The Fiery Angel

by Valery Bruisov

  The ointment slightly burned the flesh and my head began to turn from its odour, so that soon I scarcely was aware what I was doing, my arms hung limp, and my eyelids fell over my eyes. Then my heart began to beat with such strength it seemed as though, tied upon a string, it leapt away from my chest a whole elbow’s length, and this caused me pain. I was conscious of the fact that I lay upon the floor of our room, but, when I tried to raise myself up, I was already powerless to do so, and I thought: so all the tales of the Sabbath are babbling nonsense, and the much talked of miraculous ointment is only a sleeping draught—but at that very moment all went dark before me and I suddenly saw myself, or imagined myself, high above the earth, in the air, quite naked, astride as on horseback a woolly black goat.

  At first my head was all fugged, but then I made an effort and entirely mastered my consciousness, for upon it alone could I rely as my guide and protector in the miraculous journey I was making. Having taken stock of the animal that bore me through the astral spheres, I saw that it was an ordinary he-goat, obviously of flesh and bone, with rather long and matted wool, and only when it turned its head towards me did I notice a devilish quality in its eyes. I did not then wonder how I had left my room, which had a fireplace, though of very narrow chimney, but later, however, it was explained to me that this circumstance alone cannot serve as proof of the imaginary nature of my journey, for the Devil is an artifex mirabilis and can expand and contract again the bricks of a stove with a speed invisible to the human eye. Similarly I did not think, during the flight itself, of the question what power could sustain above the earth matter so heavy as the he-goat with the weight of my body, but now I think it must have been that same infernal power that enabled Simon Magus to rise in the air, as witnesses Holy Scripture.

  In any case, my hell-steed maintained itself very firmly in the streams of the atmosphere, and flew forward with such impetus that I had to cling with both hands to its thick hair to avoid falling, and the wind created by the terrific speed of its movement whistled past my ears and was painful to my eyes and chest. Having adjusted myself to the sensations of a man in flight, I began to look around me and down, and noticed that we were keeping well below the clouds, at about the height of small mountains, and I was able to make out various districts and villages as they followed one another below me like a geographical map. Of course I was quite unable to take any part in determining the choice of route, and obediently flew whither my he-goat hastened, but by the fact that we encountered no towns on our way, I concluded that we were not flying along the stream of the Rhine, but most likely towards the south-east, in the direction of Bavaria.

  I suppose that the aerial journey lasted not less than half-an-hour, perhaps even longer, for I had time to get quite used to my position. At last there rose up before us out of the darkness a remote valley between two bare peaks, lit by a bluish-green light, and, as we approached it, more and more distinctly voices were heard, and the figures of various beings became visible bustling hither and thither in the valley, on the shores of a lake that shone like silver. My he-goat descended low, almost to the earth, and, riding me right up to the crowd, he suddenly tipped me off on to the ground, not from a great height, but yet so that I felt the hurt of the bump, and disappeared. Hardly had I had time to rise when I was surrounded by several frenzied women, as naked as I was myself, who lifted me up with shouts: “A new one, a Novice!”

  I was dragged across the whole assembly, my eyes, blinded by the sudden light, at first distinguishing nothing but various grimacing jowls, until I reached the side, at the entrance to a wood, where, beneath the branches of an old beech-tree, loomed dark a group of beings, whom I took to be men. There the women who led me stopped, and I saw that there was Someone seated on a high wooden throne and surrounded by his suite, but in me there was no terror, and I was able to study his appearance rapidly and clearly. The Seated One was enormous in stature and made like a human being down to the waist, like a hairy he-goat below; his legs ended in hoofs, but his hands were like human hands, so was his face human, red-sunburnt, like an Apache, with large round eyes and a medium beard. He had the appearance of being not more than forty years old, and there, was in his expression something sad and rousing compassion, but this feeling disappeared as soon as one’s glance rose above his high forehead, to see, emerging distinctly from his curly black hair, three horns: the two smaller ones behind and the larger one in front, and round the horns was placed a crown, apparently of silver, that emitted a soft glow, like the light of the moon.

