by George Moore
At length Adam’s prayers awakened him, and a muttering began in his great beard. Adam calls me, Iahveh said, and having gained his ear, Adam rose to his feet and spoke outright, telling Iahveh that Lilith had left him without saying she would return, as she had done many times; but now I know, Lord, that she will never return to me again, unless thou commandest her to do so. Left thee for ever? Iahveh replied, and there was some tone of astonishment in his voice that perplexed Adam. Lilith! Iahveh repeated, as if he had forgotten her, and when he inquired of Adam Lilith’s reason for leaving, Adam related the story: that Lilith left him because he prayed morning and evening at the praying stone and inquired all things of God. Thereat God was moved in the imagination of his thoughts towards his servant Adam, and raised up by God’s praise Adam continued his doleful recitations, saying that Lilith never avouched whether her visits were within God’s knowledge or outside of it, in a measure embittering the pleasure that I took from her; for, Lord, I would obey thee in all things, and have now come to ask if Lilith, by thy good will, may return to me. But if it be not thy will I will try to bear my life of loneliness in resignation, repenting all my days of the great sin I was guilty of towards thee in heaven long ago. Lilith, Iahveh answered, for now he remembered her, was one of the angels like thyself, Adam, who neither took sides for nor against me. All these have been condemned to wander on a gloomy border-land. All but thou. I have placed thee in a beautiful garden, thy transgression being lighter than theirs. Iahveh is a just God.
But, Lord, is it by thy will that Lilith comes forth from gloomy glens and sterile clefts to visit me in the garden? Neither for nor against my will, but Iahveh is well pleased with his servant Adam for not having listened to the coaxing voice of the temptress who would have beguiled him from his lord God. My lord, if I have earned thy praise, reward thy servant with Lilith, and be sure that although I shall take pleasure in her golden hair I shall not cease to offer prayers to thee morning and evening by the praying stone that I have raised to thy honour. Offering will I bring — My servant, Adam, I am well pleased with thee, Iahveh answered. Return to the shadowy peacefulness of thy garden and leave me to consider how Lilith may best be persuaded to return to thee.
The silence of the sunny mount was not broken again. Adam prayed, inly thanking God for his great mercies, a great sigh, however, escaping from him as he lay upon the ground, lifting his head from it from time to time, bowing and rejoicing to himself that his humility should have won from God a promise to use his power to persuade Lilith to return to Eden for Iahveh couldn’t compel Lilith, she having passed beyond his power into that of Lucifer. But Adam did not doubt that Iahveh would be able to persuade her. It may be that if she refuses he will thrust her out of the border-land into hell; and he found great pleasure in his thoughts, for at the back of his mind was the certainty that very soon Lilith would be given back to him, whether in the middle of the night or when he dozed on the sunny bank he did not know, and it mattered little when, so long as she was returned to him.
As he descended the twisting path to the dell he remembered a corner by the river’s brink in which he could dream of Lilith more intently than elsewhere, under the spotted branches of some plane-trees that were, however, still full of leaves. The river swirled by almost silent, and the willow weed wilted, its life having been lived; only a few faded and torn blooms still clinging to the stalks. But Adam had seen the flowers return: the word return had a significant beauty for him: Lilith was about to return, he said, and he watched the water ousels fly up and down the stream, alighting on the boulders with the same eagerness as when he had watched them while waiting for Lilith to appear to him. The sky, too, entranced him, for when he raised his head he could see between the mottled branches white clouds unfolding. A squirrel cracked a nut in the branches above him, the shells fell at his feet and he said: the season of the nuts has come; Lilith and I will share them together, and he remembered the different parts of the garden where the different nuts grew large and rich. Nuts and fruit we shall have in plenty this year, he continued, and suddenly his thoughts broke away and he began to ask himself what Iahveh’s designs might be.
He will send forth angels to seek her if she be on earth, but if she have returned to Lucifer God cannot enter the portals of the world below and say that she must be given up. We shall have to wait, and ages will pass by. His heart failed him a little, but revived soon after, for it seemed to him that he could hear the sound of wings in the air. He is sending his angels. Doubtless Michael, Gabriel and Raphael have been chosen for they are the swiftest of God’s messengers.
