The Land of Foam

by Ivan Yefremov

  On an open space under two trees stood an especially big house with the roof extending over the entrance. Here the chiefs had gathered to meet the newcomers. Almost all the inhabitants of the village crowded round them, excited by the unusual events of the day.

  At the request of the paramount chief the Negro with the broken leg again told the story of the terrible rhinoceros hunt, frequently pointing to Pandion who still lay motionless on his litter.

  With appropriate exclamations the villagers expressed their delight, amazement and horror at this unbelievable act performed by orders of the terrible Pharaoh of Tha-Quem.

  The paramount chief rose and addressed his people in a language unknown to the newcomers. He was answered by shouts of approval. Then the chief walked over to the waiting travellers, waved his hand in a circle embracing the whole village and bowed his head.

  Through the interpreter Cavius thanked the chief and his people for their hospitality. That evening the newcomers were invited to a feast to be held in honour of their arrival.

  A crowd of villagers surrounded Pandion’s litter. The men gazed at him with respect, the women with sympathy. A girl in a blue mantle walked boldly out of the crowd and bent over the young Hellene. After his lengthy sojourn in the hot, sunny lands of Tha-Quem and Nub, Pandion differed from his companions only in the somewhat lighter shade of his skin which now had a golden tone. His hair, however, had grown long and its tangled and matted curls, together with the clear-cut features of his thin face, betrayed him as a foreigner.

  The girl, moved by pity for the handsome, helpless young hero lying on the litter, cautiously stretched out her hand and pushed back a lock of hair that had fallen on Pandion’s forehead.

  The heavy eyelids slowly opened showing eyes of a golden colour, such as she had never before seen, and a slight shudder passed over the girl. The eyes of the stranger did not see her, his dull glance was fixed on the branches that waved above him.

  “Iruma!” the girl’s friends called to her.

  Cavius and Kidogo came up, lifted the litter and carried their wounded friend away, but the girl remained standing; with eyes lowered, she stood as motionless and impassive as the young Hellene who had attracted her attention.

  VI. THE ROAD OF DARKNESS

  The tender care of Kidogo and Cavius had its effect and Pandion’s bones mended. His former strength, however, did not return to him. For days on end he lay, apathetic and listless, in the gloom of the big hut, answered his friends unwillingly and in monosyllables, ate without appetite and made no effort to rise. He had grown very thin, his face with its deep-sunken, usually closed eyes, was overgrown with a soft beard.

  The time had come to set out on the long road to the sea and home. Kidogo had long since questioned the local inhabitants about the way to the shores of the Southern Horn.

  Of the thirty-nine former slaves, who had sought refuge in the village, twelve had gone off in various directions — they had formerly lived in this country and could reach their homes without any great difficulty or danger.

  Those who remained were urging Kidogo to start out. Now that they were all free and healthy their distant homes called more strongly to them; every day of inactivity seemed like a crime to them. Since their return home depended on Kidogo, they worried him constantly with requests and reminders.

  Kidogo got out of the situation by making indefinite promises — he could not leave Pandion. After these talks the Negro would sit for hours beside the bed of his friend, torn with doubts — when would there be a change in the sick man’s condition? On Cavius’ advice Pandion was carried out of the house in the cool of the evening. Even this did not bring any noticeable improvement. The only times Pandion brightened up was when it rained — the rolling of the thunder and the roaring downpour of rain made the sick man raise himself on to his elbow and listen, as though in these sounds he heard some call unheard by the others. Cavius called in two local medicine men. They burnt grass with an acrid smoke over the patient, buried a pot with some roots in it in the earth, but still his condition did not improve.

  One evening when Pandion was lying near the hut and Cavius was sitting beside him, lazily keeping off the buzzing flies with a leafy branch, a girl in a blue mantle came up to them. This was Iruma, the daughter of the best hunter in the village, the girl whose attention Pandion had attracted the day the travellers arrived.

  From under her mantle the girl extended a slender arm on which the bracelets rattled; in her hand she held a small bag of plaited grass. Iruma offered the bag to Cavius — the Etruscan had by this time learned a few words of the local language — and tried to explain to him that these were magic nuts from the western forests that would cure the sick man. She tried to explain to him how to prepare medicine from them but Cavius could not understand her. Iruma hung her head in perplexity but immediately brightened up again, told Cavius to give her a flat stone, that was used for crushing corn, and to bring her a cup of water. Cavius entered the house and she looked round in all directions, then dropped to her knees at the sick man’s head and peered intently into his face. She laid her tiny hand on Pandion’s forehead, but hearing Cavius’ heavy tread she hurriedly withdrew it.

  She tipped some small nuts, something like chestnuts, out of the bag, broke them and crushed the kernels on the stone, rubbing them into a sort of thin porridge which she mixed with some milk that Kidogo had at that moment brought. As soon as the Negro saw the nuts, he gave a mighty yell and began to dance round Cavius in joy.

  Kidogo explained to the astonished Cavius that in the western forests and in the forests of his country there is a tree with a straight trunk whose branches grow shorter towards the top, so that it looks pointed. These trees bear large numbers of nuts that have marvellous healing properties. They give new strength to the exhausted, banish fatigue and bring joy and happiness to the healthy. (Cola nuts, now known the world over for their medicinal properties.)

  The girl fed Pandion with the porridge made from the magic nuts and then all three of them sat down by his bedside and began patiently awaiting results. After a few minutes had passed Pandion’s feeble breathing became stronger and more regular, the skin on his hollow cheeks took on a rosy hue. All the moroseness suddenly left the Etruscan. As though under a spell, he sat watching the effect of the mysterious medicine. Pandion heaved a deep sigh, opened his eyes widely and sat up.

  His sun-coloured eyes wandered from Cavius to Kidogo and then remained fixed on the girl. Pandion stared in amazement at a face the colour of dark bronze with an astonishingly smooth skin that seemed very much alive.

  Between the inner corners of her long, slightly slanting eyes, faint wrinkles, full of mischief, ran across the bridge of her nose. The whites of her eyes showed clear and bright through half-closed lids; the nostrils of her broad but well-formed nose twitched nervously, and her thick, vivid lips opened in a frank but bashful smile, that revealed a row of strong, pearly teeth. The whole of her round face was so filled with bold and at the same time gentle mischief, with the joyous play of youthful life, that Pandion could not help but smile. And his golden eyes, till then dull and apathetic, flashed and sparkled. Iruma lowered her eyes in confusion and turned away.

  The astounded friends were beside themselves with delight — for the first time since that fatal day of the battle, Pandion had smiled. The magic effect of the wonderful nuts was beyond all shadow of doubt. Pandion sat up and asked his friends about everything that had happened since the day he was injured, interrupting them with rapid questions, like those of a man in a state of inebriation.

  Iruma went hurriedly away, promising to make inquiries concerning the progress of the patient that evening. Pandion ate a lot and ate with great satisfaction, all the time interrogating his comrades. By evening, however, the effect of the medicine had worn off and he was again overcome by drowsy apathy.

  Pandion lay inside the house and the Etruscan and Kidogo were discussing whether or not to give him another portion of the nuts but bef
ore doing so decided to ask Iruma.

  The girl came, accompanied by her father, a tall athlete with scars on his shoulders and chest where he had been slashed by a lion’s claws. Father and daughter talked together for a long time. Several times the hunter waved his daughter disdainfully aside, shaking his head angrily; then he laughed noisily and slapped her on the back. Iruma shrugged her shoulders in annoyance and approached the two friends.

  “My father says that he must not be given too many nuts,” she explained to the Negro, apparently regarding him as the sick man’s closest friend. “You must give him the nuts once at midday to make him eat well…”

  Kidogo answered that he knew the effect of the nuts and would do as she told him.

  The girl’s father looked at the sick man, shook his head and said something to his daughter that neither Cavius nor Kidogo could understand. Iruma immediately changed into something like an infuriated cat — so brightly did her eyes flash; her upper lip curled, showing a row of white teeth. The hunter gave her a kindly smile, waved his hand and went out of the house. The girl bent over Pandion
  “Tomorrow I’ll treat him myself according to the customs of cur people,” she announced with decision as she stood in the doorway. “There’s a way that the women of our tribe have long used to heal the sick and the. wounded. The spirit of joy has left your friend — without it no man wants to live. That spirit must be returned to him!”

  Kidogo thought over the girl’s words and decided that she was right. After all the suffering he had experienced Pandion had lost his interest in life. Something had given way inside him. Nevertheless Kidogo could not imagine what sort of treatment the girl was talking about no matter how hard he tried. And so he lay down to sleep without having thought of anything.

  Next day Kidogo again fed the nuts to Pandion. The latter sat up, talked and, to the joy of his friends, ate with a good appetite. He kept looking from side to side and at last asked about the girl of yesterday. Kidogo pulled a grimace of pleasure, winked at Cavius and warned Pandion that on that evening the girl would give him treatment of a kind unknown to anybody. Pandion was at first interested, then, apparently when the effect of the nuts began to wear off, again fell into his usual apathy. Still Kidogo and Cavius were of the opinion that their friend’s appearance had greatly improved during those last two days. Their young friend tossed about more on his bed and his breathing was stronger.

  No sooner had the sun sunk in the west than the village was, as usual, filled with the acrid smell of burning brushwood and the monotonous thud of heavy pestles in huge mortars in which the women crushed millet for the evening meal. Black porridge from this millet, eaten with milk and butter, was the staple food of the villagers.

  The short twilight turned rapidly into night. Suddenly the dull rumble of a tom-tom swept across the village. A noisy crowd of young people approached the. house of the three friends. In front of the crowd were four girls bearing torches and surrounding two bent old crones in wide dark cloaks. Young men took up the sick Pandion and, accompanied by the deafening shouts of the crowd, carried him to the other side of the village, close to the cleared edge of the forest.

  Cavius and Kidogo followed the crowd, the former looking from side to side in disapproval as though he wished to say that nothing good was to be expected of the performance.

  Pandion was carried into a big empty house, no less than thirty cubits across, and laid down beside the centre pole with his back to the wide door. A number of torches made of tinder wood soaked in palm-oil and fastened to the pole threw a circle of bright light over the centre of the house. The walls under the low eaves were hidden in darkness. The house was full of women, young and old; they sat along the walls talking in rapid tones. Some dark liquid, that an old woman gave Pandion to drink, immediately cheered him up.

  A sharp trembling sound came from a hollow elephant tusk — silence fell on the house and all the men hurriedly left. The Etruscan and Kidogo tried to hang back but were unceremoniously thrust out into the darkness. A group of ugly old hags stood around the entrance screening the proceedings from the eyes of the curious. Cavius sat down near the house, determined not to go away till the end of the mysterious rites. He was joined by Kidogo, who bared his teeth in a smile — he had faith in the methods of treatment used by — the peoples of the south. Two girls carefully lifted the sick man and sat him with his back propped up against the centre pole. Pandion looked round in astonishment, seeing everywhere in the semi-darkness the whites of the eyes and the teeth of smiling women. Inside, the house was hung with festoons of some aromatic plant. Wide garlands hang around the inner cornice of the roof and thin branches of the same bush were wound around the pole against which Pandion had been placed. The branches filled the whole house with a sharp, invigorating aroma that worried and alarmed Pandion, reminding him of something infinitely close and alluring and at the same time irretrievably forgotten.

  Several women took up their places immediately in front of the Hellene. The curved lines of two trumpets made of hollow elephant’s tusks shone white in the light of the torches, beside them were fat-bellied torn-toms made of hollowed tree-trunks.

  Again the trembling note of the horn sounded. The old women placed before Pandion the wooden statuette of a woman crudely carved in powerful lines and worn black with time.

  Women’s high-pitched voices started a soft song — they poured forth slow modulations of guttural sounds and sorrowful sighs, growing faster and louder, expanding and rising higher and higher in an impetuous rush. Suddenly a heavy and resonant stroke on the drum made Pandion give an involuntary shudder. The song ceased, at the edge of the circle of light a girl in a blue mantle appeared, a girl with whom Pandion was already acquainted. She stepped into the circle of torchlight and stopped hesitantly. Again the horn sounded and several of the old women added their howls to its furious moans. The girl threw off her mantle and stood there naked except for a girdle of branches from the same aromatic bush.

  The light from the torches flickered dully on her shining “dark bronze skin. Iruma’s eyes had been heavily made up with blue-black paint; polished copper bangles shone on her arms and legs; her tightly curling hair tumbled on to her smooth shoulders.

  The tom-toms rumbled dully and rhythmically. In time with the drums the girl, stepping softly on bare feet, drew near to Pandion and with lithe, animal-like movements bowed before the statuette of the unknown goddess, stretching out her hands before her in exhausting and passionate anticipation. In admiration Pandion followed Iruma’s every movement. There was no trace of mischief left on the girl’s face — serious, stern, her brows raised in a frown, she seemed to be listening to the voice of her own heart. She would relax and then stretch herself to full height, throwing out her arms and standing on the tips of her toes as though every particle of her body were striving upwards. Pandion had never seen anything like it — the mysterious life of her hands merged with the bursts of soulful inspiration on her upturned face.

  The ivory horns trumpeted feverishly. A sudden rattling blow stopped Pandion’s breath — sheets of copper, beaten one against the other, rattled and rumbled victoriously, joyfully, drowning the broken rhythm of the tomtoms.

  The girl threw herself backward in a sharp, gleaming curve. Then her tiny feet began to move over the smoothly beaten floor; the dancer travelled round the circle shyly and hesitantly in her bashful confusion.

  In the light of the torches the girl seemed to be cast from some dark metal. Drawing back into the darkness she moved there like a light, almost invisible shadow.

  The troubled rattle of the drums grew faster and faster, the copper sheets clattered wildly and the slow dance became more and more impetuous, following the furious dictates of the music.

  Strong, slim legs moved in time with the shattering bass notes of the copper sheets, twined together, stopped dead still and again slid along, scarcel
y touching the floor. The shoulders and high bosom remained motionless and Iruma’s tensed arms, stretched out towards the idol of the goddess, curved slowly and gracefully in supplication.

  The persistent rumble of the drums broke off, the rattle of copper sheets ceased, and only the occasional sorrowful moans of the horns and the tinkling of Iruma’s bracelets and anklets broke the silence that ensued.

  The strange movement of the muscles under the girl’s skin fascinated Pandion. They did not protrude anywhere, they streamed and undulated like the water on the surface of a river and the lines of Iruma’s body flashed before Pandion’s eyes in constant, never repeated mutation in which there was the smooth rhythm of the sea and the gusty winds of the golden plain.

  The supplication that had filled the girl’s every movement at the beginning of the dance had now given place to an imperative urge. It seemed to Pandion that the fire of life itself was flowing before him in the bronze reflection of light and the thunder of the music.

  A craving for life flashed up again in the young Hellene’s breast, former dreams and desires returned, a wide and mysterious world opened up before him.

  The horns stopped blowing. The low threatening rumble of the tom-toms merged with the piercing shrieks of the women. The copper sheets rattled like close thunder; then all of them stopped suddenly. Pandion could hear the beating of his own heart.

  The girl plunged forward, then suddenly stopped, dropping her arms helplessly down her sides, trembling and exhausted. Her knees bent under her, the gleam went out of her eyes. Iruma cried out sadly and collapsed before the statuette of the goddess. She lay motionless where she had fallen, only her bosom heaving with her rapid breathing.

  The tempestuous dance had broken off on a note of sadness and the astounded Pandion shuddered.