  The naked witches placed me before the throne and exclaimed:

  “Master Leonard! He is new!”

  Then sounded a voice, hoarse and devoid of inflections as though he who spoke was not accustomed to pronouncing words, but strong and masterful, which addressed me, saying:

  “Welcome, my son. But dost thou come to us of thine own free choice?”

  I replied, by my own free choice, as I had been instructed to reply.

  Then the same voice began to ask me further questions, of which I had been warned, but which I do not wish to repeat here, and thus, step by step, did I perform the whole blasphemous ritual of a black novitiate. Thus, first of all I pronounced a denunciation of the Lord God, of His Holy Mother the Virgin Mary, of all the Saints in Paradise, and of my faith in Christ, the Saviour of the World, and after that I gave Master Leonard the two convened kisses. For the first he benevolently gave me his hand, and as I touched it with my lips, I noticed one peculiarity: its digits, not excepting the thumb, were of equal length, crooked and clawed like those of a kite. For the second, rising, he turned his back upon me, so that above me rose his tail, long like that of an ass, and I, playing my rôle to the end, bent down and kissed his he-goat’s rump, black and emitting a nauseating odour, but yet strangely reminiscent of a human face.

  And when I had performed this ritual, Master Leonard, still in the same unchanging voice, exclaimed:

  “Rejoice, oh my beloved son, and accept my sign on thy body and bear it throughout the ages of ages to come, Amen!”

  And, bending his head towards me, he touched my breast with the point of his larger horn, above the left nipple, so that I felt the pain of the prick and from under my skin oozed a drop of blood.

  At once the witches who had brought me clapped their hands and shouted for joy, and Master Leonard, seating himself on the throne, pronounced at last those fatal words for the sake of which I stood before him.

  “Now ask of me what thou wilt, and thy first desire will be fulfilled by us.”

  With perfect self-control I replied:

  “I desire to know, and I beg of you to inform me, where is now the Count Heinrich von Otterheim, known unto you, and how am I to find him.”

  As I said this I gazed into the face of the Seated One and saw how it hardened and became overcast and terrible, and it was not he, but someone else standing near the throne, small of stature and hideous, who answered me:

  “Thinkest thou that we do not know thy double-dealing. Beware playing with matters that are stronger than thou. And now begone, and perhaps later wilt thou receive an answer to thy insolent question.”

  In no wise frightened by the threatening tone, for the naturalness and humanity of everything that was happening instilled no terror into me, I was about to reply, but my guides whispered into my ear: “No more! Later! Later!” and dragged me away from the throne almost by force.

  Soon I found myself amidst a variegated crowd, which was making merry as at the Feast on Saint John’s day, or at the Carnival festivities at Venice. The field on which the Sabbath was being held was rather large, and probably used often for that purpose, for it was so trampled that no grass grew upon it. In places, here and there, fires that burned without fuel rose from within the earth, and they lit all the district by a greenish light like the light of fizgigs. Amidst these flames there bustled, jumped and grimaced three or four hundreds of beings, men and women, either quite naked or barely covered with shirts, so
me with wax candles in their hands, and also hideous animals of human appearance, enormous toads in green caftans, wolves and wolf hounds upright on their hind legs, apes and long-legged birds; here and there beneath their feet crawled and twisted repulsive serpents, lizards, salamanders, and tritons. In the distance on the very shore of the lake, I could make out some small children with long white staffs, who, not taking part in the merry-making, were grazing a herd of toads of a lesser size.

  One of the naked witches who were leading me took an especial interest in me, and showed no sign of leaving me when the others, dragging me into the crowd, dispersed in various directions. Her face attracted me by its gaiety and pertness and the young body, though with breasts drooping, seemed yet fresh and responsive. She held my hand firmly and, snuggling against me, told me that she was known at the night feasts as Sarraska, and was persuading me: “Come and dance.” I saw no reason to refuse her.