CHAPTER 34.
THE SOUND I hear is not the sound of wild geese speeding northward, he said, and his ears had not deceived him: the wings he heard were those of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael come from the battlements of heaven, flying over continents and seas, and always in circles, lest any corner of the earth wherein Lilith might be hidden should escape their eyes. But there may be days, and weeks, and months, Adam said, before they find her. It was as he had said, days and weeks and months passed before the angels flying over the earth cried to one another: night is coming on, the clouds are thickening; soon there will be no more light; it might be well for us to descend. A fair island lies in the sea below us, Michael said; one that we have often overlooked. And Gabriel answered Michael: as likely as elsewhere she may be yonder. Raphael and myself will be glad to rest our wings; and balancing themselves like the gulls, they descended, and alighting on a long reach of white strand, they sat there resting, and watching the warm breeze coming and going, shaking the juniper bushes with which the tussocked grass was sprinkled, shaking them and leaving them still again.
The earth is not without its beauty, the angels were thinking, as they sat listening to the waves creeping up into the bay over the ribbed strand, retiring and advancing, and creeping up to the angels, obliging them to retire to some rocks whither the tide did not come. A beautiful evening, Michael said, for beyond the bay, seaward, there was a bar of gold and a flush of crimson. There are pleasant things to be seen in this world, Michael continued, and this island seems a spot that our witch might choose to hide herself in. It seems to be filled with woods, and we may find her in some dough or dell tressing her hair, a favorite occupation of hers, so it is said. And then they began to talk about the neutral angels and the miserable lot assigned to them to wander always in the border-land between earth and hell. All are there except Adam, and Lilith is sometimes in the deepest circles of hell with Lucifer himself, whose aider and abetter she is, and sometimes wandering over the earth scheming how she may embarrass the lord. Whereas Adam is a poor, weak creature, said Gabriel. The only one, Michael responded, whose sin was so slight that to our lord Iahveh the border-lands seemed too great a punishment for him. So our lord and master placed him in a garden, Michael continued, and methinks that Lilith’s visits thither were decreed not by him but by Lucifer, whom he threw into hell after many great battles: you remember how my spear struck him between the eyes as he led his legions against us up the battlements. It was Michael’s way to ramble on, and, heedless of him, Gabriel and Raphael watched the moon, like a white moth, that had fluttered peradventure out of the earth’s orbit, till at last the waves rushing over the white strand wetted the shingled bank on which the angels were seated. We had better be looking out for some cave inland where we can pass the night, Gabriel said; and Raphael answered he was cold though he had drawn his wings closer round him.
A great bird went by: he, too, seems cold, Raphael cried, and is seeking a warm roost; let us go up into the island and find a quiet corner in the woods. Raphael’s counsel was approved by Michael and Gabriel, and Iahveh’s three messengers retired from the shore, and picking their way through the juniper bushes they penetrated through the brambles into the dough, and lifting a curtain of trailing plants, Gabriel said: behold! the cave we are looking for. And stooping their heads the angels passed under a roof of flowers and tendrils into a great hall, in which lay
a pool and in it the moth-like moon they had seen without; at which the angels were astonished; but on looking up through a fissure in the rocks and seeing the moon still in the sky they were at one that there was a beauty on earth that seemed lacking in heaven: whereupon Michael said: we have been in the atmosphere of the earth now for forty days, flying in search of Lilith, and have lost some of our angelic nature; let us hope that we may find her and return to heaven lest we become contaminated.
Gabriel and Raphael did not share Michael’s fears and were glad of the white sand with which the floor of the cave was covered: we shall awaken to-morrow as celestial as the day when we left the ramparts of heaven. Iahveh would not have sent us on this errand if we were to be contaminated, Gabriel said. We are immortal, Raphael answered, and he asked Michael if that weren’t so, but Michael answered nothing, he being asleep. But it was not many minutes before he began to moan and toss himself in his sleep, setting Gabriel and Raphael wondering: what has befallen our brother? for he murmurs now in his sleep, so loudly that we cannot hear the doves in the clefts of the rocks, Gabriel whispered. He murmurs, Raphael said, somewhat like the doves; and Gabriel replied: but now his cooing has changed into cries: the doves go away out of the clefts with a clang of wings; what can have befallen our brother? The island is enchanted, Raphael whispered; let us away. But, Gabriel answered, we cannot leave our brother in the power of the enchantress.
At that moment a great cry broke from Michael and he rolled into the moonbeam and lay in it gazing at the moon, recovering himself at last sufficiently to overlook his brethren who were pretending sleep. And they seeming to him to be in deep sleep he ventured to his feet and passed under the curtain of trailing plants out of the cave. Is our brother playing us false? Gabriel whispered to Raphael. Has she bidden him to her in a dream? Raphael asked; and the twain rose, and going to the mouth of the cave they stood like stocks and watched their brother in amazement, and he walking down to the sea and bathing therein like one who wished to purify himself after sin. Michael must not know that we have observed him, Gabriel said. The spell of the enchantress has certainly fallen upon him, Raphael muttered; let us to our beds, and, convinced that his brethren slept, Michael laid himself down. But they had not slept long before Gabriel began to sigh in his sleep, and very soon his sighs became moans; he tossed himself, lifting himself bridge-wise, falling back again, at last rolling over on his side.
She has visited brother Gabriel in his dream, Raphael whispered to Michael, and Michael said: hush! Let us pretend to be asleep, and just as Gabriel and Raphael had seen Michael go down to the sea to bathe himself, they saw Gabriel do the same, and were astonished thereby.
Now when Gabriel returned to the cave he spied upon his brethren to make sure they were sleeping and had learned nothing of what had befallen him, and they feigning sleep so well that he believed them to be asleep, he laid himself down. But sleep had not long obtained hold of him when Raphael was overtaken by a dream of the enchantress; his sighs and moans were the same as his brothers’ had been; and when at last his desire was eased in one sharp pang, he did as they had done; he went to the sea for purification, and believing his brethren to be really asleep when he returned to the cave, he chuckled, saying to himself: in the morning I will question them, and they will give evasive answers, but I know that Michael dreamed of her; Michael knows that Gabriel dreamed of her, but none knows that I too was taken in her net of pleasure and of pain; and while thinking how he might discern between the twain he fell asleep listening to a nightingale singing in the vine in the fissure of the rocks. Other nightingales began soon after, and the birds awakened the tired angels. We have no such music in heaven, Gabriel said; and Michael answered: we might take one of these birds to teach our choristers. And Raphael muttered: we must not let our thoughts dwell on the pleasures of the earth, for our habitation is with God among the peaks; let us not forget that we are the angels of the lord.
These admonitions from Raphael were felt to be uncalled for and unjust, but the three angels were overcome by the desire of sleep; they slept despite the chorusing of the birds and it was broad daylight when they awoke. We have overslept ourselves, said Michael, and lifting the curtain of creeping plants, he added: a lovely morning awaits us. On these words Gabriel and Raphael arose, and blinking still, they stumbled into what seemed to them the most beautiful day that had unclosed before their eyes since Iahveh sent them on their errand. And thanking God for having sent them on it, they walked about the island admiring the woods, the dells within the woods, the reaches of white sand leading to the sea and the rocks rising above the sea. We have not alighted as often as we should have done; we have wearied ourselves flying from dawn to sunset, Raphael murmured to himself, with the intention that his companions should hear him, which they did, and Michael, remembering how he had admonished them overnight, lest their thoughts should linger on the many beauties they beheld in the world, answered him: yesternight my words were that we should not think overmuch of what we saw and heard in this world, but remember always that we are archangels. The beauty of the morning refreshes the eyes, and the air is sweet in the lungs, Raphael answered, and the angels stopped on the outskirts of the woods, so that they might watch the love dance of the butterflies. Shall we cross the flowering plain, Gabriel asked, and Michael answered: yes, for in that ring of trees she may be sitting; and Raphael, the slyest of the three, asked his brother why, having searched the earth all over in vain for Lilith, he should think to find her in that ring of trees. Enchantment was abroad last night, Michael answered; didst find it so, Raphael? And Raphael answered: I heard sighing and moaning as of doves; and they were speaking of the songs of the nightingales when they entered the ring of trees in the middle of the plain, in the centre of which was a well, and by it, as Michael anticipated, Lilith sat combing her locks. So you’ve found me at last, she said to the angels, and Michael answered: thou talkest as one that expecteth visitors. And she replied: expecteth you, yes, and a long time past, for many is the time I’ve caught sight of your wings in this well, and expected your alighting in the flowering meadow, but you went away north and south, leaving me waiting for you here.
I have watched your pursuit of me, for in this well all things are mirrored; and from this spot I need not turn to know everything that befalls the world.
And last night — said Michael. Last night, Lilith interrupted, I saw you sweep down and alight on to the firm sand after long flying. You went up the beach together in search of a cave, and I was with you during the night in dreams, she continued, causing the angels to hang down their heads ashamed. But Lilith being among the fallen angels was in no wise ashamed, and extorted from Michael a confession that he had followed a white phantom in his dreams, and overtaking her among the woods, she had whispered to him: seek some soft bank of flowers. They had wandered in search of this bank and were always on the point of discovering it, but the flowers vanished. At last a pang of pleasure or pain, he knew not which, divided them. I saw thee no more, he said. And now, Gabriel, emulate the truthfulness of thy brother’s words, and tell me in what form I came to thee, in what form thou sa west me. Thou earnest upon me, Gabriel said, as I was on my way to obey a summons to attend upon our lord the mighty Iahveh; thou earnest upon me, and I begged thee to allow me to answer his summons, promising to return to thee. But thou wouldst not hide thy bosom with thy hair, and we sought to hide ourselves behind a cloud; but Michael and Raphael, who were jealous of me, dissolved the cloud into rain. And now, Raphael, Lilith said, tell thy dream of me, for I was with thee too. And Raphael, who was filled with subterfuge, stood by more embarrassed than his brethren, and tried to elude the witch’s examination, but Lilith pursued him with questions, and the companions turned upon him and said: we were awakened by sighs and moans; we feigned sleep, but through our half-opened eyelids we saw thee leave the cave and go down and bathe thyself in the sea. Whereupon Raphael, seeing that further concealment was unavailing, answered that all he had seen or felt o
f the temptation that had visited him in the night were two red lips, winged lips, he said, that hovered over me and sank upon my lips, sending a sting between at which all my flesh shuddered: for a moment it seemed to me that I was lifted into an ecstasy more intense than heaven: I seemed to dissolve. At last thou hast found the truth, Raphael, Lilith said, and it was thus in many shapes that I visited Adam on the flowering bank in Eden, between sleeping and waking, and in deep dreams.
We have come, said Michael, interrupting Lilith suddenly, to ask thee if thou wilt return to Adam; we have come from the lord Iahveh, shall we say thy God? Say it not, said Lilith. You have come from Iahveh to ask me to return to Adam, and my answer is that my lord is Lucifer and he would not have me obedient to any other God. Not to exact obedience, said Raphael, have we come; not to exact obedience, Gabriel insisted. And standing on either side of Lilith, who continued combing her golden locks, regaling herself with her beauty reflected in the still waters of the well, the angels besought her to return to Adam; and she answered: I cannot abjure Lucifer, he has power over me as the lord hath power over you. It is by his will that I visited Adam and it is by his will that I left Adam. A last word we would have with thee, Michael said. Knowest thou, Lilith, that if thou wilt not return to Adam, Iahveh will create out of earth a fairer woman for Adam’s enjoyment and companionship in the garden. A fairer woman than I am, Lilith answered, raising her head from the well, and it is you who were with me last night that say it? I doubt the power of the lord in heaven to do what you say. And the angels who were smitten with doubt whether she had not spoken the truth feared to look upon her longer lest their doubts should be strengthened regarding the power of the God they served.
