I had been down to the gallows of Zoto’s two brothers.

  ‘Were they there?’ asked the gypsy.

  ‘What do you mean?’ I replied. ‘Are they in the habit of absenting themselves?’

  ‘Often,’ said the gypsy chief, ‘especially at night.’

  These few words made me very pensive. I found myself once again in the neighbourhood of those damned ghosts and whether or not they were vampires or had been used to persecute me, I believed that I had much to fear from them. I was morose for the rest of the day, did not eat supper and went to bed, where I dreamed of vampires, phantoms, nightmares, spectres and hanged men.

  The Fourteenth Day

  The gypsy girls brought me my chocolate and were good enough to take breakfast with me. Then I took my gun and was drawn by some fatal attraction to the gallows of Zoto’s two brothers. They had been taken down. I went through the gallows gate and found the two corpses stretched out, and between them was a young girl whom I recognized as Rebecca. I woke her as gently as I could. However, the shock which I could not entirely spare her reduced her to a piteous state. She went into convulsions, wept and then fainted. I picked her up in my arms and carried her to a nearby spring. I splashed water on her face and she slowly came round. I would never have dared to ask her how she came to be under the gallows, but it was she who spoke first.

  ‘I clearly
foresaw,’ she said, ‘that your discretion would be disastrous for us. You refused to tell us what happened to you so, like you, I have fallen victim to those accursed vampires. I can hardly bring myself to believe the horrors of last night. I shall, however, try to recall them and relate them to you, but you will not be able to understand them fully unless I start my story from an earlier point in my life.’

  Rebecca pondered for a few moments and then began as follows:

  REBECCA’S STORY

  In telling you his story my brother has also told you part of mine. My father had intended him to be the husband of the Queen of Sheba’s two daughters and he wanted me to marry the two spirits who preside over the constellation of the Gemini. My brother was flattered by his promised marriage and became much keener to acquire the science of the cabbala, but of me the opposite was true: to marry two genii at the same time seemed to me to be a very frightening prospect. Simply thinking about it upset me so much that I could not bring myself to compose two lines of cabbala. Every day I postponed my task to the next until in the end I had forgotten that art which is as difficult as it is dangerous.

  It was not long before my brother noticed my neglect of the cabbala and bitterly reproached me for it. I promised to be better but did nothing about it. In the end he threatened to complain to my father about me. I begged him to spare me this. He promised to wait until the following Saturday. But as I had still done nothing by then he came into my room at midnight, woke me up and told me that he was going to invoke the shade of my father, the terrible Mamoun. I fell to my knees, I begged him to show pity, but he was inexorable. I then heard him utter the terrible formula invented long ago by the Witch of Endor. At once my father appeared, seated on an ivory throne. In his terrible glance was the threat of death. I was afraid that I would not survive the first word which came forth from his lips. Yet he spoke the name of the God of Abraham and Jacob. He dared to utter that awesome invocation.

  At this point the young Jewess covered her face with her hand and seemed to tremble at the mere thought of that cruel scene. After a while she pulled herself together and continued as follows:

  I did not hear the end of what my father said. I had fainted before he had finished speaking. When I regained consciousness I saw my brother holding out the book of Sephiroth to me. I thought I would faint again but I had to bow to his will. My brother, who rightly suspected that I would have to go back to first principles, had the patience to remind me of them one by one. I started with the composition of syllables, then went on to words and formulae. In the end I became devoted to that sublime science and would spend my nights in the study that had been my father’s observatory; I would go to bed only when first light interrupted my exercises. By then I was dropping off to sleep. Zulica, my mulatto maidservant, would undress me almost without my noticing. I would sleep for several hours and then return to the pursuits which were not meant for me, as you will see.

  You know Zulica and you have been able to judge her charms for yourself. She is very beautiful, her eyes are full of tenderness, her mouth has the most pretty smile and her figure is perfectly shaped. One morning, on returning from the observatory, I summoned her to undress me. She did not hear me. I went into her room, which is next to mine, and saw her leaning, half-undressed, out of the window, making signs across the valley and blowing kisses from her hand that seemed to carry her whole heart with them. I had no idea what love was. For the first time I saw this emotion expressed before my eyes. I was so disturbed and shocked that I remained motionless like a statue. Zulica turned round and a deep pink blush suffused the dusky skin of her breast and spread to her whole body. I blushed too, then went pale and seemed on the point of fainting. Zulica caught me in her arms and her heart, which I could feel beating against mine, transmitted to me the turmoil of her senses.

  Zulica hurriedly undressed me, and when I was in bed she seemed glad to withdraw and gladder still to close the door behind her. Soon after, I heard the footsteps of someone going into her room. I was drawn by an impulse as swift as it was involuntary to run to her door and put my eye to the keyhole. I saw Tanzai, the young mulatto servant. He walked towards Zulica, carrying a basket of flowers which he had just gathered in the fields. Zulica ran towards him, took bunches of flowers in her hands and pressed them to her breast. Tanzai drew closer to smell their scent, which mingled with his mistress’s sighs. I clearly saw a deep shiver run through Zulica’s whole being. I seemed to feel it with her. She fell into Tanzai’s arms. I returned to my bed, there to hide my shame and weakness.

  My bed was wet with my tears, sobs choked me and in my great distress I cried out, ‘Oh my one hundred and twelve times great-grandmother, whose name I bear, sweet and tender wife of Isaac, if from the bosom of your father-in-law you can see the state I am in, appease the shade of Mamoun and tell him that his daughter is not worthy of the honour for which he has destined her.’

  My cries had awoken my brother. He came into my bedroom, and believing me to be ill, made me take a sedative. He returned at midday and, finding my pulse was racing, offered himself to continue my cabbalistic exercises for me. I was glad to accept his suggestion for I was in no fit state to work on them. I fell asleep towards evening and my dreams were very different from those I had had until then. The next day I dreamed while fully awake, or at least I was so absent-minded that I might well have given that impression.

  One night my brother came into my bedroom. He had the book of Sephiroth under his arm and a star-spangled scarf in his hand, on which were written the seventy-two names which Zoroaster gave to the constellation of the Gemini.

  ‘Rebecca, Rebecca,’ he said to me, ‘shake off this state of mind which dishonours you. It is time for you to try your powers on elemental beings and on infernal spirits. This bandeau with its stars will protect you from their mischief. Choose a spot in the nearby mountains that you think the most suitable for your exercises. Do not forget that your fate depends on the outcome.’

  With these words my brother dragged me out of the castle gates and shut them behind me.

  Left to myself, I summoned up my courage. It was a dark night. I was in my nightgown, barefoot, with my hair loose and my book in my hand. I made for the mountain that seemed to me to be nearest. A shepherd tried to lay hands on my person, but I pushed him away with the hand in which I held the book and he fell dead at my feet. This will not surprise you once you learn that the cover of my book was made of the wood of the ark and that it had the property of killing anything that touched it.

  The sun was just rising when I reached the mountain top which I had chosen for my operations. I could not begin them until midnight on the following day, so I took shelter in a cave, in which I found a she-bear with her cubs. She hurled herself at me but the cover of my book did its work: she fell dead at my feet. Her swollen teats reminded me that I was dying of hunger and I still did not have a single genie at my command, not even the humblest will-o’-the-wisp. So I decided to lie down beside the bear and suck her milk. The she-bear was still warm and this made my meal less revolting, but I had to fight off the bear-cubs. Just imagine, Alphonse, a sixteen-year-old-girl, who had never left the walls within which she had been born, in such a dreadful situation. I had fearsome weapons at my disposal but I had never used them and the least lapse of concentration could turn them against me.

  Meanwhile I saw the grass wither, the air fill with a fiery vapour and birds falling dead in mid-flight. I inferred that the demons, forewarned, were gathering. A tree spontaneously burst into flames; from it emerged swirls of smoke which did not rise but surrounded my cave and plunged me into darkness. The she-bear lying at my feet seemed to come back to life again. Her eyes sparkled with fire which momentarily dispelled the darkness. An evil spirit emerged from her mouth in the shape of a winged serpent. It was Nemrael, a demon of the lowest order, who had been chosen to serve me. Soon after, I heard words uttered in the language of the Grigori, the most famous of the fallen angels, and I realized that they
were honouring me by their presence at my induction into the world of intermediary beings. Their language is also found in the first book of Enoch, a work of which I have made a special study.

  Eventually Semiamas, Prince of the Grigori, came and told me that it was time to begin. I emerged from my cave and formed my star-spangled scarf into a circle, opened my book and spoke aloud the terrible formulae which I had until then only dared read silently to myself. As you will appreciate, Señor Alphonse, I cannot tell you what happened next. In any case, you would not understand. All I will tell you is that I acquired some considerable power over spirits and that I was taught how to contact the heavenly twins. At about the same time my brother succeeded in seeing the tips of the feet of Solomon’s daughters. I waited for the sun to enter the sign of Gemini and performed my operations in turn. On that day, or rather night, I worked prodigiously hard and in the end was overcome by sleep and forced to give in to it.

  The next morning Zulica brought my mirror and in it I caught sight of two human forms which seemed to be behind me. I turned round and saw nothing. I looked back in the mirror and saw them again. I should add that this apparition was in no way frightening. I saw two young men who were slightly taller than human beings. Their shoulders were a little broader and were rounded in the way women’s shoulders are. Their torso was also feminine in form but they did not have breasts. Their arms, plump and perfectly shaped, were resting at their sides in the posture that Egyptian statues have. The heavy curls of their blue and gold hair fell down to their shoulders. I will not describe their faces to you. You can well imagine how handsome demi-gods are for these were indeed the heavenly twins. I recognized them by the little flames which burned above their heads.