  By this time shouts were heard in the crowd: “A roundelay! A roundelay!” and everyone, as if performing a well-known rite, began to gather into three large circles, locked one within the other. Those in the medium one stood as is usual in village roundels, but those in the least and the largest stood reversed, with their faces turned outwards and their backs turned inwards. Now were heard the sounds of music: flute, violin and drum—and then began the devilish dance, that started to grow more rapid with every movement, at first reminding me of one of the Spanish danses de espadas or of the sarabande, and then like nothing upon earth. As I and my companion had got into the very outer circle of the roundelay, I could only barely see what was taking place in the other circles: it seemed as if the least was furiously wheeling from left to right, and those in the second furiously jumping up and down, while in ours the main figure of the dance appeared to consist in us, turning half-way and not unlocking our hands, knocking our buttocks against each other.

  I was quite out of breath when at last the music stopped and the dance ended, but hardly had the dancers broken the circles than the sound of singing was heard, coming from the direction of the throne. The Seated One, accompanying his singing with the sound of a harp, sang in a hoarse and heavy voice a psalm, to which we all listened in respectful silence. And, when he ceased, we all began to sing in chorus the black litany, in form like a church litany, while to its prayers, all the words of which I could not quite understand, the usual responses were heard: “Miserere nobis!” and “Ora pro nobis!”

  Meantime came bustling among us some small but active creatures in red velvet tunics sewn with small bells, and they laid tables very smartly, covering them with white cloths, though, as one could see, these attendants performed their duties without the help of hands.

  Sarraska, who had recovered her breath during the singing, again began to urge and hurry me:

  “Behan, Behan, come quicker, let us take our seats or none will be left, and I am terribly hungry.”

  Having decided to conform to the customs of the place, as I have done always and everywhither fate has carried me, I followed the young witch, and we were among the first to seat ourselves at the table, around which were placed wooden benches of the commonest kind. Very soon the litany was over, and with the greatest noise and yelling the whole concourse followed our example, filling the benches, pushing and quarrelling for seats. The attendants in velvet tunics began to place various dishes on the table, all simple in the extreme: cups with cabbage soup or oatmeal, butter, cheese, plates with bread made of black millet, bottles of milk, and quarts of wine, which, when I tried it, proved sour and of low quality.

  Above all sounded the buzz of unceasing talk, roars of laughter, whistling and giggling, but I made use of the fact that our seats were at the side to endeavour to question Sarraska about various details of the festival I did not properly understand; and she, greedily stuffing her stomach with the proffered dishes, very willingly satisfied my curiosity.

  I asked her who were these attendants who served the dishes, and she said that they were demons, and armless, who performed their work with the aid of their teeth, and wings that they concealed beneath their capes. And then and there she called one of these attendants to her, to show him to me closer, and it was strange to me to see how the naked woman turned here and there in front of us the smallish mannikin with an idiot face, and wings like those of a bat in place of hands.

  I asked next how it was that they were none of them afraid to dance amid the columns of fire. But Sarraska laughed out loud and told me that the fire does not burn, that it is only the priests who try to instil fear by pretending that the fires of Hell cause suffering, but that in reality they are like soapy froth, and she wanted to drag me forward to convince me of the fact, but I was careful to do nothing to attract the attention of the whole company to myself.

  Again I asked, whether the serpents and tritons that crawled about our feet might not harm us, but Sarraska, laughing again, assured me that these creatures were pets and harmless, and at once she dragged a snake from under the table and wound it round her breasts, and the snake tenderly licked her neck with its forked tongue and playfully nibbled at her scarlet nipple.

  At last I asked whether there were Sabbaths more lively than to-day’s, and at this question Sarraska’s eyes sparkled and she said to me:

  “Of course! To-day is the most ordinary of gatherings, such as is held every Wednesday and Friday, but what took place here on the Feast of the Assumption, or, wait, what will there not be on the Holiday of All Saints! At such times more than a thousand people are gathered together, stolen babies are baptised, weddings celebrated, obits held in memory of the dead! Then there is rejoicing, oh what a joy it is to dance, to sing, and to caress! Sometimes there are wolves that give pleasure with which no man can compare! And, for a treat, sometimes, we cook ourselves children’s meat in milk!”

  And with these words Sarraska’s teeth somehow glittered peculiarly in her mouth—white and sharp teeth; and when I asked again, not without revulsion: whether it were really true that human flesh was so tasty and wolves’ caresses so agreeable, she only laughed slyly in reply. Then I asked her whether it had occurred to her to experience the caresses of demons and whether they gave joy. She, not ashamed, declared to me that they do, and a great joy, only their seed is as cold as ice. But then she drew quite close to me and, shamelessly touching parts of my body, she began to speak to me thus:

  “What is the use of recollecting the past, my precious Behan? To-day I love you, and you are more desirable to me than any incubus. Look, already they are putting out the fires and soon the cock will crow—come with me, then.”

  When, however, I shook my head in negation and tried to free myself from her embrace, Sarraska asked me why I was so sad. I told her that Master Leonard had promised to give me an answer to a question of great importance to me, but till now he had made no reply.

  Sarraska then told me:

  “Don’t you be sad, precious Behan! I was his betrothed last Friday and he is very kindly-disposed towards me. I will go and ask him; he will not deny me.

  Having said this Sarraska slipped from the bench and ran off, and, left by myself, I began to take a look round. In truth the fires were already going out and only a few of them still weakly smouldered near the ground, and before my eyes the benches began to empty quickly, for the moment had come for the participants in the Sabbath to give themselves to the last and most ignoble stage of the feast. The tender music of flutes rose above the lawn, through the thickening darkness hands reached out for hands, and the mingled bodies began to sink to the earth with soft sighs, here and yonder, between the tables, and on the shores of the lake, and far away under the trees. Here I saw the ugly coupling of a youth with an old woman, there the hideous toying of an old man with a child, here the shamelessness of a maid giving herself to a wolf, or the fury of a man caressing a wolf-bitch, or a monstrous bundle of many bodies plaited in one caress—wild outcries and gasping breath sounded upon all sides, increasing and drowning the sound of the inst
ruments. Soon the whole lawn was become one Sodom come to life, a new feast of Codrus, a horrid madhouse in which all were seized with the fury of heat and threw themselves upon one another, hardly seeing who was before them: man, woman, child or demon—and the invincible odour of lust rose from these dark, heaving masses, drugging me also, so that I felt rise in me that same fury of the male, that same insatiable thirst for embraces.

  And, at this very moment, Sarraska appeared in front of me rejoicing, and said:

  “It is accomplished, accomplished! He said to me: ‘Has not my true servant already given him the answer: whither you are riding, ride thither!’ If he confirms it—it must be true!”

  After these words, assuming that my sadness must have been blown away, the witch silently embraced me with her arms and drew me after her towards the beginnings of the wood, close to me like a lizard, and whispering to me disconnected words of caress. The temptation of lust penetrated into me, through the nostrils, and through the ears, and through the eyes. And Sarraska with her warm body as it were scorched all my body, so that I allowed myself to be led without hindrance. Beneath the thick branches of a walnut tree we fell to the ground, on a little island of moss, and in that moment I remembered neither my oaths nor my love, but only gave myself up to joy, that darkened my reason and deprived me of will. But suddenly, while I was still weak after these transports, right in front of me I saw the face of Renata amidst the green leaves, and awareness flared up in me like lightning, and remorse and jealousy seared me painfully. Renata was quite naked, like most of those participating in the Sabbath, and on her face was the same expression of sensual heat as on those of the others—and, apparently not seeing me, she made her way as though seeking someone, through the beginnings of the wood. I leaped up like a wild boar breaking from a trap, thrust away Sarraska who sought to hold me back, and, as she passed, flew after her with the sad and angry cry: