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diff --git a/1853.txt b/1853.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..989e43c --- /dev/null +++ b/1853.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7764 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories, by L. Adams Beck + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories + +Author: L. Adams Beck + +Release Date: August, 1999 [Etext #1853] +Posting Date: November 18, 2009 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NINTH VIBRATION *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE NINTH VIBRATION AND OTHER STORIES + +By L. Adams Beck + + + + +CONTENTS: + + THE NINTH VIBRATION + + THE INTERPRETER A ROMANCE OF THE EAST + + THE INCOMPARABLE LADY A STORY OF CHINA WITH A MORAL + + THE HATRED OF THE QUEEN A STORY OF BURMA + + FIRE OF BEAUTY + + THE BUILDING OF THE TAJ MAHAL + + "HOW GREAT IS THE GLORY OF KWANNON!" + + "THE ROUND-FACED BEAUTY" + + + + +THE NINTH VIBRATION + +There is a place uplifted nine thousand feet in purest air where one +of the most ancient tracks in the world runs from India into Tibet. +It leaves Simla of the Imperial councils by a stately road; it passes +beyond, but now narrowing, climbing higher beside the khuds or steep +drops to the precipitous valleys beneath, and the rumor of Simla grows +distant and the way is quiet, for, owing to the danger of driving horses +above the khuds, such baggage as you own must be carried by coolies, and +you yourself must either ride on horseback or in the little horseless +carriage of the Orient, here drawn and pushed by four men. And presently +the deodars darken the way with a solemn presence, for-- + + "These are the Friars of the wood, + The Brethren of the Solitude + Hooded and grave--" + +their breath most austerely pure in the gradually chilling air. Their +companies increase and now the way is through a great wood where it +has become a trail and no more, and still it climbs for many miles and +finally a rambling bungalow, small and low, is sighted in the deeps of +the trees, a mountain stream from unknown heights falling beside it. And +this is known as the House in the Woods. Very few people are permitted +to go there, for the owner has no care for money and makes no provision +for guests. You must take your own servant and the khansamah will cook +you such simple food as men expect in the wilds, and that is all. You +stay as long as you please and when you leave not even a gift to the +khansamah is permitted. + +I had been staying in Ranipur of the plains while I considered the +question of getting to Upper Kashmir by the route from Simla along the +old way to Chinese Tibet where I would touch Shipki in the Dalai +Lama's territory and then pass on to Zanskar and so down to Kashmir--a +tremendous route through the Himalaya and a crowning experience of +the mightiest mountain scenery in the world. I was at Ranipur for the +purpose of consulting my old friend Olesen, now an irrigation official +in the Rampur district--a man who had made this journey and nearly lost +his life in doing it. It is not now perhaps so dangerous as it was, and +my life was of no particular value to any one but myself, and the plan +interested me. + +I pass over the long discussions of ways and means in the blinding heat +of Ranipur. Olesen put all his knowledge at my service and never uttered +a word of the envy that must have filled him as he looked at the +distant snows cool and luminous in blue air, and, shrugging good-natured +shoulders, spoke of the work that lay before him on the burning +plains until the terrible summer should drag itself to a close. We had +vanquished the details and were smoking in comparative silence one night +on the veranda, when he said in his slow reflective way; + +"You don't like the average hotel, Ormond, and you'll like it still less +up Simla way with all the Simla crowd of grass-widows and fellows out +for as good a time as they can cram into the hot weather. I wonder if I +could get you a permit for The House in the Woods while you re waiting +to fix up your men and route for Shipki." + +He explained and of course I jumped at the chance. It belonged, he said, +to a man named Rup Singh, a pandit, or learned man of Ranipur. He had +always spent the summer there, but age and failing health made this +impossible now, and under certain conditions he would occasionally allow +people known to friends of his own to put up there. + +"And Rup Singh and I are very good friends," Olesen said; "I won his +heart by discovering the lost Sukh Mandir, or Hall of Pleasure, built +many centuries ago by a Maharao of Ranipur for a summer retreat in the +great woods far beyond Simla. There are lots of legends about it here in +Ranipur. They call it The House of Beauty. Rup Singh's ancestor had been +a close friend of the Maharao and was with him to the end, and that's +why he himself sets such store on the place. You have a good chance if I +ask for a permit. + +"He told me the story and since it is the heart of my own I give it +briefly. Many centuries ago the Ranipur Kingdom was ruled by the Maharao +Rai Singh a prince of the great lunar house of the Rajputs. Expecting +a bride from some far away kingdom (the name of this is unrecorded) +he built the Hall of Pleasure as a summer palace, a house of rare and +costly beauty. A certain great chamber he lined with carved figures of +the Gods and their stories, almost unsurpassed for truth and life. So, +with the pine trees whispering about it the secret they sigh to tell, +he hoped to create an earthly Paradise with this Queen in whom all +loveliness was perfected. And then some mysterious tragedy ended all +his hopes. It was rumoured that when the Princess came to his court, +she was, by some terrible mistake, received with insult and offered the +position only of one of his women. After that nothing was known. Certain +only is it that he fled to the hills, to the home of his broken hope, +and there ended his days in solitude, save for the attendance of two +faithful friends who would not abandon him even in the ghostly quiet of +the winter when the pine boughs were heavy with snow and a spectral moon +stared at the panthers shuffling through the white wastes beneath. Of +these two Rup Singh's ancestor was one. And in his thirty fifth year +the Maharao died and his beauty and strength passed into legend and his +kingdom was taken by another and the jungle crept silently over his Hall +of Pleasure and the story ended. + +"There was not a memory of the place up there," Olesen went on. +"Certainly I never heard anything of it when I went up to the Shipki +in 1904. But I had been able to be useful to Rup Singh and he gave me a +permit for The House in the Woods, and I stopped there for a few days' +shooting. I remember that day so well. I was wandering in the dense +woods while my men got their midday grub, and I missed the trail somehow +and found myself in a part where the trees were dark and thick and the +silence heavy as lead. It was as if the trees were on guard--they stood +shoulder to shoulder and stopped the way. Well, I halted, and had a +notion there was something beyond that made me doubt whether to go on. +I must have stood there five minutes hesitating. Then I pushed on, +bruising the thick ferns under my shooting boots and stooping under the +knotted boughs. Suddenly I tramped out of the jungle into a clearing, +and lo and behold a ruined House, with blocks of marble lying all about +it, and carved pillars and a great roof all being slowly smothered +by the jungle. The weirdest thing you ever saw. I climbed some fallen +columns to get a better look, and as I did I saw a face flash by at the +arch of a broken window. I sang out in Hindustani, but no answer: only +the echo from the woods. Somehow that dampened my ardour, and I didn't +go in to what seemed like a great ruined hall for the place was so +eerie and lonely, and looked mighty snaky into the bargain. So I came +ingloriously away and told Rup Singh. And his whole face changed. 'That +is The House of Beauty,' he said. 'All my life have I sought it and in +vain. For, friend of my soul, a man must lose himself that he may find +himself and what lies beyond, and the trodden path has ever been my +doom. And you who have not sought have seen. Most strange are the way +of the Gods'. Later on I knew this was why he had always gone up yearly, +thinking and dreaming God knows what. He and I tried for the place +together, but in vain and the whole thing is like a dream. Twice he has +let friends of mine stay at The House in the Woods, and I think he won't +refuse now." + +"Did he ever tell you the story?" + +"Never. I only know what I've picked up here. Some horrible mistake +about the Rani that drove the man almost mad with remorse. I've heard +bits here and there. There's nothing so vital as tradition in India." + +"I wonder'. what really happened." + +"That we shall never know. I got a little old picture of the +Maharao--said to be painted by a Pahari artist. It's not likely to be +authentic, but you never can tell. A Brahman sold it to me that he might +complete his daughter's dowry, and hated doing it." + +"May I see it?" + +"Why certainly. Not a very good light, but--can do," as the Chinks say. + +He brought it out rolled in silk stuff and I carried it under the +hanging lamp. A beautiful young man indeed, with the air of race +these people have beyond all others;--a cold haughty face, immovably +dignified. He sat with his hands resting lightly on the arms of his +chair of State. A crescent of rubies clasped the folds of the turban and +from this sprang an aigrette scattering splendours. The magnificent hilt +of a sword was ready beside him. The face was not only beautiful but +arresting. + +"A strange picture," I said. "The artist has captured the man himself. +I can see him trampling on any one who opposed him, and suffering in the +same cold secret way. It ought to be authentic if it isn't. Don't you +know any more?" + +"Nothing. Well--to bed, and tomorrow I'll see Rup Singh." + +I was glad when he returned with the permission. I was to be very +careful, he said, to make no allusion to the lost palace, for two women +were staying at the House in the Woods--a mother and daughter to whom +Rup Singh had granted hospitality because of an obligation he must +honor. But with true Oriental distrust of women he had thought fit to +make no confidence to them. I promised and asked Olesen if he knew them. + +"Slightly. Canadians of Danish blood like my own. Their name is Ingmar. +Some people think the daughter good-looking. The mother is supposed +to be clever; keen on occult subjects which she came back to India to +study. The husband was a great naturalist and the kindest of men. He +almost lived in the jungle and the natives had all sorts of rumours +about his powers. You know what they are. They said the birds and beasts +followed him about. Any old thing starts a legend." + +"What was the connection with Rup Singh?" + +"He was in difficulties and undeservedly, and Ingmar generously lent +him money at a critical time, trusting to his honour for repayment. Like +most Orientals he never forgets a good turn and would do anything for +any of the family--except trust the women with any secret he valued. The +father is long dead. By the way Rup Singh gave me a queer message for +you. He said; 'Tell the Sahib these words--"Let him who finds water in +the desert share his cup with him who dies of thirst." He is certainly +getting very old. I don't suppose he knew himself what he meant." + +I certainly did not. However my way was thus smoothed for me and I took +the upward road, leaving Olesen to the long ungrateful toil of the man +who devotes his life to India without sufficient time or knowledge to +make his way to the inner chambers of her beauty. There is no harder +mistress unless you hold the pass-key to her mysteries, there is none of +whom so little can be told in words but who kindles so deep a passion. +Necessity sometimes takes me from that enchanted land, but when the +latest dawns are shining in my skies I shall make my feeble way back to +her and die at her worshipped feet. So I went up from Kalka. + +I have never liked Simla. It is beautiful enough--eight thousand feet +up in the grip of the great hills looking toward the snows, the famous +summer home of the Indian Government. Much diplomacy is whispered +on Observatory Hill and many are the lighter diversions of which Mr. +Kipling and lesser men have written. But Simla is also a gateway to many +things--to the mighty deodar forests that clothe the foot-hills of the +mountains, to Kulu, to the eternal snows, to the old, old bridle way +that leads up to the Shipki Pass and the mysteries of Tibet--and to the +strange things told in this story. So I passed through with scarcely a +glance at the busy gayety of the little streets and the tiny shops +where the pretty ladies buy their rouge and powder. I was attended by +my servant Ali Khan, a Mohammedan from Nagpur, sent up with me by Olesen +with strong recommendation. He was a stout walker, so too am I, and an +inveterate dislike to the man-drawn carriage whenever my own legs would +serve me decided me to walk the sixteen miles to the House in the Woods, +sending on the baggage. Ali Khan despatched it and prepared to follow +me, the fine cool air of the hills giving us a zest. + +"Subhan Alla! (Praise be to God!) the air is sweet!" he said, stepping +out behind me. "What time does the Sahib look to reach the House?" + +"About five or six. Now, Ali Khan, strike out of the road. You know the +way." + +So we struck up into the glorious pine woods, mountains all about us. +Here and there as we climbed higher was a little bank of forgotten +snow, but spring had triumphed and everywhere was the waving grace of +maiden-hair ferns, banks of violets and strangely beautiful little wild +flowers. These woods are full of panthers, but in day time the only +precaution necessary is to take no dog,--a dainty they cannot resist. +The air was exquisite with the sun-warm scent of pines, and here and +there the trees broke away disclosing mighty ranges of hills covered +with rich blue shadows like the bloom on a plum,--the clouds chasing the +sunshine over the mountain sides and the dark green velvet of the robe +of pines. I looked across ravines that did not seem gigantic and yet the +villages on the other side were like a handful of peas, so tremendous +was the scale. I stood now and then to see the rhododendrons, forest +trees here with great trunks and massive boughs glowing with blood-red +blossom, and time went by and I took no count of it, so glorious was the +climb. + +It must have been hours later when it struck me that the sun was getting +low and that by now we should be nearing The House in the Woods. I said +as much to Ali Khan. He looked perplexed and agreed. We had reached +a comparatively level place, the trail faint but apparent, and it +surprised me that we heard no sound of life from the dense wood where +our goal must be. + +"I know not, Presence," he said. "May his face be blackened that +directed me. I thought surely I could not miss the way, and yet-" + +We cast back and could see no trail forking from the one we were on. +There was nothing for it but to trust to luck and push on. But I began +to be uneasy and so was the man. I had stupidly forgotten to unpack +my revolver, and worse, we had no food, and the mountain air is an +appetiser, and at night the woods have their dangers, apart from being +absolutely trackless. We had not met a living being since we left the +road and there seemed no likelihood of asking for directions. I stopped +no longer for views but went steadily on, Ali Khan keeping up a running +fire of low-voiced invocations and lamentations. And now it was dusk and +the position decidedly unpleasant. + +It was at that moment I saw a woman before us walking lightly and +steadily under the pines. She must have struck into the trail from +the side for she never could have kept before us all the way. A native +woman, but wearing the all-concealing boorka, more like a town dweller +than a woman of the hills. I put on speed and Ali Khan, now very tired, +toiled on behind me as I came up with her and courteously asked the +way. Her face was entirely hidden, but the answering voice was clear and +sweet. I made up my mind she was young, for it had the bird-like thrill +of youth. + +"If the Presence continues to follow this path he will arrive. It is not +far. They wait for him." + +That was all. It left me with a desire to see the veiled face. We passed +on and Ali Khan looked fearfully back. + +"Ajaib! (Wonderful!) A strange place to meet one of the purdah-nashin +(veiled women)" he muttered. "What would she be doing up here in the +heights? She walked like a Khanam (khan's wife) and I saw the gleam of +gold under the boorka." + +I turned with some curiosity as he spoke, and lo! there was no human +being in sight. She had disappeared from the track behind us and it was +impossible to say where. The darkening trees were beginning to hold the +dusk and it seemed unimaginable that a woman should leave the way and +take to the dangers of the woods. + +"Puna-i-Khoda--God protect us!" said Ali Khan in a shuddering whisper. +"She was a devil of the wilds. Press on, Sahib. We should not be here in +the dark." + +There was nothing else to do. We made the best speed we could, and the +trees grew more dense and the trail fainter between the close trunks, +and so the night came bewildering with the expectation that we must pass +the night unfed and unarmed in the cold of the heights. They might send +out a search party from The House in the Woods--that was still a hope, +if there were no other. And then, very gradually and wonderfully the +moon dawned over the tree tops and flooded the wood with mysterious +silver lights and about her rolled the majesty of the stars. We pressed +on into the heart of the night. From the dense black depths we emerged +at last. An open glade lay before us--the trees falling back to right +and left to disclose--what? + +A long low house of marble, unlit, silent, bathed in pale splendour and +shadow. About it stood great deodars, clothed in clouds of the white +blossoming clematis, ghostly and still. Acacias hung motionless trails +of heavily scented bloom as if carved in ivory. It was all silent as +death. A flight of nobly sculptured steps led up to a broad veranda and +a wide open door with darkness behind it. Nothing more. + +I forced myself to shout in Hindustani--the cry seeming a brutal outrage +upon the night, and an echo came back numbed in the black woods. I tried +once more and in vain. We stood absorbed also into the silence. + +"Ya Alla! it is a house of the dead!" whispered Ali Khan, shuddering at +my shoulder,--and even as the words left his lips I understood where we +were. "It is the Sukh Mandir." I said. "It is the House of the Maharao +of Ranipur." + +It was impossible to be in Ranipur and hear nothing of the dead house +of the forest and Ali Khan had heard--God only knows what tales. In his +terror all discipline, all the inborn respect of the native forsook him, +and without word or sign he turned and fled along the track, crashing +through the forest blind and mad with fear. It would have been insanity +to follow him, and in India the first rule of life is that the Sahib +shows no fear, so I left him to his fate whatever it might be, believing +at the same time that a little reflection and dread of the lonely forest +would bring him to heel quickly. + +I stood there and the stillness flowed like water about me. It was +as though I floated upon it--bathed in quiet. My thoughts adjusted +themselves. Possibly it was not the Sukh Mandir. Olesen had spoken of +ruin. I could see none. At least it was shelter from the chill which is +always present at these heights when the sun sets,--and it was beautiful +as a house not made with hands. There was a sense of awe but no fear as +I went slowly up the great steps and into the gloom beyond and so gained +the hall. + +The moon went with me and from a carven arch filled with marble tracery +rained radiance that revealed and hid. Pillars stood about me, wonderful +with horses ramping forward as in the Siva Temple at Vellore. They +appeared to spring from the pillars into the gloom urged by invisible +riders, the effect barbarously rich and strange--motion arrested, struck +dumb in a violent gesture, and behind them impenetrable darkness. I +could not see the end of this hall--for the moon did not reach it, but +looking up I beheld the walls fretted in great panels into the utmost +splendour of sculpture, encircling the stories of the Gods amid a +twining and under-weaving of leaves and flowers. It was more like a +temple than a dwelling. Siva, as Nataraja the Cosmic Dancer, the Rhythm +of the Universe, danced before me, flinging out his arms in the passion +of creation. Kama, the Indian Eros, bore his bow strung with honey-sweet +black bees that typify the heart's desire. Krishna the Beloved smiled +above the herd-maidens adoring at his feet. Ganesha the Elephant-Headed, +sat in massive calm, wreathing his wise trunk about him. And many more. +But all these so far as I could see tended to one centre panel larger +than any, representing two life-size figures of a dim beauty. At first +I could scarcely distinguish one from the other in the upward-reflected +light, and then, even as I stood, the moving moon revealed the two as +if floating in vapor. At once I recognized the subject--I had seen it +already in the ruined temple of Ranipur, though the details differed. +Parvati, the Divine Daughter of the Himalaya, the Emanation of the +mighty mountains, seated upon a throne, listening to a girl who played +on a Pan pipe before her. The goddess sat, her chin leaned upon her +hand, her shoulders slightly inclined in a pose of gentle sweetness, +looking down upon the girl at her feet, absorbed in the music of the +hills and lonely places. A band of jewels, richly wrought, clasped the +veil on her brows, and below the bare bosom a glorious girdle clothed +her with loops and strings and tassels of jewels that fell to her +knees--her only garment. + +The girl was a lovely image of young womanhood, the proud swell of the +breast tapering to the slim waist and long limbs easily folded as she +half reclined at the divine feet, her lips pressed to the pipe. Its +silent music mysteriously banished fear. The sleep must be sweet +indeed that would come under the guardianship of these two fair +creatures--their gracious influence was dewy in the air. I resolved that +I would spend the night beside them. Now with the march of the moon dim +vistas of the walls beyond sprang into being. Strange mythologies--the +incarnations of Vishnu the Preserver, the Pastoral of Krishna the +Beautiful. I promised myself that next day I would sketch some of the +loveliness about me. But the moon was passing on her way--I folded the +coat I carried into a pillow and lay down at the feet of the goddess and +her nymph. Then a moonlit quiet I slept in a dream of peace. + +Sleep annihilates time. Was it long or short when I woke like a man +floating up to the surface from tranquil deeps? That I cannot tell, but +once more I possessed myself and every sense was on guard. + +My hearing first. Bare feet were coming, falling softly as leaves, but +unmistakable. There was a dim whispering but I could hear no word. I +rose on my elbow and looked down the long hall. Nothing. The moonlight +lay in pools of light and seas of shadow on the floor, and the feet drew +nearer. Was I afraid? I cannot tell, but a deep expectation possessed +me as the sound grew like the rustle of grasses parted in a fluttering +breeze, and now a girl came swiftly up the steps, irradiate in the +moonlight, and passing up the hall stood beside me. I could see her +robe, her feet bare from the jungle, but her face wavered and changed +and re-united like the face of a dream woman. I could not fix it for +one moment, yet knew this was the messenger for whom I had waited all +my life--for whom one strange experience, not to be told at present, had +prepared me in early manhood. Words came, and I said: + +"Is this a dream?" + +"No. We meet in the Ninth Vibration. All here is true." + +"Is a dream never true?" + +"Sometimes it is the echo of the Ninth Vibration and therefore a +harmonic of truth. You are awake now. It is the day-time that is the +sleep of the soul. You are in the Lower Perception, wherein the truth +behind the veil of what men call Reality is perceived." + +"Can I ascend?" + +"I cannot tell. That is for you, not me. + +"What do I perceive tonight?" + +"The Present as it is in the Eternal. Say no more. Come with me." + +She stretched her hand and took mine with the assurance of a goddess, +and we went up the hall where the night had been deepest between the +great pillars. + +Now it is very clear to me that in every land men, when the doors of +perception are opened, will see what we call the Supernatural clothed +in the image in which that country has accepted it. Blake, the mighty +mystic, will see the Angels of the Revelation, driving their terrible +way above Lambeth--it is not common nor unclean. The fisherman, plying +his coracle on the Thames will behold the consecration of the great new +Abbey of Westminster celebrated with mass and chant and awful lights +in the dead mid-noon of night by that Apostle who is the Rock of the +Church. Before him who wanders in Thessaly Pan will brush the dewy +lawns and slim-girt Artemis pursue the flying hart. In the pale gold of +Egyptian sands the heavy brows of Osiris crowned with the pshent will +brood above the seer and the veil of Isis tremble to the lifting. For +all this is the rhythm to which the souls of men are attuned and in that +vibration they will see, and no other, since in this the very mountains +and trees of the land are rooted. So here, where our remote ancestors +worshipped the Gods of Nature, we must needs stand before the Mystic +Mother of India, the divine daughter of the Himalaya. + +How shall I describe the world we entered? The carvings upon the walls +had taken life--they had descended. It was a gathering of the dreams men +have dreamed here of the Gods, yet most real and actual. They watched in +a serenity that set them apart in an atmosphere of their own--forms of +indistinct majesty and august beauty, absolute, simple, and everlasting. +I saw them as one sees reflections in rippled water--no more. But +all faces turned to the place where now a green and flowering leafage +enshrined and partly hid the living Nature Goddess, as she listened to +a voice that was not dumb to me. I saw her face only in glimpses of an +indescribable sweetness, but an influence came from her presence like +the scent of rainy pine forests, the coolness that breathes from great +rivers, the passion of Spring when she breaks on the world with a wave +of flowers. Healing and life flowed from it. Understanding also. It +seemed I could interpret the very silence of the trees outside into the +expression of their inner life, the running of the green life-blood in +their veins, the delicate trembling of their finger-tips. + +My companion and I were not heeded. We stood hand in hand like children +who have innocently strayed into a palace, gazing in wonderment. The +august life went its way upon its own occasions, and, if we would, we +might watch. Then the voice, clear and cold, proceeding, as it were, +with some story begun before we had strayed into the Presence, the whole +assembly listening in silence. + +"--and as it has been so it will be, for the Law will have the blind +soul carried into a body which is a record of the sins it has committed, +and will not suffer that soul to escape from rebirth into bodies until +it has seen the truth--" + +And even as this was said and I listened, knowing myself on the verge of +some great knowledge, I felt sleep beginning to weigh upon my eyelids. +The sound blurred, flowed unsyllabled as a stream, the girl's hand grew +light in mine; she was fading, becoming unreal; I saw her eyes like +faint stars in a mist. They were gone. Arms seemed to receive me--to lay +me to sleep and I sank below consciousness, and the night took me. + +When I awoke the radiant arrows of the morning were shooting into the +long hall where I lay, but as I rose and looked about me, strange--most +strange, ruin encircled me everywhere. The blue sky was the roof. What I +had thought a palace lost in the jungle, fit to receive its King should +he enter, was now a broken hall of State; the shattered pillars were +festooned with waving weeds, the many coloured lantana grew between the +fallen blocks of marble. Even the sculptures on the walls were difficult +to decipher. Faintly I could trace a hand, a foot, the orb of a +woman's bosom, the gracious outline of some young God, standing above a +crouching worshipper. No more. Yes, and now I saw above me as the dawn +touched it the form of the Dweller in the Windhya Hills, Parvati the +Beautiful, leaning softly over something breathing music at her feet. +Yet I knew I could trace the almost obliterated sculpture only because +I had already seen it defined in perfect beauty. A deep crack ran across +the marble; it was weathered and stained by many rains, and little ferns +grew in the crevices, but I could reconstruct every line from my own +knowledge. And how? The Parvati of Ranipur differed in many important +details. She stood, bending forward, wheras this sweet Lady sat. Her +attendants were small satyr-like spirits of the wilds, piping and +fluting, in place of the reclining maiden. The sweeping scrolls of a +great halo encircled her whole person. Then how could I tell what this +nearly obliterated carving had been? I groped for the answer and could +not find it. I doubted-- + + "Were such things here as we do speak about? + Or have we eaten of the insane root + That takes the reason captive?" + +Memory rushed over me like the sea over dry sands. A girl--there had +been a girl--we had stood with clasped hands to hear a strange music, +but in spite of the spiritual intimacy of those moments I could not +recall her face. I saw it cloudy against a background of night and +dream, the eyes remote as stars, and so it eluded me. Only her presence +and her words survived; "We meet in the Ninth Vibration. All here is +true." But the Ninth Vibration itself was dream-land. I had never heard +the phrase--I could not tell what was meant, nor whether my apprehension +was true or false. I knew only that the night had taken her and the dawn +denied her, and that, dream or no dream, I stood there with a pang of +loss that even now leaves me wordless. + +A bird sang outside in the acacias, clear and shrill for day, and this +awakened my senses and lowered me to the plane where I became aware of +cold and hunger, and was chilled with dew. I passed down the tumbled +steps that had been a stately ascent the night before and made my way +into the jungle by the trail, small and lost in fern, by which we had +come. Again I wandered, and it was high noon before I heard mule bells +at a distance, and, thus guided, struck down through the green tangle +to find myself, wearied but safe, upon the bridle way that leads to Fagu +and the far Shipki. Two coolies then directed me to The House in the +Woods. + +All was anxiety there. Ali Khan had arrived in the night, having found +his way under the guidance of blind flight and fear. He had brought the +news that I was lost in the jungle and amid the dwellings of demons. It +was, of course, hopeless to search in the dark, though the khansamah and +his man had gone as far as they dared with lanterns and shouting, +and with the daylight they tried again and were even now away. It was +useless to reproach the man even if I had cared to do so. His ready plea +was that as far as men were concerned he was as brave as any (which +was true enough as I had reason to know later) but that when it came to +devilry the Twelve Imaums themselves would think twice before facing it. + +"Inshalla ta-Alla! (If the sublime God wills!) this unworthy one will +one day show the Protector of the poor, that he is a respectable person +and no coward, but it is only the Sahibs who laugh in the face of +devils." + +He went off to prepare me some food, consumed with curiosity as to my +adventures, and when I had eaten I found my tiny whitewashed cell, for +the room was little more, and slept for hours. + +Late in the afternoon I waked and looked out. A low but glowing +sunlight suffused the wild garden reclaimed from the strangle-hold of +the jungle and hemmed in with rocks and forest. A few simple flowers had +been planted here and there, but its chief beauty was a mountain stream, +brown and clear as the eyes of a dog, that fell from a crag above into +a rocky basin, maidenhair ferns growing in such masses about it that +it was henceforward scarcely more than a woodland voice. Beside it two +great deodars spread their canopies, and there a woman sat in a low +chair, a girl beside her reading aloud. She had thrown her hat off and +the sunshine turned her massed dark hair to bronze. That was all I could +see. I went out and joined them, taking the note of introduction which +Olesen had given me. + +I pass over the unessentials of my story; their friendly greetings and +sympathy for my adventure. It set us at ease at once and I knew my stay +would be the happier for their presence though it is not every woman one +would choose as a companion in the great mountain country. But what +is germane to my purpose must be told, and of this a part is the +personality of Brynhild Ingmar. That she was beautiful I never doubted, +though I have heard it disputed and smiled inwardly as the disputants +urged lip and cheek and shades of rose and lily, weighing and +appraising. Let me describe her as I saw her or, rather, as I can, +adding that even without all this she must still have been beautiful +because of the deep significance to those who had eyes to see or +feel some mysterious element which mingled itself with her presence +comparable only to the delight which the power and spiritual essence of +Nature inspires in all but the dullest minds. I know I cannot hope to +convey this in words. It means little if I say I thought of all quiet +lovely solitary things when I looked into her calm eyes,--that when she +moved it was like clear springs renewed by flowing, that she seemed the +perfect flowering of a day in June, for these are phrases. Does Nature +know her wonders when she shines in her strength? Does a woman know the +infinite meanings her beauty may have for the beholder? I cannot tell. +Nor can I tell if I saw this girl as she may have seemed to those who +read only the letter of the book and are blind to its spirit, or in the +deepest sense as she really was in the sight of That which created her +and of which she was a part. Surely it is a proof of the divinity of +love that in and for a moment it lifts the veil of so-called reality and +shows each to the other mysteriously perfect and inspiring as the world +will never see them, but as they exist in the Eternal, and in the sight +of those who have learnt that the material is but the dream, and the +vision of love the truth. + +I will say then, for the alphabet of what I knew but cannot tell, that +she had the low broad brows of a Greek Nature Goddess, the hair swept +back wing-like from the temples and massed with a noble luxuriance. It +lay like rippled bronze, suggesting something strong and serene in its +essence. Her eyes were clear and gray as water, the mouth sweetly curved +above a resolute chin. It was a face which recalled a modelling in +marble rather than the charming pastel and aquarelle of a young woman's +colouring, and somehow I thought of it less as the beauty of a woman +than as some sexless emanation of natural things, and this impression +was strengthened by her height and the long limbs, slender and strong as +those of some youth trained in the pentathlon, subject to the severest +discipline until all that was superfluous was fined away and the perfect +form expressing the true being emerged. The body was thus more beautiful +than the face, and I may note in passing that this is often the case, +because the face is more directly the index of the restless and unhappy +soul within and can attain true beauty only when the soul is in harmony +with its source. + +She was a little like her pale and wearied mother. She might resemble +her still more when the sorrow of this world that worketh death should +have had its will of her. I had yet to learn that this would never +be--that she had found the open door of escape. + +We three spent much time together in the days that followed. I never +tired of their company and I think they did not tire of mine, for +my wanderings through the world and my studies in the ancient Indian +literatures and faiths with the Pandit Devaswami were of interest to +them both though in entirely different ways. Mrs. Ingmar was a woman who +centred all her interests in books and chiefly in the scientific forms +of occult research. She was no believer in anything outside the range +of what she called human experience. The evidences had convinced her of +nothing but a force as yet unclassified in the scientific categories and +all her interest lay in the undeveloped powers of brain which might be +discovered in the course of ignorant and credulous experiment. We met +therefore on the common ground of rejection of the so-called occultism +of the day, though I knew even then, and how infinitely better now, that +her constructions were wholly misleading. + +Nearly all day she would lie in her chair under the deodars by the +delicate splash and ripple of the stream. Living imprisoned in the +crystal sphere of the intellect she saw the world outside, painted in +few but distinct colours, small, comprehensible, moving on a logical +orbit. I never knew her posed for an explanation. She had the contented +atheism of a certain type of French mind and found as much ease in it as +another kind of sweet woman does in her rosary and confessional. + +"I cannot interest Brynhild," she said, when I knew her better. "She has +no affinity with science. She is simply a nature worshipper, and in such +places as this she seems to draw life from the inanimate life about her. +I have sometimes wondered whether she might not be developed into a kind +of bridge between the articulate and the inarticulate, so well does she +understand trees and flowers. Her father was like that--he had all sorts +of strange power with animals and plants, and thought he had more than +he had. He could never realize that the energy of nature is merely +mechanical." + +"You think all energy is mechanical?" + +"Certainly. We shall lay our finger on the mainspring one day and +the mystery will disappear. But as for Brynhild--I gave her the best +education possible and yet she has never understood the conception of a +universe moving on mathematical laws to which we must submit in body and +mind. She has the oddest ideas. I would not willingly say of a child of +mine that she is a mystic, and yet--" + +She shook her head compassionately. But I scarcely heard. My eyes were +fixed on Brynhild, who stood apart, looking steadily out over the snows. +It was a glorious sunset, the west vibrating with gorgeous colour spilt +over in torrents that flooded the sky, Terrible splendours--hues for +which we have no thought--no name. I had not thought of it as music +until I saw her face but she listened as well as saw, and her expression +changed as it changes when the pomp of a great orchestra breaks upon the +silence. It flashed to the chords of blood-red and gold that was burning +fire. It softened through the fugue of woven crimson gold and flame, to +the melancholy minor of ashes-of-roses and paling green, and so through +all the dying glories that faded slowly to a tranquil grey and left +the world to the silver melody of one sole star that dawned above the +ineffable heights of the snows. Then she listened as a child does to +a bird, entranced, with a smile like a butterfly on her parted lips. I +never saw such a power of quiet. + +She and I were walking next day among the forest ways, the pine-scented +sunshine dappling the dropped frondage. We had been speaking of her +mother. "It is such a misfortune for her," she said thoughtfully, "that +I am not clever. She should have had a daughter who could have shared +her thoughts. She analyses everything, reasons about everything, and +that is quite out of my reach." + +She moved beside me with her wonderful light step--the poise and balance +of a nymph in the Parthenon frieze. + +"How do you see things?" + +"See? That is the right word. I see things--I never reason about them. +They are. For her they move like figures in a sum. For me every one of +them is a window through which one may look to what is beyond." + +"To where?" + +"To what they really are--not what they seem." + +I looked at her with interest. + +"Did you ever hear of the double vision?" + +For this is a subject on which the spiritually learned men of India, +like the great mystics of all the faiths, have much to say. I had +listened with bewilderment and doubt to the expositions of my Pandit +on this very head. Her simple words seemed for a moment the echo of his +deep and searching thought. Yet it surely could not be. Impossible. + +"Never. What does it mean?" She raised clear unveiled eyes. "You must +forgive me for being so stupid, but it is my mother who is at home with +all these scientific phrases. I know none of them." + +"It means that for some people the material universe--the things we see +with our eyes--is only a mirage, or say, a symbol, which either hides +or shadows forth the eternal truth. And in that sense they see things as +they really are, not as they seem to the rest of us. And whether this is +the statement of a truth or the wildest of dreams, I cannot tell." + +She did not answer for a moment; then said; + +"Are there people who believe this--know it?" + +"Certainly. There are people who believe that thought is the only real +thing--that the whole universe is thought made visible. That we create +with our thoughts the very body by which we shall re-act on the universe +in lives to be. + +"Do you believe it?" + +"I don't know. Do you?" + +She paused; looked at me, and then went on: + +"You see, I don't think things out. I only feel. But this cannot +interest you." + +I felt she was eluding the question. She began to interest me more than +any one I had ever known. She had extraordinary power of a sort. Once, +in the woods, where I was reading in so deep a shade that she never +saw me, I had an amazing vision of her. She stood in a glade with the +sunlight and shade about her; she had no hat and a sunbeam turned her +hair to pale bronze. A small bright April shower was falling through the +sun, and she stood in pure light that reflected itself in every leaf and +grass-blade. But it was nothing of all this that arrested me, +beautiful as it was. She stood as though life were for the moment +suspended;--then, very softly, she made a low musical sound, infinitely +wooing, from scarcely parted lips, and instantly I saw a bird of azure +plumage flutter down and settle on her shoulder, pluming himself there +in happy security. Again she called softly and another followed the +first. Two flew to her feet, two more to her breast and hand. They +caressed her, clung to her, drew some joyous influence from her +presence. She stood in the glittering rain like Spring with her birds +about her--a wonderful sight. Then, raising one hand gently with the +fingers thrown back she uttered a different note, perfectly sweet and +intimate, and the branches parted and a young deer with full bright eyes +fixed on her advanced and pushed a soft muzzle into her hand. + +In my astonishment I moved, however slightly, and the picture broke up. +The deer sprang back into the trees, the birds fluttered up in a hurry +of feathers, and she turned calm eyes upon me, as unstartled as if she +had known all the time that I was there. + +"You should not have breathed," she said smiling. "They must have utter +quiet." + +I rose up and joined her. + +"It is a marvel. I can scarcely believe my eyes. How do you do it?" + +"My father taught me. They come. How can I tell?" + +She turned away and left me. I thought long over this episode. I +recalled words heard in the place of my studies--words I had dismissed +without any care at the moment. "To those who see, nothing is alien. +They move in the same vibration with all that has life, be it in bird +or flower. And in the Uttermost also, for all things are One. For such +there is no death." + +That was beyond me still, but I watched her with profound interest. She +recalled also words I had half forgotten-- + + "There was nought above me and nought below, + My childhood had not learnt to know; + For what are the voices of birds, + Aye, and of beasts, but words, our words,-- + Only so much more sweet." + +That might have been written of her. And more. + +She had found one day in the woods a flower of a sort I had once seen +in the warm damp forests below Darjiling--ivory white and shaped like a +dove in flight. She wore it that evening on her bosom. A week later she +wore what I took to be another. + +"You have had luck," I said; "I never heard of such a thing being seen +so high up, and you have found it twice." + +"No, it is the same." + +"The same? Impossible. You found it more than a week ago." "I know. It +is ten days. Flowers don't die when one understands them--not as most +people think." + +Her mother looked up and said fretfully: + +"Since she was a child Brynhild has had that odd idea. That flower is +dead and withered. Throw it away, child. It looks hideous." + +Was it glamour? What was it? I saw the flower dewy fresh in her bosom +She smiled and turned away. + +It was that very evening she left the veranda where we were sitting in +the subdued light of a little lamp and passed beyond where the ray cut +the darkness. She went down the perspective of trees to the edge of he +clearing and I rose to follow for it seemed absolutely unsafe that she +should be on the verge of the panther-haunted woods alone. Mrs. Ingmar +turned a page of her book serenely; + +"She will not like it if you go. I cannot imagine that she should come +to harm. She always goes her own way--light or dark." + +I returned to my seat and watched steadfastly. At first I could see +nothing but as my sight adjusted itself I saw her a long way down the +clearing that opened the snows, and quite certainly also I saw something +like a huge dog detach itself from the woods and bound to her feet. It +mingled with her dark dress and I lost it. Mrs. Ingmar said, seeing my +anxiety but nothing else; "Her father was just the same;--he had no fear +of anything that lives. No doubt some people have that power. I have +never seen her attract birds and beasts as he certainly did, but she is +quite as fond of them." + +I could not understand her blindness--what I myself had seen raised +questions I found unanswerable, and her mother saw nothing! Which of us +was right? presently she came back slowly and I ventured no word. + +A woodland sorcery, innocent as the dawn, hovered about her. What was +it? Did the mere love of these creatures make a bond between her soul +and theirs, or was the ancient dream true and could she at times move +in the same vibration? I thought of her as a wood-spirit sometimes, an +expression herself of some passion of beauty in Nature, a thought of +snows and starry nights and flowing rivers made visible in flesh. It is +surely when seized with the urge of some primeval yearning which in +man is merely sexual that Nature conceives her fair forms and manifests +them, for there is a correspondence that runs through all creation. + +Here I ask myself--Did I love her? In a sense, yes, deeply, but not in +the common reading of the phrase. I have trembled with delight before +the wild and terrible splendour of the Himalayan heights-; low golden +moons have steeped my soul longing, but I did not think of these things +as mine in any narrow sense, nor so desire them. They were Angels of the +Evangel of beauty. So too was she. She had none of the "silken nets and +traps of adamant," she was no sister of the "girls of mild silver or of +furious gold;"--but fair, strong, and her own, a dweller in the House of +Quiet. I did not covet her. I loved her. + +Days passed. There came a night when the winds were loosed--no moon, +the stars flickering like blown tapers through driven clouds, the trees +swaying and lamenting. + +"There will be rain tomorrow." Mrs. Ingmar said, as we parted for the +night. I closed my door. Some great cat of the woods was crying harshly +outside my window, the sound receding towards the bridle way. I slept in +a dream of tossing seas and ships labouring among them. + +With the sense of a summons I waked--I cannot tell when. Unmistakable, +as if I were called by name. I rose and dressed, and heard distinctly +bare feet passing my door. I opened it noiselessly and looked out into +the little passage way that made for the entry, and saw nothing but +pools of darkness and a dim light from the square of the window at the +end. But the wind had swept the sky clear with its flying bosom and was +sleeping now in its high places and the air was filled with a mild moony +radiance and a great stillness. + +Now let me speak with restraint and exactness. I was not afraid but felt +as I imagine a dog feels in the presence of his master, conscious of a +purpose, a will entirely above his own and incomprehensible, yet to +be obeyed without question. I followed my reading of the command, +bewildered but docile, and understanding nothing but that I was called. + +The lights were out. The house dead silent; the familiar veranda +ghostly in the night. And now I saw a white figure at the head of the +steps--Brynhild. She turned and looked over her shoulder, her face +pale in the moon, and made the same gesture with which she summoned her +birds. I knew her meaning, for now we were moving in the same rhythm, +and followed as she took the lead. How shall I describe that strange +night in the jungle. There were fire-flies or dancing points of light +that recalled them. Perhaps she was only thinking them--only thinking +the moon and the quiet, for we were in the world where thought is the +one reality. But they went with us in a cloud and faintly lighted our +way. There were exquisite wafts of perfume from hidden flowers breathing +their dreams to the night. Here and there a drowsy bird stirred and +chirped from the roof of darkness, a low note of content that greeted +her passing. It was a path intricate and winding and how long we went, +and where, I cannot tell. But at last she stooped and parting the boughs +before her we stepped into an open space, and before us--I knew it--I +knew it!--The House of Beauty. + +She paused at the foot of the great marble steps and looked at me. + +"We have met here already." + +I did not wonder--I could not. In the Ninth vibration surprise had +ceased to be. Why had I not recognized her before--O dull of heart! That +was my only thought. We walk blindfold through the profound darkness of +material nature, the blinder because we believe we see it. It is only +when the doors of the material are closed that the world appears to man +as it exists in the eternal truth. + +"Did you know this?" I asked, trembling before mystery. + +"I knew it, because I am awake. You forgot it in the dull sleep which we +call daily life. But we were here and THEY began the story of the King +who made this house. Tonight we shall hear it. It he story of Beauty +wandering through the world and the world received her not. We hear it +in this place because here he agonized for what he knew too late." + +"Was that our only meeting?" + +"We meet every night, but you forget when the day brings the sleep of +the soul.--You do not sink deep enough into rest to remember. You float +on the surface where the little bubbles of foolish dream are about you +and I cannot reach you then." + +"How can I compel myself to the deeps?" + +"You cannot. It will come. But when you have passed up the bridle +way and beyond the Shipki, stop at Gyumur. There is the Monastery of +Tashigong, and there one will meet you-- + +"His name?" + +"Stephen Clifden. He will tell you what you desire to know. Continue on +then with him to Yarkhand. There in the Ninth Vibration we shall meet +again. It is a long journey but you will be content." + +"Do you certainly know that we shall meet again?" + +"When you have learnt, we can meet when we will. He will teach you +the Laya Yoga. You should not linger here in the woods any longer. You +should go on. In three days it will be possible." + +"But how have you learnt--a girl and young?" + +"Through a close union with Nature--that is one of the three roads. But +I know little as yet. Now take my hand and come. + +"One last question. Is this house ruined and abject as I have seen it in +the daylight, or royal and the house of Gods as we see it now? Which is +truth?" + +"In the day you saw it in the empty illusion of blind thought. Tonight, +eternally lovely as in the thought of the man who made it. Nothing that +is beautiful is lost, though in the sight of the unwise it seems to die. +Death is in the eyes we look through--when they are cleansed we see Life +only. Now take my hand and come. Delay no more." + +She caught my hand and we entered the dim magnificence of the great +hall. The moon entered with us. + +Instantly I had the feeling of supernatural presence. Yet I only write +this in deference to common use, for it was absolutely natural--more so +than any I have met in the state called daily life. It was a thing in +which I had a part, and if this was supernatural so also was I. + +Again I saw the Dark One, the Beloved, the young Krishna, above the +women who loved him. He motioned with his hand as we passed, as though +he waved us smiling on our way. Again the dancers moved in a rhythmic +tread to the feet of the mountain Goddess--again we followed to where +she bent to hear. But now, solemn listening faces crowded in the shadows +about her, grave eyes fixed immovably upon what lay at her feet--a man, +submerged in the pure light that fell from her presence, his dark face +stark and fine, lips locked, eyes shut, arms flung out cross-wise in +utter abandonment, like a figure of grief invisibly crucified upon his +shame. I stopped a few feet from him, arrested by a barrier I could not +pass. Was it sleep or death or some mysterious state that partook of +both? Not sleep, for there was no flutter of breath. Not death--no rigid +immobility struck chill into the air. It was the state of subjection +where the spirit set free lies tranced in the mighty influences which +surround us invisibly until we have entered, though but for a moment, +the Ninth Vibration. + +And now, with these Listeners about us, a clear voice began and stirred +the air with music. I have since been asked in what tongue it spoke and +could only answer that it reached my ears in the words of my childhood, +and that I know whatever that language had been it would so have reached +me. + +"Great Lady, hear the story of this man's fall, for it is the story of +man. Be pitiful to the blind eyes and give them light." + +There was long since in Ranipur a mighty King and at his birth the wise +men declared that unless he cast aside all passions that debase the +soul, relinquishing the lower desires for the higher until a Princess +laden with great gifts should come to be his bride, he would experience +great and terrible misfortunes. And his royal parents did what they +could to possess him with this belief, but they died before he reached +manhood. Behold him then, a young King in his palace, surrounded with +splendour. How should he withstand the passionate crying of the flesh or +believe that through pleasure comes satiety and the loss of that in the +spirit whereby alone pleasure can be enjoyed? For his gift was that +he could win all hearts. They swarmed round him like hiving bees and +hovered about him like butterflies. Sometimes he brushed them off. Often +he caressed them, and when this happened, each thought proudly "I am the +Royal Favourite. There is none other than me." + +Also the Princess delayed who would be the crest-jewel of the crown, +bringing with her all good and the blessing of the High Gods, and in +consequence of all these things the King took such pleasures as he +could, and they were many, not knowing they darken the inner eye whereby +what is royal is known through disguises. + +(Most pitiful to see, beneath the close-shut lids of the man at the +feet of the Dweller in the Heights, tears forced themselves, as though +a corpse dead to all else lived only to anguish. They flowed like +blood-drops upon his face as he lay enduring, and the voice proceeded.) +What was the charm of the King? Was it his stately height and strength? +Or his faithless gayety? Or his voice, deep and soft as the sitar when +it sings of love? His women said--some one thing, some another, but none +of these ladies were of royal blood, and therefore they knew not. + +Now one day, the all-privileged jester of the King, said, laughing +harshly: + +"Maharaj, you divert yourself. But how if, while we feast and play, the +Far Away Princess glided past and was gone, unknown and unwelcomed?" + +And the King replied: + +"Fool, content yourself. I shall know my Princess, but she delays so +long that I weary." + +Now in a far away country was a Princess, daughter of the Greatest, +and her Father hesitated to give her in marriage to such a King for all +reported that he was faithless of heart, but having seen his portrait +she loved him and fled in disguise from the palaces of her Father, and +being captured she was brought before the King in Ranipur. + +He sat upon a cloth of gold and about him was the game he had killed in +hunting, in great masses of ruffled fur and plumage, and he turned the +beauty of his face carelessly upon her, and as the Princess looked upon +him, her heart yearned to him, and he said in his voice that was like +the male string of the sitar: + +"Little slave, what is your desire?" + +Then she saw that the long journey had scarred her feet and dimmed her +hair with dust, and that the King's eyes, worn with days and nights of +pleasure did not pierce her disguise. Now in her land it is a custom +that the blood royal must not proclaim itself, so she folded her hands +and said gently: + +"A place in the household of the King." And he, hearing that the Waiting +slave of his chief favorite Jayashri was dead, gave her that place. So +the Princess attended on those ladies, courteous and obedient to all +authority as beseemed her royalty, and she braided her bright hair so +that it hid the little crowns which the Princesses of her House +must wear always in token of their rank, and every day her patience +strengthened. + +Sometimes the King, carelessly desiring her laughing face and sad eyes, +would send for her to wile away an hour, and he would say; "Dance, +little slave, and tell me stories of the far countries. You quite unlike +my Women, doubtless because you are a slave." + +And she thought--"No, but because I am a Princess,"--but this she did +not say. She laughed and told him the most marvellous stories in the +world until he laid his head upon her warm bosom, dreaming awake. + +There were stories of the great Himalayan solitudes where in the winter +nights the white tiger stares at the witches' dance of the Northern +Lights dazzled by the hurtling of their myriad spears. And she told +how the King-eagle, hanging motionless over the peaks of Gaurisankar, +watches with golden eyes for his prey, and falling like a plummet +strikes its life out with his clawed heel and, screaming with triumph, +bears it to his fierce mate in her cranny of the rocks. + +"A gallant story!" the King would say. "More!" Then she told of the +tropical heats and the stealthy deadly creatures of forest and jungle, +and the blue lotus of Buddha swaying on the still lagoon,--And she spoke +of loves of men and women, their passion and pain and joy. And when she +told of their fidelity and valour and honour that death cannot quench, +her voice was like the song of a minstrel, for she had read all the +stories of the ages and the heart of a Princess told her the rest. And +the King listened unwearying though he believed this was but a slave. + +(The face of the man at the feet of the Dweller in the Heights twitched +in a white agony. Pearls of sweat were distilled upon his brows, but +he moved neither hand nor foot, enduring as in a flame of fire. And the +voice continued.) + +So one day, in the misty green of the Spring, while she rested at his +feet in the garden Pavilion, he said to her: + +"Little slave, why do you love me?" + +And she answered proudly: + +"Because you have the heart of a King." + +He replied slowly; + +"Of the women who have loved me none gave this reason, though they gave +many." + +She laid her cheek on his hand. + +"That is the true reason." + +But he drew it away and was vaguely troubled, for her words, he knew +not why, reminded him of the Far Away Princess and of things he had long +forgotten, and he said; "What does a slave know of the hearts of Kings?" +And that night he slept or waked alone. + +Winter was at hand with its blue and cloudless days, and she was +commanded to meet the King where the lake lay still and shining like an +ecstasy of bliss, and she waited with her chin dropped into the cup of +her hands, looking over the water with eyes that did not see, for her +whole soul said; "How long O my Sovereign Lord, how long before you know +the truth and we enter together into our Kingdom?" + +As she sat she heard the King's step, and the colour stole up into her +face in a flush like the earliest sunrise. "He is coming," she said; and +again; "He loves me." + +So he came beside the water, walking slowly. But the King was not alone. +His arm embraced the latest-come beauty from Samarkhand, and, with his +head bent, he whispered in her willing ear. + +Then clasping her hands, the Princess drew a long sobbing breath, and he +turned and his eyes grew hard as blue steel. + +"Go, slave," he cried. "What place have you in Kings' gardens? Go. Let +me see you no more." + +(The man lying at the feet of the Dweller in the Heights, raised a heavy +arm and flung it above his head, despairing, and it fell again on the +cross of his torment. And the voice went on.) + +And as he said this, her heart broke; and she went and her feet were +weary. So she took the wise book she loved and unrolled it until she +came to a certain passage, and this she read twice; "If the heart of +a slave be broken it may be mended with jewels and soft words, but the +heart of a Princess can be healed only by the King who broke it, or in +Yamapura, the City under the Sunset where they make all things new. Now, +Yama, the Lord of this City, is the Lord of Death." And having thus read +the Princess rolled the book and put it from her. + +And next day, the King said to his women; "Send for her," for his heart +smote him and he desired to atone royally for the shame of his speech. +And they sought and came back saying; + +"Maharaj, she is gone. We cannot find her." + +Fear grew in the heart of the King--a nameless dread, and he said, +"Search." And again they sought and returned and the King was striding +up and down the great hall and none dared cross his path. But, +trembling, they told him, and he replied; "Search again. I will not lose +her, and, slave though be, she shall be my Queen." + +So they ran, dispersing to the Four Quarters, and King strode up and +down the hall, and Loneliness kept step with him and clasped his hand +and looked his eyes. + +Then the youngest of the women entered with a tale to tell. "Majesty, +we have found her. She lies beside the lake. When the birds fled this +morning she fled with them, but upon a longer journey. Even to Yamapura, +the City under the Sunset." + +And the King said; "Let none follow." And he strode forth swiftly, white +with thoughts he dared not think. + +The Princess lay among the gold of the fallen leaves. All was gold, +for her bright hair was out-spread in shining waves and in it shone the +glory of the hidden crown. On her face was no smile--only at last was +revealed the patience she had covered with laughter so long that even +the voice of the King could not now break it into joy. The hands that +had clung, the swift feet that had run beside his, the tender body, +mighty to serve and to love, lay within touch but farther away than the +uttermost star was the Far Away Princess, known and loved too late. + +And he said; "My Princess--O my Princess!" and laid his head on her cold +bosom. + +"Too late!" a harsh Voice croaked beside him, and it was the voice of +the Jester who mocks at all things. "Too late! O madness, to despise +the blood royal because it humbled itself to service and so was doubly +royal. The Far Away Princess came laden with great gifts, and to her the +King's gift was the wage of a slave and a broken heart. Cast your crown +and sceptre in the dust, O King--O King of Fools." + +(The man at the feet of the Dweller in the Heights moved. Some dim word +shaped upon his locked lips. She listened in a divine calm. It seemed +that the very Gods drew nearer. Again the man essayed speech, the body +dead, life only in the words that none could hear. The voice went on.) + +But the Princess flying wearily because of the sore wound in her heart, +came at last to the City under the Sunset, where the Lord of Death rules +in the House of Quiet, and was there received with royal honours for in +that land are no disguises. And she knelt before the Secret One and in +a voice broken with agony entreated him to heal her. And with veiled and +pitying eyes he looked upon her, for many and grievous as are the wounds +he has healed this was more grievous still. And he said; + +"Princess, I cannot, But this I can do--I can give a new heart in a new +birth--happy and careless as the heart of a child. Take this escape from +the anguish you endure and be at peace." + +But the Princess, white with pain, asked only; + +"In this new heart and birth, is there room for the King?" + +And the Lord of Peace replied; + +"None. He too will be forgotten." + +Then she rose to her feet. + +"I will endure and when he comes I will serve him once more. If he will +he shall heal me, and if not I will endure for ever." + +And He who is veiled replied; + +"In this sacred City no pain may disturb the air, therefore you must +wait outside in the chill and the dark. Think better, Princess! Also, +he must pass through many rebirths, because he beheld the face of Beauty +unveiled and knew her not. And when he comes he will be weary and weak +as a new-born child, and no more a great King." And the Princess smiled; + +"Then he will need me the more," she said; "I will wait and kiss the +feet of my King." + +"And the Lord of Death was silent. So she went outside into the darkness +of the spaces, and the souls free passed her like homing doves, and she +sat with her hands clasped over the sore wound in her heart, watching +the earthward way. And the Princess is keeping still the day of her long +patience." + +The voice ceased. And there was a great silence, and the listening faces +drew nearer. + +Then the Dweller in the Heights spoke in a voice soft as the falling of +snow in the quiet of frost and moon. I could have wept myself blind with +joy to hear that music. More I dare not say. + +"He is in the Lower State of Perception. He sorrows for his loss. Let +him have one instant's light that still he may hope." + +She bowed above the man, gazing upon him as a mother might upon her +sleeping child. The dead eyelids stirred, lifted, a faint gleam showed +beneath them, an unspeakable weariness. I thought they would fall +unsatisfied. Suddenly he saw What looked upon him, and a terror of +joy no tongue can tell flashed over the dark mirror of his face. He +stretched a faint hand to touch her feet, a sobbing sigh died upon his +lips, and once more the swooning sleep took him. He lay as a dead man +before the Assembly. + +"The night is far spent," a voice said, from I know not where. And I +knew it was said not only for the sleeper but for all, for though the +flying feet of Beauty seem for a moment to outspeed us she will one day +wait our coming and gather us to her bosom. + +As before, the vision spread outward like rings in a broken reflection +in water. I saw the girl beside me, but her hand grew light in mine. I +felt it no longer. I heard the roaring wind in the trees, or was it a +great voice thundering in my ears? Sleep took me. I waked in my little +room. + +Strange and sad--I saw her next day and did not remember her whom of all +things I desired to know. I remembered the vision and knew that whether +in dream or waking I had heard an eternal truth. I longed with a great +longing to meet my beautiful companion, and she stood at my side and I +was blind. + +Now that I have climbed a little higher on the Mount of Vision it seems +even to myself that this could not be. Yet it was, and it is true of not +this only but of how much else! + +She knew me. I learnt that later, but she made no sign. Her simplicities +had carried her far beyond and above me, to places where only the winged +things attain--"as a bird among the bird-droves of God." + +I have since known that this power of direct simplicity in her was why +among the great mountains we beheld the Divine as the emanation of +the terrible beauty about us. We cannot see it as it is--only in some +shadowing forth, gathering sufficient strength for manifestation from +the spiritual atoms that haunt the region where that form has been for +ages the accepted vehicle of adoration. But I was now to set forth to +find another knowledge--to seek the Beauty that blinds us to all other. +Next day the man who was directing my preparations for travel sent me +word from Simla that all was ready and I could start two days later. I +told my friends the time of parting was near. + +"But it was no surprise to me," I added, "for I had heard already that +in a very few days I should be on my way." + +Mrs. Ingmar was more than kind. She laid a frail hand on mine. + +"We shall miss you indeed. If it is possible to send us word of your +adventures in those wild solitudes I hope you will do it. Of course +aviation will soon lay bare their secrets and leave them no mysteries, +so you don't go too soon. One may worship science and yet feel it +injures the beauty of the world. But what is beauty compared with +knowledge?" + +"Do you never regret it?" I asked. + +"Never, dear Mr. Ormond. I am a worshipper of hard facts and however +hideous they may be I prefer them to the prismatic colours of romance." + +Brynhild, smiling, quoted; + + "Their science roamed from star to star + And than itself found nothing greater. + What wonder? In a Leyden jar + They bottled the Creator?" + +"There is nothing greater than science," said Mrs. Ingmar with soft +reverence. "The mind of man is the foot-rule of the universe." + +She meditated for a moment and then added that my kind interests in +their plans decided her to tell me that she would be returning to +Europe and then to Canada in a few months with a favourite niece as her +companion while Brynhild would remain in India with friends in Mooltan +for a time. I looked eagerly at her but she was lost in her own thoughts +and it was evidently not the time to say more. + +If I had hoped for a vision before I left the neighbourhood of that +strange House of Beauty where a spirit imprisoned appeared to await the +day of enlightenment I was disappointed. These things do not happen as +one expects or would choose. The wind bloweth where it listeth until the +laws which govern the inner life are understood, and then we would not +choose if we could for we know that all is better than well. In this +world, either in the blinded sight of daily life or in the clarity of +the true sight I have not since seen it, but that has mattered little, +for having heard an authentic word within its walls I have passed on my +way elsewhere. + +Next day a letter from Olesen reached me. + +"Dear Ormond, I hope you have had a good time at the House in the Woods. +I saw Rup Singh a few days ago and he wrote the odd message I enclose. +You know what these natives are, even the most sensible of them, and you +will humour the old fellow for he ages very fast and I think is breaking +up. But this was not what I wanted to say. I had a letter from a man I +had not seen for years--a fellow called Stephen Clifden, who lives in +Kashmir. As a matter of fact I had forgotten his existence but evidently +he has not repaid the compliment for he writes as follows--No, I had +better send you the note and you can do as you please. I am rushed off +my legs with work and the heat is hell with the lid off. And-" + +But the rest was of no interest except to a friend of years' standing. I +read Rup Singh's message first. It was written in his own tongue. + +"To the Honoured One who has attained to the favour of the Favourable. + +"You have with open eyes seen what this humble one has dreamed but +has not known. If the thing be possible, write me this word that I may +depart in peace. 'With that one who in a former birth you loved all is +well. Fear nothing for him. The way is long but at the end the lamps of +love are lit and the Unstruck music is sounded. He lies at the feet of +Mercy and there awaits his hour.' And if it be not possible to write +these words, write nothing, O Honoured, for though it be in the hells my +soul shall find my King, and again I shall serve him as once I served." + +I understood, and wrote those words as he had written them. Strange +mystery of life--that I who had not known should see, and that this man +whose fidelity had not deserted his broken King in his utter downfall +should have sought with passion for one sight of the beloved face across +the waters of death and sought in vain. I thought of those Buddhist +words of Seneca--"The soul may be and is in the mass of men drugged and +silenced by the seductions of sense and the deceptions of the world. +But if, in some moment of detachment and elation, when its captors and +jailors relax their guard, it can escape their clutches, it will seek at +once the region of its birth and its true home." + +Well--the shell must break before the bird can fly, and the time drew +near for the faithful servant to seek his lord. My message reached him +in time and gladdened him. + +I turned then to Clifden's letter. + +"Dear Olesen, you will have forgotten me, and feeling sure of this I +should scarcely have intruded a letter into your busy life were it not +that I remember your good-nature as a thing unforgettable though so many +years have gone by. I hear of you sometimes when Sleigh comes up the +Sind valley, for I often camp at Sonamarg and above the Zoji La and +farther. I want you to give a message to a man you know who should +be expecting to hear from me. Tell him I shall be at the Tashigong +Monastery when he reaches Gyumur beyond the Shipki. Tell him I have the +information he wants and I will willingly go on with him to Yarkhand +and his destination. He need not arrange for men beyond Gyumur. All +is fixed. So sorry to bother you, old man, but I don't know Ormond's +address, except that he was with you and has gone up Simla way. And of +course he will be keen to hear the thing is settled." + +Amazing. I remembered the message I had heard and this man's words +rang true and kindly, but what could it mean? I really did not question +farther than this for now I could not doubt that I was guided. Stronger +hands than mine had me in charge, and it only remained for me to set +forth in confidence and joy to an end that as yet I could not discern. I +turned my face gladly to the wonder of the mountains. + +Gladly--but with a reservation. I was leaving a friend and one whom I +dimly felt might one day be more than a friend--Brynhild Ingmar. That +problem must be met before I could take my way. I thought much of what +might be said at parting. True, she had the deepest attraction for me, +but true also that I now beheld a quest stretching out into the unknown +which I must accept in the spirit of the knight errant. Dare I then +bind my heart to any allegiance which would pledge me to a future +inconsistent with what lay before me? How could I tell what she +might think of the things which to me were now real and external--the +revelation of the only reality that underlies all the seeming. Life can +never be the same for the man who has penetrated to this, and though it +may seem a hard saying there can be but a maimed understanding between +him and those who still walk amid the phantoms of death and decay. + +Her sympathy with nature was deep and wonderful but might it not be that +though the earth was eloquent to her the skies were silent? I was but +a beginner myself--I knew little indeed. Dare I risk that little in a +sweet companionship which would sink me into the contentment of the +life lived by the happily deluded between the cradle and the grave and +perhaps close to me for ever that still sphere where my highest hope +abides? I had much to ponder, for how could I lose her out of my +life--though I knew not at all whether she who had so much to make her +happiness would give me a single thought when I was gone. + +If all this seem the very uttermost of selfish vanity, forgive a man who +grasped in his hand a treasure so new, so wonderful that he walked +in fear and doubt lest it should slip away and leave him in a world +darkened for ever by the torment of the knowledge that it might have +been his and he had bartered it for the mess of pottage that has bought +so many birthrights since Jacob bargained with his weary brother in +the tents of Lahai-roi. I thought I would come back later with my +prize gained and throwing it at her feet ask her wisdom in return, for +whatever I might not know I knew well she was wiser than I except in +that one shining of the light from Eleusis. I walked alone in the woods +thinking of these things and no answer satisfied me. + +I did not see her alone until the day I left, for I was compelled by the +arrangements I was making to go down to Simla for a night. And now the +last morning had come with golden sun--shot mists rolling upward to +disclose the far white billows of the sea of eternity, the mountains +awaking to their enormous joys. The trees were dripping glory to the +steaming earth; it flowed like rivers into their most secret recesses, +moss and flower, fern and leaf floated upon the waves of light revealing +their inmost soul in triumphant gladness. Far off across the valleys +a cuckoo was calling--the very voice of spring, and in the green world +above my head a bird sang, a feathered joy, so clear, so passionate that +I thought the great summer morning listened in silence to his rapture +ringing through the woods. I waited until the Jubilate was ended and +then went in to bid good-bye to my friends. + +Mrs. Ingmar bid me the kindest farewell and I left her serene in the +negation of all beauty, all hope save that of a world run on the lines +of a model municipality, disease a memory, sewerage, light and air +systems perfected, the charted brain sending its costless messages to +the outer parts of the habitable globe, and at least a hundred years +of life with a decent cremation at the end of it assured to every +eugenically born citizen. No more. But I have long ceased to regret +that others use their own eyes whether clear or dim. Better the merest +glimmer of light perceived thus than the hearsay of the revelations of +others. And by the broken fragments of a bewildered hope a man shall +eventually reach the goal and rejoice in that dawn where the morning +stars sing together and the sons of God shout for joy. It must come, for +it is already here. + +Brynhild walked with me through the long glades in the fresh thin air +to the bridle road where my men and ponies waited, eager to be off. We +stood at last in the fringe of trees on a small height which commanded +the way;--a high uplifted path cut along the shoulders of the hills and +on the left the sheer drop of the valleys. Perhaps seven or eight feet +in width and dignified by the name of the Great Hindustan and Tibet Road +it ran winding far away into Wonderland. Looking down into the valleys, +so far beneath that the solitudes seem to wall them in I thought of all +the strange caravans which have taken this way with tinkle of bells +and laughter now so long silenced, and as I looked I saw a lost little +monastery in a giant crevice, solitary as a planet on the outermost ring +of the system, and remembrance flashed into my mind and I said; + +"I have marching orders that have countermanded my own plans. I am to +journey to the Buddhist Monastery of Tashigong, and there meet a friend +who will tell me what is necessary that I may travel to Yarkhand and +beyond. It will be long before I see Kashmir." + +In those crystal clear eyes I saw a something new to me--a faint smile, +half pitying, half sad; + +"Who told you, and where?" + +"A girl in a strange place. A woman who has twice guided me--" + +I broke off. Her smile perplexed me. I could not tell what to say. She +repeated in a soft undertone; + +"Great Lady, be pitiful to the blind eyes and give them light." + +And instantly I knew. O blind--blind! Was the unhappy King of the story +duller of heart than I? And shame possessed me. Here was the chrysoberyl +that all day hides its secret in deeps of lucid green but when the night +comes flames with its fiery ecstasy of crimson to the moon, and I--I had +been complacently considering whether I might not blunt my own spiritual +instinct by companionship with her, while she had been my guide, as +infinitely beyond me in insight as she was in all things beautiful. I +could have kissed her feet in my deep repentance. True it is that the +gateway of the high places is reverence and he who cannot bow his head +shall receive no crown. I saw that my long travel in search of knowledge +would have been utterly vain if I had not learnt that lesson there and +then. In those moments of silence I learnt it once and for ever. + +She stood by me breathing the liquid morning air, her face turned upon +the eternal snows. I caught her hand in a recognition that might +have ended years of parting, and its warm youth vibrated in mine, the +foretaste of all understanding, all unions, of love that asks nothing, +that fears nothing, that has no petition to make. She raised her eyes to +mine and her tears were a rainbow of hope. So we stood in silence that +was more than any words, and the golden moments went by. I knew her now +for what she was, one of whom it might have been written; + + "I come from where night falls clearer + Than your morning sun can rise; + From an earth that to heaven draws nearer + Than your visions of Paradise,-- + For the dreams that your dreamers dream + We behold them with open eyes." + +With open eyes! Later I asked the nature of the strange bond that had +called her to my side. + +"I do not understand that fully myself," she said--"That is part of the +knowledge we must wait for. But you have the eyes that see, and that is +a tie nothing can break. I had waited long in the House of Beauty for +you. I guided you there. But between you and me there is also love." + +I stretched an eager hand but she repelled it gently, drawing back a +little. "Not love of each other though we are friends and in the future +may be infinitely more. But--have you ever seen a drawing of Blake's--a +young man stretching his arms to a white swan which flies from him on +wings he cannot stay? That is the story of both our lives. We long to +be joined in this life, here and now, to an unspeakable beauty and power +whose true believers we are because we have seen and known. There is no +love so binding as the same purpose. Perhaps that is the only true love. +And so we shall never be apart though we may never in this world be +together again in what is called companionship." + +"We shall meet," I said confidently. She smiled and was silent. + +"Do we follow a will-o'-the wisp in parting? Do we give up the substance +for the shadow? Shall I stay?" + +She laughed joyously; + +"We give a single rose for a rose-tree that bears seven times seven. +Daily I see more, and you are going where you will be instructed. As you +know my mother prefers for a time to have my cousin with her to help her +with the book she means to write. So I shall have time to myself. What +do you think I shall do?" + +"Blow away on a great wind. Ride on the crests of tossing waves. Catch a +star to light the fireflies!" + +She laughed like a bird's song. + +"Wrong--wrong! I shall be a student. All I know as yet has come to me +by intuition, but there is Law as well as Love and I will learn. I have +drifted like a happy cloud before the wind. Now I will learn to be the +wind that blows the clouds." + +I looked at her in astonishment. If a flower had desired the same thing +it could scarcely have seemed more incredible, for I had thought her +whole life and nature instinctive not intellective. She smiled as one +who has a beloved secret to keep. + +"When you have gained what in this country they call The Knowledge of +Regeneration, come back and ask me what I have learnt." + +She would say no more of that and turned to another matter, speaking +with earnestness; + +"Before you came here I had a message for you, and Stephen Clifden +will tell you the same thing when you meet. Believe it for it is true. +Remember always that the psychical is not the mystical and that what we +seek is not marvel but vision. These two things are very far apart, so +let the first with all its dangers pass you by, for our way lies to the +heights, and for us there is only one danger--that of turning back and +losing what the whole world cannot give in exchange. I have never seen +Stephen Clifden but I know much of him. He is a safe guide--a man who +has had much and strange sorrow which has brought him joy that cannot be +told. He will take you to those who know the things that you desire. I +wish I might have gone too." + +Something in the sweetness of her voice, its high passion, the strong +beauty of her presence woke a poignant longing in my heart. I said; + +"I cannot leave you. You are the only guide I can follow. Let us search +together--you always on before." + +"Your way lies there," she pointed to the high mountains. "And mine to +the plains, and if we chose our own we should wander. But we shall +meet again in the way and time that will be best and with knowledge +so enlarged that what we have seen already will be like an empty dream +compared to daylight truth. If you knew what waits for you you would not +delay one moment." + +She stood radiant beneath the deodars, a figure of Hope, pointing +steadily to the heights. I knew her words were true though as yet I +could not tell how. I knew that whereas we had seen the Wonderful in +beautiful though local forms there is a plane where the Formless may be +apprehended in clear dream and solemn vision-the meeting of spirit with +Spirit. What that revelation would mean I could not guess--how should +I?--but I knew the illusion we call death and decay would wither before +it. There is a music above and beyond the Ninth Vibration though I must +love those words for ever for what their hidden meaning gave me. + +I took her hand and held it. Strange--beyond all strangeness that that +story of an ancient sorrow should have made us what we were to each +other--should have opened to me the gates of that Country where she +wandered content. For the first time I had realized in its fulness the +loveliness of this crystal nature, clear as flowing water to receive and +transmit the light--itself a prophecy and fulfilment of some higher race +which will one day inhabit our world when it has learnt the true values. +She drew a flower from her breast and gave it to me. It lies before me +white and living as I write these words. + +I sprang down the road and mounted, giving the word to march. The men +shouted and strode on--our faces to the Shipki Pass and what lay beyond. + +We had parted. + +Once, twice, I looked back, and standing in full sunlight, she waved her +hand. + +We turned the angle of the rocks. + +What I found--what she found is a story strange and beautiful which +I may tell one day to those who care to hear. That for me there were +pauses, hesitancies, dreads, on the way I am not concerned to deny, +for so it must always be with the roots of the old beliefs of fear and +ignorance buried in the soil of our hearts and ready to throw out their +poisonous fibres. But there was never doubt. For myself I have long +forgotten the meaning of that word in anything that is of real value. + +Do not let it be thought that the treasure is reserved for the few or +those of special gifts. And it is as free to the West as to the East +though I own it lies nearer to the surface in the Orient where the +spiritual genius of the people makes it possible and the greater and +more faithful teachers are found. It is not without meaning that all the +faiths of the world have dawned in those sunrise skies. Yet it is within +reach of all and asks only recognition, for the universe has been the +mine of its jewels-- + + "Median gold it holds, and silver from Atropatene, Ruby and + emerald from Hindustan, and Bactrian agate, Bright with beryl + and pearl, sardonyx and sapphire."-- + and more that cannot be uttered-- + the Lights and Perfections. + +So for all seekers I pray this prayer--beautiful in its sonorous Latin, +but noble in all the tongues; + +"Supplico tibi, Pater et Dux--I pray Thee, Guide of our vision, that +we may remember the nobleness with which Thou hast endowed us, and that +Thou wouldest be always on our right and on our left in the motion of +our wills, that we may be purged from the contagion of the body and the +affections of the brute and overcome and rule them. And I pray also +that Thou wouldest drive away the blinding darkness from the eyes of our +souls that we may know well what is to be held for divine and what for +mortal." + +"The nobleness with which Thou hast endowed us-" this, and not the +cry of the miserable sinner whose very repentance is no virtue but the +consequence of failure and weakness is the strong music to which we must +march. + +And the way is open to the mountains. + + + + +THE INTERPRETER A ROMANCE OF THE EAST + + +I + +There are strange things in this story, but, so far as I understand +them, I tell the truth. If you measure the East with a Western foot-rule +you will say, "Impossible." I should have said it myself. + +Of myself I will say as little as I can, for this story is of Vanna +Loring. I am an incident only, though I did not know that at first. + +My name is Stephen Clifden, and I was eight-and-thirty; plenty of money, +sound in wind and limb. I had been by way of being a writer before the +war, the hobby of a rich man; but if I picked up anything in the welter +in France, it was that real work is the only salvation this mad world +has to offer; so I meant to begin at the beginning, and learn my trade +like a journeyman labourer. I had come to the right place. A very +wonderful city is Peshawar--rather let us say, two cities--the +compounds, the fortifications where Europeans dwell in such peace as +their strong right arms can secure them; and the native city and bazaar +humming and buzzing like a hive of angry bees with the rumours that +come up from Lower India or down the Khyber Pass with the camel caravans +loaded with merchandise from Afghanistan, Bokhara, and farther. And +it is because of this that Peshawar is the Key of India, and a city +of Romance that stands at every corner, and cries aloud in the +market--place. For at Peshawar every able-bodied man sleeps with his +revolver under his pillow, and the old Fort is always ready in case it +should be necessary at brief and sharp notice to hurry the women and +children into it, and possibly, to die in their defense. So enlivening +is the neighbourhood of the frontier tribes that haunt the famous Khyber +Pass and the menacing hills where danger is always lurking. + +But there was society here, and I was swept into it--there was chatter, +and it galled me. + +I was beginning to feel that I had missed my mark, and must go farther +afield, perhaps up into Central Asia, when I met Vanna Loring. If I say +that her hair was soft and dark; that she had the deepest hazel eyes +I have ever seen, and a sensitive, tender mouth; that she moved with a +flowing grace like "a wave of the sea"--it sounds like the portrait of a +beauty, and she was never that. Also, incidentally, it gives none of her +charm. I never heard any one get any further than that she was "oddly +attractive"--let us leave it at that. She was certainly attractive to +me. + +She was the governess of little Winifred Meryon, whose father held +the august position of General Commanding the Frontier Forces, and her +mother the more commanding position of the reigning beauty of Northern +India, generally speaking. No one disputed that. She was as pretty as +a picture, and her charming photograph had graced as many illustrated +papers as there were illustrated papers to grace. + +But Vanna--I gleaned her story by bits when I came across her with the +child in the gardens. I was beginning to piece it together now. + +Her love of the strange and beautiful she had inherited from a young +Italian mother, daughter of a political refugee; her childhood had +been spent in a remote little village in the West of England; half +reluctantly she told me how she had brought herself up after her +mother's death and her father's second marriage. Little was said of +that, but I gathered that it had been a grief to her, a factor in her +flight to the East. + +We were walking in the Circular Road then with Winifred in front leading +her Pekingese by its blue ribbon, and we had it almost to ourselves +except for a few natives passing slow and dignified on their own +occasions, for fashionable Peshawar was finishing its last rubber of +bridge, before separating to dress for dinner, and had no time to spare +for trivialities and sunsets. + +"So when I came to three-and-twenty," she said slowly, "I felt I must +break away from our narrow life. I had a call to India stronger than +anything on earth. You would not understand but that was so, and I had +spent every spare moment in teaching myself India--its history, legends, +religions, everything! And I was not wanted at home, and I had grown +afraid." + +I could divine years of patience and repression under this plain tale, +but also a power that would be dynamic when the authentic voice called. +That was her charm--gentleness in strength--a sweet serenity. + +"What were you afraid of?" + +"Of growing old and missing what was waiting for me out here. But I +could not get away like other people. No money, you see. So I thought I +would come out here and teach. Dare I? Would they let me? I knew I was +fighting life and chances and risks if I did it; but it was death if I +stayed there. And then--Do you really care to hear?" + +"Of course. Tell me how you broke your chain." + +"I spare you the family quarrels. I can never go back. But I was +spurred--spurred to take some wild leap; and I took it. Six years ago I +came out. First I went to a doctor and his wife at Cawnpore. They had +a wonderful knowledge of the Indian peoples, and there I learned +Hindustani and much else. Then he died. But an aunt had left me two +hundred pounds, and I could wait a little and choose; and so I came +here." + +It interested me. The courage that pale elastic type of woman has! + +"Have you ever regretted it? Would they take you back if you failed?" + +"Never, to both questions," she said, smiling. "Life is glorious. I've +drunk of a cup I never thought to taste; and if I died tomorrow I should +know I had done right. I rejoice in every moment I live--even when +Winifred and I are wrestling with arithmetic." + +"I shouldn't have thought life was very easy with Lady Meryon." + +"Oh, she is kind enough in an indifferent sort of way. I am not the +persecuted Jane Eyre sort of governess at all. But that is all on the +surface and does not matter. It is India I care for-the people, the sun, +the infinite beauty. It was coming home. You would laugh if I told you +I knew Peshawar long before I came here. Knew it--walked here, lived. +Before there were English in India at all." She broke off. "You won't +understand." + +"Oh, I have had that feeling, too," I said patronizingly. "If one has +read very much about a place-" + +"That was not quite what I meant. Never mind. The people, the +place--that is the real thing to me. All this is the dream." The sweep +of her hand took in not only Winifred and myself, but the general's +stately residence, which to blaspheme in Peshawar is rank infidelity. + +"By George, I would give thousands to feel that! I can't get out of +Europe here. I want to write, Miss Loring," I found myself saying. "I'd +done a bit, and then the war came and blew my life to pieces. Now I want +to get inside the skin of the East, and I can't do it. I see it from +outside, with a pane of glass between. No life in it. If you feel as you +say, for God's sake be my interpreter!" + +I really meant what I said. I knew she was a harp that any breeze would +sweep into music. I divined that temperament in her and proposed to use +it for my own ends. She had and I had not, the power to be a part of all +she saw, to feel kindred blood running in her own veins. To the average +European the native life of India is scarcely interesting, so far is it +removed from all comprehension. To me it was interesting, but I could +not tell why. I stood outside and had not the fairy gold to pay for my +entrance. Here at all events she could buy her way where I could not. +Without cruelty, which honestly was not my besetting sin--especially +where women were concerned, the egoist in me felt I would use her, would +extract the last drop of the enchantment of her knowledge before I went +on my way. What more natural than that Vanna or any other woman should +minister to my thirst for information? Men are like that. I pretend +to be no better than the rest. She pleased my fastidiousness--that +fastidiousness which is the only austerity in men not otherwise austere. + +"Interpret?" she said, looking at me with clear hazel eyes; "how could +I? You were in the native city yesterday. What did you miss?" + +"Everything! I saw masses of colour, light, movement. Brilliantly +picturesque people. Children like Asiatic angels. Magnificently scowling +ruffians in sheepskin coats. In fact, a movie staged for my benefit. I +was afraid they would ring down the curtain before I had had enough. It +had no meaning. When I got back to my diggings I tried to put down +what I had just seen, and I swear there's more inspiration in the +guide-book." + +"Did you go alone?" + +"Yes, I certainly would not go sight-seeing with the Meryon crowd. Tell +me what you felt when you saw it first." + +"I went with Sir John's uncle. He was a great traveler. The colour +struck me dumb. It flames--it sings. Think of the grey pinched life in +the West! I saw a grave dark potter turning his wheel, while his little +girl stood by, glad at our pleasure, her head veiled like a miniature +woman, tiny baggy trousers, and a silver nose-stud, like a star, in one +delicate nostril. In her thin arms she held a heavy baby in a gilt cap, +like a monkey. And the wheel turned and whirled until it seemed to be +spinning dreams, thick as motes in the sun. The clay rose in smooth +spirals under his hand, and the wheel sang, 'Shall the vessel reprove +him who made one to honour and one to dishonour?' And I saw the potter +thumping his wet clay, and the clay, plastic as dream-stuff, shaped +swift as light, and the three Fates stood at his shoulder. Dreams, +dreams, and all in the spinning of the wheel, and the rich shadows of +the old broken courtyard where he sat. And the wheel stopped and the +thread broke, and the little new shapes he had made stood all about him, +and he was only a potter in Peshawar." + +Her voice was like a song. She had utterly forgotten my existence. I +did not dislike it at the moment, for I wanted to hear more, and the +impersonal is the rarest gift a woman can give a man. + +"Did you buy anything?" + +"He gave me a gift--a flawed jar of turquoise blue, faint turquoise +green round the lip. He saw I understood. And then I bought a little +gold cap and a wooden box of jade-green Kabul grapes. About a rupee, all +told. But it was Eastern merchandise, and I was trading from Balsora and +Baghdad, and Eleazar's camels were swaying down from Damascus along the +Khyber Pass, and coming in at the great Darwazah, and friends' eyes met +me everywhere. I am profoundly happy here." + +The sinking sun lit an almost ecstatic face. + +I envied her more deeply than I had ever envied any one. She had the +secret of immortal youth, and I felt old as I looked at her. One might +be eighty and share that passionate impersonal joy. Age could not wither +nor custom stale the infinite variety of her world's joys. She had a +child's dewy youth in her eyes. + +There are great sunsets at Peshawar, flaming over the plain, dying in +melancholy splendour over the dangerous hills. They too were hers, in +a sense in which they could never be mine. But what a companion! To +my astonishment a wild thought of marriage flashed across me, to be +instantly rebuffed with a shrug. Marriage--that one's wife might talk +poetry to one about the East! Absurd! But what was it these people felt +and I could not feel? Almost, shut up in the prison of self, I knew what +Vanna had felt in her village--a maddening desire to escape, to be a +part of the loveliness that lay beyond me. So might a man love a king's +daughter in her hopeless heights. + +"It may be very beautiful on the surface," I said morosely; "but there's +a lot of misery below--hateful, they tell me." + +"Of course. We shall get to work one day. But look at the sunset. It +opens like a mysterious flower. I must take Winifred home now." + +"One moment," I pleaded; "I can only see it through your eyes. I feel it +while you speak, and then the good minute goes." + +She laughed. + +"And so must I. Come, Winifred. Look, there's an owl; not like the owls +in the summer dark in England-- + + "Lovely are the curves of the white owl sweeping, Wavy in the +dark, lit by one low star." + +Suddenly she turned again and looked at me half wistfully. + +"It is good to talk to you. You want to know. You are so near it all. I +wish I could help you; I am so exquisitely happy myself." + +My writing was at a standstill. It seemed the groping of a blind man +in a radiant world. Once perhaps I had felt that life was good in +itself--when the guns came thundering toward the Vimy Ridge in a mad +gallop of horses, and men shouting and swearing and frantically urging +them on. Then, riding for more than life, I had tasted life for an +instant. Not before or since. But this woman had the secret. + +Lady Meryon, with her escort of girls and subalterns, came daintily past +the hotel compound, and startled me from my brooding with her pretty +silvery voice. + +"Dreaming, Mr. Clifden? It isn't at all wholesome to dream in the East. +Come and dine with us tomorrow. A tiny dance afterwards, you know; or +bridge for those who like it." + +I had not the faintest notion whether governesses dined with the family +or came in afterward with the coffee; but it was a sporting chance, and +I took it. + +Then Sir John came up and joined us. + +"You can't well dance tomorrow, Kitty," he said to his wife. "There's +been an outpost affair in the Swat Hills, and young Fitzgerald has +been shot. Come to dinner of course, Clifden. Glad to see you. But no +dancing, I think." + +Kitty Meryon's mouth drooped like a pouting child's. Was it for the lost +dance, or the lost soldier lying out on the hills in the dying sunset. +Who could tell? In either case it was pretty enough for the illustrated +papers. + +"How sad! Such a dear boy. We shall miss him at tennis." Then brightly; +"Well, we'll have to put the dance off for a week, but come tomorrow +anyhow." + + +II + + +Next evening I went into Lady Meryon's flower-scented drawing-room. The +electric fans were fluttering and the evening air was cool. Five or +six pretty girls and as many men made up the party--Kitty Meryon the +prettiest of them all, fashionably undressed in faint pink and crystal, +with a charming smile in readiness, all her gay little flags flying in +the rich man's honour. I am no vainer than other men, but I saw that. +Whatever her charm might be it was none for me. What could I say to +interest her who lived in her foolish little world as one shut in a +bright bubble? And she had said the wrong word about young Fitzgerald--I +wanted Vanna, with her deep seeing eyes, to say the right one and adjust +those cruel values. + +Governesses dine, it appeared, only to fill an unexpected place, or make +a decorous entry afterward, to play accompaniments. Fortunately Kitty +Meryon sang, in a pinched little soprano, not nearly so pretty as her +silver ripple of talk. + +It was when the party had settled down to bridge and I was standing out, +that I ventured to go up to her as she sat knitting by a window--not +unwatched by the quick flash of Lady Meryon's eyes as I did it. + +"I think you hypnotize me, Miss Loring. When I hear anything I +straightway want to know what you will say. Have you heard of +Fitzgerald's death?" + +"That is why we are not dancing tonight. Tomorrow the cable will reach +his home in England. He was an only child, and they are the great people +of the village where we are the little people. I knew his mother as one +knows a great lady who is kind to all the village folk. It may kill her. +It is travelling tonight like a bullet to her heart, and she does not +know." + +"His father?" + +"A brave man--a soldier himself. He will know it was a good death and +that Harry would not fail. He did not at Ypres. He would not here. But +all joy and hope will be dead in that house tomorrow." + +"And what do you think?" + +"I am not sorry for Harry, if you mean that. He knew--we all know--that +he was on guard here holding the outposts against blood and treachery +and terrible things--playing the Great Game. One never loses at that +game if one plays it straight, and I am sure that at the last it was joy +he felt and not fear. He has not lost. Did you notice in the church +a niche before every soldier's seat to hold his loaded gun? And the +tablets on the walls; "Killed at Kabul River, aged 22."--"Killed on +outpost duty."--"Murdered by an Afghan fanatic." This will be one memory +more. Why be sorry." + +Presently:-- + +"I am going up to the hills tomorrow, to the Malakhand Fort, with Mrs. +Delany, Lady Meryon's aunt, and we shall see the wonderful Tahkt-i-Bahi +Monastery on the way. You should do that run before you go. The fort is +the last but one on the way to Chitral, and beyond that the road is so +beset that only soldiers may go farther, and indeed the regiments escort +each other up and down. But it is an early start, for we must be back in +Peshawar at six for fear of raiding natives." + +"I know; they hauled me up in the dusk the other day, and told me I +should be swept off to the hills if I fooled about after dusk. But I +say--is it safe for you to go? You ought to have a man. Could I go too?" + +I thought she did not look enthusiastic at the proposal. + +"Ask. You know I settle nothing. I go where I am sent." She said it with +the happiest smile. I knew they could send her nowhere that she would +not find joy. I thought her mere presence must send the vibrations of +happiness through the household. Yet again--why? For where there is no +receiver the current speaks in vain; and for an instant I seemed to see +the air full of messages--of speech striving to utter its passionate +truths to deaf ears stopped for ever against the breaking waves of +sound. But Vanna heard. + +She left the room; and when the bridge was over, I made my request. Lady +Meryon shrugged her shoulders and declared it would be a terribly dull +run--the scenery nothing, "and only" (she whispered) "Aunt Selina and +poor Miss Loring?" + +Of course I saw at once that she did not like it; but Sir John was all +for my going, and that saved the situation. + +I certainly could have dispensed with Aunt Selina when the automobile +drew up in the golden river of the sunrise at the hotel. There were only +the driver, a personal servant, and the two ladies; Mrs. Delany, comely, +pleasant, talkative, and Vanna-- + +Her face in its dark motoring veil, fine and delicate as a young moon in +a cloud drift--the sensitive sweet mouth that had quivered a little when +she spoke of Fitzgerald--the pure glance that radiated such kindness to +all the world. She sat there with the Key of Dreams pressed against her +slight bosom--her eyes dreaming above it. Already the strange airs of +her unknown world were breathing about me, and as yet I knew not the +things that belonged unto my peace. + +We glided along the straight military road from Peshawar to Nowshera, +the gold-bright sun dazzling in its whiteness--a strange drive through +the flat, burned country, with the ominous Kabul River flowing through +it. Military preparations everywhere, and the hills looking watchfully +down--alive, as it were, with keen, hostile eyes. War was at present +about us as behind the lines in France; and when we crossed the Kabul +River on a bridge of boats, and I saw its haunted waters, I began to +feel the atmosphere of the place closing down upon me. It had a sinister +beauty; it breathed suspense; and I wished, as I was sure Vanna did, for +silence that was not at our command. + +For Mrs. Delany felt nothing of it. A bright shallow ripple of talk was +her contribution to the joys of the day; though it was, fortunately, +enough for her happiness if we listened and agreed. I knew Vanna +listened only in show. Her intent eyes were fixed on the Tahkt-i-Bahi +hills after we had swept out of Nowshera; and when the car drew up +at the rough track, she had a strange look of suspense and pallor. I +remember I wondered at the time if she were nervous in the wild open +country. + +"Now pray don't be shocked," said Mrs. Delany comfortably; "but you two +young people may go up to the monastery, and I shall stay here. I am +dreadfully ashamed of myself, but the sight of that hill is enough for +me. Don't hurry. I may have a little doze, and be all the better company +when you get back. No, don't try to persuade me, Mr. Clifden. It isn't +the part of a friend." + +I cannot say I was sorry, though I had a moment of panic when Vanna +offered to stay with her--very much, too, as if she really meant it. So +we set out perforce, Vanna leading steadily, as if she knew the way. +She never looked up, and her wish for silence was so evident, that I +followed, lending my hand mutely when the difficulties obliged it, she +accepting absently, and as if her thoughts were far away. + +Suddenly she quickened her pace. We had climbed about nine hundred feet, +and now the narrow track twisted through the rocks--a track that looked +as age-worn as no doubt it was. We threaded it, and struggled over the +ridge, and looked down victorious on the other side. + +There she stopped. A very wonderful sight, of which I had never seen the +like, lay below us. Rock and waste and towering crags, and the mighty +ruin of the monastery set in the fangs of the mountain like a robber +baron's castle, looking far away to the blue mountains of the Debatable +Land--the land of mystery and danger. It stood there--the great ruin +of a vast habitation of men. Building after building, mysterious and +broken, corridors, halls, refectories, cells; the dwelling of a faith so +alien that I could not reconstruct the life that gave it being. And all +sinking gently into ruin that in a century more would confound it with +the roots of the mountains. + +Grey and wonderful, it clung to the heights and looked with eyeless +windows at the past. Somehow I found it infinitely pathetic; the very +faith it expressed is dead in India, and none left so poor to do it +reverence. + +But Vanna knew her way. Unerringly she led me from point to point, and +she was visibly at home in the intricacies. Such knowledge in a young +woman bewildered me. Could she have studied the plans in the Museum? +How else should she know where the abbot lived, or where the refractory +brothers were punished? + +Once I missed her, while I stooped to examine some scroll-work, and +following, found her before one of the few images of the Buddha that the +rapacious Museum had spared--a singularly beautiful bas-relief, the hand +raised to enforce the truth the calm lips were speaking, the drapery +falling in stately folds to the bare feet. As I came up, she had an air +as if she had just ceased from movement, and I had a distinct feeling +that she had knelt before it--I saw the look of worship! The thing +troubled me like a dream, haunting, impossible, but real. + +"How beautiful!" I said in spite of myself, as she pointed to the image. +"In this utter solitude it seems the very spirit of the place." + +"He was. He is," said Vanna. + +"Explain to me. I don't understand. I know so little of him. What is the +subject?" + +She hesitated; then chose her words as if for a beginner;--"It is the +Blessed One preaching to the Tree-Spirits. See how eagerly they lean +from the boughs to listen. This other relief represents him in the state +of mystic vision. Here he is drowned in peace. See how it overflows from +the closed eyes; the closed lips. The air is filled with his quiet." + +"What is he dreaming?" + +"Not dreaming--seeing. Peace. He sits at the point where time and +infinity meet. To attain that vision was the aim of the monks who lived +here." + +"Did they attain?" I found myself speaking as if she could certainly +answer. + +"A few. There was one, Vasettha, the Brahman, a young man who had +renounced all his possessions and riches, and seated here before this +image of the Blessed One, he fell often into the mystic state. He had a +strange vision at one time of the future of India, which will surely be +fulfilled. He did not forget it in his rebirths. He remembers-" + +She broke off suddenly and said with forced indifference,--"He would sit +here often looking out over the mountains; the monks sat at his feet to +hear. He became abbot while still young. But his story is a sad one." + +"I entreat you to tell me." + +She looked away over the mountains. "While he was abbot here,--still a +young man,--a famous Chinese Pilgrim came down through Kashmir to visit +the Holy Places in India. The abbot went forward with him to Peshawar, +that he might make him welcome. And there came a dancer to Peshawar, +named Lilavanti, most beautiful! I dare not tell you her beauty. I +tremble now to think-" + +Again she paused, and again the faint creeping sense of mystery invaded +me. + +She resumed;-- + +"The abbot saw her and he loved her. He was young still, you remember. +She was a woman of the Hindu faith and hated Buddhism. It swept him down +into the lower worlds of storm and desire. He fled with Lilavanti and +never returned here. So in his rebirth he fell-" + +She stopped dead; her face pale as death. + +"How do you know? Where have you read it? If I could only find what you +find and know what you know! The East is like an open book to you. Tell +me the rest." + +"How should I know any more?" she said hurriedly. "We must be going +back. You should study the plans of this place at Peshawar. They were +very learned monks who lived here. It is famous for learning." + +The life had gone out of her words-out of the ruins. There was no more +to be said. + +We clambered down the hill in the hot sunshine, speaking only of the +view, the strange shrubs and flowers, and, once, the swift gliding of a +snake, and found Mrs. Delany blissfully asleep in the most padded corner +of the car. The spirit of the East vanished in her comfortable presence, +and luncheon seemed the only matter of moment. + +"I wonder, my dears," she said, "if you would be very disappointed and +think me very dense if I proposed our giving up the Malakhand Fort? The +driver has been giving me in very poor English such an account of the +dangers of that awful road up the hill that I feel no Fort would repay +me for its terrors. Do say what you feel, Miss Loring. Mr. Clifden can +lunch with the officers at Nowshera and come any time. I know I am an +atrocity." + +There could be only one answer, though Vanna and I knew perfectly well +the crafty design of the driver to spare himself work. Mrs. Delany +remained brightly awake for the run home, and favored us with many +remarkable views on India and its shortcomings, Vanna, who had a sincere +liking for her, laughing with delight at her description of a visit of +condolence with Lady Meryon to the five widows of one of the hill Rajas. + +But I own I was pre-occupied. I knew those moments at the monastery had +given me a glimpse into the wonderland of her soul that made me long +for more. It was rapidly becoming clear to me that unless my intentions +developed on very different lines I must flee Peshawar. For love is born +of sympathy, and sympathy was strengthening daily, but for love I had no +courage yet. + +I feared it as men fear the unknown. I despised myself--but I feared. +I will confess my egregious folly and vanity--I had no doubt as to her +reception of my offer if I should make it, but possessed by a colossal +selfishness, I thought only of myself, and from that point of view could +not decide how I stood to lose or gain. In my wildest accesses of vanity +I did not suppose Vanna loved me, but I felt she liked me, and I believe +the advantages I had to offer would be overwhelming to a woman in her +position. So, tossed on the waves of indecision, I inclined to flight. + +That night I resolutely began my packing, and wrote a note of farewell +to Lady Meryon. The next morning I furiously undid it, and destroyed the +note. And that afternoon I took the shortest way to the sun-set road to +lounge about and wait for Vanna and Winifred. She never came, and I was +as unreasonably angry as if I had deserved the blessing of her presence. + +Next day I could see that she tried gently hut clearly to discourage our +meeting and for three days I never saw her at all. Yet I knew that in +her solitary life our talks counted for a pleasure, and when we met +again I thought I saw a new softness in the lovely hazel deeps of her +eyes. + + +III + + +On the day when things became clear to me, I was walking towards the +Meryons' gates when I met her coming alone along the sunset road, in the +late gold of the afternoon. She looked pale and a little wearied, and I +remembered I wished I did not know every change of her face as I did. It +was a symptom that alarmed my selfishness--it galled me with the sense +that I was no longer my own despot. + +"So you have been up the Khyber Pass," she said as I fell into step at +her side. "Tell me--was it as wonderful as you expected?" + +"No, no,--you tell me! It will give me what I missed. Begin at the +beginning. Tell me what I saw." + +I could not miss the delight of her words, and she laughed, knowing my +whim. + +"Oh, that Pass!--the wonder of those old roads that have borne the +traffic and romance of the world for ages. Do you think there is +anything in the world so fascinating as they are? But did you go on +Tuesday or Friday?" + +For these are the only days in the week when the Khyber can be safely +entered. The British then turn out the Khyber Rifles and man every crag, +and the loaded caravans move like a tide, and go up and down the narrow +road on their occasions. + +Naturally mere sightseers are not welcomed, for much business must be +got through in that urgent forty eight hours in which life is not risked +in entering. + +"Tuesday. But make a picture for me." + +"Well, you gave your word not to photograph or sketch--as if one wanted +to when every bit of it is stamped on one's brain! And you went up to +Jumrood Fort at the entrance. Did they tell you it is an old Sikh Fort +and has been on duty in that turbulent place for five hundred years And +did you see the machine guns in the court? And every one armed--even the +boys with belts of cartridges? Then you went up the narrow winding track +between the mountains, and you said to yourself, 'This is the road of +pure romance. It goes up to silken Samarkhand, and I can ride to Bokhara +of the beautiful women and to all the dreams. Am I alive and is it +real?' You felt that?" + +"All. Every bit. Go on!" + +She smiled with pleasure. + +"And you saw the little forts on the crags and the men on guard all +along the bills, rifles ready! You could hear the guns rattle as they +saluted. Do you know that up there men plough with rifles loaded beside +them? They have to be men indeed." + +"Do you mean to imply that we are not men?" + +"Different men at least. This is life in a Border ballad. Such a life as +you knew in France but beautiful in a wild--hawk sort of way. Don't the +Khyber Rifles bewilder you? They are drawn from these very Hill tribes, +and will shoot their own fathers and brothers in the way of duty as +comfortably as if they were jackals. Once there was a scrap here and +one of the tribesmen sniped our men unbearably. What do you suppose +happened? A Khyber Rifle came to the Colonel and said, 'Let me put +an end to him, Colonel Sahib. I know exactly where he sits. He is my +grandfather.' And he did it!" + +"The bond of bread and salt?" + +"Yes, and discipline. I'm sometimes half frightened of discipline. It +moulds a man like wax. Even God doesn't do that. Well--then you had the +traders--wild shaggy men in sheepskin and women in massive jewelry of +silver and turquoise,-great earrings, heavy bracelets loading their +arms, wild, fierce, handsome. And the camels--thousands of them, some +going up, some coming down, a mass of human and animal life. Above +you, moving figures against the keen blue sky, or deep below you in the +ravines. + +"The camels were swaying along with huge bales of goods, and dark +beautiful women in wicker cages perched on them. Silks and carpets from +Bokhara, and blue--eyed Persian cats, and bluer Persian turquoises. +Wonderful! And the dust, gilded by the sunshine, makes a vaporous golden +atmosphere for it all." + +"What was the most wonderful thing you saw there?" + +"The most beautiful, I think, was a man--a splendid dark ruffian +lounging along. He wanted to show off, and his swagger was perfect. Long +black onyx eyes and a tumble of black curls, and teeth like almonds. +But what do you think he carried on his wrist--a hawk with fierce yellow +eyes, ringed and chained. Hawking is a favourite sport in the hills. Oh, +why doesn't some great painter come and paint it all before they take to +trains and cars? I long to see it all again, but I never shall." + +"Why not," said I. "Surely Sir John can get you up there any day?" + +"Not now. The fighting makes it difficult. But it isn't that. I am +leaving." + +"Leaving?" My heart gave a leap. "Why? Where?" + +"Leaving Lady Meryon." + +"Why--for Heaven's sake?" + +"I had rather not tell you." + +"But I must know." + +"You cannot." + +"I shall ask Lady Meryon." + +"I forbid you." + +And then the unexpected happened, and an unbearable impulse swept me +into folly--or was it wisdom? + +"Listen to me. I would not have said it yet, but this settles it. I want +you to marry me. I want it atrociously!" + +It was a strange word. What I felt for her at that moment was difficult +to describe. I endured it like a pain that could only be assuaged by +her presence, but I endured it angrily. We were walking on the sunset +road--very deserted and quiet at the time. The place was propitious if +nothing else was. + +She looked at me in transparent astonishment; + +"Mr. Clifden, are you dreaming? You can't mean what you say." + +"Why can't I? I do. I want you. You have the key of all I care for. I +think of the world without you and find it tasteless." + +"Surely you have all the world can give? What do you want more?" + +"The power to enjoy it--to understand it. You have got that--I haven't. +I want you always with me to interpret, like a guide to a blind fellow. +I am no better." + +"Say like a dog, at once!" she interrupted. "At least you are frank +enough to put it on that ground. You have not said you love me. You +could not say it." + +"I don't know whether I do or not. I know nothing about love. I want +you. Indescribably. Perhaps that is love--is it? I never wanted any one +before. I have tried to get away and I can't." + +I was brutally frank, you see. She compelled my very thoughts. + +"Why have you tried?" + +"Because every man likes freedom. But I like you better." "I can tell +you the reason," she said in her gentle unwavering voice. "I am Lady +Meryon's governess, and an undesirable. You have felt that?" + +"Don't make me out such a snob. No--yes. You force me into honesty. +I did feel it at first like the miserable fool I am, but I could kick +myself when I think of that now. It is utterly forgotten. Take me and +make me what you will, and forgive me. Only tell me your secret of joy. +How is it you understand everything alive or dead? I want to live--to +see, to know." + +It was a rhapsody like a boy's. Yet at the moment I was not even ashamed +of it, so sharp was my need. + +"I think," she said, slowly, looking straight before her, "that I had +better be quite frank. I don't love you. I don't know what love means +in the Western sense. It has a very different meaning for me. Your voice +comes to me from an immense distance when you speak in that way. You +want me--but never with a thought of what I might want. Is that love? I +like you very deeply as a friend, but we are of different races. There +is a gulf." + +"A gulf? You are English." + +"By birth, yes. In mind, no. And there are things that go deeper, that +you could not understand. So I refuse quite definitely, and our ways +part here, for in a few days I go. I shall not see you again, but I wish +to say good-bye." + +The bitterest chagrin was working in my soul. I felt as if all were +deserting me-a sickening feeling of loneliness. I did not know the man +who was in me, and was a stranger to myself. + +"I entreat you to tell me why, and where." + +"Since you have made me this offer, I will tell you why. Lady Meryon +objected to my friendship with you, and objected in a way which-" + +She stopped, flushing palely. I caught her hand. + +"That settles it!-that she should have dared! I'll go up this minute and +tell her we are engaged. Vanna-Vanna!" + +For she disengaged her hand, quietly but firmly. + +"On no account. How can I make it more plain to you? I should have gone +soon in any case. My place is in the native city--that is the life I +want. I have work there, I knew it before I came out. My sympathies are +all with them. They know what life is--why even the beggars, poorer than +poor, are perfectly happy, basking in the great generous sun. Oh, the +splendour and riot of life and colour! That's my life--I sicken of +this." + +"But I'll give it to you. Marry me, and we will travel till you're tired +of it." + +"Yes, and look on as at a play--sitting in the stalls, and applauding +when we are pleased. No, I'm going to work there." "For God's sake, how? +Let me come too." + +"You can't. You're not in it. I am going to attach myself to the medical +mission at Lahore and learn nursing, and then I shall go to my own +people." + +"Missionaries? You've nothing in common with them?" + +"Nothing. But they teach what I want. Mr. Clifden, I shall not come this +way again. If I remember--I'll write to you, and tell you what the real +world is like." + +She smiled, the absorbed little smile I knew and feared. I saw pleading +was useless then. I would wait, and never lose sight of her and of hope. + +"Vanna, before you go, give me your gift of sight. Interpret for me. +Stay with me a little and make me see." + +"What do you mean exactly?" she asked in her gentlest voice, half +turning to me. + +"Make one journey with me, as my sister, if you will do no more. Though +I warn you that all the time I shall be trying to win my wife. But come +with me once, and after that--if you will go, you must. Say yes." + +Madness! But she hesitated--a hesitation full of hope, and looked at me +with intent eyes. + +"I will tell you frankly," she said at last, "that I know my knowledge +of the East and kinship with it goes far beyond mere words. In my case +the doors were not shut. I believe--I know that long ago this was my +life. If I spoke for ever I could not make you understand how much I +know and why. So I shall quite certainly go back to it. Nothing--you +least of all, can hold me. But you are my friend--that is a true bond. +And if you would wish me to give you two months before I go, I might do +that if it would in any way help you. As your friend only--you clearly +understand. You would not reproach me afterwards when I left you, as I +should most certainly do?" + +"I swear I would not. I swear I would protect you even from myself. I +want you for ever, but if you will only give me two months--come! But +have you thought that people will talk. It may injure you. I'm not worth +that, God knows. And you will take nothing I could give you in return." + +She spoke very quietly. + +"That does not trouble me.--It would only trouble me if you asked what +I have not to give. For two months I would travel with you as a friend, +if, like a friend, I paid my own expenses-" + +I would have interrupted, but she brushed that firmly aside. "No, I must +do as I say, and I am quite able to or I should not suggest it. I would +go on no other terms. It would be hard if because we are man and woman I +might not do one act of friendship for you before we part. For though I +refuse your offer utterly, I appreciate it, and I would make what little +return I can. It would be a sharp pain to me to distress you." + +Her gentleness and calm, the magnitude of the offer she was making +stunned me so that I could scarcely speak. There was such an +extraordinary simplicity and generosity in her manner that it appeared +to me more enthralling and bewildering than the most finished coquetry +I had ever known. She gave me opportunities that the most ardent lover +could in his wildest dream desire, and with the remoteness in her eyes +and her still voice she deprived them of all hope. It kindled in me a +flame that made my throat dry when I tried to speak. + +"Vanna, is it a promise? You mean it?" + +"If you wish it, yes. But I warn you I think it will not make it easier +for you when the time is over. + +"Why two months?" + +"Partly because I can afford no more. No! I know what you would say. +Partly because I can spare no more time. But I will give you that, +if you wish, though, honestly, I had very much rather not. I think it +unwise for you. I would protect you if I could--indeed I would!" + +It was my turn to hesitate now. Every moment revealed to me some new +sweetness, some charm that I saw would weave itself into the very +fibre of my I had been! Was I not now a fool? Would it not being if the +opportunity were given. Oh, fool that be better to let her go before she +had become a part of my daily experience? I began to fear I was courting +my own shipwreck. She read my thoughts clearly. + +"Indeed you would be wise to decide against it. Release me from my +promise. It was a mad scheme." + +The superiority--or so I felt it--of her gentleness maddened me. It +might have been I who needed protection, who was running the risk of +misjudgment--not she, a lonely woman. She looked at me, waiting--trying +to be wise for me, never for one instant thinking of herself. I felt +utterly exiled from the real purpose of her life. + +"I will never release you. I claim your promise. I hold to it." + +"Very well then--I will write, and tell you where I shall be. Good-bye, +and if you change your mind, as I hope you will, tell me." + +She extended her hand cool as a snowflake, and was gone, walking swiftly +up the road. Ah, let a man beware when his wishes fulfilled, rain down +upon him! + +To what had I committed myself? She knew her strength and had no fears. +I could scarcely realize that she had liking enough for me to make the +offer. That it meant no shade more than she had said I knew well. She +was safe, but what was to be the result for me? I knew nothing--she was +a beloved mystery. + + "Strange she is and secret, Strange her eyes; her cheeks are +cold as cold sea-shells." + +Yet I would risk it, for I knew there was no hope if I let her go now, +and if I saw her again, some glimmer might fall upon my dark. + +Next day this reached me:--Dear Mr. Clifden,-- + +I am going to some Indian friends for a time. On the 15th of June I +shall be at Srinagar in Kashmir. A friend has allowed me to take her +little houseboat, the "Kedarnath." If you like this plan we will share +the cost for two months. I warn you it is not luxurious, but I think you +will like it. I shall do this whether you come or no, for I want a quiet +time before I take up my nursing in Lahore. In thinking of all this will +you remember that I am not a girl but a woman. I shall be twenty-nine my +next birthday. Sincerely yours, VANNA LORING. + +P.S. But I still think you would be wiser not to come. I hope to hear +you will not. + +I replied only this:--Dear Miss Loring,--I think I understand the +position fully. I will be there. I thank you with all my heart. +Gratefully yours, STEPHEN CLIFDEN. + + +IV + + +Three days later I met Lady Meryon, and was swept in to tea. Her manner +was distinctly more cordial as she mentioned casually that Vanna had +left--she understood to take up missionary work--"which is odd," she +added with a woman's acrimony, "for she had no more in common with +missionaries than I have, and that is saying a good deal. Of course she +speaks Hindustani perfectly, and could be useful, but I haven't grasped +the point of it yet." I saw she counted on my knowing nothing of the +real reason of Vanna's going and left it, of course, at that. The talk +drifted away under my guidance. Vanna evidently puzzled her. She half +feared, and wholly misunderstood her. + +No message came to me, as time went by, and for the time she had +vanished completely, but I held fast to her promise and lived on that +only. + +I take up my life where it ceased to be a mere suspense and became life +once more. + +On the 15th of June, I found myself riding into Srinagar in Kashmir, +through the pure tremulous green of the mighty poplars that hedge the +road into the city. The beauty of the country had half stunned me when +I entered the mountain barrier of Baramula and saw the snowy peaks that +guard the Happy Valley, with the Jhelum flowing through its tranquil +loveliness. The flush of the almond blossom was over, but the iris, like +a blue sea of peace had overflowed the world--the azure meadows smiled +back at the radiant sky. Such blossom! the blue shading into clear +violet, like a shoaling sea. The earth, like a cup held in the hand of a +god, brimmed with the draught of youth and summer and--love? But no, for +me the very word was sinister. Vanna's face, immutably calm, confronted +it. + +That night I slept in a boat at Sopor, and I remember that, waking at +midnight, I looked out and saw a mountain with a gloriole of hazy silver +about it, misty and faint as a cobweb threaded with dew. The river, +there spreading into a lake, was dark under it, flowing in a deep smooth +blackness of shadow, and everything awaited--what? And even while I +looked, the moon floated serenely above the peak, and all was bathed in +pure light, the water rippling and shining in broken silver and pearl. +So had Vanna floated into my sky, luminous, sweet, remote. I did not +question my heart any more. I knew I loved her. + +Two days later I rode into Srinagar, and could scarcely see the wild +beauty of that strange Venice of the East, my heart was so beating +in my eyes. I rode past the lovely wooden bridges where the balconied +houses totter to each other across the canals in dim splendour of +carving and age; where the many-coloured native life crowds down to the +river steps and cleanses its flower-bright robes, its gold-bright brass +vessels in the shining stream, and my heart said only--Vanna, Vanna! + +One day, one thought, of her absence had taught me what she was to me, +and if humility and patient endeavor could raise me to her feet, I was +resolved that I would spend my life in labor and think it well spent. + +My servant dismounted and led his horse, asking from every one where the +"Kedarnath" could be found, and eager black eyes sparkled and two little +bronze images detached themselves from the crowd of boys, and ran, fleet +as fauns, before us. + +Above the last bridge the Jhelum broadens out into a stately river, +controlled at one side by the banked walk known as the Bund, with the +Club House upon it and the line of houseboats beneath. Here the visitors +flutter up and down and exchange the gossip, the bridge appointments, +the little dinners that sit so incongruously on the pure Orient that is +Kashmir. + +She would not be here. My heart told me that, and sure enough the boys +were leading across the bridge and by a quiet shady way to one of the +many backwaters that the great river makes in the enchanting city. There +is one waterway stretching on afar to the Dal Lake. It looks like a +river--it is the very haunt of peace. Under those mighty chenar, or +plane trees, that are the glory of Kashmir, clouding the water with deep +green shadows, the sun can scarcely pierce, save in a dipping sparkle +here and there to intensify the green gloom. The murmur of the city, the +chatter of the club, are hundreds of miles away. We rode downward under +the towering trees, and dismounting, saw a little houseboat tethered to +the bank. It was not of the richer sort that haunts the Bund, where the +native servants follow in a separate boat, and even the electric light +is turned on as part of the luxury. This was a long low craft, very +broad, thatched like a country cottage afloat. In the forepart lived the +native owner, and his family, their crew, our cooks and servants; for +they played many parts in our service. And in the afterpart, room for a +life, a dream, the joy or curse & many days to be. + +But then, I saw only one thing--Vanna sat under the trees, reading, or +looking at the cool dim watery vista, with a single boat, loaded to the +river's edge with melons and scarlet tomatoes, punting lazily down to +Srinagar in the sleepy afternoon. + +She was dressed in white with a shady hat, and her delicate dark face +seemed to glow in the shadow like the heart of a pale rose. For the +first time I knew she was beautiful. Beauty shone in her like the flame +in an alabaster lamp, serene, diffused in the very air about her, so +that to me she moved in a mild radiance. She rose to meet me with both +hands outstretched--the kindest, most cordial welcome. Not an eyelash +flickered, not a trace of self-consciousness. If I could have seen her +flush or tremble--but no--her eyes were clear and calm as a forest pool. +So I remembered her. So I saw her once more. + +I tried, with a hopeless pretence, to follow her example and hide what I +felt, where she had nothing to hide. + +"What a place you have found. Why, it's like the deep heart of a wood!" + +"Yes, I saw it once when I was here with the Meryons. But we lay at the +Bund then--just under the Club. This is better. Did you like the ride +up?" + +I threw myself on the grass beside her with a feeling of perfect rest. + +"It was like a new heaven and a new earth. What a country!" + +The very spirit of Quiet seemed to be drowsing in those branches +towering up into the blue, dipping their green fingers into the crystal +of the water. What a heaven! + +"Now you shall have your tea and then I will show you your rooms," she +said, smiling at my delight. "We shall stay here a few days more that +you may see Srinagar, and then they tow us up into the Dal Lake opposite +the Gardens of the Mogul Emperors. And if you think this beautiful what +will you say then?" + +I shut my eyes and see still that first meal of my new life. The little +table that Pir Baksh, breathing full East in his jade-green turban, set +before her, with its cloth worked in a pattern of the chenar leaves +that are the symbol of Kashmir; the brown cakes made by Ahmad Khan in +a miraculous kitchen of his own invention--a few holes burrowed in the +river bank, a smoldering fire beneath them, and a width of canvas for +a roof. But it served, and no more need be asked of luxury. And Vanna, +making it mysteriously the first home I ever had known, the central +joy of it all. Oh, wonderful days of life that breathe the spirit of +immortality and pass so quickly--surely they must be treasured somewhere +in Eternity that we may look upon their beloved light once more. + +"Now you must see the boat. The Kedarnath is not a Dreadnought, but she +is broad and very comfortable. And we have many chaperons. They all +live in the bows, and exist simply to protect the Sahiblog from all +discomfort, and very well they do it. That is Ahmad Khan by the kitchen. +He cooks for us. Salama owns the boat, and steers her and engages the +men to tow us when we move. And when I arrived he aired a little English +and said piously; The Lord help me to give you no trouble, and the Lord +help you! That is his wife sitting on the bank. She speaks little but +Kashmiri, but I know a little of that. Look at the hundred rat-tail +plaits of her hair, lengthened with wool, and see her silver and +turquoise jewelry. She wears much of the family fortune and is quite +a walking bank. Salama, Ahmad Khan and I talk by the hour. Ahmad comes +from Fyzabad. Look at Salama's boy--I call him the Orange Imp. Did you +ever see anything so beautiful?" + +I looked in sheer delight, and grasped my camera. Sitting near us was a +lovely little Kashmiri boy of about eight, in a faded orange coat, and +a turban exactly like his father's. His curled black eyelashes were +so long that they made a soft gloom over the upper part of the little +golden face. The perfect bow of the scarlet lips, the long eyes, the shy +smile, suggested an Indian Eros. He sat dipping his feet in the water +with little pigeon-like cries of content. + +"He paddles at the bow of our little shikara boat with a paddle exactly +like a water-lily leaf. Do you like our friends? I love them already, +and know all their affairs. And now for the boat." + +"One moment--If we are friends on a great adventure, I must call you +Vanna, and you me Stephen." + +"Yes, I suppose that is part of it," she said, smiling. "Come, Stephen." + +It was like music, but a cold music that chilled me. She should have +hesitated, should have flushed--it was I who trembled. So I followed her +across the broad plank into our new home. + +"This is our sitting-room. Look, how charming!" + +It was better than charming; it was home indeed. Windows at each side +opening down almost to the water, a little table for meals that lived +mostly on the bank, with a grey pot of iris in the middle. Another +table for writing, photography, and all the little pursuits of travel. +A bookshelf with some well--worn friends. Two long cushioned chairs. +Two for meals, and a Bokhara rug, soft and pleasant for the feet. The +interior was plain unpainted wood, but set so that the grain showed like +satin in the rippling lights from the water. + +That is the inventory of the place I have loved best in the world, but +what eloquence can describe what it gave me, what its memory gives me to +this day? And I have no eloquence--what I felt leaves me dumb. + +"It is perfect," was all I said as she waved her hand proudly. "It is +home." + +"And if you had come alone to Kashmir you would have had a great rich +boat with electric light and a butler. You would never have seen the +people except at meal--times. I think you will like this better. +Well, this is your tiny bedroom, and your bathroom, and beyond the +sitting--room are mine. Do you like it all?" + +But I could say no more. The charm of her own personality had touched +everything and left its fragrance like a flower--breath in the air. I +was beggared of thanks, but my whole soul was gratitude. We dined on +the bank that evening, the lamp burning steadily in the still air and +throwing broken reflections in the water, while the moon looked in upon +them through the leaves. I felt extraordinarily young and happy. + +The quiet of her voice was soft as the little lap of water against +the bows of the boat, and Kahdra, the Orange Imp, was singing a little +wordless song to himself as he washed the plates beside us. It was a +simple meal, and Vanna, abstemious as a hermit never ate anything but +rice and fruit, but I could remember no meal in all my days of luxury +where I had eaten with such zest. + +"It looks very grand to have so many to wait upon us, doesn't it? But +this is one of the cheapest countries in the world though the old timers +mourn over present expenses. You will laugh when I show you your share +of the cost." + +"The wealth of the world could not buy this," I said, and was silent. + +"But you must listen to my plans. We must do a little camping the +last three weeks before we part. Up in the mountains. Are they not +marvellous? They stand like a rampart round us, but not cold and +terrible, but "Like as the hills stand round about Jerusalem"--they are +guardian presences. And running up into them, high-very high, are the +valleys and hills where we shall camp. Tomorrow we shall row through +Srinagar, by the old Maharaja's palace." + + +V + +And so began a life of sheer enchantment. We knew no one. The visitors +in Kashmir change nearly every season, and no one cared-no one asked +anything of us, and as for our shipmates, a willing affectionate service +was their gift, and no more. Looking back, I know in what a wonder-world +I was privileged to live. Vanna could talk with them all. She did not +move apart, a condescending or indifferent foreigner. Kahdra would +come to her knee and prattle to her of the great snake that lived up on +Mahadeo to devour erring boys who omitted their prayers at proper Moslem +intervals. She would sit with the baby in her lap while the mother +busied herself in the sunny bows with the mysterious dishes that smelt +so savory to a hungry man. The cuts, the bruises of the neighbourhood +all came to Vanna for treatment. + +"I am graduating as a nurse," she would say laughing as she bent over +the lean arm of some weirdly wrinkled old lady, bandaging and soothing +at the same moment. Her reward would be some bit of folk-lore, some +quaintness of gratitude that I noted down in the little book I kept for +remembrance--that I do not need, for every word is in my heart. + +We rowed down through the city next day--Salama rowing, and little +Kahdra lazily paddling at the bow--a wonderful city, with its narrow +ways begrimed with the dirt of ages, and its balconied houses looking +as if disease and sin had soaked into them and given them a vicious +tottering beauty, horrible and yet lovely too. We saw the swarming life +of the bazaar, the white turbans coming and going, diversified by the +rose and yellow Hindu turbans, and the caste-marks, orange and red, on +the dark brows. + +I saw two women--girls--painted and tired like Jezebel, looking out of +one window carved and old, and the grey burnished doves flying about +it. They leaned indolently, like all the old, old wickedness of the East +that yet is ever young--"Flowers of Delight," with smooth black hair +braided with gold and blossoms, and covered with pale rose veils, and +gold embossed disks swinging like lamps beside the olive cheeks, the +great eyes artificially lengthened and darkened with soorma, and the +curves of the full lips emphasized with vermilion. They looked down +on us with apathy, a dull weariness that held all the old evil of the +wicked humming city. + +It had taken shape in those indolent bodies and heavy eyes that could +flash into life as a snake wakes into fierce darting energy when the +time comes to spring--direct inheritrixes from Lilith, in the fittest +setting in the world--the almost exhausted vice of an Oriental city as +old as time. + +"And look-below here," said Vanna, pointing to one of the ghauts--long +rugged steps running down to the river. + +"When I came yesterday, a great broken crowd was collected here, almost +shouldering each other into the water where a boat lay rocking. In it +lay the body of a man brutally murdered for the sake of a few rupees and +flung into the river. I could see the poor brown body stark in the boat +with a friend weeping beside it. On the lovely deodar bridge people +leaned over, watching with a grim open-mouthed curiosity, and business +went on gaily where the jewelers make the silver bangles for slender +wrists, and the rows of silver chains that make the necks like 'the +Tower of Damascus builded for an armory.' It was all very wild and +cruel. I went down to them-" + +"Vanna--you went down? Horrible!" + +"No, you see I heard them say the wife was almost a child and needs +help. So I went. Once long ago at Peshawar I saw the same thing happen, +and they came and took the child for the service of the gods, for she +was most lovely, and she clung to the feet of a man in terror, and the +priest stabbed her to the heart. She died in my arms. + +"Good God!" I said, shuddering; "what a sight for you! Did they never +hang him?" + +"He was not punished. I told you it was a very long time ago. Her +expression had a brooding quiet as she looked down into the running +river, almost it might be as if she saw the picture of that past misery +in the deep water. She said no more. But in her words and the terrible +crowding of its life, Srinagar seemed to me more of a nightmare than +anything I had seen, excepting only Benares; for the holy Benares is a +memory of horror, with a sense of blood hidden under its frantic crazy +devotion, and not far hidden either. + +"Our own green shade, when we pulled back to it in the evening cool, was +a refuge of unspeakable quiet. She read aloud to me that evening by the +small light of our lamp beneath the trees, and, singularly, she read of +joy. + +"I have drunk of the Cup of the Ineffable, I have found the key of the +Mystery, Travelling by no track I have come to the Sorrowless Land; very +easily has the mercy of the great Lord come upon me. Wonderful is that +Land of rest to which no merit can win. There have I seen joy filled +to the brim, perfection of joy. He dances in rapture and waves of form +arise from His dance. He holds all within his bliss." + +"What is that?" + +"It is from the songs of the great Indian mystic--Kabir. Let me read you +more. It is like the singing of a lark, lost in the infinite of light +and heaven." + +So in the soft darkness I heard for the first time those immortal words; +and hearing, a faint glimmer of understanding broke upon me as to +the source of the peace that surrounded her. I had accepted it as an +emanation of her own heart when it was the pulsing of the tide of the +Divine. She read, choosing a verse here and there, and I listened with +absorption. + +Suppose I had been wrong in believing that sorrow is the keynote +of life; that pain is the road of ascent, if road there be; that an +implacable Nature and that only, presides over all our pitiful struggles +and seekings and writes a black "Finis" to the holograph of our +existence? + +What then? What was she teaching me? Was she the Interpreter of a Beauty +eternal in the heavens, and reflected like a broken prism in the beauty +that walked visible beside me? So I listened like a child to an unknown +language, yet ventured my protest. + +"In India, in this wonderful country where men have time and will for +speculation such thoughts may be natural. Can they be found in the +West?" + +"This is from the West--might not Kabir himself have said it? Certainly +he would have felt it. 'Happy is he who seeks not to understand the +Mystery of God, but who, merging his spirit into Thine, sings to +Thy face, O Lord, like a harp, understanding how difficult it is to +know--how easy to love Thee.' We debate and argue and the Vision passes +us by. We try to prove it, and kill it in the laboratory of our minds, +when on the altar of our souls it will dwell for ever." + +Silence--and I pondered. Finally she laid the book aside, and repeated +from memory and in a tone of perfect music; "Kabir says, 'I shall go +to the House of my Lord with my Love at my side; then shall I sound the +trumpet of triumph.'" + +And when she left me alone in the moonlight silence the old doubts came +back to me--the fear that I saw only through her eyes, and began to +believe in joy only because I loved her. I remember I wrote in the +little book I kept for my stray thoughts, these words which are not mine +but reflect my thought of her; "Thine is the skill of the Fairy Woman, +and the virtue of St. Bride, and the faith of Mary the Mild, and the +gracious way of the Greek woman, and the beauty of lovely Emer, and the +tenderness of heart-sweet Deirdre, and the courage of Maev the great +Queen, and the charm of Mouth-of-Music." + +Yes, all that and more, but I feared lest I should see the heaven of joy +through her eyes only and find it mirage as I had found so much else. + +SECOND PART Early in the pure dawn the men came and our boat was towed +up into the Dal Lake through crystal waterways and flowery banks, the +men on the path keeping step and straining at the rope until the bronze +muscles stood out on their legs and backs, shouting strong rhythmic +phrases to mark the pull. + +"They shout the Wondrous Names of God--as they are called," said Vanna +when I asked. "They always do that for a timid effort. Bad shah! The +Lord, the Compassionate, and so on. I don't think there is any religion +about it but it is as natural to them as One, Two, Three, to us. It +gives a tremendous lift. Watch and see." + +It was part of the delightful strangeness that we should move to that +strong music. We sat on the upper deck and watched the dream--like +beauty drift slowly by until we emerged beneath a little bridge into the +fairy land of the lake which the Mogul Emperors loved so well that they +made their noble pleasance gardens on the banks, and thought it little +to travel up yearly from far--off Delhi over the snowy Pir Panjal with +their Queens and courts for the perfect summer of Kashmir. + +We moored by a low bank under a great wood of chenar trees, and saw the +little table in the wilderness set in the greenest shade with our chairs +beside it, and my pipe laid reverently upon it by Kahdra. + +Across the glittering water lay on one side the Shalimar Garden known +to all readers of "Lalla Ruhk"--a paradise of roses; and beyond it +again the lovelier gardens of Nour-Mahal, the Light of the Palace, that +imperial woman who ruled India under the weak Emperor's name--she whose +name he set thus upon his coins: + +"By order of King Jehangir. Gold has a hundred splendours added to it by +receiving the name of Nour-Jahan the Queen." + +Has any woman ever had a more royal homage than this most royal +lady--known first as Mihr-u-nissa--Sun of Women, and later, Nour-Mahal, +Light of the Palace, and latest, Nour-Jahan-Begam, Queen, Light of the +World? + +Here in these gardens she had lived--had seen the snow mountains change +from the silver of dawn to the illimitable rose of sunset. The life, the +colour beat insistently upon my brain. They built a world of magic where +every moment was pure gold. Surely--surely to Vanna it must be the same. +I believed in my very soul that she who gave and shared such joy could +not be utterly apart from me? Could I then feel certain that I had +gained any ground in these days we had been together? Could she still +define the cruel limits she had laid down, or were her eyes kinder, her +tones a more broken music? I did not know. Whenever I could hazard a +guess the next minute baffled me. + +Just then, in the sunset, she was sitting on deck, singing under her +breath and looking absently away to the Gardens across the Lake. I could +catch the words here and there, and knew them. + + "Pale hands I loved beside the Shalimar, + Where are you now--who lies beneath your spell? + Whom do you lead on Rapture's roadway far, + Before you agonize them in farewell?" + +"Don't!" I said abruptly. It stung me. + +"What?" she asked in surprise. "That is the song every one remembers +here. Poor Laurence Hope! How she knew and loved this India! What are +you grumbling at?" + +Her smile stung me. + +"Never mind," I said morosely. "You don't understand. You never will." + +And yet I believed sometimes that she would--that time was on my side. + +When Kahdra and I pulled her across to Nour-Mahal's garden next day, how +could I not believe it--her face was so full of joy as she looked at me +for sympathy? + +"I don't think so much beauty is crowded into any other few miles in +the world--beauty of association, history, nature, everything!" she said +with shining eyes. "The lotus flowers are not out yet but when they come +that is the last touch of perfection. Do you remember Homer--'But whoso +ate of the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus, was neither willing to bring +me word again, nor to depart. Nay, their desire was to remain there +for ever, feeding on the lotus with the Lotus Eaters, forgetful of all +return.' You know the people here eat the roots and seeds? I ate them +last year and perhaps that is why I cannot stay away. But look at +Nour-Mahal's garden!" + +We were pulling in among the reeds and the huge carven leaves of the +water plants, and the snake-headed buds lolling upon them with the +slippery half-sinister look that water-flowers have, as though their +cold secret life belonged to the hidden water world and not to ours. But +now the boat was touching the little wooden steps. + +O beautiful--most beautiful the green lawns, shaded with huge pyramids +of the chenar trees, the terraced gardens where the marble steps climbed +from one to the other, and the mountain streams flashed singing and +shining down the carved marble slopes that cunning hands had made to +delight the Empress of Beauty, between the wildernesses of roses. Her +pavilion stands still among the flowers, and the waters ripple through +it to join the lake--and she is--where? Even in the glory of sunshine +the passing of all fair things was present with me as I saw the empty +shell that had held the Pearl of Empire, and her roses that still bloom, +her waters that still sing for others. + +The spray of a hundred fountains was misty diamond dust in the warm air +laden with the scent of myriad flowers. Kahdra followed us everywhere, +singing his little tuneless happy song. The world brimmed with beauty +and joy. And we were together. Words broke from me. + +"Vanna, let it be for ever! Let us live here. I'll give up all the world +for this and you." + +"But you see," she said delicately, "it would be 'giving up.' You use +the right word. It is not your life. It is a lovely holiday, no more. +You would weary of it. You would want the city life and your own kind." + +I protested with all my soul. + +"No. Indeed I will say frankly that it would be lowering yourself to +live a lotus-eating life among my people. It is a life with which you +have no tie. A Westerner who lives like that steps down; he loses his +birthright just as an Oriental does who Europeanizes himself. He cannot +live your life nor you his. If you had work here it would be different. +No--six or eight weeks more; then go away and forget it." + +I turned from her. The serpent was in Paradise. When is he absent? + +On one of the terraces a man was beating a tom-tom, and veiled women +listened, grouped about him in brilliant colours. + +"Isn't that all India?" she said; "that dull reiterated sound? It +half stupefies, half maddens. Once at Darjiling I saw the Lamas' Devil +Dance--the soul, a white-faced child with eyes unnaturally enlarged, +fleeing among a rabble of devils--the evil passions. It fled wildly +here and there and every way was blocked. The child fell on its knees, +screaming dumbly--you could see the despair in the staring eyes, but +all was drowned in the thunder of Tibetan drums. No mercy--no escape. +Horrible!" + +"Even in Europe the drum is awful," I said. "Do you remember in the +French Revolution how they Drowned the victims' voices in a thunder roll +of drums?" + +"I shall always see the face of the child, hunted down to hell, falling +on its knees, and screaming without a sound, when I hear the drum. But +listen--a flute! Now if that were the Flute of Krishna you would have to +follow. Let us come!" + +I could hear nothing of it, but she insisted and we followed the music, +inaudible to me, up the slopes of the garden that is the foot-hill of +the mighty mountain of Mahadeo, and still I could hear nothing. And +Vanna told me strange stories of the Apollo of India whom all hearts +must adore, even as the herd-girls adored him in his golden youth by +Jumna river and in the pastures of Brindaban. + +Next day we were climbing the hill to the ruins where the evil magician +brought the King's daughter nightly to his will, flying low under a +golden moon. Vanna took my arm and I pulled her laughing up the steepest +flowery slopes until we reached the height, and lo! the arched windows +were eyeless and a lonely breeze blowing through the cloisters, and the +beautiful yellowish stone arches supported nothing and were but frames +for the blue of far lake and mountain and the divine sky. We climbed +the broken stairs where the lizards went by like flashes, and had I the +tongue of men and angels I could not tell the wonder that lay before +us,--the whole wide valley of Kashmir in summer glory, with its scented +breeze singing, singing above it. + +We sat on the crushed aromatic herbs and among the wild roses and looked +down. + +"To think," she said, "that we might have died and never seen it!" + +There followed a long silence. I thought she was tired, and would not +break it. Suddenly she spoke in a strange voice, low and toneless; + +"The story of this place. She was the Princess Padmavati, and her home +was in Ayodhya. When she woke and found herself here by the lake she was +so terrified that she flung herself in and was drowned. They held her +back, but she died." + +"How do you know?" + +"Because a wandering monk came to the abbey of Tahkt-i-Bahi near +Peshawar and told Vasettha the Abbot." + +I had nearly spoilt all by an exclamation, but I held myself back. I saw +she was dreaming awake and was unconscious of what she said. + +"The Abbot said, 'Do not describe her. What talk is this for holy men? +The young monks must not hear. Some of them have never seen a woman. +Should a monk speak of such toys?' But the wanderer disobeyed and spoke, +and there was a great tumult, and the monks threw him out at the command +of the young Abbot, and he wandered down to Peshawar, and it was he +later--the evil one!--that brought his sister, Lilavanti the Dancer, to +Peshawar, and the Abbot fell into her snare. That was his revenge!" + +Her face was fixed and strange, for a moment her cheek looked hollow, +her eyes dim and grief-worn. What was she seeing?--what remembering? Was +it a story--a memory? What was it? + +"She was beautiful?" I prompted. + +"Men have said so, but for it he surrendered the Peace. Do not speak of +her accursed beauty." + +Her voice died away to a drowsy murmur; her head dropped on my shoulder +and for the mere delight of contact I sat still and scarcely breathed, +praying that she might speak again, but the good minute was gone. She +drew one or two deep breaths, and sat up with a bewildered look that +quickly passed. + +"I was quite sleepy for a minute. The climb was so strenuous. Hark--I +hear the Flute of Krishna again." + +And again I could hear nothing, but she said it was sounding from the +trees at the base of the hill. Later when we climbed down I found she +was right--that a peasant lad, dark and amazingly beautiful as +these Kashmiris often are, was playing on the flute to a girl at his +feet--looking up at him with rapt eyes. He flung Vanna a flower as we +passed. She caught it and put it in her bosom. A singular blossom, three +petals of purest white, set against three leaves of purest green, and +lower down the stem the three green leaves were repeated. It was still +in her bosom after dinner, and I looked at it more closely. + +"That is a curious flower," I said. "Three and three and three. Nine. +That makes the mystic number. I never saw a purer white. What is it?" + +"Of course it is mystic," she said seriously. "It is the Ninefold +Flower. You saw who gave it?" + +"That peasant lad." + +She smiled. + +"You will see more some day. Some might not even have seen that." + +"Does it grow here?" + +"This is the first I have seen. It is said to grow only where the gods +walk. Do you know that throughout all India Kashmir is said to be holy +ground? It was called long ago the land of the gods, and of strange, but +not evil, sorceries. Great marvels were seen here." + +I felt the labyrinthine enchantments of that enchanted land were closing +about me--a slender web, grey, almost impalpable, finer than fairy silk, +was winding itself about my feet. My eyes were opening to things I had +not dreamed. She saw my thought. + +"Yes, you could not have seen even that much of him in Peshawar. You did +not know then." + +"He was not there," I answered, falling half unconsciously into her +tone. + +"He is always there--everywhere, and when he plays, all who hear must +follow. He was the Pied Piper in Hamelin, he was Pan in Hellas. You +will hear his wild fluting in many strange places when you know how to +listen. When one has seen him the rest comes soon. And then you will +follow." + +"Not away from you, Vanna." + +"From the marriage feast, from the Table of the Lord," she said, smiling +strangely. "The man who wrote that spoke of another call, but it is the +same--Krishna or Christ. When we hear the music we follow. And we may +lose or gain heaven." + +It might have been her compelling personality--it might have been the +marvels of beauty about me, but I knew well I had entered at some mystic +gate. A pass word had been spoken for me--I was vouched for and might go +in. Only a little way as yet. Enchanted forests lay beyond, and perilous +seas, but there were hints, breaths like the wafting of the garments of +unspeakable Presences. My talk with Vanna grew less personal, and more +introspective. I felt the touch of her finger-tips leading me along +the ways of Quiet--my feet brushed a shining dew. Once, in the twilight +under the chenar trees, I saw a white gleaming and thought it a swiftly +passing Being, but when in haste I gained the tree I found there only +a Ninefold flower, white as a spirit in the evening calm. I would not +gather it but told Vanna what I had seen. + +"You nearly saw;" she said. "She passed so quickly. It was the Snowy +One, Uma, Parvati, the Daughter of the Himalaya. That mountain is the +mountain of her lord--Shiva. It is natural she should be here. I saw her +last night lean over the height--her face pillowed on her folded arms, +with a low star in the mists of her hair. Her eyes were like lakes of +blue darkness. Vast and wonderful. She is the Mystic Mother of India. +You will see soon. You could not have seen the flower until now." + +"Do you know," she added, "that in the mountains there are poppies of +clear blue--blue as turquoise. We will go up into the heights and find +them." + +And next moment she was planning the camping details, the men, the +ponies, with a practical zest that seemed to relegate the occult to the +absurd. Yet the very next day came a wonderful moment. + +The sun was just setting and, as it were, suddenly the purple glooms +banked up heavy with thunder. The sky was black with fury, the earth +passive with dread. I never saw such lightning--it was continuous and +tore in zigzag flashes down the mountains like rents in the substance +of the world's fabric. And the thunder roared up in the mountain gorges +with shattering echoes. Then fell the rain, and the whole lake seemed to +rise to meet it, and the noise was like the rattle of musketry. We were +standing by the cabin window and she suddenly caught my hand, and I +saw in a light of their own two dancing figures on the tormented water +before us. Wild in the tumult, embodied delight, with arms tossed +violently above their heads, and feet flung up behind them, skimming the +waves like seagulls, they passed. Their sex I could not tell--I think +they had none, but were bubble emanations of the rejoicing rush of the +rain and the wild retreating laughter of the thunder. I saw the fierce +aerial faces and their inhuman glee as they fled by, and she dropped my +hand and they were gone. Slowly the storm lessened, and in the west the +clouds tore raggedly asunder and a flood of livid yellow light poured +down upon the lake--an awful light that struck it into an abyss of fire. +Then, as if at a word of command, two glorious rainbows sprang across +the water with the mountains for their piers, each with its proper +colours chorded. They made a Bridge of Dread that stood out radiant +against the background of storm--the Twilight of the Gods, and the +doomed gods marching forth to the last fight. And the thunder growled +sullenly away into the recesses of the hill and the terrible rainbows +faded until the stars came quietly out and it was a still night. + +But I had seen that what is our dread is the joy of the spirits of the +Mighty Mother, and though the vision faded and I doubted what I had +seen, it prepared the way for what I was yet to see. A few days later we +started on what was to be the most exquisite memory of my life. A train +of ponies carried our tents and camping necessaries and there was a +pony for each of us. And so, in the cool grey of a divine morning, with +little rosy clouds flecking the eastern sky, we set out from Islamabad +for Vernag. And this was the order of our going. She and I led the way, +attended by a sais (groom) and a coolie carrying the luncheon basket. +Half way we would stop in some green dell, or by some rushing stream, +and there rest and eat our little meal while the rest of the cavalcade +passed on to the appointed camping place, and in the late afternoon we +would follow, riding slowly, and find the tents pitched and the kitchen +department in full swing. If the place pleased us we lingered for some +days;--if not, the camp was struck next morning, and again we wandered +in search of beauty. + +The people were no inconsiderable part of my joy. I cannot see what they +have to gain from such civilization as ours--a kindly people and happy. +Courtesy and friendliness met us everywhere, and if their labor was +hard, their harvest of beauty and laughter seemed to be its reward. The +little villages with their groves of walnut and fruit trees spoke of no +unfulfilled want, the mulberries which fatten the sleek bears in their +season fattened the children too. I compared their lot with that of +the toilers in our cities and knew which I would choose. We rode by +shimmering fields of barley, with red poppies floating in the clear +transparent green as in deep sea water, through fields of millet like +the sky fallen on the earth, so innocently blue were its blossoms, +and the trees above us were trellised with the wild roses, golden and +crimson, and the ways tapestried with the scented stars of the large +white jasmine. + +It was strange that later much of what she said, escaped me. Some I +noted down at the time, but there were hints, shadows of lovelier things +beyond that eluded all but the fringes of memory when I tried to piece +them together and make a coherence of a living wonder. For that reason, +the best things cannot be told in this history. It is only the cruder, +grosser matters that words will hold. The half-touchings--vanishing +looks, breaths--O God, I know them, but cannot tell. + +In the smaller villages, the head man came often to greet us and make +us welcome, bearing on a flat dish a little offering of cakes and fruit, +the produce of the place. One evening a man so approached, stately +in white robes and turban, attended by a little lad who carried the +patriarchal gift beside him. Our tents were pitched under a glorious +walnut tree with a running stream at our feet. + +Vanna of course, was the interpreter, and I called her from her tent as +the man stood salaaming before me. It was strange that when she came, +dressed in white, he stopped in his salutation, and gazed at her in +what, I thought, was silent wonder. + +She spoke earnestly to him, standing before him with clasped hands, +almost, I could think, in the attitude of a suppliant. The man listened +gravely, with only an interjection, now and again, and once he turned +and looked curiously at me. Then he spoke, evidently making some +announcement which she received with bowed head--and when he turned to +go with a grave salute, she performed a very singular ceremony, moving +slowly round him three times with clasped hands; keeping him always on +the right. He repaid it with the usual salaam and greeting of peace, +which he bestowed also on me, and then departed in deep meditation, his +eyes fixed on the ground. I ventured to ask what it all meant, and she +looked thoughtfully at me before replying. + +"It was a strange thing. I fear you will not altogether understand, +but I will tell you what I can. That man though living here among +Mahomedans, is a Brahman from Benares, and, what is very rare in India, +a Buddhist. And when he saw me he believed he remembered me in a former +birth. The ceremony you saw me perform is one of honour in India. It was +his due." + +"Did you remember him?" I knew my voice was incredulous. + +"Very well. He has changed little but is further on the upward path. I +saw him with dread for he holds the memory of a great wrong I did. Yet +he told me a thing that has filled my heart with joy." + +"Vanna-what is it?" + +She had a clear uplifted look which startled me. There was suddenly a +chill air blowing between us. + +"I must not tell you yet but you will know soon. He was a good man. I am +glad we have met." + +She buried herself in writing in a small book I had noticed and longed +to look into, and no more was said. + +We struck camp next day and trekked on towards Vernag--a rough march, +but one of great beauty, beneath the shade of forest trees, garlanded +with pale roses that climbed from bough to bough and tossed triumphant +wreaths into the uppermost blue. + +In the afternoon thunder was flapping its wings far off in the mountains +and a little rain fell while we were lunching under a big tree. I was +considering anxiously how to shelter Vanna, when a farmer invited us to +his house--a scene of Biblical hospitality that delighted us both. He +led us up some break-neck little stairs to a large bare room, open to +the clean air all round the roof, and with a kind of rough enclosure on +the wooden floor where the family slept at night. There he opened our +basket, and then, with anxious care, hung clothes and rough draperies +about us that our meal might be unwatched by one or two friends who had +followed us in with breathless interest. Still further to entertain us +a great rarity was brought out and laid at Vanna's feet as something +we might like to watch--a curious bird in a cage, with brightly barred +wings and a singular cry. She fed it with fruit, and it fluttered to her +hand. Just so Abraham might have welcomed his guests, and when we left +with words of deepest gratitude, our host made the beautiful obeisance +of touching his forehead with joined hands as he bowed. To me the whole +incident had an extraordinary grace, and ennobled both host and guest. +But we met an ascending scale of loveliness so varied in its aspects +that I passed from one emotion to another and knew no sameness. + +That afternoon the camp was pitched at the foot of a mighty hill, under +the waving pyramids of the chenars, sweeping their green like the robes +of a goddess. Near by was a half circle of low arches falling into +ruin, and as we went in among them I beheld a wondrous sight--the huge +octagonal tank or basin made by the Mogul Emperor Jehangir to receive +the waters of a mighty Spring which wells from the hill and has been +held sacred by Hindu and Moslem. And if loveliness can sanctify surely +it is sacred indeed. + +The tank was more than a hundred feet in diameter and circled by a +roughly paved pathway where the little arched cells open that the +devotees may sit and contemplate the lustral waters. There on a black +stone, is sculptured the Imperial inscription comparing this spring to +the holier wells of Paradise, and I thought no less of it, for it rushes +straight from the rock with no aiding stream, and its waters are fifty +feet deep, and sweep away from this great basin through beautiful low +arches in a wild foaming river--the crystal life-blood of the mountains +for ever welling away. The colour and perfect purity of this living +jewel were most marvellous--clear blue-green like a chalcedony, but +changing as the lights in an opal--a wonderful quivering brilliance, +flickering with the silver of shoals of sacred fish. + +But the Mogul Empire is with the snows of yesteryear and the wonder has +passed from the Moslems into the keeping of the Hindus once more, and +the Lingam of Shiva, crowned with flowers, is the symbol in the little +shrine by the entrance. Surely in India, the gods are one and have no +jealousies among them--so swiftly do their glories merge the one into +the other. + +"How all the Mogul Emperors loved running water," said Vanna. "I can see +them leaning over it in their carved pavilions with delicate dark faces +and pensive eyes beneath their turbans, lost in the endless reverie of +the East while liquid melody passes into their dream. It was the music +they best loved." + +She was leading me into the royal garden below, where the young river +flows beneath the pavilion set above and across the rush of the water. + +"I remember before I came to India," she went on, "there were +certain words and phrases that meant the whole East to me. It was an +enchantment. The first flash picture I had was Milton's-- + + 'Dark faces with white silken turbans wreathed.' + +and it still is. I have thought ever since that every man should wear a +turban. It dignifies the un-comeliest and it is quite curious to see how +many inches a man descends in the scale of beauty the moment he takes it +off and you see only the skull-cap about which they wind it. They wind +it with wonderful skill too. I have seen a man take eighteen yards of +muslin and throw it round his head with a few turns, and in five or six +minutes the beautiful folds were all in order and he looked like a king. +Some of the Gujars here wear black ones and they are very effective and +worth painting--the black folds and the sullen tempestuous black brows +underneath." + +We sat in the pavilion for awhile looking down on the rushing water, and +she spoke of Akbar, the greatest of the Moguls, and spoke with a curious +personal touch, as I thought. + +"I wish you would try to write a story of him--one on more human lines +than has been done yet. No one has accounted for the passionate quest +of truth that was the real secret of his life. Strange in an Oriental +despot if you think of it! It really can only be understood from the +Buddhist belief, which curiously seems to have been the only one he +neglected, that a mysterious Karma influenced all his thoughts. If I +tell you as a key-note for your story, that in a past life he had been a +Buddhist priest--one who had fallen away, would that in any way account +to you for attempts to recover the lost way? Try to think that out, and +to write the story, not as a Western mind sees it, but pure East." + +"That would be a great book to write if one could catch the voices of +the past. But how to do it?" + +"I will give you one day a little book that may help you. The other +story I wish you would write is the story of a Dancer of Peshawar. There +is a connection between the two--a story of ruin and repentance." + +"Will you tell it to me?" + +"A part. In this same book you will find much more, but not all. All +cannot be told. You must imagine much. But I think your imagination will +be true." + +"Why do you think so?" + +"Because in these few days you have learnt so much. You have seen the +Ninefold Flower, and the rain spirits. You will soon hear the Flute of +Krishna which none can hear who cannot dream true." + +That night I heard it. I waked, suddenly, to music, and standing in the +door of my tent, in the dead silence of the night, lit only by a few low +stars, I heard the poignant notes of a flute. If it had called my name +it could not have summoned me more clearly, and I followed without a +thought of delay, forgetting even Vanna in the strange urgency that +filled me. The music was elusive, seeming to come first from one side, +then from the other, but finally I tracked it as a bee does a flower by +the scent, to the gate of the royal garden--the pleasure place of the +dead Emperors. + +The gate stood ajar--strange! for I had seen the custodian close it that +evening. Now it stood wide and I went in, walking noiselessly over the +dewy grass. I knew and could not tell how, that I must be noiseless. +Passing as if I were guided, down the course of the strong young river, +I came to the pavilion that spanned it--the place where we had stood +that afternoon--and there to my profound amazement, I saw Vanna, leaning +against a slight wooden pillar. As if she had expected me, she laid one +finger on her lip, and stretching out her hand, took mine and drew me +beside her as a mother might a child. And instantly I saw! + +On the further bank a young man in a strange diadem or miter of jewels, +bare-breasted and beautiful, stood among the flowering oleanders, one +foot lightly crossed over the other as he stood. He was like an image +of pale radiant gold, and I could have sworn that the light came from +within rather than fell upon him, for the night was very dark. He held +the flute to his lips, and as I looked, I became aware that the noise +of the rushing water was tapering off into a murmur scarcely louder than +that of a summer bee in the heart of a rose. Therefore the music rose +like a fountain of crystal drops, cold, clear, and of an entrancing +sweetness, and the face above it was such that I had no power to turn my +eyes away. How shall I say what it was? All I had ever desired, dreamed, +hoped, prayed, looked at me from the remote beauty of the eyes and with +the most persuasive gentleness entreated me, rather than commanded to +follow fearlessly and win. But these are words, and words shaped in the +rough mould of thought cannot convey the deep desire that would have +hurled me to his feet if Vanna had not held me with a firm restraining +hand. Looking up in adoring love to the dark face was a ring of woodland +creatures. I thought I could distinguish the white clouded robe of a +snow-leopard, the soft clumsiness of a young bear, and many more, but +these shifted and blurred like dream creatures--I could not be sure of +them nor define their numbers. The eyes of the Player looked down upon +their passionate delight with careless kindness. + +Dim images passed through my mind. Orpheus--No, this was no Greek. +Pan-yet again, No. Where were the pipes, the goat hoofs? The young +Dionysos--No, there were strange jewels instead of his vines. And then +Vanna's voice said as if from a great distance; + +"Krishna--the Beloved." And I said aloud, "I see!" And even as I said it +the whole picture blurred together like a dream, and I was alone in the +pavilion and the water was foaming past me. Had I walked in my sleep, I +thought, as I made my way hack? As I gained the garden gate, before me, +like a snowflake, I saw the Ninefold Flower. + +When I told her next day, speaking of it as a dream, she said simply; +"They have opened the door to you. You will not need me soon. + +"I shall always need you. You have taught me everything. I could see +nothing last night until you took my hand." + +"I was not there," she said smiling. "It was only the thought of me, and +you can have that when I am very far away. I was sleeping in my tent. +What you called in me then you can always call, even if I am--dead." + +"That is a word which is beginning to have no meaning for me. You have +said things to me--no, thought them, that have made me doubt if there is +room in the universe for the thing we have called death." + +She smiled her sweet wise smile. + +"Where we are death is not. Where death is we are not. But you will +understand better soon." + +Our march curving took us by the Mogul gardens of Achibal, and the +glorious ruins of the great Temple at Martund, and so down to Bawan +with its crystal waters and that loveliest camping ground beside them. +A mighty grove of chenar trees, so huge that I felt as if we were in a +great sea cave where the air is dyed with the deep shadowy green of the +inmost ocean, and the murmuring of the myriad leaves was like a sea at +rest. I looked up into the noble height and my memory of Westminster +dwindled, for this led on and up to the infinite blue, and at night +the stars hung like fruit upon the branches. The water ran with a great +joyous rush of release from the mountain behind, but was first received +in a broad basin full of sacred fish and reflecting a little temple of +Maheshwara and one of Surya the Sun. Here in this basin the water lay +pure and still as an ecstasy, and beside it was musing the young Brahman +priest who served the temple. Since I had joined Vanna I had begun with +her help to study a little Hindustani, and with an aptitude for language +could understand here and there. I caught a word or two as she spoke +with him that startled me, when the high-bred ascetic face turned +serenely upon her, and he addressed her as "My sister," adding a +sentence beyond my learning, but which she willingly translated +later.--"May He who sits above the Mysteries, have mercy upon thy +rebirth." + +She said afterwards; + +"How beautiful some of these men are. It seems a different type of +beauty from ours, nearer to nature and the old gods. Look at that +priest--the tall figure, the clear olive skin, the dark level brows, the +long lashes that make a soft gloom about the eyes--eyes that have the +fathomless depth of a deer's, the proud arch of the lip. I think there +is no country where aristocracy is more clearly marked than in India. +The Brahmans are aristocrats of the world. You see it is a religious +aristocracy as well. It has everything that can foster pride and +exclusiveness. They spring from the Mouth of Deity. They are His word +incarnate. Not many kings are of the Brahman caste, and the Brahmans +look down upon them from Sovereign heights. I have known men who would +not eat with their own rulers who would have drunk the water that washed +the Brahmans' feet." + +She took me that day, the Brahman with us, to see a cave in the +mountain. We climbed up the face of the cliff to where a little tree +grew on a ledge, and the black mouth yawned. We went in and often it was +so low we had to stoop, leaving the sunlight behind until it was like +a dim eye glimmering in the velvet blackness. The air was dank and +cold and presently obscene with the smell of bats, and alive with +their wings, as they came sweeping about us, gibbering and squeaking. +I thought of the rush of the ghosts, blown like dead leaves in the +Odyssey. And then a small rock chamber branched off, and in this, lit by +a bit of burning wood, we saw the bones of a holy man who lived and died +there four hundred years ago. Think of it! He lived there always, with +the slow dropping of water from the dead weight of the mountain above +his head, drop by drop tolling the minutes away: the little groping feet +through the cave that would bring him food and drink, hurrying into +the warmth and sunlight again, and his only companion the sacred Lingam +which means the Creative Energy that sets the worlds dancing for joy +round the sun--that, and the black solitude to sit down beside him. +Surely his bones can hardly be dryer and colder now than they were then! +There must be strange ecstasies in such a life--wild visions in the +dark, or it could never be endured. + +And so, in marches of about ten miles a day, we came to Pahlgam on the +banks of the dancing Lidar. There was now only three weeks left of the +time she had promised. After a few days at Pahlgam the march would turn +and bend its way back to Srinagar, and to--what? I could not believe it +was to separation--in her lovely kindness she had grown so close to me +that, even for the sake of friendship, I believed our paths must run +together to the end, and there were moments when I could still half +convince myself that I had grown as necessary to her as she was to me. +No--not as necessary, for she was life and soul to me, but a part of her +daily experience that she valued and would not easily part with. That +evening we were sitting outside the tents, near the camp fire, of pine +logs and cones, the leaping flames making the night beautiful with gold +and leaping sparks, in an attempt to reach the mellow splendours of the +moon. The men, in various attitudes of rest, were lying about, and one +had been telling a story which had just ended in excitement and loud +applause. + +"These are Mahomedans," said Vanna, "and it is only a story of love and +fighting like the Arabian Nights. If they had been Hindus, it might +well have been of Krishna or of Rama and Sita. Their faith comes from an +earlier time and they still see visions. The Moslem is a hard practical +faith for men--men of the world too. It is not visionary now, though it +once had its great mysteries." + +"I wish you would tell me what you think of the visions or apparitions +of the gods that are seen here. Is it all illusion? Tell me your +thought." + +"How difficult that is to answer. I suppose if love and faith are strong +enough they will always create the vibrations to which the greater +vibrations respond, and so make God in their own image at any time or +place. But that they call up what is the truest reality I have never +doubted. There is no shadow without a substance. The substance is beyond +us but under certain conditions the shadow is projected and we see it. + +"Have I seen or has it been dream?" + +"I cannot tell. It may have been the impress of my mind on yours, for I +see such things always. You say I took your hand?" + +"Take it now." + +She obeyed, and instantly, as I felt the firm cool clasp, I heard the +rain of music through the pines--the Flute Player was passing. She +dropped it smiling and the sweet sound ceased. + +"You see! How can I tell what you have seen? You will know better when I +am gone. You will stand alone then." + +"You will not go--you cannot. I have seen how you have loved all this +wonderful time. I believe it has been as dear to you as to me. And every +day I have loved you more. I depend upon you for everything that makes +life worth living. You could not--you who are so gentle--you could not +commit the senseless cruelty of leaving me when you have taught me to +love you with every beat of my heart. I have been patient--I have held +myself in, but I must speak now. Marry me, and teach me. I know nothing. +You know all I need to know. For pity's sake be my wife." + +I had not meant to say it; it broke from me in the firelight moonlight +with a power that I could not stay. She looked at me with a disarming +gentleness. + +"Is this fair? Do you remember how at Peshawar I told you I thought it +was a dangerous experiment, and that it would make things harder for +you. But you took the risk like a brave man because you felt there were +things to be gained--knowledge, insight, beauty. Have you not gained +them?" + +"Yes. Absolutely." + +"Then, is it all loss if I go?" + +"Not all. But loss I dare not face." + +"I will tell you this. I could not stay if I would. Do you remember the +old man on the way to Vernag? He told me that I must very soon take up +an entirely new life. I have no choice, though if I had I would still do +it." + +There was silence and down a long arcade, without any touch of her hand +I heard the music, receding with exquisite modulations to a very great +distance, and between the pillared stems, I saw a faint light. + +"Do you wish to go?" + +"Entirely. But I shall not forget you, Stephen. I will tell you +something. For me, since I came to India, the gate that shuts us out at +birth has opened. How shall I explain? Do you remember Kipling's 'Finest +Story in the World'?" + +"Yes. Fiction!" + +"Not fiction--true, whether he knew it or no. But for me the door has +opened wide. First, I remembered piecemeal, with wide gaps, then more +connectedly. Then, at the end of the first year, I met one day at +Cawnpore, an ascetic, an old man of great beauty and wisdom, and he was +able by his own knowledge to enlighten mine. Not wholly--much has come +since then. Has come, some of it in ways you could not understand +now, but much by direct sight and hearing. Long, long ago I lived in +Peshawar, and my story was a sorrowful one. I will tell you a little +before I go." + +"I hold you to your promise. What is there I cannot believe when you +tell me? But does that life put you altogether away from me? Was there +no place for me in any of your memories that has drawn us together now? +Give me a little hope that in the eternal pilgrimage there is some bond +between us and some rebirth where we may met again." + +"I will tell you that also before we part. I have grown to believe that +you do love me--and therefore love something which is infinitely above +me." + +"And do you love me at all? Am I nothing, Vanna--Vanna?" + +"My friend," she said, and laid her hand on mine. + +A silence, and then she spoke, very low. + +"You must be prepared for very great change, Stephen, and yet believe +that it does not really change things at all. See how even the gods pass +and do not change! The early gods of India are gone and Shiva, Vishnu, +Krishna have taken their places and are one and the same. The old +Buddhist stories say that in heaven "The flowers of the garland the +God wore are withered, his robes of majesty are waxed old and faded; +he falls from his high estate, and is re-born into a new life." But he +lives still in the young God who is born among men. The gods cannot die, +nor can we nor anything that has life. Now I must go in." + +I sat long in the moonlight thinking. The whole camp was sunk in sleep +and the young dawn was waking upon the peaks when I turned in. + +The days that were left we spent in wandering up the Lidar River to the +hills that are the first ramp of the ascent to the great heights. +We found the damp corners where the mushrooms grow like pearls--the +mushrooms of which she said--"To me they have always been fairy things. +To see them in the silver-grey dew of the early mornings--mysteriously +there like the manna in the desert--they are elfin plunder, and as a +child I was half afraid of them. No wonder they are the darlings of +folklore, especially in Celtic countries where the Little People move in +the starlight. Strange to think they are here too among strange gods!" + +We climbed to where the wild peonies bloom in glory that few eyes see, +and the rosy beds of wild sweet strawberries ripen. Every hour brought +with it some new delight, some exquisiteness of sight or of words that +I shall remember for ever. She sat one day on a rock, holding the +sculptured leaves and massive seed-vessels of some glorious plant that +the Kashmiris believe has magic virtues hidden in the seeds of pure rose +embedded in the white down. + +"If you fast for three days and eat nine of these in the Night of No +Moon, you can rise on the air light as thistledown and stand on the peak +of Haramoukh. And on Haramoukh, as you know it is believed, the gods +dwell. There was a man here who tried this enchantment. He was a changed +man for ever after, wandering and muttering to himself and avoiding all +human intercourse as far as he could. He was no Kashmiri--A Jat from the +Punjab, and they showed him to me when I was here with the Meryons, and +told me he would speak to none. But I knew he would speak to me, and he +did." + +"Did he tell you anything of what he had seen in the high world up +yonder?" + +"He said he had seen the Dream of the God. I could not get more than +that. But there are many people here who believe that the Universe as +we know it is but an image in the dream of Ishvara, the Universal +Spirit--in whom are all the gods--and that when He ceases to dream we +pass again into the Night of Brahm, and all is darkness until the Spirit +of God moves again on the face of the waters. There are few temples to +Brahm. He is above and beyond all direct worship." + +"Do you think he had seen anything?" + +"What do I know? Will you eat the seeds? The Night of No Moon will soon +be here." + +She held out the seed-vessels, laughing. I write that down but how +record the lovely light of kindliness in her eyes--the almost submissive +gentleness that yet was a defense stronger than steel. I never knew--how +should I?--whether she was sitting by my side or heavens away from me in +her own strange world. But always she was a sweetness that I could not +reach, a cup of nectar that I might not drink, unalterably her own and +never mine, and yet--my friend. + +She showed me the wild track up into the mountains where the Pilgrims go +to pay their devotions at the Great God's shrine in the awful heights, +regretting that we were too early for that most wonderful sight. Above +where we were sitting the river fell in a tormented white cascade, +crashing and feathering into spray-dust of diamonds. An eagle was +flying above it with a mighty spread of wings that seemed almost +double-jointed in the middle--they curved and flapped so wide and free. +The fierce head was outstretched with the rake of a plundering galley as +he swept down the wind, seeking his meat from God, and passed majestic +from our sight. The valley beneath us was littered with enormous +boulders spilt from the ancient hollows of the hills. It must have +been a great sight when the giants set them trundling down in work +or play!--I said this to Vanna, who was looking down upon it with +meditative eyes. She roused herself. + +"Yes, this really is Giant-Land up here--everything is so huge. And when +they quarrel up in the heights--in Jotunheim--and the black storms +come down the valleys it is like colossal laughter or clumsy boisterous +anger. And the Frost giants are still at work up there with their great +axes of frost and rain. They fling down the side of a mountain or make +fresh ways for the rivers. About sixty years ago--far above here--they +tore down a mountain side and damned up the mighty Indus, so that for +months he was a lake, shut back in the hills. But the river giants are +no less strong up here in the heights of the world, and lie lay brooding +and hiding his time. And then one awful day he tore the barrier down and +roared down the valley carrying death and ruin with him, and swept away +a whole Sikh army among other unconsidered trifles. That must have been +a soul-shaking sight." + +She spoke on, and as she spoke I saw. What are her words as I record +them? Stray dead leaves pressed in a book--the life and grace dead. Yet +I record, for she taught me what I believe the world should learn, that +the Buddhist philosophers are right when they teach that all forms of +what we call matter are really but aggregates of spiritual units, and +that life itself is a curtain hiding reality as the vast veil of +day conceals from our sight the countless orbs of space. So that the +purified mind even while prisoned in the body, may enter into union with +the Real and, according to attainment, see it as it is. + +She was an interpreter because she believed this truth profoundly. She +saw the spiritual essence beneath the lovely illusion of matter, and the +air about her was radiant with the motion of strange forces for which +the dull world has many names aiming indeed at the truth, but falling--O +how far short of her calm perception! She was indeed of a Household +higher than the Household of Faith. She had received enlightenment. She +beheld with open eyes. + +Next day our camp was struck and we turned our faces again to Srinagar +and to the day of parting. I set down but one strange incident of our +journey, of which I did not speak even to her. + +We were camping at Bijbehara, awaiting our house boat, and the site was +by the Maharaja's lodge above the little town. It was midnight and I was +sleepless--the shadow of the near future was upon me. I wandered down to +the lovely old wooded bridge across the Jhelum, where the strong young +trees grow up from the piles. Beyond it the moon was shining on the +ancient Hindu remains close to the new temple, and as I stood on the +bridge I could see the figure of a man in deepest meditation by the +ruins. He was no European. I saw the straight dignified folds of the +robes. But it was not surprising he should be there and I should have +thought no more of it, had I not heard at that instant from the further +side of the river the music of the Flute. I cannot hope to describe +that music to any who have not heard it. Suffice it to say that where +it calls he who hears must follow whether in the body or the spirit. Nor +can I now tell in which I followed. One day it will call me across the +River of Death, and I shall ford it or sink in the immeasurable depths +and either will be well. + +But immediately I was at the other side of the river, standing by the +stone Bull of Shiva where he kneels before the Symbol, and looking +steadfastly upon me a few paces away was a man in the dress of a +Buddhist monk. He wore the yellow robe that leaves one shoulder bare; +his head was bare also and he held in one hand a small bowl like a +stemless chalice. I knew I was seeing a very strange inexplicable +sight--one that in Kashmir should be incredible, but I put wonder aside +for I knew now that I was moving in the sphere where the incredible may +well be the actual. His expression was of the most unbroken calm. If I +compare it to the passionless gaze of the Sphinx I misrepresent, for the +Riddle of the Sphinx still awaits solution, but in this face was a noble +acquiescence and a content that had it vibrated must have passed into +joy. + +Words or their equivalent passed between us. I felt his voice. + +"You have heard the music of the Flute?" + +"I have heard." + +"What has it given?" + +"A consuming longing." + +"It is the music of the Eternal. The creeds and the faiths are the words +that men have set to that melody. Listening, it will lead you to Wisdom. +Day by day you will interpret more surely." + +"I cannot stand alone." + +"You will not need. What has led you will lead you still. Through many +births it has led you. How should it fail?" + +"What should I do?" + +"Go forward." + +"What should I shun?" + +"Sorrow and fear." + +"What should I seek?" + +"Joy." + +"And the end?" + +"Joy. Wisdom. They are the Light and Dark of the Divine." A cold breeze +passed and touched my forehead. I was still standing in the middle of +the bridge above the water gliding to the Ocean, and there was no figure +by the Bull of Shiva. I was alone. I passed back to the tents with the +shudder that is not fear but akin to death upon me. I knew I had been +profoundly withdrawn from what we call actual life, and the return is +dread. + +The days passed as we floated down the river to Srinagar. On board the +Kedarnath, now lying in our first berth beneath the chenars near and yet +far from the city, the last night had come. Next morning I should begin +the long ride to Baramula and beyond that barrier of the Happy Valley +down to Murree and the Punjab. Where afterwards? I neither knew nor +cared. My lesson was before me to be learned. I must try to detach +myself from all I had prized--to say to my heart it was but a loan +and no gift, and to cling only to the imperishable. And did I as yet +certainly know more than the A B C of the hard doctrine by which I +must live? "Que vivre est difficile, O mon cocur fatigue!"--an immense +weariness possessed me--a passive grief. + +Vanna would follow later with the wife of an Indian doctor. I believed +she was bound for Lahore but on that point she had not spoken certainly +and I felt we should not meet again. + +And now my packing was finished, and, as far as my possessions went, the +little cabin had the soulless emptiness that comes with departure. I was +enduring as best I could. If she had held loyally to her pact, could +I do less. Was she to blame for my wild hope that in the end she would +relent and step down to the household levels of love? + +She sat by the window--the last time I should see the moonlit banks and +her clear face against them. I made and won my fight for the courage of +words. + +"And now I've finished everything--thank goodness! and we can talk. +Vanna--you will write to me?" + +"Once. I promise that." + +"Only once? Why? I counted on your words." + +"I want to speak to you of something else now. I want to tell you a +memory. But look first at the pale light behind the Takht-i-Suliman." + +So I had seen it with her. So I should not see it again. We watched +until a line of silver sparkled on the black water, and then she spoke +again. + +"Stephen, do you remember in the ruined monastery near Peshawar, how I +told you of the young Abbot, who came down to Peshawar with a Chinese +pilgrim? And he never returned." + +"I remember. There was a Dancer." + +"There was a Dancer. She was Lilavanti, and she was brought there to +trap him but when she saw him she loved him, and that was his ruin and +hers. Trickery he would have known and escaped. Love caught him in an +unbreakable net, and they fled down the Punjab and no one knew any more. +But I know. For two years they lived together and she saw the agony in +his heart--the anguish of his broken vows, the face of the Blessed One +receding into an infinite distance. She knew that every day added a link +to the heavy Karma that was bound about the feet she loved, and her soul +said "Set him free," and her heart refused the torture. But her soul was +the stronger. She set him free." + +"How?" + +"She took poison. He became an ascetic in the hills and died in peace +but with a long expiation upon him." + +"And she?" + +"I am she." + +"You!" I heard my voice as if it were another man's. Was it possible +that I--a man of the twentieth century, believed this impossible thing? +Impossible, and yet--what had I learnt if not the unity of Time, the +illusion of matter? What is the twentieth century, what the first? +Do they not lie before the Supreme as one, and clean from our petty +divisions? And I myself had seen what, if I could trust it, asserted the +marvels that are no marvels to those who know. + +"You loved him?" + +"I love him." + +"Then there is nothing at all for me." + +She resumed as if she had heard nothing. + +"I have lost him for many lives. He stepped above me at once, for he was +clean gold though he fell, and though I have followed I have not found. +But that Buddhist beyond Islamabad--you shall hear now what he said. It +was this. 'The shut door opens, and this time he awaits.' I cannot yet +say all it means, but there is no Lahore for me. I shall meet him soon." + +"Vanna, you would not harm yourself again?" + +"Never. I should not meet him. But you will see. Now I can talk no more. +I will be there tomorrow when you go, and I will ride with you to the +poplar road." + +She passed like a shadow into her little dark cabin, and I was left +alone. I will not dwell on that black loneliness of the spirit, for +it has passed--it was the darkness of hell, a madness of jealousy, and +could have no enduring life in any heart that had known her. But it was +death while it lasted. I had moments of horrible belief, of horrible +disbelief, but however it might be I knew that she was out of reach for +ever. Near me--yes! but only as the silver image of the moon floated in +the water by the boat, with the moon herself cold myriads of miles away. +I will say no more of that last eclipse of what she had wrought in me. + +The bright morning came, sunny as if my joys were beginning instead of +ending. Vanna mounted her horse and led the way from the boat. I cast +one long look at the little Kedarnath, the home of those perfect weeks, +of such joy and sorrow as would have seemed impossible to me in the +chrysalis of my former existence. Little Kahdra stood crying bitterly on +the bank--the kindly folk who had served us were gathered saddened and +quiet. I set my teeth and followed her. + +How dear she looked, how kind, how gentle her appealing eyes, as I drew +up beside her. She knew what I felt. She knew that the sight of little +Kahdra crying as he said good--bye was the last pull at my sore heart. +Still she rode steadily on, and still I followed. Once she spoke. + +"Stephen, there was a man in Peshawar, kind and true, who loved that +Lilavanti who had no heart for him. And when she died, it was in his +arms, as a sister might cling to a brother, for the man she loved had +left her. It seems that will not be in this life, but do not think I +have been so blind that I did not know my friend." + +I could not answer--it was the realization of the utmost I could hope +and it came like healing to my spirit. Better that bond between us, +slight as most men might think it, than the dearest and closest with a +woman not Vanna. It was the first thrill of a new joy in my heart--the +first, I thank the Infinite, of many and steadily growing joys and hopes +that cannot be uttered here. + +I bent to take the hand she stretched to me, but even as they touched, +I saw, passing behind the trees by the road, the young man I had seen +in the garden at Vernag--most beautiful, in the strange miter of his +jewelled diadem. His flute was at his lips and the music rang out sudden +and crystal clear as though a woodland god were passing to awaken all +the joys of the dawn. + +The horses heard too. In an instant hers had swerved wildly, and she lay +on the ground at my feet. The music had ceased. + +Days had gone before I could recall what had happened then. I lifted +her in my arms and carried her into the rest-house near at hand, and +the doctor came and looked grave, and a nurse was sent from the Mission +Hospital. No doubt all was done that was possible, but I knew from the +first what it meant and how it would be. She lay in a white stillness, +and the room was quiet as death. I remembered with unspeakable gratitude +later that the nurse had been merciful and had not sent me away. + +So Vanna lay all day and through the night, and when the dawn came again +she stirred and motioned with her hand, although her eyes were closed. +I understood, and kneeling, I put my hand under her head, and rested it +against my shoulder. Her faint voice murmured at my ear. + +"I dreamed--I was in the pine wood at Pahlgam and it was the Night of No +Moon, and I was afraid for it was dark, but suddenly all the trees were +covered with little lights like stars, and the greater light was beyond. +Nothing to be afraid of." + +"Nothing, Beloved." + +"And I looked beyond Peshawar, further than eyes could see, and in the +ruins of the monastery where we stood, you and I--I saw him, and he lay +with his head at the feet of the Blessed One. That is well, is it not?" + +"Well, Beloved." + +"And it is well I go? Is it not?" + +"It is well." + +A long silence. The first sun ray touched the floor. Again the whisper. + +"Believe what I have told you. For we shall meet again." I repeated-- + +"We shall meet again." + +In my arms she died. + +Later, when all was over I asked myself if I believed this and answered +with full assurance--Yes. + +If the story thus told sounds incredible it was not incredible to me. +I had had a profound experience. What is a miracle? It is simply the +vision of the Divine behind nature. It will come in different forms +according to the eyes that see, but the soul will know that its +perception is authentic. + +I could not leave Kashmir, nor was there any need. On the contrary I saw +that there was work for me here among the people she had loved, and my +first aim was to fit myself for that and for the writing I now felt +was to be my career in life. After much thought I bought the little +Kedarnath and made it my home, very greatly to the satisfaction of +little Kahdra and all the friendly people to whom I owed so much. + +Vanna's cabin I made my sleeping room, and it is the simple truth that +the first night I slept in the place that was a Temple of Peace in my +thoughts, I had a dream of wordless bliss, and starting awake for sheer +joy I saw her face in the night, human and dear, looking down upon +me with that poignant sweetness which would seem to be the utmost +revelation of love and pity. And as I stretched my hands, another face +dawned solemnly from the shadow beside her with grave brows bent on +mine--one I had known and seen in the ruins at Bijbehara. Outside and +very near I could hear the silver weaving of the Flute that in India is +the symbol of the call of the Divine. A dream--yes, but it taught me to +live. At first, in my days of grief and loss, I did but dream--the days +were hard to endure. I will not dwell on that illusion of sorrow, now +long dead. I lived only for the night. + + "When sleep comes to close each difficult day, + When night gives pause to the long watch I keep, + And all my bonds I needs must loose apart, + Must doff my will as raiment laid away-- + With the first dream that comes with the first sleep, + I run--I run! I am gathered to thy heart!" + +To the heart of her pity. Thus for awhile I lived. Slowly I became +conscious of her abiding presence about me, day or night It grew +clearer, closer. + +Like the austere Hippolytus to his unseen Goddess, I could say; + + "Who am more to thee than other mortals are, + Whose is the holy lot, + As friend with friend to walk and talk with thee, + Hearing thy sweet mouth's music in mine ear, + But thee beholding not." + +That was much, but later, the sunshine was no bar, the bond strengthened +and there have been days in the heights of the hills, in the depths of +the woods, when I saw her as in life, passing at a distance, but real +and lovely. Life? She had never lived as she did now--a spirit, freed +and rejoicing. For me the door she had opened would never shut. The +Presences were about me, and I entered upon my heritage of joy, knowing +that in Kashmir, the holy land of Beauty, they walk very near, and lift +up the folds of the Dark that the initiate may see the light behind. + +So I began my solitary life of gladness. I wrote, aided by the little +book she had left me, full of strangest stories, stranger by far than +my own brain could conceive. Some to be revealed--some to be hidden. And +thus the world will one day receive the story of the Dancer of Peshawar +in her upward lives, that it may know, if it will, that death is +nothing--for Life and Love are all. + + + + +THE INCOMPARABLE LADY + +A STORY OF CHINA WITH A MORAL + +It is recorded that when the Pearl Empress (his mother) asked of the +philosophic Yellow Emperor which he considered the most beautiful of the +Imperial concubines, he replied instantly: "The Lady A-Kuei": and when +the Royal Parent in profound astonishment demanded bow this could +be, having regard to the exquisite beauties in question, the Emperor +replied; + +"I have never seen her. It was dark when I entered the Dragon Chamber +and dusk of dawn when I rose and left her." + +Then said the Pearl Princess; + +"Possibly the harmony of her voice solaced the Son of Heaven?" + +But he replied; + +"She spoke not." + +And the Pearl Empress rejoined: + +"Her limbs then are doubtless softer than the kingfisher's plumage?" + +But the Yellow Emperor replied; + +"Doubtless. Yet I have not touched them. I was that night immersed in +speculations on the Yin and the Yang. How then should I touch a woman?" + +And the Pearl Empress was silent from very great amazement, not daring +to question further but marveling how the thing might be. And seeing +this, the Yellow Emperor recited a poem to the following effect: + + "It is said that Power rules the world + And who shall gainsay it? + But Loveliness is the head-jewel upon the brow of Power." + +And when the Empress had listened with reverence to the Imperial Poet, +she quitted the August Presence. + +Immediately, having entered her own palace of the Tranquil Motherly +Virtues, she caused the Lady A-Kuei to be summoned to her presence, who +came, habited in a purple robe and with pins of jade and coral in her +hair. And the Pearl Empress considered her attentively, recalling the +perfect features of the White Jade Concubine, the ambrosial smile of the +Princess of Feminine Propriety, and the willow-leaf eyebrows of the Lady +of Chen, and her astonishment was excessive, because the Lady A-Kuei +could not in beauty approach any one of these ladies. Reflecting further +she then placed her behind the screen, and summoned the court artist, Lo +Cheng, who had been formerly commissioned to paint the heavenly +features of the Emperor's Ladies, mirrored in still water, though he had +naturally not been permitted to view the beauties themselves. Of him the +Empress demanded: + +"Who is the most beautiful--which the most priceless jewel of the +dwellers in the Dragon Palace?" + +And, with humility, Lo Cheng replied: + +"What mortal man shall decide between the white Crane and the Swan, +or between the paeony flower and the lotus?" And having thus said he +remained silent, and in him was no help. Finally and after exhortation +the Pearl Empress condescended to threaten him with the loss of a head +so useless to himself and to her majesty. Then, in great fear and haste +he replied: + +"Of all the flowers that adorn the garden of the Sun of Heaven, the Lady +A-Kuei is the fittest to be gathered by the Imperial Hand, and this is +my deliberate opinion." + +Now, hearing this statement, the Pearl Empress was submerged in +bewilderment, knowing that the Lady A-Kuei had modestly retired when the +artist had depicted the reflection of the assembled loveliness of the +Inner Chambers, as not counting herself worthy of portraiture, and her +features were therefore unknown to him. Nor could the Empress further +question the artist, for when she had done so, he replied only: + +"This is the secret of the Son of Heaven," and, having gained +permission, he swiftly departed. + +Nor could the Lady A-Kuei herself aid her Imperial Majesty, for on being +questioned she was overwhelmed with modesty and confusion, and with +stammering lips could only repeat: + +"This is the secret of his Divine Majesty," imploring with the utmost +humility, forgiveness from the Imperial Mother. + +The Pearl Empress was unable to eat her supper. In vain were spread +before her the delicacies of the Empire. She could but trifle with a +shark's fin and a "Silver Ear" fungus and a dish of slugs entrapped upon +roses, with the dew-like pearls upon them. Her burning curiosity had +wholly deprived her of appetite, nor could the amusing exertions of +the Palace mimes, or a lantern fete upon the lake restore her to +any composure. "This circumstance will cause my flight on the Dragon +(death)," she said to herself, "unless I succeed in unveiling the +mystery. What therefore should be my next proceeding?" + +And so, deeply reflecting, she caused the Chief of the Eunuchs to summon +the Princess of Feminine Propriety, the White Jade Concubine and all the +other exalted beauties of the Heavenly Palace. + +In due course of time these ladies arrived, paying suitable respect and +obeisance to the Mother of his Divine Majesty. They were resplendent in +king-fisher ornaments, in jewels of jade, crystal and coral, in robes +of silk and gauze, and still more resplendent in charms that not +the Celestial Empire itself could equal, setting aside entirely all +countries of the foreign barbarians. And in grace and elegance of +manners, in skill in the arts of poetry and the lute, what could surpass +them? + +Like a parterre of flowers they surrounded her Majesty, and awaited her +pleasure with perfect decorum, when, having saluted them with affability +she thus addressed them--"Lovely ones--ladies distinguished by the +particular attention of your sovereign and mine, I have sent for you +to resolve a doubt and a difficulty. On questioning our sovereign as to +whom he regarded as the loveliest of his garden of beauty he benignantly +replied: "The Lady A-Kuei is incomparable," and though this may well be, +he further graciously added that he had never seen her. Nor, on pursuing +the subject, could I learn the Imperial reason. The artist Lo Cheng +follows in his Master's footsteps, he also never having seen the favored +lady, and he and she reply to me that this is an Imperial secret. +Declare to me therefore if your perspicacity and the feminine interest +which every lady property takes in the other can unravel this mystery, +for my liver is tormented with anxiety beyond measure." + +As soon as the Pearl Empress had spoken she realized that she had +committed a great indiscretion. A babel of voices, of cries, questions +and contradictions instantly arose. Decorum was abandoned. The Lady of +Chen swooned, nor could she be revived for an hour, and the Princess of +Feminine Propriety and the White Jade Concubine could be dragged apart +only by the united efforts of six of the Palace matrons, so great was +their fury the one with the other, each accusing each of encouragement +to the Lady A-Kuei's pretensions. So also with the remaining ladies. +Shrieks resounded through the Hall of Virtuous Tranquillity, and when +the Pearl Empress attempted to pour oil on the troubled waters by +speaking soothing and comfortable words, the august Voice was entirely +inaudible in the tumult. + +All sought at length in united indignation for the Lady A-Kuei, but she +had modestly withdrawn to the Pearl Pavilion in the Imperial Garden and, +foreseeing anxieties, had there secured herself on hearing the opening +of the Royal Speech. + +Finally the ladies were led away by their attendants, weeping, +lamenting, raging, according to their several dispositions, and the +Pearl Empress, left with her own maidens, beheld the floor strewn with +jade pins, kingfisher and coral jewels, and even with fragments of silk +and gauze. Nor was she any nearer the solution of the desired secret. + +That night she tossed upon a bed sleepless though heaped with down, +and her mind raged like a fire up and down all possible answers to the +riddle, but none would serve. Then, at the dawn, raising herself on one +august elbow she called to her venerable nurse and foster mother, the +Lady Ma, wise and resourceful in the affairs and difficulties of women, +and, repeating the circumstances, demanded her counsel. + +The Lady Ma considering the matter long and deeply, slowly replied: + +"This is a great riddle and dangerous, for to intermeddle with the +divine secrets is the high road to the Yellow Springs (death). But the +child of my breasts and my exalted Mistress shall never ask in vain, for +a thwarted curiosity is dangerous as a suppressed fever. I will conceal +myself nightly in the Dragon Bedchamber and this will certainly unveil +the truth. And if I perish I perish." + +It is impossible to describe how the Empress heaped Lady Ma with costly +jewels and silken brocades and taels of silver beyond measuring--how she +placed on her breast the amulet of jade that had guarded herself from +all evil influences, how she called the ancestral spirits to witness +that she would provide for the Lady Ma's remotest descendants if she +lost her life in this sublime devotion to duty. + +That night Lady Ma concealed herself behind the Imperial couch in the +Dragon Chamber, to await the coming of the Son of Heaven. Slowly dripped +the water-clock as the minutes fled away; sorely ached the venerable +limbs of the Lady Ma as she crouched in the shadows and saw the rising +moon scattering silver through the elegant traceries of carved ebony and +ivory; wildly beat her heart as delicately tripping footsteps approached +the Dragon Chamber, and the Princess of Feminine Propriety, attended by +her maidens, ascended the Imperial Couch and hastily dismissed them. Yet +no sweet repose awaited this favored lady. The Lady Ma could hear her +smothered sobs, her muttered exclamations--nay could even feel the +couch itself tremble as the Princess uttered the hated name of the Lady +A-Kuei, the poison of jealousy running in every vein. It was impossible +for Lady Ma to decide which was the most virulent, this, or the poison +of curiosity in the heart of the Pearl Empress. Though she loved not the +Princess she was compelled to pity such suffering. But all thought was +banished by the approach of the Yellow Emperor, prepared for repose and +unattended, in simple but divine grandeur. + +It cannot indeed be supposed that a Celestial Emperor is human, yet +there was mortality in the start which his Augustness gave when the +Princess of Feminine Propriety flinging herself from the Dragon couch, +threw herself at his feet and with tears that flowed like that river +known as "The Sorrow of China," demanded to know what she had done that +another should be preferred before her; reciting in frantic haste such +imperfections of the Lady A-Kuei's appearance as she could recall (or +invent) in the haste of that agitating moment. + +"That one of her eyes is larger than the other--no human being can +doubt" sobbed the lady--"and surely your Divine Majesty cannot be aware +that her hair reaches but to her waist, and that there is a brown mole +on the nape of her neck? When she sings it resembles the croak of the +crow. It is true that most of the Palace ladies are chosen for anything +but beauty, yet she is the most ill-favored. And is it this--this +bat-faced lady who is preferred to me! Would I had never been born: Yet +even your Majesty's own lips have told me I am fair!" + +The Yellow Emperor supported the form of the Princess in his arms. +There are moments when even a Son of Heaven is but human. "Fair as the +rainbow," he murmured, and the Princess faintly smiled; then gathering +the resolution of the Philosopher he added manfully--"But the Lady +A-Kuei is incomparable. And the reason is--" + +The Lady Ma eagerly stretched her head forward with a hand to either +ear. But the Princess of Feminine Propriety with one shriek had swooned +and in the hurry of summoning attendants and causing her to be conveyed +to her own apartments that precious sentence was never completed. + +Still the Lady Ma groveled behind the Dragon Couch as the Son of +Heaven, left alone, approached the veranda and apostrophizing the moon, +murmured-- + +"O loveliest pale watcher of the destinies of men, illuminate the beauty +of the Lady A-Kuei, and grant that I who have never seen that beauty may +never see it, but remain its constant admirer!" So saying, he sought +his solitary couch and slept, while the Lady Ma, in a torment of +bewilderment, glided from the room. + +The matter remained in suspense for several days. The White Jade +Concubine was the next lady commanded to the Dragon Chamber, and again +the Lady Ma was in her post of observation. Much she heard, much she +saw that was not to the point, but the scene ended as before by the +dismissal of the lady in tears, and the departure of the Lady Ma in +ignorance of the secret. + +The Emperor's peace was ended. + +The singular circumstance was that the Lady A-Kuei was never summoned +by the Yellow Emperor. Eagerly as the Empress watched, no token of +affection for her was ever visible. Nothing could be detected. It was +inexplicable. Finally, devoured by curiosity that gave her no respite, +she resolved on a stratagem that should dispel the mystery, though it +carried with it a risk on which she trembled to reflect. It was the +afternoon of a languid summer day, and the Yellow Emperor, almost +unattended, had come to pay a visit of filial respect to the Pearl +Empress. She received him with the ceremony due to her sovereign in the +porcelain pavilion of the Eastern Gardens, with the lotos fish ponds +before them, and a faint breeze occasionally tinkling the crystal +wind-bells that decorated the shrubs on the cloud and dragon-wrought +slopes of the marble approach. A bird of brilliant plumage uttered a cry +of reverence from its gold cage as the Son of Heaven entered. As was +his occasional custom, and after suitable inquiries as to his parent's +health, the attendants were all dismissed out of earshot and the Emperor +leaned on his cushions and gazed reflectively into the sunshine +outside. So had the Court Artist represented him as "The Incarnation of +Philosophic Calm." + +"These gardens are fair," said the Empress after a respectful silence, +moving her fan illustrated with the emblem of Immortality--the Ho Bird. + +"Fair indeed," returned the Emperor.--"It might be supposed that all +sorrow and disturbance would be shut without the Forbidden Precincts. +Yet it is not so. And though the figures of my ladies moving among the +flowers appear at this distance instinct with joy, yet--" + +He was silent. + +"They know not," said the Empress with solemnity "that death entered the +Forbidden Precincts but last night. A disembodied spirit has returned to +its place and doubtless exists in bliss." "Indeed?" returned the Yellow +Emperor with indifference--"yet if the spirit is absorbed into the +Source whence it came, and the bones have crumbled into nothingness, +where does the Ego exist? The dead are venerable, but no longer of +interest." + +"Not even when they were loved in life?" said the Empress, caressing the +bird in the cage with one jewelled finger, but attentively observing +her son from the corner of her august eye. "They were; they are not," he +remarked sententiously and stifling a yawn; it was a drowsy afternoon. +"But who is it that has abandoned us? Surely not the Lady Ma--your +Majesty's faithful foster-mother?" + +"A younger, a lovelier spirit has sought the Yellow Springs," replied +the trembling Empress. "I regret to inform your Majesty that a sudden +convulsion last night deprived the Lady A-Kuei of life. I would not +permit the news to reach you lest it should break your august night's +rest." + +There was a silence, then the Emperor turned his eyes serenely upon his +Imperial Mother. "That the statement of my august Parent is merely--let +us say--allegoric--does not detract from its interest. But had the Lady +A-Kuei in truth departed to the Yellow Springs I should none the less +have received the news without uneasiness. What though the sun set--is +not the memory of his light all surpassing?" + +No longer could the Pearl Empress endure the excess of her curiosity. +Deeply kowtowing, imploring pardon, with raised hands and tears which no +son dare neglect, she besought the Emperor to enlighten her as to this +mystery, recounting his praises of the lady and his admission that he +had never beheld her, and all the circumstances connected with this +remarkable episode. She omitted only, (from considerations of delicacy +and others,) the vigils of the Lady Ma in the Dragon Chamber. The +Emperor, sighing, looked upon the ground, and for a time was silent. +Then he replied as follows: + +"Willingly would I have kept silence, but what child dare withstand the +plea of a parent? Is it necessary to inform the Heavenly Empress that +beauty seen is beauty made familiar and that familiarity is the foe +of admiration? How is it possible that I should see the Princess of +Feminine Propriety, for instance, by night and day without becoming +aware of her imperfections as well as her graces? How awake in the night +without hearing the snoring of the White Jade Concubine and considering +the mouth from which it issues as the less lovely. How partake of the +society of any woman without finding her chattering as the crane, avid +of admiration, jealous, destructive of philosophy, fatal to composure, +fevered with curiosity; a creature, in short, a little above the gibbon, +but infinitely below the notice of the sage, save as a temporary measure +of amusement in itself unworthy the philosopher. The faces of all my +ladies are known to me. All are fair and all alike. But one night, as I +lay in the Dragon Couch, lost in speculation, absorbed in contemplation +of the Yin and the Yang, the night passed for the solitary dreamer as a +dream. In the darkness of the dawn I rose still dreaming, and departed +to the Pearl Pavilion in the garden, and there remained an hour viewing +the sunrise and experiencing ineffable opinions on the destiny of man. +Returning then to a couch which I believed to have been that of the +solitary philosopher I observed a depression where another form had +lain, and in it a jade hairpin such as is worn by my junior beauties. +Petrified with amazement at the display of such reserve, such +continence, such august self-restraint, I perceived that, lost in +my thoughts, I had had an unimagined companion and that this gentle +reminder was from her gentle hand. But whom? I knew not. I then observed +Lo Cheng the Court Artist in attendance and immediately despatched him +to make secret enquiry and ascertain the name and circumstances of that +beauty who, unknown, had shared my vigil. I learnt on his return that +it was the Lady A-Kuei. I had entered the Dragon Chamber in a low +moonlight, and guessed not her presence. She spoke no word. Finding her +Imperial Master thus absorbed, she invited no attention, nor in any way +obtruded her beauties upon my notice. Scarcely did she draw breath. Yet +reflect upon what she might have done! The night passed and I remained +entirely unconscious of her presence, and out of respect she would not +sleep but remained reverently and modestly awake, assisting, if it may +so be expressed, at a humble distance, in the speculations which held me +prisoner. What a pearl was here! On learning these details by Lo Cheng +from her own roseate lips, and remembering the unexampled temptation +she had resisted (for well she knew that had she touched the Emperor +the Philosopher had vanished) I despatched an august rescript to this +favored Lady, conferring on her the degree of Incomparable Beauty of the +First Rank. On condition of secrecy." + +The Pearl Empress, still in deepest bewilderment, besought his majesty +to proceed. He did so, with his usual dignity. + +"Though my mind could not wholly restrain its admiration, yet secrecy +was necessary, for had the facts been known, every lady, from the +Princess of Feminine Propriety to the Junior Beauty of the Bed Chamber +would henceforward have observed only silence and a frigid decorum in +the Dragon Bed Chamber. And though the Emperor be a philosopher, yet a +philosopher is still a man, and there are moments when decorum--" + +The Emperor paused discreetly; then resumed. + +"The world should not be composed entirely of A-Kueis, yet in my mind I +behold the Incomparable Lady fair beyond expression. Like the moon she +sails glorious in the heavens to be adored only in vision as the one +woman who could respect the absorption of the Emperor, and of whose +beauty as she lay beside him the philosopher could remain unconscious +and therefore untroubled in body. To see her, to find her earthly, +would be an experience for which the Emperor might have courage, but the +philosopher never. And attached to all this is a moral:" + +The Pearl Empress urgently inquired its nature. + +"Let the wisdom of my august parent discern it," said the Emperor +sententiously. + +"And the future?" she inquired. + +"The--let us call it parable--" said the Emperor politely--"with which +your Majesty was good enough to entertain me, has suggested a precaution +to my mind. I see now a lovely form moving among the flowers. It is +possible that it may be the Incomparable Lady, or that at any moment I +may come upon her and my ideal be shattered. This must be safeguarded. +I might command her retirement to her native province, but who shall +insure me against the weakness of my own heart demanding her return? +No. Let Your Majesty's words spoken--well--in parable, be fulfilled in +truth. I shall give orders to the Chief Eunuch that the Incomparable +Lady tonight shall drink the Draught of Crushed Pearls, and be thus +restored to the sphere that alone is worthy of her. Thus are all +anxieties soothed, and the honours offered to her virtuous spirit shall +be a glorious repayment of the ideal that will ever illuminate my soul." + +The Empress was speechless. She had borne the Emperor in her womb, but +the philosopher outsoared her comprehension. She retired, leaving his +Majesty in a reverie, endeavoring herself to grasp the moral of which +he had spoken, for the guidance of herself and the ladies concerned. But +whether it inculcated reserve or the reverse in the Dragon Chamber, and +what the Imperial ladies should follow as an example she was, to the +end of her life, totally unable to say. Philosophy indeed walks on the +heights. We cannot all expect to follow it. + +That night the Incomparable Lady drank the Draught of Crushed Pearls. + +The Princess of Feminine Propriety and the White Jade Concubine, +learning these circumstances, redoubled their charms, their coquetries +and their efforts to occupy what may be described as the inner sanctuary +of the Emperor's esteem. Both lived to a green old age, wealthy and +honored, alike firm in the conviction that if the Incomparable Lady had +not shown herself so superior to temptation the Emperor might have been +on the whole better pleased, whatever the sufferings of the philosopher. +Both lived to be the tyrants of many generations of beauties at the +Celestial Court. Both were assiduous in their devotions before the +spirit tablet of the departed lady, and in recommending her example of +reserve and humility to every damsel whom it might concern. + +It will probably occur to the reader of this unique but veracious story +that there is more in it than meets the eye, and more than the one +moral alluded to by the Emperor according to the point of view of the +different actors. + +To the discernment of the reader it must accordingly be left. + + + + +THE HATRED OF THE QUEEN + +A Story of Burma + +Most wonderful is the Irawadi, the mighty river of Burma. In all the +world elsewhere is no such river, bearing the melted snows from its +mysterious sources in the high places of the mountains. The dawn rises +upon its league-wide flood; the moon walks upon it with silver feet. It +is the pulsing heart of the land, living still though so many rules and +rulers have risen and fallen beside it, their pomps and glories drifting +like flotsam dawn the river to the eternal ocean that is the end of +all--and the beginning. Dead civilizations strew its banks, dreaming in +the torrid sunshine of glories that were--of blood-stained gold, jewels +wept from woeful crowns, nightmare dreams of murder and terror; dreaming +also of heavenly beauty, for the Lord Buddha looks down in moonlight +peace upon the land that leaped to kiss His footprints, that has laid +its heart in the hand of the Blessed One, and shares therefore in His +bliss and content. The Land of the Lord Buddha, where the myriad pagodas +lift their golden flames of worship everywhere, and no idlest wind can +pass but it ruffles the bells below the knees until they send forth +their silver ripple of music to swell the hymn of praise! + +There is a little bay on the bank of the flooding river--a silent, +deserted place of sanddunes and small bills. When a ship is in sight, +some poor folk come and spread out the red lacquer that helps their +scanty subsistence, and the people from the passing ship land and barter +and in a few minutes are gone on their busy way and silence settles +down once more. They neither know nor care that, near by, a mighty city +spread its splendour for miles along the river bank, that the king +known as Lord of the Golden Palace, The Golden Foot, Lord of the White +Elephant, held his state there with balls of magnificence, obsequious +women, fawning courtiers and all the riot and colour of an Eastern +tyranny. How should they care? Now there are ruins--ruins, and the +cobras slip in and out through the deserted holy places. They breed +their writhing young in the sleeping-chambers of queens, the tigers mew +in the moonlight, and the giant spider, more terrible than the cobra, +strikes with its black poison-claw and, paralyzing the life of the +victim, sucks its brain with slow, lascivious pleasure. + +Are these foul creatures more dreadful than some of the men, the women, +who dwelt in these palaces--the more evil because of the human brain +that plotted and foresaw? That is known only to the mysterious Law that +in silence watches and decrees. + +But this is a story of the dead days of Pagan, by the Irawadi, and it +will be shown that, as the Lotus of the Lord Buddha grows up a white +splendour from the black mud of the depths, so also may the soul of a +woman. + +In the days of the Lord of the White Elephant, the King Pagan Men, was a +boy named Mindon, son of second Queen and the King. So, at least, it +was said in the Golden Palace, but those who knew the secrets of such +matters whispered that, when the King had taken her by the hand she +came to him no maid, and that the boy was the son of an Indian trader. +Furthermore it was said that she herself was woman of the Rajputs, +knowledgeable in spells, incantations and elemental spirits such as the +Beloos that terribly haunt waste places, and all Powers that move in +the dark, and that thus she had won the King. Certainly she had been +captured by the King's war-boats off the coast from a trading-ship bound +for Ceylon, and it was her story that, because of her beauty, she was +sent thither to serve as concubine to the King, Tissa of Ceylon. Being +captured, she was brought to the Lord of the Golden Palace. The tongue +she spoke was strange to all the fighting men, but it was wondrous to +see how swiftly she learnt theirs and spoke it with a sweet ripple such +as is in the throat of a bird. + +She was beautiful exceedingly, with a colour of pale gold upon her and +lengths of silk-spun hair, and eyes like those of a jungle-deer, and +water might run beneath the arch of her foot without wetting it, and her +breasts were like the cloudy pillows where the sun couches at setting. +Now, at Pagan, the name they called her was Dwaymenau, but her true +name, known only to herself, was Sundari, and she knew not the Law of +the Blessed Buddha but was a heathen accursed. In the strong hollow of +her hand she held the heart of the King, so that on the birth of her son +she had risen from a mere concubine to be the second Queen and a power +to whom all bowed. The First Queen, Maya, languished in her palace, her +pale beauty wasting daily, deserted and lonely, for she had been the +light of the King's eyes until the coming of the Indian woman, and she +loved her lord with a great love and was a noble woman brought up in +honour and all things becoming a queen. But sigh as she would, the King +came never. All night he lay in the arms of Dwaymenau, all day he sat +beside her, whether at the great water pageants or at the festival when +the dancing-girls swayed and postured before him in her gilded chambers. +Even when he went forth to hunt the tiger, she went with him as far as +a woman may go, and then stood back only because he would not risk his +jewel, her life. So all that was evil in the man she fostered and all +that was good she cherished not at all, fearing lest he should return +to the Queen. At her will he had consulted the Hiwot Daw, the Council of +the Woon-gyees or Ministers, concerning a divorce of the Queen, but +this they told him could not be since she had kept all the laws of Manu, +being faithful, noble and beautiful and having borne him a son. + +For, before the Indian woman had come to the King, the Queen had borne +a son, Ananda, and he was pale and slender and the King despised him +because of the wiles of Dwaymenau, saying he was fit only to sit among +the women, having the soul of a slave, and he laughed bitterly as the +pale child crouched in the corner to see him pass. If his eyes had been +clear, he would have known that here was no slave, but a heart as much +greater than his own as the spirit is stronger than the body. But this +he did not know and he strode past with Dwaymenau's boy on his shoulder, +laughing with cruel glee. + +And this boy, Mindon, was beautiful and strong as his mother, pale olive +of face, with the dark and crafty eyes of the cunning Indian traders, +with black hair and a body straight, strong and long in the leg for his +years--apt at the beginnings of bow, sword and spear--full of promise, +if the promise was only words and looks. + +And so matters rested in the palace until Ananda had ten years and +Mindon nine. + +It was the warm and sunny winter and the days were pleasant, and on a +certain day the Queen, Maya, went with her ladies to worship the Blessed +One at the Thapinyu Temple, looking down upon the swiftly flowing river. +The temple was exceedingly rich and magnificent, so gilded with pure +gold-leaf that it appeared of solid gold. And about the upper part were +golden bells beneath the jewelled knee, which wafted very sweetly in +the wind and gave forth a crystal-clear music. The ladies bore in their +hands more gold-leaf, that they might acquire merit by offering this +for the service of the Master of the Law, and indeed this temple was +the offering of the Queen herself, who, because she bore the name of +the Mother of the Lord, excelled in good works and was the Moon of this +lower world in charity and piety. + +Though wan with grief and anxiety, this Queen was beautiful. Her eyes, +like mournful lakes of darkness, were lovely in the pale ivory of +her face. Her lips were nobly cut and calm, and by the favour of the +Guardian Nats, she was shaped with grace and health, a worthy mother of +kings. Also she wore her jewels like a mighty princess, a magnificence +to which all the people shikoed as she passed, folding their hands and +touching the forehead while they bowed down, kneeling. + +Before the colossal image of the Holy One she made her offering and, +attended by her women, she sat in meditation, drawing consolation from +the Tranquillity above her and the silence of the shrine. This ended, +the Queen rose and did obeisance to the Lord and, retiring, paced back +beneath the White Canopy and entered the courtyard where the palace +stood--a palace of noble teakwood, brown and golden and carved like lace +into strange fantasies of spires and pinnacles and branches where Nats +and Tree Spirits and Beloos and swaying river maidens mingled and met +amid fruits and leaves and flowers in a wild and joyous confusion. The +faces, the blowing garments, whirled into points with the swiftness of +the dance, were touched with gold, and so glad was the building that it +seemed as if a very light wind might whirl it to the sky, and even +the sad Queen stopped to rejoice in its beauty as it blossomed in the +sunlight. + +And even as she paused, her little son Ananda rushed to meet her, pale +and panting, and flung himself into her arms with dry sobs like those of +an overrun man. She soothed him until he could speak, and then the grief +made way in a rain of tears. + +"Mindon has killed my deer. He bared his knife, slit his throat and cast +him in the ditch and there he lies." + +"There will he not lie long!" shouted Mindon, breaking from the palace +to the group where all were silent now. "For the worms will eat him and +the dogs pick clean his bones, and he will show his horns at his lords +no more. If you loved him, White-liver, you should have taught him +better manners to his betters." + +With a stifled shriek Ananda caught the slender knife from his girdle +and flew at Mindon like a cat of the woods. Such things were done daily +by young and old, and this was a long sorrow come to a head between the +boys. + +Suddenly, lifting the hangings of the palace gateway, before them stood +the mother of Mindon, the Lady Dwaymenau, pale as wool, having heard the +shout of her boy, so that the two Queens faced each other, each holding +the shoulders of her son, and the ladies watched, mute as fishes, for it +was years since these two had met. + +"What have you done to my son?" breathed Maya the Queen, dry in the +throat and all but speechless with passion. For indeed his face, for a +child, was ghastly. + +"Look at his knife! What would he do to my son?" Dwaymenau was stiff +with hate and spoke as to a slave. + +"He has killed my deer and mocks me because I loved him, He is the devil +in this place. Look at the devils in his eyes. Look quick before he +smiles, my mother." + +And indeed, young as the boy was, an evil thing sat in either eye and +glittered upon them. Dwaymenau passed her hand across his brow, and he +smiled and they were gone. + +"The beast ran at me and would have flung me with his horns," he said, +looking up brightly at his mother. "He had the madness upon him. I +struck once and he was dead. My father would have done the same. + +"That would he not!" said Queen Maya bitterly. "Your father would have +crept up, fawning on the deer, and offered him the fruits he loved, +stroking him the while. And in trust the beast would have eaten, and the +poison in the fruit would have slain him. For the people of your father +meet neither man nor beast in fair fight. With a kiss they stab!" + +Horror kept the women staring and silent. No one had dreamed that +the scandal had reached the Queen. Never had she spoken or looked her +knowledge but endured all in patience. Now it sprang out like a sword +among them, and they feared for Maya, whom all loved. + +Mindon did not understand. It was beyond him, but he saw he was scorned. +Dwaymenau, her face rigid as a mask, looked pitilessly at the shaking +Queen, and each word dropped from her mouth, hard and cold as the +falling of diamonds. She refused the insult. + +"If it is thus you speak of our lord and my love, what wonder he +forsakes you? Mother of a craven milk runs in your veins and his for +blood. Take your slinking brat away and weep together! My son and I +go forth to meet the King as he comes from hunting, and to welcome him +kingly!" She caught her boy to her with a magnificent gesture; he flung +his little arm about her, and laughing loudly they went off together. + +The tension relaxed a little when they were out of sight. The women knew +that, since Dwaymenau had refused to take the Queen's meaning, she +would certainly not carry her complaint to the King. They guessed at her +reason for this forbearance, but, be that as it might, it was Certain +that no other person would dare to tell him and risk the fate that waits +the messenger of evil. + +The eldest lady led away the Queen, now almost tottering in the reaction +of fear and pain. Oh, that she had controlled her speech! Not for her +own sake--for she had lost all and the beggar can lose no more--but for +the boy's sake, the unloved child that stood between the stranger and +her hopes. For him she had made a terrible enemy. Weeping, the boy +followed her. + +"Take comfort, little son," she said, drawing him to her tenderly. "The +deer can suffer no more. For the tigers, he does not fear them. He runs +in green woods now where there is none to hunt. He is up and away. The +Blessed One was once a deer as gentle as yours." + +But still the child wept, and the Queen broke down utterly. "Oh, if life +be a dream, let us wake, let us wake!" she sobbed. "For evil things walk +in it that cannot live in the light. Or let us dream deeper and forget. +Go, little son, yet stay--for who can tell what waits us when the King +comes. Let us meet him here." + +For she believed that Dwaymenau would certainly carry the tale of her +speech to the King, and, if so, what hope but death together? + +That night, after the feasting, when the girls were dancing the dance +of the fairies and spirits, in gold dresses, winged on the legs and +shoulders, and high, gold-spired and pinnacled caps, the King missed the +little Prince, Ananda, and asked why he was absent. + +No one answered, the women looking upon each other, until Dwaymenau, +sitting beside him, glimmering with rough pearls and rubies, spoke +smoothly: "Lord, worshipped and beloved, the two boys quarreled this +day, and Ananda's deer attacked our Mindon. He had a madness upon him +and thrust with his horns. But, Mindon, your true son, flew in upon him +and in a great fight he slit the beast's throat with the knife you gave +him. Did he not well?" + +"Well," said the King briefly. "But is there no hurt? Have searched? For +he is mine." + +There was arrogance in the last sentence and her proud soul rebelled, +but smoothly as ever she spoke: "I have searched and there is not the +littlest scratch. But Ananda is weeping because the deer is dead, and +his mother is angry. What should I do?" + +"Nothing. Ananda is worthless and worthless let him be! And for that +pale shadow that was once a woman, let her be forgotten. And now, drink, +my Queen!" + +And Dwaymenau drank but the drink was bitter to her, for a ghost had +risen upon her that day. She had never dreamed that such a scandal had +been spoken, and it stunned her very soul with fear, that the Queen +should know her vileness and the cheat she had put upon the King. As +pure maid he had received her, and she knew, none better, what the doom +would be if his trust were broken and he knew the child not his. +She herself had seen this thing done to a concubine who had a little +offended. She was thrust living in a sack and this hung between two +earthen jars pierced with small holes, and thus she was set afloat on +the terrible river. And not till the slow filling and sinking of the +jars was the agony over and the cries for mercy stilled. No, the Queen's +speech was safe with her, but was it safe with the Queen? For her +silence, Dwaymenau must take measures. + +Then she put it all aside and laughed and jested with the King and did +indeed for a time forget, for she loved him for his black-browed beauty +and his courage and royalty and the childlike trust and the man's +passion that mingled in him for her. Daily and nightly such prayers as +she made to strange gods were that she might bear a son, true son of +his. + +Next day, in the noonday stillness when all slept, she led her young son +by the hand to her secret chamber, and, holding him upon her knees in +that rich and golden place, she lifted his face to hers and stared into +his eyes. And so unwavering was her gaze, so mighty the hard, unblinking +stare that his own was held against it, and he stared back as the earth +stares breathless at the moon. Gradually the terror faded out of his +eyes; they glazed as if in a trance; his head fell stupidly against her +bosom; his spirit stood on the borderland of being and waited. + +Seeing this, she took his palm and, molding it like wax, into the cup +of it she dropped clear fluid from a small vessel of pottery with the +fylfot upon its side and the disks of the god Shiva. And strange it was +to see that lore of India in the palace where the Blessed Law reigned +in peace. Then, fixing her eyes with power upon Mindon, she bade him, a +pure child, see for her in its clearness. + +"Only virgin-pure can see!" she muttered, staring into his eyes. "See! +See!" + +The eyes of Mindon were closing. He half opened them and looked dully at +his palm. His face was pinched and yellow. + +"A woman--a child, on a long couch. Dead! I see!" + +"See her face. Is her head crowned with the Queen's jewels? See!" + +"Jewels. I cannot see her face. It is hidden." + +"Why is it hidden?" + +"A robe across her face. Oh, let me go!" + +"And the child? See!" + +"Let me go. Stop--my head--my head! I cannot see. The child is hidden. +Her arm holds it. A woman stoops above them." + +"A woman? Who? Is it like me? Speak! See!" + +"A woman. It is like you, mother--it is like you. I fear very greatly. A +knife--a knife! Blood! I cannot see--I cannot speak! I--I sleep." + +His face was ghastly white now, his body cold and collapsed. Terrified, +she caught him to her breast and relaxed the power of her will upon him. +For that moment, she was only the passionate mother and quaked to think +she might have hurt him. An hour passed and he slept heavily in her +arms, and in agony she watched to see the colour steal back into the +olive cheek and white lips. In the second hour he waked and stretched +himself indolently, yawning like a cat. Her tears dropped like rain upon +him as she clasped him violently to her. + +He writhed himself free, petulant and spoilt. "Let me be. I hate kisses +and women's tricks. I want to go forth and play. I have had a devil's +dream. + +"What did you see in your dream, prince of my heart?" She caught +frantically at the last chance. + +"A deer--a tiger. I have forgotten. Let me go." He ran off and she sat +alone with her doubts and fears. Yet triumph coloured them too. She saw +a dead woman, a dead child, and herself bending above them. She hid the +vessel in her bosom and went out among her women. + +Weeks passed, and never a word that she dreaded from Maya the Queen. The +women of Dwaymenau, questioning the Queen's women, heard that she seemed +to have heavy sorrow upon her. Her eyes were like dying lamps and she +faded as they. The King never entered her palace. Drowned in Dwaymenau's +wiles and beauty, her slave, her thrall, he forgot all else but his +fighting, his hunting and his long war-boats, and whether the Queen +lived or died, he cared nothing. Better indeed she should die and +her place be emptied for the beloved, without offence to her powerful +kindred. + +And now he was to sail upon a raid against the Shan Tsaubwa, who had +denied him tribute of gold and jewels and slaves. Glorious were the +boats prepared for war, of brown teak and gilded until they shone like +gold. Seventy men rowed them, sword and lance beside each. Warriors +crowded them, flags and banners fluttered about them; the shining water +reflected the pomp like a mirror and the air rang with song. Dwaymenau +stood beside the water with her women, bidding the King farewell, and so +he saw her, radiant in the dawn, with her boy beside her, and waved his +hand to the last. + +The ships were gone and the days languished a little at Pagan. They +missed the laughter and royalty of the King, and few men, and those old +and weak, were left in the city. The pulse of life beat slower. + +And Dwaymenau took rule in the Golden Palace. Queen Maya sat like one in +a dream and questioned nothing, and Dwaymenau ruled with wisdom but none +loved her. To all she was the interloper, the witch-woman, the out-land +upstart. Only the fear of the King guarded her and her boy, but that +was strong. The boys played together sometimes, Mindon tyrannizing and +cruel, Ananda fearing and complying, broken in spirit. + +Maya the Queen walked daily in the long and empty Golden Hall of +Audience, where none came now that the King was gone, pacing up and +down, gazing wearily at the carved screens and all their woodland beauty +of gods that did not hear, of happy spirits that had no pity. Like +a spirit herself she passed between the red pillars, appearing and +reappearing with steps that made no sound, consumed with hate of the +evil woman that had stolen her joy. Like a slow fire it burned in her +soul, and the face of the Blessed One was hidden from her, and she had +forgotten His peace. In that atmosphere of hate her life dwindled. Her +son's dwindled also, and there was talk among the women of some potion +that Dwaymenau had been seen to drop into his noontide drink as she went +swiftly by. That might he the gossip of malice, but he pined. His +eyes were large like a young bird's; his hands like little claws. They +thought the departing year would take him with it. What harm? Very +certainly the King would shed no tear. + +It was a sweet and silent afternoon and she wandered in the great and +lonely hall, sickened with the hate in her soul and her fear for her +boy. Suddenly she heard flying footsteps--a boy's, running in mad haste +in the outer hall, and, following them, bare feet, soft, thudding. + +She stopped dead and every pulse cried--Danger! No time to think or +breathe when Mindon burst into sight, wild with terror and following +close beside him a man--a madman, a short bright dah in his grasp, his +jaws grinding foam, his wild eyes starting--one passion to murder. So +sometimes from the Nats comes pitiless fury, and men run mad and kill +and none knows why. + +Maya the Queen stiffened to meet the danger. Joy swept through her soul; +her weariness was gone. A fierce smile showed her teeth--a smile +of hate, as she stood there and drew her dagger for defense. For +defense--the man would rend the boy and turn on her and she would not +die. She would live to triumph that the mongrel was dead, and her son, +the Prince again and his father's joy--for his heart would turn to the +child most surely. Justice was rushing on its victim. She would see it +and live content, the long years of agony wiped out in blood, as was +fitting. She would not flee; she would see it and rejoice. And as +she stood in gladness--these broken thoughts rushing through her like +flashes of lightning--Mindon saw her by the pillar and, screaming in +anguish for the first time, fled to her for refuge. + +She raised her knife to meet the staring eyes, the chalk white face, and +drive him back on the murderer. If the man failed, she would not! And +even as she did this a strange thing befell. Something stronger than +hate swept her away like a leaf on the river; something primeval that +lives in the lonely pangs of childbirth, that hides in the womb and +breasts of the mother. It was stronger than she. It was not the hated +Mindoin--she saw him no more. Suddenly it was the eternal Child, lifting +dying, appealing eyes to the Woman, as he clung to her knees. She did +not think this--she felt it, and it dominated her utterly. The Woman +answered. As if it had been her own flesh and blood, she swept the +panting body behind her and faced the man with uplifted dagger and knew +her victory assured, whether in life or death. On came the horrible +rush, the flaming eyes, and, if it was chance that set the dagger +against his throat, it was cool strength that drove it home and never +wavered until the blood welling from the throat quenched the flame in +the wild eyes, and she stood triumphing like a war-goddess, with the +man at her feet. Then, strong and flushed, Maya the Queen gathered the +half-dead boy in her arms, and, both drenched with blood, they moved +slowly down the hall and outside met the hurrying crowd, with Dwaymenau, +whom the scream had brought to find her son. + +"You have killed him! She has killed him!" Scarcely could the Rajput +woman speak. She was kneeling beside him--he hideous with blood. "She +hated him always. She has murdered him. Seize her!" + +"Woman, what matter your hates and mine?" the Queen said slowly. "The +boy is stark with fear. Carry him in and send for old Meh Shway Gon. +Woman, be silent!" + +When a Queen commands, men and women obey, and a Queen commanded then. +A huddled group lifted the child and carried him away, Dwaymenau with +them, still uttering wild threats, and the Queen was left alone. + +She could not realize what she had done and left undone. She could not +understand it. She had hated, sickened with loathing, as it seemed for +ages, and now, in a moment it had blown away like a whirlwind that is +gone. Hate was washed out of her soul and had left it cool and white as +the Lotus of the Blessed One. What power had Dwaymenau to hurt her when +that other Power walked beside her? She seemed to float above her in +high air and look down upon her with compassion. Strength, virtue flowed +in her veins; weakness, fear were fantasies. She could not understand, +but knew that here was perfect enlightenment. About her echoed the words +of the Blessed One: "Never in this world doth hatred cease by hatred, +but only by love. This is an old rule." + +"Whereas I was blind, now I see," said Maya the Queen slowly to her own +heart. She had grasped the hems of the Mighty. + +Words cannot speak the still passion of strength and joy that possessed +her. Her step was light. As she walked, her soul sang within her, for +thus it is with those that have received the Law. About them is the +Peace. + +In the dawn she was told that the Queen, Dwaymenau, would speak with +her, and without a tremor she who had shaken like a leaf at that name +commanded that she should enter. It was Dwaymenau that trembled as she +came into that unknown place. + +With cloudy brows and eyes that would reveal no secret, she stood before +the high seat where the Queen sat pale and majestic. + +"Is it well with the boy?" the Queen asked earnestly. + +"Well," said Dwaymenau, fingering the silver bosses of her girdle. + +"Then--is there more to say?" The tone was that of the great lady who +courteously ends an audience. "There is more. The men brought in the +body and in its throat your dagger was sticking. And my son has told me +that your body was a shield to him. You offered your life for his. I did +not think to thank you--but I thank you." She ended abruptly and still +her eyes had never met the Queen's. + +"I accept your thanks. Yet a mother could do no less." + +The tone was one of dismissal but still Dwaymenau lingered. + +"The dagger," she said and drew it from her bosom. On the clear, pointed +blade the blood had curdled and dried. "I never thought to ask a gift of +you, but this dagger is a memorial of my son's danger. May I keep it?" + +"As you will. Here is the sheath." From her girdle she drew it--rough +silver, encrusted with rubies from the mountains. + +The hand rejected it. + +"Jewels I cannot take, but bare steel is a fitting gift between us two." + +"As you will." + +The Queen spoke compassionately, and Dwaymenau, still with veiled eyes, +was gone without fare well. The empty sheath lay on the seat--a symbol +of the sharp-edged hate that had passed out of her life. She touched the +sheath to her lips and, smiling, laid it away. + +And the days went by and Dwaymenau came no more before her, and her days +were fulfilled with peace. And now again the Queen ruled in the palace +wisely and like a Queen, and this Dwaymenau did not dispute, but what +her thoughts were no man could tell. + +Then came the end. + +One night the city awakened to a wild alarm. A terrible fleet of +war-boats came sweeping along the river thick as locusts--the war fleet +of the Lord of Prome. Battle shouts broke the peace of the night +to horror; axes battered on the outer doors; the roofs of the outer +buildings were all aflame. It was no wonderful incident, but a common +one enough of those turbulent days--reprisal by a powerful ruler with +raids and hates to avenge on the Lord of the Golden Palace. It was +indeed a right to be gainsaid only by the strong arm, and the strong arm +was absent; as for the men of Pagan, if the guard failed and the women's +courage sank, they would return to blackened walls, empty chambers and +desolation. + +At Pagan the guard was small, indeed, for the King's greed of plunder +had taken almost every able man with him. Still, those who were left +did what they could, and the women, alert and brave, with but few +exceptions, gathered the children and handed such weapons as they could +muster to the men, and themselves, taking knives and daggers, helped to +defend the inner rooms. + +In the farthest, the Queen, having given her commands and encouraged all +with brave words, like a wise, prudent princess, sat with her son beside +her. Her duty was now to him. Loved or unloved, he was still the heir, +the root of the House tree. If all failed, she must make ransom +and terms for him, and, if they died, it must be together. He, with +sparkling eyes, gay in the danger, stood by her. Thus Dwaymenau found +them. + +She entered quietly and without any display of emotion and stood before +the high seat. + +"Great Queen"--she used that title for the first time--"the leader is +Meng Kyinyo of Prome. There is no mercy. The end is near. Our men fall +fast, the women are fleeing. I have come to say this thing: Save the +Prince." + +"And how?" asked the Queen, still seated. "I have no power." + +"I have sent to Maung Tin, abbot of the Golden Monastery, and he has +said this thing. In the Kyoung across the river he can hide one child +among the novices. Cut his hair swiftly and put upon him this yellow +robe. The time is measured in minutes." + +Then the Queen perceived, standing by the pillar, a monk of a stern, +dark presence, the creature of Dwaymenau. For an instant she pondered. +Was the woman selling the child to death? Dwaymenau spoke no word. +Her face was a mask. A minute that seemed an hour drifted by, and the +yelling and shrieks for mercy drew nearer. + +"There will be pursuit," said the Queen. "They will slay him on the +river. Better here with me." + +"There will be no pursuit." Dwaymenau fixed her strange eyes on the +Queen for the first time. + +What moved in those eyes? The Queen could not tell. But despairing, +she rose and went to the silent monk, leading the Prince by the hand. +Swiftly he stripped the child of the silk pasoh of royalty, swiftly +he cut the long black tresses knotted on the little head, and upon the +slender golden body he set the yellow robe worn by the Lord Himself on +earth, and in the small hand he placed the begging-bowl of the Lord. +And now, remote and holy, in the dress that is of all most sacred, the +Prince, standing by the monk, turned to his mother and looked with grave +eyes upon her, as the child Buddha looked upon his Mother--also a Queen. +But Dwaymenau stood by silent and lent no help as the Queen folded the +Prince in her arms and laid his hand in the hand of the monk and saw +them pass away among the pillars, she standing still and white. + +She turned to her rival. "If you have meant truly, I thank you." + +"I have meant truly." + +She turned to go, but the Queen caught her by the hand. + +"Why have you done this?" she asked, looking into the strange eyes of +the strange woman. + +Something like tears gathered in them for a moment, but she brushed them +away as she said hurriedly: + +"I was grateful. You saved my son. Is it not enough?" + +"No, not enough!" cried the Queen. "There is more. Tell me, for death is +upon us." + +"His footsteps are near," said the Indian. "I will speak. I love my +lord. In death I will not cheat him. What you have known is true. My +child is no child of his. I will not go down to death with a lie upon my +lips. Come and see." + +Dwaymenau was no more. Sundari, the Indian woman, awful and calm, led +the Queen down the long ball and into her own chamber, where Mindon, the +child, slept a drugged sleep. The Queen felt that she had never known +her; she herself seemed diminished in stature as she followed the +stately figure, with its still, dark face. Into this room the enemy were +breaking, shouldering their way at the door--a rabble of terrible faces. +Their fury was partly checked when only a sleeping child and two women +confronted them, but their leader, a grim and evil-looking man, strode +from the huddle. + +"Where is the son of the King?" he shouted. "Speak, women! Whose is this +boy?" + +Sundari laid her hand upon her son's shoulder. Not a muscle of her face +flickered. + +"This is his son." + +"His true son--the son of Maya the Queen?" + +"His true son, the son of Maya the Queen." + +"Not the younger--the mongrel?" + +"The younger--the mongrel died last week of a fever." + +Every moment of delay was precious. Her eyes saw only a monk and a boy +fleeing across the wide river. + +"Which is Maya the Queen?" + +"This," said Sundari. "She cannot speak. It is her son--the Prince." + +Maya had veiled her face with her hands. Her brain swam, but she +understood the noble lie. This woman could love. Their lord would not be +left childless. Thought beat like pulses in her--raced along her veins. +She held her breath and was dumb. + +His doubt was assuaged and the lust of vengeance was on him--a madness +seized the man. But even his own wild men shrank back a moment, for to +slay a sleeping child in cold blood is no man's work. + +"You swear it is the Prince. But why? Why do you not lie to save him if +you are the King's woman?" + +"Because his mother has trampled me to the earth. I am the Indian +woman--the mother of the younger, who is dead and safe. She jeered at +me--she mocked me. It is time I should see her suffer. Suffer now as I +have suffered, Maya the Queen!" + +This was reasonable--this was like the women he had known. His doubt was +gone--he laughed aloud. + +"Then feed full of vengeance!" he cried, and drove his knife through the +child's heart. + +For a moment Sundari wavered where she stood, but she held herself and +was rigid as the dead. + +"Tha-du! Well done!" she said with an awful smile. "The tree is broken, +the roots cut. And now for us women--our fate, O master?" + +"Wait here," he answered. "Let not a hair of their heads be touched. +Both are fair. The two for me. For the rest draw lots when all is done." + +The uproar surged away. The two stood by the dead boy. So swift had been +his death that he lay as though he still slept--the black lashes pressed +upon his cheek. + +With the heredity of their different races upon them, neither wept. But +silently the Queen opened her arms; wide as a woman that entreats +she opened them to the Indian Queen, and speechlessly the two clung +together. For a while neither spoke. + +"My sister!" said Maya the Queen. And again, "O great of heart!" + +She laid her cheek against Sundari's, and a wave of solemn joy seemed to +break in her soul and flood it with life and light. + +"Had I known sooner!" she said. "For now the night draws on." + +"What is time?" answered the Rajput woman. "We stand before the Lords of +Life and Death. The life you gave was yours, and I am unworthy to kiss +the feet of the Queen. Our lord will return and his son is saved. The +House can be rebuilt. My son and I were waifs washed up from the sea. +Another wave washes us back to nothingness. Tell him my story and he +will loathe me." + +"My lips are shut," said the Queen. "Should I betray my sister's honour? +When he speaks of the noble women of old, your name will be among them. +What matters which of us he loves and remembers? Your soul and mine have +seen the same thing, and we are one. But I--what have I to do with life? +The ship and the bed of the conqueror await us. Should we await them, my +sister?" + +The bright tears glittered in the eyes of Sundari at the tender name and +the love in the face of the Queen. At last she accepted it. + +"My sister, no," she said, and drew from her bosom the dagger of Maya, +with the man's blood rusted upon it. "Here is the way. I have kept this +dagger in token of my debt. Nightly have I kissed it, swearing that, +when the time came, I would repay my debt to the great Queen. Shall I go +first or follow, my sister?" + +Her voice lingered on the word. It was precious to her. It was like +clear water, laying away the stain of the shameful years. + +"Your arm is strong," answered the Queen. "I go first. Because the +King's son is safe, I bless you. For your love of the King, I love you. +And here, standing on the verge of life, I testify that the words of the +Blessed One are truth--that love is All; that hatred is Nothing." + +She bared the breast that this woman had made desolate--that, with the +love of this woman, was desolate ho longer, and, stooping, laid her hand +on the brow of Mindon. Once more they embraced, and then, strong and +true, and with the Rajput passion behind the blow, the stroke fell and +Sundari had given her sister the crowning mercy of deliverance. She +laid the body beside her own son, composing the stately limbs, the quiet +eyelids, the black lengths of hair into majesty. So, she thought, in the +great temple of the Rajput race, the Mother Goddess shed silence and awe +upon her worshippers. The two lay like mother and son--one slight hand +of the Queen she laid across the little body as if to guard it. + +Her work done, she turned to the entrance and watched the dawn coming +glorious over the river. The men shouted and quarreled in the distance, +but she heeded them no more than the chattering of apes. Her heart was +away over the distance to the King, but with no passion now: so might a +mother have thought of her son. He was sleeping, forgetful of even her +in his dreams. What matter? She was glad at heart. The Queen was dearer +to her than the King--so strange is life; so healing is death. She +remembered without surprise that she had asked no forgiveness of the +Queen for all the cruel wrongs, for the deadly intent--had made no +confession. Again what matter? What is forgiveness when love is all? + +She turned from the dawn-light to the light in the face of the Queen. +It was well. Led by such a hand, she could present herself without fear +before the Lords of Life and Death--she and the child. She smiled. Life +is good, but death, which is more life, is better. The son of the King +was safe, but her own son safer. + +When the conqueror reentered the chamber, he found the dead Queen +guarding the dead child, and across her feet, as not worthy to lie +beside her, was the body of the Indian woman, most beautiful in death. + + + + +FIRE OF BEAUTY + +(Salutation to Ganesa the Lord of Wisdom, and to Saraswate the Lady of +Sweet Speech!) + +This story was composed by the Brahmin Visravas, that dweller on the +banks of holy Kashi; and though the events it records are long past, yet +it is absolutely and immutably true because, by the power of his yoga, +he summoned up every scene before him, and beheld the persons moving +and speaking as in life. Thus he had naught to do but to set down what +befell. + +What follows, that hath he seen. + + +I + +Wide was the plain, the morning sun shining full upon it, drinking up +the dew as the Divine drinks up the spirit of man. Far it stretched, +resembling the ocean, and riding upon it like a stately ship was the +league-long Rock of Chitor. It is certainly by the favour of the Gods +that this great fortress of the Rajput Kings thus rises from the plain, +leagues in length, noble in height; and very strange it is to see the +flat earth fall away from it like waters from the bows of a boat, as it +soars into the sky with its burden of palaces and towers. + +Here dwelt the Queen Padmini and her husband Bhimsi, the Rana of the +Rajputs. + +The sight of the holy ascetic Visravas pierced even the secrets of the +Rani's bower, where, in the inmost chamber of marble, carved until it +appeared like lace of the foam of the sea, she was seated upon cushions +of blue Bokhariot silk, like the lotus whose name she bore floating upon +the blue depths of the lake. She had just risen from the shallow bath of +marble at her feet. + +Most beautiful was this Queen, a haughty beauty such as should be a +Rajput lady; for the name "Rajput" signifies Son of a King, and this +lady was assuredly the daughter of Kings and of no lesser persons. And +since that beauty is long since ashes (all things being transitory), +it is permitted to describe the mellowed ivory of her body, the smooth +curves of her hips, and the defiance of her glimmering bosom, half +veiled by the long silken tresses of sandal-scented hair which a maiden +on either side, bowing toward her, knotted upon her head. But even +he who with his eyes has seen it can scarce tell the beauty of her +face--the slender arched nose, the great eyes like lakes of darkness +in the reeds of her curled lashes, the mouth of roses, the glance, +deer-like but proud, that courted and repelled admiration. This cannot +be told, nor could the hand of man paint it. Scarcely could that fair +wife of the Pandava Prince, Draupadi the Beautiful (who bore upon her +perfect form every auspicious mark) excel this lady. + +(Ashes--ashes! May Maheshwara have mercy upon her rebirths!) + +Throughout India had run the fame of this beauty. In the bazaar of +Kashmir they told of it. It was recorded in the palaces of Travancore, +and all the lands that lay between; and in an evil hour--may the Gods +curse the mother that bore him!--it reached the ears of Allah-u-Din, the +Moslem dog, a very great fighting man who sat in Middle India, looting +and spoiling. + +(Ahi! for the beauty that is as a burning flame!) + +In the gardens beneath the windows of the Queen, the peacocks, those +maharajas of the birds, were spreading the bronze and emerald of their +tails. The sun shone on them as on heaps of jewels, so that they dazzled +the eyes. They stood about the feet of the ancient Brahmin sage, he +who had tutored the Queen in her childhood and given her wisdom as the +crest-jeweled of her loveliness. He, the Twice-born sat under the shade +of a neem tree, hearing the gurgle of the sacred waters from the Cow's +Mouth, where the great tank shone under the custard-apple boughs; and, +at peace with all the world, he read in the Scripture which affirms the +transience of all things drifting across the thought of the Supreme like +clouds upon the surface of the Ocean. + +(Ahi! that loveliness is also illusion!) + +Her women placed about the Queen--that Lotus of Women--a robe of silk +of which none could say that it was green or blue, the noble colours so +mingled into each other under the latticed gold work of Kashi. They set +the jewels on her head, and wide thin rings of gold heavy with great +pearls in her ears. Upon the swell of her bosom they clasped the +necklace of table emeralds, large, deep, and full of green lights, which +is the token of the Chitor queens. Upon her slender ankles they placed +the chooris of pure soft gold, set also with grass-green emeralds, and +the delicate souls of her feet they reddened with lac. Nor were her arms +forgotten, but loaded with bangles so free from alloy that they could be +bent between the hands of a child. Then with fine paste they painted the +Symbol between her dark brows, and, rising, she shone divine as a nymph +of heaven who should cause the righteous to stumble in his austerities +and arrest even the glances of Gods. + +(Ahi! that the Transient should be so fair!) + + +II + +Now it was the hour that the Rana should visit her; for since the coming +of the Lotus Lady, he had forgotten his other women, and in her was all +his heart. He came from the Hall of Audience where petitions were heard, +and justice done to rich and poor; and as he came, the Queen, hearing +his step on the stone, dismissed her women, and smiling to know her +loveliness, bowed before him, even as the Goddess Uma bows before Him +who is her other half. + +Now he was a tall man, with the falcon look of the Hill Rajputs, and +moustaches that curled up to his eyes, lion-waisted and lean in the +flanks like Arjoon himself, a very ruler of men; and as he came, his +hand was on the hilt of the sword that showed beneath his gold coat of +khincob. On the high cushions he sat, and the Rani a step beneath him; +and she said, raising her lotus eyes:-- + +"Speak, Aryaputra, (son of a noble father)--what hath befallen?" + +And he, looking upon her beauty with fear, replied,-- + +"It is thy beauty, O wife, that brings disaster." + +"And how is this?" she asked very earnestly. + +For a moment he paused, regarding her as might a stranger, as one +who considers a beauty in which he hath no part; and, drawn by this +strangeness, she rose and knelt beside him, pillowing her head upon his +heart. + +"Say on," she said in her voice of music. + +He unfurled a scroll that he had crushed in his strong right hand, and +read aloud:-- + + "'Thus says Allah-u-Din, Shadow of God, Wonder of the Age, +Viceregent of Kings. We have heard that in the Treasury of Chitor is a +jewel, the like of which is not in the Four Seas--the work of the hand +of the Only God, to whom be praise! This jewel is thy Queen, the Lady +Padmini. Now, since the sons of the Prophet are righteous, I desire but +to look upon this jewel, and ascribing glory to the Creator, to depart +in peace. Granted requests are the bonds of friendship; therefore +lay the head of acquiescence in the dust of opportunity and name an +auspicious day.'" + +He crushed it again and flung it furiously from him on the marble. + +"The insult is deadly. The sorry son of a debased mother! Well he knows +that to the meanest Rajput his women are sacred, and how much more the +daughters and wives of the Kings! The jackals feast on the tongue that +speaks this shame! But it is a threat, Beloved--a threat! Give me thy +counsel that never failed me yet." + +For the Rajputs take counsel with their women who are wise. + +They were silent, each weighing the force of resistance that could be +made; and this the Rani knew even as he. + +"It cannot be," she said; "the very ashes of the dead would shudder to +hear. Shall the Queens of India be made the sport of the barbarians?" + +Her husband looked upon her fair face. She could feel his heart labor +beneath her ear. + +"True, wife; but the barbarians are strong. Our men are tigers, each +one, but the red dogs of the Dekkan can pull down the tiger, for they +are many, and he alone." + +Then that great Lady, accepting his words, and conscious of the danger, +murmured this, clinging to her husband:-- + +"There was a Princess of our line whose beauty made all other women seem +as waning moons in the sun's splendour. And many great Kings sought her, +and there was contention and war. And, she, fearing that the Rajputs +would be crushed to powder between the warring Kings, sent unto each +this message: 'Come on such and such a day, and thou shalt see my face +and hear my choice.' And they, coming, rejoiced exceedingly, thinking +each one that he was the Chosen. So they came into the great Hall, and +there was a table, and somewhat upon it covered with a gold cloth; and +an old veiled woman lifted the gold, and the head of the Princess lay +there with the lashes like night upon her cheek, and between her lips +was a little scroll, saying this: 'I have chosen my Lover and my Lord, +and he is mightiest, for he is Death.'--So the Kings went silently away. +And there was Peace." + +The music of her voice ceased, and the Rana clasped her closer. + +"This I cannot do. Better die together. Let us take counsel with the +ancient Brahman, thy guru [teacher], for he is very wise." + +She clapped her hands, and the maidens returned, and, bowing, brought +the venerable Prabhu Narayan into the Presence, and again those roses +retired. + +Respectful salutation was then offered by the King and the Queen to that +saint, hoary with wisdom--he who had seen her grow into the loveliness +of the sea-born Shri, yet had never seen that loveliness; for he had +never raised his eyes above the chooris about her ankles. To him the +King related his anxieties; and he sat rapt in musing, and the two +waited in dutiful silence until long minutes had fallen away; and at the +last he lifted his head, weighted with wisdom, and spoke. + +"O King, Descendant of Rama! this outrage cannot be. Yet, knowing the +strength and desire of this obscene one and the weakness of our power, +it is plain that only with cunning can cunning be met. Hear, therefore, +the history of the Fox and the Drum. + +"A certain Fox searched for food in the jungle, and so doing beheld +a tree on which hung a drum; and when the boughs knocked upon the +parchment, it sounded aloud. Considering, he believed that so round a +form and so great a voice must portend much good feeding. Neglecting on +this account a fowl that fed near by, he ascended to the drum. The drum +being rent was but air and parchment, and meanwhile the fowl fled away. +And from the eye of folly he shed the tear of disappointment, having +bartered the substance for the shadow. So must we act with this budmash +[scoundrel]. First, receiving his oath that he will depart without +violence, hid him hither to a great feast, and say that he shall behold +the face of the Queen in a mirror. Provide that some fair woman of +the city show her face, and then let him depart in peace, showing him +friendship. He shall not know he hath not seen the beauty he would +befoul." + +After consultation, no better way could be found; but the heart of the +great Lady was heavy with foreboding. + +(A hi! that Beauty should wander a pilgrim in the ways of sorrow!) + +To Allah-u-Din therefore did the King dispatch this letter by swift +riders on mares of Mewar. + +After salutations--"Now whereas thou hast said thou wouldest look upon +the beauty of the Treasure of Chitor, know it is not the custom of the +Rajputs that any eye should light upon their treasure. Yet assuredly, +when requests arise between friends, there cannot fail to follow +distress of mind and division of soul if these are ungranted. So, under +promises that follow, I bid thee to a feast at my poor house of Chitor, +and thou shalt see that beauty reflected in a mirror, and so seeing, +depart in peace from the house of a friend." + +This being writ by the Twice-Born, the Brahman, did the Rana sign with +bitter rage in his heart. And the days passed. + + +III + +On a certain day found fortunate by the astrologers--a day of early +winter, when the dawns were pure gold and the nights radiant with a +cool moon--did a mighty troop of Moslems set their camp on the plain of +Chitor. It was as if a city had blossomed in an hour. Those who looked +from the walls muttered prayers to the Lord of the Trident; for these +men seemed like the swarms of the locust--people, warriors all, fierce +fighting-men. And in the ways of Chitor, and up the steep and winding +causeway from the plains, were warriors also, the chosen of the Rajputs, +thick as blades of corn hedging the path. + +(Ahi! that the blossom of beauty should have swords for thorns!) + +Then, leaving his camp, attended by many Chiefs,--may the mothers and +sires that begot them be accursed!--came Allah-u-Din, riding toward the +Lower Gate, and so upward along the causeway, between the two rows of +men who neither looked nor spoke, standing like the carvings of war in +the Caves of Ajunta. And the moon was rising through the sunset as he +came beneath the last and seventh gate. Through the towers and palaces +he rode with his following, but no woman, veiled or unveiled,--no, not +even an outcast of the city,--was there to see him come; only the men, +armed and silent. So he turned to Munim Khan that rode at his bridle, +saying,-- + +"Let not the eye of watchfulness close this night on the pillow of +forgetfulness!" + +And thus he entered the palace. + +Very great was the feast in Chitor, and the wines that those accursed +should not drink (since the Outcast whom they call their Prophet forbade +them) ran like water, and at the right hand of Allah-u-Din was set the +great crystal Cup inlaid with gold by a craft that is now perished; and +he filled and refilled it--may his own Prophet curse the swine! + +But because the sons of Kings eat not with the outcasts, the Rana +entered after, clothed in chain armor of blue steel, and having greeted +him, bid him to the sight of that Treasure. And Allah-u-Din, his eyes +swimming with wine, and yet not drunken, followed, and the two went +alone. + +Purdahs [curtains] of great splendour were hung in the great Hall that +is called the Raja's Hall, exceeding rich with gold, and in front of the +opening was a kneeling-cushion, and an a gold stool before it a polished +mirror. + +(Ahi! for gold and beauty, the scourges of the world!) + +And the Rana was pale to the lips. + +Now as the Princes stood by the purdah, a veiled woman, shrouded in +white so that no shape could be seen in her, came forth from within, +and kneeling upon the cushion, she unveiled her face bending until +the mirror, like a pool of water, held it, and that only. And the King +motioned his guest to look, and he looked over her veiled shoulder +and saw. Very great was the bowed beauty that the mirror held, but +Allah-u-Din turned to the Rana. + +"By the Bread and the Salt, by the Guest-Right, by the Honour of thy +House, I ask--is this the Treasure of Chitor?" + +And since the Sun-Descended cannot lie, no, not though they perish, the +Rana answered, flushing darkly,--"This is not the Treasure. Wilt thou +spare?" + +But he would not, and the woman slipped like a shadow behind the purdah +and no word said. + +Then was heard the tinkling of chooris, and the little noise fell upon +the silence like a fear, and, parting the curtains, came a woman veiled +like the other. She did not kneel, but took the mirror in her hand, and +Allah-u-Din drew up behind her back. From her face she raised the veil +of gold Dakka webs, and gazed into the mirror, holding it high, and that +Accursed stumbled back, blinded with beauty, saying this only,--"I have +seen the Treasure of Chitor." + +So the purdah fell about her. + +The next day, after the Imaum of the Accursed had called them to prayer, +they departed, and Allah-u-Din, paying thanks to the Rana for honours +given and taken, and swearing friendship, besought him to ride to his +camp, to see the marvels of gold and steel armor brought down from the +passes, swearing also safe-conduct. And because the Rajputs trust the +word even of a foe, he went. + +(A hi! that honour should strike hands with traitors!) + + +IV + +The hours went by, heavy-footed like mourners. Padmini the Rani knelt by +the window in her tower that overlooks the plains. Motionless she knelt +there, as the Goddess Uma lost in her penances, and she saw her Lord +ride forth, and the sparkle of steel where the sun shone on them, and +the Standard of the Cold Disk on its black ground. So the camp of the +Moslem swallowed them up, and they returned no more. Still she knelt and +none dared speak with her; and as the first shade of evening fell across +the hills of Rajasthan, she saw a horseman spurting over the flat; and +he rode like the wind, and, seeing, she implored the Gods. + +Then entered the Twice-Born, that saint of clear eyes, and he bore a +scroll; and she rose and seated herself, and he stood by her, as her +ladies cowered like frightened doves before the woe in his face as he +read. + +"To the Rose of Beauty, The Pearl among Women, the Chosen of the Palace. +Who, having seen thy loveliness, can look on another? Who, having tasted +the wine of the Houris, but thirsts forever? Behold, I have thy King as +hostage. Come thou and deliver him. I have sworn that he shall return in +thy place." + +And from a smaller scroll, the Brahman read this:-- + +"I am fallen in the snare. Act thou as becomes a Rajputni." + +Then that Daughter of the Sun lifted her head, for the thronging of +armed feet was heard in the Council Hall below. From the floor she +caught her veil and veiled herself in haste, and the Brahman with bowed +head followed, while her women mourned aloud. And, descending, between +the folds of the purdah she appeared white and veiled, and the Brahman +beside her, and the eyes of all the Princes were lowered to her shrouded +feet, while the voice they had not heard fell silvery upon the air, and +the echoes of the high roof repeated it. + +"Chief of the Rajputs, what is your counsel?" And he of Marwar stepped +forward, and not raising his eyes above her feet, answered,-- + +"Queen, what is thine?" + +For the Rajputs have ever heard the voice of their women. + +And she said,-- + +"I counsel that I die and my head be sent to him, that my blood may +quench his desire." + +And each talked eagerly with the other, but amid the tumult the +Twice-Born said,-- + +"This is not good talk. In his rage he will slay the King. By my yoga, I +have seen it. Seek another way." + +So they sought, but could determine nothing, and they feared to ride +against the dog, for he held the life of the King; and the tumult was +great, but all were for the King's safety. + +Then once more she spoke. + +"Seeing it is determined that the King's life is more than my honour, +I go this night. In your hand I leave my little son, the Prince Ajeysi. +Prepare my litters, seven hundred of the best, for all my women go with +me. Depart now, for I have a thought from the Gods." + +Then, returning to her bower, she spoke this letter to the saint, and he +wrote it, and it was sent to the camp. + +After salutations--"Wisdom and strength have attained their end. Have +ready for release the Rana of Chitor, for this night I come with my +ladies, the prize of the conqueror." + +When the sun sank, a great procession with torches descended the steep +way of Chitor--seven hundred litters, and in the first was borne the +Queen, and all her women followed. + +All the streets were thronged with women, weeping and beating their +breasts. Very greatly they wept, and no men were seen, for their livers +were black within them for shame as the Treasure of Chitor departed, +nor would they look upon the sight. And across the plains went that +procession; as if the stars had fallen upon the earth, so glittered the +sorrowful lights of the Queen. + +But in the camp was great rejoicing, for the Barbarians knew that many +fair women attended on her. + +Now, before the entrance to the camp they had made a great shamiana +[tent] ready, hung with shawls of Kashmir and the plunder of Delhi; and +there was set a silk divan for the Rani, and beside it stood the Loser +and the Gainer, Allah-u-Din and the King, awaiting the Treasure. + +Veiled she entered, stepping proudly, and taking no heed of the Moslem, +she stood before her husband, and even through the veil he could feel +the eyes he knew. + +And that Accursed spoke, laughing. + +"I have won-I have won, O King! Bid farewell to the Chosen of the +Palace--the Beloved of the Viceregent of Kings!" + +Then she spoke softly, delicately, in her own tongue, that the outcast +should not guess the matter of her speech. + +"Stand by me. Stir not. And when I raise my arm, cry the cry of the +Rajputs. NOW!" + +And she flung her arm above her head, and instantly, like a lion +roaring, he shouted, drawing his sword, and from every litter sprang an +armed man, glittering in steel, and the bearers, humble of mien, were +Rajput knights, every one. + +And Allah-u-Din thrust at the breast of the Queen; but around them +surged the war, and she was hedged with swords like a rose in the +thickets. + +Very full of wine, dull with feasting and lust and surprised, the +Moslems fled across the plains, streaming in a broken rabble, cursing +and shouting like low-caste women; and the Rajputs, wiping their swords, +returned from the pursuit and laughed upon each other. + +But what shall be said of the joy of the King and of her who had +imagined this thing, instructed of the Goddess who is the other half of +her Lord? + +So the procession returned, singing, to Chitor with those Two in the +midst; but among the dogs that fled was Allah-u-Din, his face blackened +with shame and wrath, the curses choking in his foul throat. + +(Aid! that the evil still walk the ways of the world!) + + +V + +So the time went by and the beauty of the Queen grew, and her King could +see none but hers. Like the moon she obscured the stars, and every day +he remembered her wisdom, her valour, and his soul did homage at her +feet, and there was great content in Chitor. + +It chanced one day that the Queen, looking from her high window that +like an eagle's nest overhung the precipice, saw, on the plain beneath, +a train of men, walking like ants, and each carried a basket on his +back, and behind them was a cloud of dust like a great army. Already the +city was astir because of this thing, and the rumours came thick and the +spies were sent out. + +In the dark they returned, and the Rana entered the bower of Padmini, +his eyes burning like coal with hate and wrath, and he flung his arm +round his wife like a shield. + +"He is returned, and in power. Counsel me again, O wife, for great is +thy wisdom!" + +But she answered only this,-- + +"Fight, for this time it is to the death." + +Then each day she watched bow the baskets of earth, emptied upon the +plain at first, made nothing, an ant heap whereat fools might laugh. But +each day as the trains of men came, spilling their baskets, the great +earthworks grew and their height mounted. Day after day the Rajputs rode +forth and slew; and as they slew it seemed that all the teeming millions +of the earth came forth to take the places of the slain. And the Rajputs +fell also, and under the pennons the thundering forces returned daily, +thinned of their best. + +(A hi! that Evil rules the world as God!) + +And still the earth grew up to the heights, and the protection of the +hills was slowly withdrawn from Chitor, for on the heights they made +they set their engines of war. + +Then in a red dawn that great saint Narayan came to the Queen, where she +watched by her window, and spoke. + +"O great lady, I have dreamed a fearful dream. Nay, rather have I seen a +vision." + +With her face set like a sword, the Queen said,-- + +"Say on." + +"In a light red like blood, I waked, and beside me stood the +Mother,--Durga,--awful to see, with a girdle of heads about her middle; +and the drops fell thick and slow from That which she held in her hand, +and in the other was her sickle of Doom. Nor did she speak, but my soul +heard her words." + +"Narrate them." + +"She commanded: 'Say this to the Rana: "In Chitor is My altar; in Chitor +is thy throne. If thou wouldest save either, send forth twelve crowned +Kings of Chitor to die.'" + +As he said this, the Rana, fore-spent with fighting, entered and heard +the Divine word. + +Now there were twelve princes of the Rajput blood, and the youngest was +the son of Padmini. What choice had these most miserable but to appease +the dreadful anger of the Goddess? So on each fourth day a King of +Chitor was crowned, and for three days sat upon the throne, and on the +fourth day, set in the front, went forth and died fighting. So perished +eleven Kings of Chitor, and now there was left but the little Ajeysi, +the son of the Queen. + +And that day was a great Council called. + +Few were there. On the plains many lay dead; holding the gates many +watched; but the blood was red in their hearts and flowed like Indus in +the melting of the snows. And to them spoke the Rana, his hand clenched +on his sword, and the other laid on the small dark head of the Prince +Ajeysi, who stood between his knees. And as he spoke his voice gathered +strength till it rang through the hall like the voice of Indra when he +thunders in the heavens. + +"Men of the Rajputs, this child shall not die. Are we become jackals +that we fall upon the weak and tear them? When have we put our women +and children in the forefront of the war? I--I only am King of Chitor. +Narayan shall save this child for the time that will surely come. And +for us--what shall we do? I die for Chitor!" + +And like the hollow waves of a great sea they answered him,-- + +"We will die for Chitor." + +There was silence and Marwar spoke. + +"The women?" + +"Do they not know the duty of a Rajputni?" said the King. "My household +has demanded that the caves be prepared." + +And the men clashed stew joy with their swords, and the council +dispersed. + +Then that very great saint, the Twice-Born, put off the sacred thread +that is the very soul of the Brahman. In his turban he wound it +secretly, and he stained his noble Aryan body until it resembled the +Pariahs, foul for the pure to see, loathsome for the pure to touch, +and he put on him the rags of the lowest of the earth, and taking the +Prince, he removed from the body of the child every trace of royal and +Rajput birth, and he appeared like a child of the Bhils--the vile forest +wanderers that shame not to defile their lips with carrion. And in this +guise they stood before the Queen; and when she looked on the saint, the +tears fell from her eyes like rain, not for grief for her son, nor for +death, but that for their sake the pure should be made impure and the +glory of the Brahman-hood be defiled. And she fell at the old man's feet +and laid her head on the ground before him. + +"Rise, daughter!" he said, "and take comfort! Are not the eyes of the +Gods clear that they should distinguish?--and this day we stand before +the God of Gods. Have not the Great Ones said, 'That which causes life +causes also decay and death'? Therefore we who go and you who stay are +alike a part of the Divine. Embrace now your child and bless him, for we +depart. And it is on account of the sacrifice of the Twelve that he is +saved alive." + +So, controlling her tears, she rose, and clasping the child to her +bosom, she bade him be of good cheer since he went with the Gods. And +that great saint took his hand from hers, and for the first time in the +life of the Queen he raised his aged eyes to her face, and she gazed at +him; but what she read, even the ascetic Visravas, who saw all by +the power of his yoga, could not tell, for it was beyond speech. Very +certainly the peace thereafter possessed her. + +So those two went out by the secret ways of the rocks, and wandering +far, were saved by the favour of Durga. + + +VI + +And the nights went by and the days, and the time came that no longer +could they hold Chitor, and all hope was dead. + +On a certain day the Rana and the Rani stood for the last time in her +bower, and looked down into the city; and in the streets were gathered +in a very wonderful procession the women of Chitor; and not one was +veiled. Flowers that had bloomed in the inner chambers, great ladies +jewelled for a festival, young brides, aged mothers, and girl children +clinging to the robes of their mothers who held their babes, crowded the +ways. Even the low-caste women walked with measured steps and proudly, +decked in what they had of best, their eyes lengthened with soorma, and +flowers in the darkness of their hair. + +The Queen was clothed in a gold robe of rejoicing, her bodice latticed +with diamonds and great gems, and upon her bosom the necklace of table +emeralds, alight with green fire, which is the jewel of the Queens of +Chitor. So she stood radiant as a vision of Shri, and it appeared that +rays encircled her person. + +And the Rana, unarmed save for his sword, had the saffron dress of a +bridegroom and the jeweled cap of the Rajput Kings, and below in the +hall were the Princes and Chiefs, clad even as he. + +Then, raising her lotus eyes to her lord, the Princess said,-- + +"Beloved, the time is come, and we have chosen rightly, for this is +the way of honour, and it is but another link forged in the chain of +existence; for until existence itself is ended and rebirth destroyed, +still shall we meet in lives to come and still be husband and wife. What +room then for despair?" + +And he answered,-- + +"This is true. Go first, wife, and I follow. Let not the door swing to +behind thee. But oh, to see thy beauty once more that is the very speech +of Gods with men! Wilt thou surely come again to me and again be fair?" + +And for all answer she smiled upon him, and at his feet performed the +obeisance of the Rajput wife when she departs upon a journey; and they +went out together, the Queen unveiled. + +As she passed through the Princes, they lowered their eyes so that none +saw her; but when she stood on the steps of the palace, the women all +turned eagerly toward her like stars about the moon, and lifting their +arms, they began to sing the dirge of the Rajput women. + +So they marched, and in great companies they marched, company behind +company, young and old, past the Queen, saluting her and drawing courage +from the loveliness and kindness of her unveiled face. + +In the rocks beneath the palaces of Chitor are very great caves--league +long and terrible, with ways of darkness no eyes have seen; and it +is believed that in times past spirits have haunted them with strange +wailings. In these was prepared great store of wood and oils and +fragrant matters for burning. So to these caves they marched and, +company by company, disappeared into the darkness; and the voice of +their singing grew faint and hollow, and died away, as the men stood +watching their women go. + +Now, when this was done and the last had gone, the Rani descended the +steps, and the Rana, taking a torch dipped in fragrant oils, followed +her, and the Princes walked after, clad like bridegrooms but with no +faces of bridal joy. At the entrance of the caves, having lit the torch, +he gave it into her hand, and she, receiving it and smiling, turned once +upon the threshold, and for the first time those Princes beheld the face +of the Queen, but they hid their eyes with their hands when they had +seen. So she departed within, and the Rana shut to the door and barred +and bolted it, and the men with him flung down great rocks before it so +that none should know the way, nor indeed is it known to this day; and +with their hands on their swords they waited there, not speaking, until +a great smoke rose between the crevices of the rocks, but no sound at +all. + +(Ashes of roses--ashes of roses!--Ahi! for beauty that is but touched +and remitted!) + +The sun was high when those men with their horses and on foot marched +down the winding causeway beneath the seven gates, and so forth into the +plains, and charging unarmed upon the Moslems, they perished every man. +After, it was asked of one who had seen the great slaughter,-- + +"Say how my King bore himself." + +And he who had seen told this:-- + +"Reaper of the harvest of battle, on the bed of honour he has spread a +carpet of the slain! He sleeps ringed about by his enemies. How can the +world tell of his deeds? The tongue is silent." + +When that Accursed, Allah-u-Din, came up the winding height of the +hills, he found only a dead city, and his heart was sick within him. + +Now this is the Sack of Chitor, and by the Oath of the Sack of Chitor do +the Rajputs swear when they bind their honour. + +But it is only the ascetic Visravas who by the power of his yoga has +heard every word, and with his eyes beheld that Flame of Beauty, who, +for a brief space illuminating the world as a Queen, returns to birth in +many a shape of sorrowful loveliness until the Blue-throated God shall +in his favour destroy her rebirths. + +Salutation to Ganesa the Elephant-Headed One, and to Shri the Lady of +Beauty! + + + + +THE BUILDING OF THE TAJ MAHAL + + In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful--the Smiting! + A day when the soul shall know what it has sent on or kept back. + A day when no soul shall control aught for another. + And the bidding belongs to God. + + +THE KORAN. + +I + +Now the Shah-in-Shah, Shah Jahan, Emperor in India, loved his wife with +a great love. And of all the wives of the Mogul Emperors surely this +Lady Arjemand, Mumtaz-i-Mahal---the Chosen of the Palace--was the most +worthy of love. In the tresses of her silk-soft hair his heart was +bound, and for none other had he so much as a passing thought since +his soul had been submerged in her sweetness. Of her he said, using the +words of the poet Faisi,-- + +"How shall I understand the magic of Love the Juggler? For he made thy +beauty enter at that small gate the pupil of my eye, And now--and now my +heart cannot contain it!" + +But who should marvel? For those who have seen this Arjemand crowned +with the crown the Padishah set upon her sweet low brows, with the lamps +of great jewels lighting the dimples of her cheeks as they swung beside +them, have most surely seen perfection. He who sat upon the Peacock +Throne, where the outspread tail of massed gems is centred by that great +ruby, "The Eye of the Peacock, the Tribute of the World," valued it not +so much as one Jock of the dark and perfumed tresses that rolled to her +feet. Less to him the twelve throne columns set close with pearls than +the little pearls she showed in her sweet laughter. For if this lady was +all beauty, so too she was all goodness; and from the Shah-in-Shah to +the poorest, all hearts of the world knelt in adoration, before the +Chosen of the Palace. She was, indeed, an extraordinary beauty, in that +she had the soul of a child, and she alone remained unconscious of her +power; and so she walked, crowned and clothed with humility. + +Cold, haughty, and silent was the Shah-in-Shah before she blessed his +arms--flattered, envied, but loved by none. But the gift this Lady +brought with her was love; and this, shining like the sun upon ice, +melted his coldness, and he became indeed the kingly centre of a kingly +court May the Peace be upon her! + +Now it was the dawn of a sorrowful day when the pains of the Lady +Arjemand came strong and terrible, and she travailed in agony. The +hakims (physicians) stroked their beards and reasoned one with another; +the wise women surrounded her, and remedies many and great were tried; +and still her anguish grew, and in the hall without sat the Shah-in-Shah +upon his divan, in anguish of spirit yet greater. The sweat ran on his +brows, the knotted veins were thick on his temples, and his eyes, sunk +in their caves, showed as those of a maddened man. He crouched on his +cushions and stared at the purdah that divided him from the Lady; and +all day the people came and went about him, and there was silence from +the voice he longed to hear; for she would not moan, lest the sound +should slay the Emperor. Her women besought her, fearing that her strong +silence would break her heart; but still she lay, her hands clenched in +one another, enduring; and the Emperor endured without. The Day of the +Smiting! + +So, as the time of the evening prayer drew nigh, a child was born, +and the Empress, having done with pain, began to sink slowly into +that profound sleep that is the shadow cast by the Last. May Allah the +Upholder have mercy on our weakness! And the women, white with fear +and watching, looked upon her, and whispered one to another, "It is the +end." + +And the aged mother of Abdul Mirza, standing at her head, said, "She +heeds not the cry of the child. She cannot stay." And the newly wed +wife of Saif Khan, standing at her feet, said, "The voice of the beloved +husband is as the Call of the Angel. Let the Padishah be summoned." + +So, the evening prayer being over (but the Emperor had not prayed), the +wisest of the hakims, Kazim Sharif, went before him and spoke:-- + +"Inhallah! May the will of the Issuer of Decrees in all things be done! +Ascribe unto the Creator glory, bowing before his Throne." + +And he remained silent; but the Padishah, haggard in his jewels, with +his face hidden, answered thickly, "The truth! For Allah has forgotten +his slave." + +And Kazim Sharif, bowing at his feet and veiling his face with his +hands, replied: + +"The voice of the child cannot reach her, and the Lady of Delight +departs. He who would speak with her must speak quickly." + +Then the Emperor rose to his feet unsteadily, like a man drunk with +the forbidden juice; and when Kazim Sharif would have supported him, he +flung aside his hands, and he stumbled, a man wounded to death, as it +were, to the marble chamber where she lay. + +In that white chamber it was dusk, and they had lit the little cressets +so that a very faint light fell upon her face. A slender fountain a +little cooled the hot, still air with its thin music and its sprinkled +diamonds, and outside, the summer lightnings were playing wide and blue +on the river; but so still was it that the dragging footsteps of the +Emperor raised the hair on the flesh of those who heard, So the women +who should, veiled themselves, and the others remained like pillars of +stone. + +Now, when those steps were heard, a faint colour rose in the cheek of +the Lady Arjemand; but she did not raise the heavy lashes, or move her +hand. And he came up beside her, and the Shadow of God, who should kneel +to none, knelt, and his head fell forward upon her breast; and in the +hush the women glided out like ghosts, leaving the husband with the wife +excepting only that her foster-nurse stood far off, with eyes averted. + +So the minutes drifted by, falling audibly one by one into eternity, and +at the long last she slowly opened her eyes and, as from the depths of +a dream, beheld the Emperor; and in a voice faint as the fall of a +rose-leaf she said the one word, "Beloved!" + +And he from between his clenched teeth, answered, "Speak, wife." + +So she, who in all things had loved and served him,--she, Light of +all hearts, dispeller of all gloom,--gathered her dying breath for +consolation, and raised one hand slowly; and it fell across his, and so +remained. + +Now, her beauty had been broken in the anguish like a rose in storm; but +it returned to her, doubtless that the Padishah might take comfort in +its memory; and she looked like a houri of Paradise who, kneeling beside +the Zemzem Well, beholds the Waters of Peace. Not Fatmeh herself, the +daughter of the Prophet of God, shone more sweetly. She repeated the +word, "Beloved"; and after a pause she whispered on with lips that +scarcely stirred, "King of the Age, this is the end." + +But still he was like a dead man, nor lifted his face. + +"Surely all things pass. And though I go, in your heart I abide, and +nothing can sever us. Take comfort." + +But there was no answer. + +"Nothing but Love's own hand can slay Love. Therefore, remember me, and +I shall live." + +And he answered from the darkness of her bosom, "The whole world shall +remember. But when shall I be united to thee? O Allah, how long wilt +thou leave me to waste in this separation?" + +And she: "Beloved, what is time? We sleep and the night is gone. Now put +your arms about me, for I sink into rest. What words are needed between +us? Love is enough." + +So, making not the Profession of Faith,--and what need, since all her +life was worship,--the Lady Arjemand turned into his arms like a child. +And the night deepened. + +Morning, with its arrows of golden light that struck the river to +splendour! Morning, with its pure breath, its sunshine of joy, and the +koels fluting in the Palace gardens! Morning, divine and new from +the hand of the Maker! And in the innermost chamber of marble a white +silence; and the Lady, the Mirror of Goodness, lying in the Compassion +of Allah, and a broken man stretched on the ground beside her. For all +flesh, from the camel-driver to the Shah-in-Shah, is as one in the Day +of the Smiting. + + +II + +For weeks the Emperor lay before the door of death; and had it opened +to him, he had been blessed. So the months went by, and very slowly the +strength returned to him; but his eyes were withered and the bones stood +out in his cheeks. But he resumed his throne, and sat upon it kingly, +black-bearded, eagle-eyed, terribly apart in his grief and his royalty; +and so seated among his Usbegs, he declared his will. + +"For this Lady (upon whom be peace), departed to the mercy of the Giver +and Taker, shall a tomb-palace be made, the Like of which is not found +in the four corners of the world. Send forth therefore for craftsmen +like the builders of the Temple of Solomon the Wise; for I will build." + +So, taking counsel, they sent in haste into Agra for Ustad Isa, the +Master-Builder, a man of Shiraz; and he, being presented before the +Padishah, received his instructions in these words:-- + +"I will that all the world shall remember the Flower of the World, +that all hearts shall give thanks for her beauty, which was indeed the +perfect Mirror of the Creator. And since it is abhorrent of Islam that +any image be made in the likeness of anything that has life, make for me +a palace-tomb, gracious as she was gracious, lovely as she was lovely. +Not such as the tombs of the Kings and the Conquerors, but of a divine +sweetness. Make me a garden on the banks of Jumna, and build it there, +where, sitting in my Pavilion of Marble, I may see it rise." + +And Ustad Isa, having heard, said, "Upon my head and eyes!" and went out +from the Presence. + +So, musing upon the words of the Padishah, he went to his house in Agra, +and there pondered the matter long and deeply; and for a whole day and +night he refused all food and secluded himself from the society of all +men; for he said:-- + +"This is a weighty thing, for this Lady (upon whom be peace) must +visibly dwell in her tomb-palace on the shore of the river; and how +shall I, who have never seen her, imagine the grace that was in her, and +restore it to the world? Oh, had I but the memory of her face! Could I +but see it as the Shah-in-Shah sees it, remembering the past! Prophet +of God, intercede for me, that I may look through his eyes, if but for a +moment!" + +That night he slept, wearied and weakened with fasting; and whether it +were that the body guarded no longer the gates of the soul, I cannot +say; for, when the body ails, the soul soars free above its weakness. +But a strange marvel happened. + +For, as it seemed to him, he awoke at the mid-noon of the night, and +he was sitting, not in his own house, but upon the roof of the royal +palace, looking down on the gliding Jumna, where the low moon slept in +silver, and the light was alone upon the water; and there were no boats, +but sleep and dream, hovering hand-in-hand, moved upon the air, and his +heart was dilated in the great silence. + +Yet he knew well that he waked in some supernatural sphere: for his eyes +could see across the river as if the opposite shore lay at his feet; +and he could distinguish every leaf on every tree, and the flowers +moon-blanched and ghost-like. And there, in the blackest shade of the +pippala boughs, he beheld a faint light like a pearl; and looking with +unspeakable anxiety, he saw within the light, slowly growing, the figure +of a lady exceedingly glorious in majesty and crowned with a rayed crown +of mighty jewels of white and golden splendour. Her gold robe fell to +her feet, and--very strange to tell--her feet touched not the ground, +but hung a span's length above it, so that she floated in the air. + +But the marvel of marvels was her face--not, indeed, for its beauty, +though that transcended all, but for its singular and compassionate +sweetness, wherewith she looked toward the Palace beyond the river as if +it held the heart of her heart, while death and its river lay between. + +And Ustad Isa said:--"O dream, if this sweetness be but a dream, let me +never wake! Let me see forever this exquisite work of Allah the Maker, +before whom all the craftsmen are as children! For my knowledge is as +nothing, and I am ashamed in its presence." + +And as he spoke, she turned those brimming eyes on him, and he saw her +slowly absorbed into the glory of the moonlight; but as she faded into +dream, he beheld, slowly rising, where her feet had hung in the blessed +air, a palace of whiteness, warm as ivory, cold as chastity, domes and +cupolas, slender minars, arches of marble fretted into sea-foam, screen +within screen of purest marble, to hide the sleeping beauty of a great +Queen--silence in the heart of it, and in every line a harmony beyond +all music. Grace was about it--the grace of a Queen who prays and does +not command; who, seated in her royalty yet inclines all hearts to love. +And he saw that its grace was her grace, and its soul her soul, and +that she gave it for the consolation of the Emperor. + +And he fell on his face and worshipped the Master-Builder of the +Universe, saying,--"Praise cannot express thy Perfection. Thine Essence +confounds thought. Surely I am but the tool in the hand of the Builder." + +And when he awoke, he was lying in his own secret chamber, but beside +him was a drawing such as the craftsmen make of the work they have +imagined in their hearts. And it was the Palace of the Tomb. + +Henceforward, how should he waver? He was as a slave who obeys his +master, and with haste he summoned to Agra his Army of Beauty. + +Then were assembled all the master craftsmen of India and of the outer +world. From Delhi, from Shiraz, even from Baghdad and Syria, they came. +Muhammad Hanif, the wise mason, came from Kandahar, Muhammad Sayyid from +Mooltan. Amanat Khan, and other great writers of the holy Koran, who +should make the scripts of the Book upon fine marble. Inlayers from +Kanauj, with fingers like those of the Spirits that bowed before Solomon +the King, who should make beautiful the pure stone with inlay of jewels, +as did their forefathers for the Rajah of Mewar; mighty dealers with +agate, cornelian, and lapis lazuli. Came also, from Bokhara, Ata +Muhammad and Shakri Muhammad, that they might carve the lilies of the +field, very glorious, about that Flower of the World. Men of India, men +of Persia, men of the outer lands, they came at the bidding of Ustad +Isa, that the spirit of his vision might be made manifest. + +And a great council was held among these servants of beauty, so they +made a model in little of the glory that was to be, and laid it at the +feet of the Shah-in-Shah; and he allowed it, though not as yet fully +discerning their intent. And when it was approved, Ustad Isa called to +him a man of Kashmir; and the very hand of the Creator was upon this +man, for he could make gardens second only to the Gardens of Paradise, +having been born by that Dal Lake where are those roses of the earth, +the Shalimar and the Nishat Bagh; and to him said Ustad Isa,-- + +"Behold, Rain Lal Kashmiri, consider this design! Thus and thus shall +a white palace, exquisite in perfection, arise on the banks of Jumna. +Here, in little, in this model of sandalwood, see what shall be. +Consider these domes, rounded as the Bosom of Beauty, recalling the +mystic fruit of the lotus flower. Consider these four minars that stand +about them like Spirits about the Throne. And remembering that all this +shall stand upon a great dais of purest marble, and that the river shall +be its mirror, repeating to everlasting its loveliness, make me a garden +that shall be the throne room to this Queen." + +And Ram Lal Kashmiri salaamed and said, "Obedience!" and went forth and +pondered night and day, journeying even over the snows of the Pir Panjal +to Kashmir, that he might bathe his eyes in beauty where she walks, +naked and divine, upon the earth, and he it was who imagined the black +marble and white that made the way of approach. + +So grew the palace that should murmur, like a seashell, in the ear of +the world the secret of love. + +Veiled had that loveliness been in the shadow of the palace; but now the +sun should rise upon it and turn its ivory to gold, should set upon +it and flush its snow with rose. The moon should lie upon it like the +pearls upon her bosom, the visible grace of her presence breathe about +it, the music of her voice hover in the birds and trees of the garden. +Times there were when Ustad Isa despaired lest even these mighty +servants of beauty should miss perfection. Yet it grew and grew, rising +like the growth of a flower. + +So on a certain day it stood completed, and beneath the small tomb in +the sanctuary, veiled with screens of wrought marble so fine that +they might lift in the breeze,--the veils of a Queen,--slept the Lady +Arjemand; and above her a narrow coffer of white marble, enriched in +a great script with the Ninety-Nine Wondrous Names of God. And the +Shah-in-Shah, now grey and worn, entered and, standing by her, cried in +a loud voice,--"I ascribe to the Unity, the only Creator, the perfection +of his handiwork made visible here by the hand of mortal man. For the +beauty that was secret in my Palace is here revealed; and the Crowned +Lady shall sit forever upon the banks of the Jumna River. It was love +that commanded this Tomb." + +And the golden echo carried his voice up into the high dome, and it died +away in whispers of music. + +But Ustad Isa standing far off in the throng (for what are craftsmen +in the presence of the mighty?), said softly in his beard, "It was Love +also that built, and therefore it shall endure." + +Now it is told that, on a certain night in summer, when the moon is +full, a man who lingers by the straight water, where the cypresses stand +over their own image, may see a strange marvel--may see the Palace of +the Taj dissolve like a pearl, and so rise in a mist into the moonlight; +and in its place, on her dais of white marble, he shall see the Lady +Arjemand, Mumtaz-i-Mahal, the Chosen of the Palace, stand there in the +white perfection of beauty, smiling as one who hath attained unto the +Peace. For she is its soul. + +And kneeling before the dais, he shall see Ustad Isa, who made this body +of her beauty; and his face is hidden in his hands. + + + + +"HOW GREAT IS THE GLORY OF KWANNON!" + +A JAPANESE STORY + + +(O Lovely One-O thou Flower! With Thy beautiful face, with Thy beautiful +eyes, pour light upon the world! Adoration to Kwannon.) + +In Japan in the days of the remote Ancestors, near the little village of +Shiobara, the river ran through rocks of a very strange blue colour, and +the bed of the river was also composed of these rocks, so that the clear +water ran blue as turquoise gems to the sea. + +The great forests murmured beside it, and through their swaying boughs +was breathed the song of Eternity. Those who listen may hear if their +ears are open. To others it is but the idle sighing of the wind. + +Now because of all this beauty there stood in these forests a roughly +built palace of unbarked wood, and here the great Emperor would come +from City-Royal to seek rest for his doubtful thoughts and the cares of +state, turning aside often to see the moonlight in Shiobara. He sought +also the free air and the sound of falling water, yet dearer to him than +the plucked strings of sho and biwa. For he said; + +"Where and how shall We find peace even for a moment, and afford Our +heart refreshment even for a single second?" + +And it seemed to him that he found such moments at Shiobara. + +Only one of his great nobles would His Majesty bring with him--the +Dainagon, and him be chose because he was a worthy and honorable person +and very simple of heart. + +There was yet another reason why the Son of Heaven inclined to the +little Shiobara. It had reached the Emperor that a Recluse of the +utmost sanctity dwelt in that forest. His name was Semimaru. He had made +himself a small hut in the deep woods, much as a decrepit silkworm might +spin his last Cocoon and there had the Peace found him. + +It had also reached His Majesty that, although blind, he was exceedingly +skilled in the art of playing the biwa, both in the Flowing Fount manner +and the Woodpecker manner, and that, especially on nights when the moon +was full, this aged man made such music as transported the soul. This +music His Majesty desired very greatly to hear. + +Never had Semimaru left his hut save to gather wood or seek food until +the Divine Emperor commanded his attendance that he might soothe his +august heart with music. + +Now on this night of nights the moon was full and the snow heavy on the +pines, and the earth was white also, and when the moon shone through the +boughs it made a cold light like dawn, and the shadows of the trees were +black upon it. + +The attendants of His Majesty long since slept for sheer weariness, for +the night was far spent, but the Emperor and the Dainagon still sat +with their eyes fixed on the venerable Semimaru. For many hours he had +played, drawing strange music from his biwa. Sometimes it had been like +rain blowing over the plains of Adzuma, sometimes like the winds roaring +down the passes of the Yoshino Mountains, and yet again like the voice +of far cities. For many hours they listened without weariness, and +thought that all the stories of the ancients might flow past them in the +weird music that seemed to have neither beginning nor end. + +"It is as the river that changes and changes not, and is ever and ever +the same," said the Emperor in his own soul. + +And certainly had a voice announced to His Augustness that centuries +were drifting by as he listened, he could have felt no surprise. + +Before them, as they sat upon the silken floor cushions, was a small +shrine with a Buddha shelf, and a hanging picture of the Amida Buddha +within it--the expression one of rapt peace. Figures of Fugen and +Fudo were placed before the curtain doors of the shrine, looking up in +adoration to the Blessed One. A small and aged pine tree was in a pot of +grey porcelain from Chosen--the only ornament in the chamber. + +Suddenly His Majesty became aware that the Dainagon also had fallen +asleep from weariness, and that the recluse was no longer playing, but +was speaking in a still voice like a deeply flowing stream. The Emperor +had observed no change from music to speech, nor could he recall when +the music had ceased, so that it altogether resembled a dream. + +"When I first came here"--the Venerable one continued--"it was not my +intention to stay long in the forest. As each day dawned, I said; 'In +seven days I go.' And again--'In seven.' Yet have I not gone. The days +glided by and here have I attained to look on the beginnings of peace. +Then wherefore should I go?--for all life is within the soul. Shall the +fish weary of his pool? And I, who through my blind eyes feel the moon +illuming my forest by night and the sun by day, abide in peace, so that +even the wild beasts press round to hear my music. I have come by a path +overblown by autumn leaves. But I have come." + +Then said the Divine Emperor as if unconsciously; + +"Would that I also might come! But the august duties cannot easily be +laid aside. And I have no wife--no son." + +And Semimaru, playing very softly on the strings of his biwa made +no other answer, and His Majesty, collecting his thoughts, which had +become, as it were, frozen with the cold and the quiet and the strange +music, spoke thus, as if in a waking dream; + +"Why have I not wedded? Because I have desired a bride beyond the +women of earth, and of none such as I desire has the rumor reached me. +Consider that Ancestor who wedded Her Shining Majesty! Evil and lovely +was she, and the passions were loud about her. And so it is with women. +Trouble and vexation of spirit, or instead a great weariness. But if the +Blessed One would vouchsafe to my prayers a maiden of blossom and dew, +with a heart calm as moonlight, her would I wed. O, honorable One, whose +wisdom surveys the world, is there in any place near or far--in heaven +or in earth, such a one that I may seek and find?" + +And Semimaru, still making a very low music on his biwa, said this; + +"Supreme Master, where the Shiobara River breaks away through the gorges +to the sea, dwelt a poor couple--the husband a wood-cutter. They had no +children to aid in their toil, and daily the woman addressed her prayers +for a son to the Bodhisattwa Kwannon, the Lady of Pity who looketh down +for ever upon the sound of prayer. Very fervently she prayed, with such +offerings as her poverty allowed, and on a certain night she dreamed +this dream. At the shrine of the Senju Kwannon she knelt as was her +custom, and that Great Lady, sitting enthroned upon the Lotos of Purity, +opened Her eyes slowly from Her divine contemplation and heard the +prayer of the wood-cutter's wife. Then stooping like a blown willow +branch, she gathered a bud from the golden lotos plant that stood upon +her altar, and breathing upon it it became pure white and living, and it +exhaled a perfume like the flowers of Paradise, This flower the Lady +of Pity flung into the bosom of her petitioner, and closing Her eyes +returned into Her divine dream, whilst the woman awoke, weeping for joy. + +"But when she sought in her bosom for the Lotos it was gone. Of all this +she boasted loudly to her folk and kin, and the more so, when in due +time she perceived herself to be with child, for, from that august +favour she looked for nothing less than a son, radiant with the Five +Ornaments of riches, health, longevity, beauty, and success. Yet, when +her hour was come, a girl was born, and blind." + +"Was she welcomed?" asked the dreaming voice of the Emperor. + +"Augustness, but as a household drudge. For her food was cruelty and her +drink tears. And the shrine of the Senju Kwannon was neglected by her +parents because of the disappointment and shame of the unwanted gift. +And they believed that, lost in Her divine contemplation, the Great Lady +would not perceive this neglect. The Gods however are known by their +great memories." + +"Her name?" + +"Majesty, Tsuyu-Morning Dew. And like the morning dew she shines in +stillness. She has repaid good for evil to her evil parents, serving +them with unwearied service." + +"What distinguishes her from others?" + +"Augustness, a very great peace. Doubtless the shadow of the dream of +the Holy Kwannon. She works, she moves, she smiles as one who has tasted +of content." + +"Has she beauty?" + +"Supreme Master, am I not blind? But it is said that she has no beauty +that men should desire her. Her face is flat and round, and her eyes +blind." + +"And yet content?" + +"Philosophers might envy her calm. And her blindness is without doubt +a grace from the excelling Pity, for could she see her own exceeding +ugliness she must weep for shame. But she sees not. Her sight is inward, +and she is well content." + +"Where does she dwell?" + +"Supreme Majesty, far from here--where in the heart of the woods the +river breaks through the rocks." + +"Venerable One, why have you told me this? I asked for a royal maiden +wise and beautiful, calm as the dawn, and you have told me of a +wood-cutter's drudge, blind and ugly." + +And now Semimaru did not answer, but the tones of the biwa grew louder +and clearer, and they rang like a song of triumph, and the Emperor could +hear these words in the voice of the strings. + +"She is beautiful as the night, crowned with moon and stars for him +who has eyes to see. Princess Splendour was dim beside her; Prince +Fireshine, gloom! Her Shining Majesty was but a darkened glory before +this maid. All beauty shines within her hidden eyes." + +And having uttered this the music became wordless once more, but it +still flowed on more and more softly like a river that flows into the +far distance. + +The Emperor stared at the mats, musing--the light of the lamp was +burning low. His heart said within him; + +"This maiden, cast like a flower from the hand of Kwannon Sama, will I +see." + +And as he said this the music had faded away into a thread-like +smallness, and when after long thought he raised his august head, he was +alone save for the Dainagon, sleeping on the mats behind him, and the +chamber was in darkness. Semimaru had departed in silence, and His +Majesty, looking forth into the broad moonlight, could see the track of +his feet upon the shining snow, and the music came back very thinly like +spring rain in the trees. Once more he looked at the whiteness of the +night, and then, stretching his august person on the mats, he slept amid +dreams of sweet sound. + +The next day, forbidding any to follow save the Dainagon, His Majesty +went forth upon the frozen snow where the sun shone in a blinding +whiteness. They followed the track of Semimaru's feet far under the pine +trees so heavy with their load of snow that they were bowed as if with +fruit. And the track led on and the air was so still that the cracking +of a bough was like the blow of a hammer, and the sliding of a load of +snow from a branch like the fall of an avalanche. Nor did they speak as +they went. They listened, nor could they say for what. + +Then, when they had gone a very great way, the track ceased suddenly, +as if cut off, and at this spot, under the pines furred with snow, His +Majesty became aware of a perfume so sweet that it was as though all the +flowers of the earth haunted the place with their presence, and a music +like the biwa of Semimaru was heard in the tree tops. This sounded far +off like the whispering of rain when it falls in very small leaves, and +presently it died away, and a voice followed after, singing, alone in +the woods, so that the silence appeared to have been created that such a +music might possess the world. So the Emperor stopped instantly, and the +Dainagon behind him and he heard these words. + + "In me the Heavenly Lotos grew, + The fibres ran from head to feet, + And my heart was the august Blossom. + Therefore the sweetness flowed through the veins of my flesh, + And I breathed peace upon all the world, + And about me was my fragrance shed + That the souls of men should desire me." + +Now, as he listened, there came through the wood a maiden, bare--footed, +save for grass sandals, and clad in coarse clothing, and she came up and +passed them, still singing. + +And when she was past, His Majesty put up his hand to his eyes, like one +dreaming, and said; + +"What have you seen?" + +And the Dainagon answered; + +"Augustness, a country wench, flat--faced, ugly and blind, and with a +voice like a crow. Has not your Majesty seen this?" + +The Emperor, still shading his eyes, replied; + +"I saw a maiden so beautiful that her Shining Majesty would be a black +blot beside her. As she went, the Spring and all its sweetness blew from +her garments. Her robe was green with small gold flowers. Her eyes were +closed, but she resembled a cherry tree, snowy with bloom and dew. Her +voice was like the singing flowers of Paradise." + +The Dainagon looked at him with fear and compassion; + +"Augustness, how should such a lady carry in her arms a bundle of +firewood?" + +"She bore in her hands three lotos flowers, and where each foot fell I +saw a lotos bloom and vanish." + +They retraced their steps through the wood; His Majesty radiant as +Prince Fireshine with the joy that filled his soul; the Dainagon +darkened as Prince Firefade with fear, believing that the strange music +of Semimaru had bewitched His Majesty, or that the maiden herself might +possibly have the power of the fox in shape-changing and bewildering the +senses. + +Very sorrowful and careful was his heart for he loved his Master. + +That night His Majesty dreamed that he stood before the kakemono of the +Amida Buddha, and that as he raised his eyes in adoration to the Blessed +Face, he beheld the images of Fugen and Fudo, rise up and bow down +before that One Who Is. Then, gliding in, before these Holinesses stood +a figure, and it was the wood-cutter's daughter homely and blinded. She +stretched her hands upward as though invoking the supreme Buddha, and +then turning to His Majesty she smiled upon him, her eyes closed as in +bliss unutterable. And he said aloud. + +"Would that I might see her eyes!" and so saying awoke in a great +stillness of snow and moonlight. + +Having waked, he said within himself + +"This marvel will I wed and she shall be my Empress were she lower than +the Eta, and whether her face be lovely or homely. For she is certainly +a flower dropped from the hand of the Divine." + +So when the sun was high His Majesty, again followed by the Dainagon, +went through the forest swiftly, and like a man that sees his goal, +and when they reached the place where the maiden went by, His Majesty +straitly commanded the Dainagon that he should draw apart, and leave him +to speak with the maiden; yet that he should watch what befell. + +So the Dainagon watched, and again he saw her come, very poorly clad, +and with bare feet that shrank from the snow in her grass sandals, bowed +beneath a heavy load of wood upon her shoulders, and her face flat and +homely like a girl of the people, and her eyes blind and shut. + +And as she came she sang this. + + "The Eternal way lies before him, + The way that is made manifest in the Wise. + The Heart that loves reveals itself to man. + For now he draws nigh to the Source. + The night advances fast, + And lo! the moon shines bright." + +And to the Dainagon it seemed a harsh crying nor could he distinguish +any words at all. + +But what His Majesty beheld was this. The evening had come on and the +moon was rising. The snow had gone. It was the full glory of spring, and +the flowers sprang thick as stars upon the grass, and among them lotos +flowers, great as the wheel of a chariot, white and shining with +the luminance of the pearl, and upon each one of these was seated an +incarnate Holiness, looking upward with joined hands. In the trees were +the voices of the mystic Birds that are the utterance of the Blessed +One, proclaiming in harmony the Five Virtues, The Five Powers, the Seven +Steps ascending to perfect Illumination, the Noble Eightfold Path, and +all the Law. And, bearing, in the heart of the Son of Heaven awoke the +Three Remembrances--the Remembrance of Him who is Blessed, Remembrance +of the Law, and Remembrance of the Communion of the Assembly. + +So, looking upward to the heavens, he beheld the Infinite Buddha, +high and lifted up in a great raying glory. About Him were the exalted +Bodhisattwas, the mighty Disciples, great Arhats all, and all the +countless Angelhood. And these rose high into the infinite until they +could be seen but as a point of fire against the moon. With this golden +multitude beyond all numbering was He. + +Then, as His Majesty had seen in the dream of the night, the +wood-cutter's daughter, moving through the flowers like one blind that +gropes his way, advanced before the Blessed Feet, and uplifting her +hands, did adoration, and her face he could not see, but his heart +went with her, adoring also the infinite Buddha seated in the calms of +boundless Light. + +Then enlightenment entered at his eyes, as a man that wakes from sleep, +and suddenly he beheld the Maiden crowned and robed and terrible in +beauty, and her feet were stayed upon an open lotos, and his soul knew +the Senju Kwannon Herself, myriad-armed for the helping of mankind. + +And turning, she smiled as in the vision, but his eyes being now clear +her blinded eyes were opened, and that glory who shall tell as those +living founts of Wisdom rayed upon him their ineffable light? In that +ocean was his being drowned, and so, bowed before the Infinite Buddha, +he received the Greater Illumination. + +How great is the Glory of Kwannon! + +When the radiance and the vision were withdrawn and only the moon looked +over the trees, His Majesty rose upon his feet, and standing on the +snow, surrounded with calm, he called to the Dainagon, and asked this; + +"What have you seen?" + +"Augustness, nothing but the country wench and moon and snow." + +"And heard?" + +"Augustness, nothing but the harsh voice of the wood-cutter's daughter." + +"And felt?" + +"Augustness, nothing but the bone-piercing cold." So His Majesty adored +that which cannot be uttered, saying; + +"So Wisdom, so Glory encompass us about, and we see them not for we +are blinded with illusion. Yet every stone is a jewel and every clod +is spirit and to the hems of the Infinite Buddha all cling. Through the +compassion of the Supernal Mercy that walks the earth as the Bodhisattwa +Kwannon, am I admitted to wisdom and given sight and hearing. And what +is all the world to that happy one who has beheld Her eyes!" + +And His Majesty returned through the forest. + +When, the next day, he sent for the venerable Semimaru that holy recluse +had departed and none knew where. But still when the moon is full a +strange music moves in the tree tops of Shiobara. + +Then His sacred Majesty returned to City-Royal, having determined +to retire into the quiet life, and there, abandoning the throne to a +kinsman wise in greatness, he became a dweller in the deserted hut of +Semimaru. + +His life, like a descending moon approaching the hill that should hide +it, was passed in meditation on that Incarnate Love and Compassion whose +glory had augustly been made known to him, and having cast aside all +save the image of the Divine from his soul, His Majesty became even as +that man who desired enlightenment of the Blessed One. + +For he, desiring instruction, gathered precious flowers, and journeyed +to present them as an offering to the Guatama Buddha. Standing before +Him, he stretched forth both his hands holding the flowers. + +Then said the Holy One, looking upon his petitioner's right hand; + +"Loose your hold of these." + +And the man dropped the flowers from his right hand. And the Holy One +looking upon his left hand, said; + +"Loose your hold of these." + +And, sorrowing, he dropped the flowers from his left hand. And again the +Master said; + +"Loose your hold of that which is neither in the right nor in the left." + +And the disciple said very pitifully; + +"Lord, of what should I loose my hold for I have nothing left?" + +And He looked upon him steadfastly. + +Therefore at last understanding he emptied his soul of all desire, and +of fear that is the shadow of desire, and being enlightened relinquished +all burdens. + +So was it also with His Majesty. In peace he dwelt, and becoming a great +Arhat, in peace he departed to that Uttermost Joy where is the Blessed +One made manifest in Pure Light. + +As for the parents of the maiden, they entered after sore troubles into +peace, having been remembered by the Infinite. For it is certain that +the enemies also of the Supreme Buddha go to salvation by thinking on +Him, even though it be against Him. + +And he who tells this truth makes this prayer to the Lady of Pity; + + "Grant me, I pray, + One dewdrop from Thy willow spray, + And in the double Lotos keep + My hidden heart asleep." + +How great is the Glory of Kwannon! + + + + +THE ROUND-FACED BEAUTY + +A STORY OF THE CHINESE COURT + +In the city of Chang-an music filled the palaces, and the festivities of +the Emperor were measured by its beat. Night, and the full moon swimming +like a gold-fish in the garden lakes, gave the signal for the Feather +Jacket and Rainbow Skirt dances. Morning, with the rising sun, summoned +the court again to the feast and wine-cup in the floating gardens. + +The Emperor Chung Tsu favored this city before all others. The Yen Tower +soaring heavenward, the Drum Towers, the Pearl Pagoda, were the only +fit surroundings of his magnificence; and in the Pavilion of Tranquil +Learning were held those discussions which enlightened the world and +spread the fame of the Jade Emperor far and wide. In all respects he +adorned the Dragon Throne--in all but one; for Nature, bestowing so +much, withheld one gift, and the Imperial heart, as precious as jade, +was also as hard, and he eschewed utterly the company of the Hidden +Palace Flowers. + +Yet the Inner Chambers were filled with ladies chosen from all parts of +the Celestial Empire--ladies of the most exquisite and torturing beauty, +moons of loveliness, moving coquettishly on little feet, with all the +grace of willow branches in a light breeze. They were sprinkled with +perfumes, adorned with jewels, robed in silks woven with gold and +embroidered with designs of flowers and birds. Their faces were painted +and their eyebrows formed into slender and perfect arches whence the +soul of man might well slip to perdition, and a breath of sweet odor +followed each wherever she moved. Every one might have been the Empress +of some lesser kingdom; but though rumours reached the Son of Heaven +from time to time of their charms,--especially when some new blossom was +added to the Imperial bouquet,--he had dismissed them from his august +thoughts, and they languished in a neglect so complete that the Great +Cold Palaces of the Moon were not more empty than their hearts. They +remained under the supervision of the Princess of Han, August Aunt +of the Emperor, knowing that their Lord considered the company of +sleeve-dogs and macaws more pleasant than their own. Nor had he as yet +chosen an Empress, and it was evident that without some miracle, such +as the intervention of the Municipal God, no heir to the throne could be +hoped for. + +Yet the Emperor one day remembered his imprisoned beauties, and it +crossed the Imperial thoughts that even these inferior creatures might +afford such interest as may be found in the gambols of trained fleas or +other insects of no natural attainments. + +Accordingly, he commanded that the subject last discussed in his +presence should be transferred to the Inner Chambers, and it was his +Order that the ladies should also discuss it, and their opinions be +engraved on ivory, bound together with red silk and tassels and thus +presented at the Dragon feet. The subject chosen was the following:-- + +Describe the Qualities of the Ideal Man + +Now when this command was laid before the August Aunt, the guardian of +the Inner Chambers, she was much perturbed in mind, for such a thing +was unheard of in all the annals of the Empire. Recovering herself, she +ventured to say that the discussion of such a question might raise +very disquieting thoughts in the minds of the ladies, who could not +be supposed to have any opinions at all on such a subject. Nor was it +desirable that they should have. To every woman her husband and no other +is and must be the Ideal Man. So it was always in the past; so it must +ever be. There are certain things which it is dangerous to question or +discuss, and how can ladies who have never spoken with any other man +than a parent or a brother judge such matters? + +"How, indeed," asked this lady of exalted merit, "can the bat form +an idea of the sunlight, or the carp of the motion of wings? If his +Celestial Majesty had commanded a discussion on the Superior Woman and +the virtues which should adorn her, some sentiments not wholly unworthy +might have been offered. But this is a calamity. They come unexpectedly, +springing up like mushrooms, and this one is probably due to the lack of +virtue of the inelegant and unintellectual person who is now speaking." + +This she uttered in the presence of the principal beauties of the +Inner Chambers. They sat or reclined about her in attitudes of perfect +loveliness. Two, embroidering silver pheasants, paused with their +needles suspended above the stretched silk, to hear the August Aunt. +One, threading beads of jewel jade, permitted them to slip from the +string and so distended the rose of her mouth in surprise that the small +pearl-shells were visible within. The Lady Tortoise, caressing a scarlet +and azure macaw, in her agitation so twitched the feathers that the +bird, shrieking, bit her finger. The Lady Golden Bells blushed deeply +at the thought of what was required of them; and the little Lady Summer +Dress, youngest of all the assembled beauties, was so alarmed at the +prospect that she began to sob aloud, until she met the eye of the +August Aunt and abruptly ceased. + +"It is not, however, to be supposed," said the August Aunt, opening her +snuff-bottle of painted crystal, "that the minds of our deplorable and +unattractive sex are wholly incapable of forming opinions. But speech +is a grave matter for women, naturally slow-witted and feeble-minded as +they are. This unenlightened person recalls the Odes as saying:-- + + 'A flaw in a piece of white jade + May be ground away, + But when a woman has spoken foolishly + Nothing can be done-' + +a consideration which should make every lady here and throughout the +world think anxiously before speech." So anxiously did the assembled +beauties think, that all remained mute as fish in a pool, and the August +Aunt continued:-- + +"Let Tsu-ssu be summoned. It is my intention to suggest to the Dragon +Emperor that the virtues of women be the subject of our discourse, and I +will myself open and conclude the discussion." + +Tsu-ssu was not long in kotowing before the August Aunt, who despatched +her message with the proper ceremonial due to its Imperial destination; +and meanwhile, in much agitation, the beauties could but twitter and +whisper in each other's ears, and await the response like condemned +prisoners who yet hope for reprieve. + +Scarce an hour had dripped away on the water-clock when an Imperial +Missive bound with yellow silk arrived, and the August Aunt, rising, +kotowed nine times before she received it in her jewelled hand with its +delicate and lengthy nails ensheathed in pure gold and set with gems +of the first water. She then read it aloud, the ladies prostrating +themselves. + +To the Princess of Han, the August Aunt, the Lady of the Nine Superior +Virtues:-- + +"Having deeply reflected on the wisdom submitted, We thus reply. Women +should not be the judges of their own virtues, since these exist only +in relation to men. Let Our Command therefore be executed, and tablets +presented before us seven days hence, with the name of each lady +appended to her tablet." + +It was indeed pitiable to see the anxiety of the ladies! A sacrifice to +Kwan-Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, of a jewel from each, with intercession +for aid, was proposed by the Lustrous Lady; but the majority shook their +heads sadly. The August Aunt, tossing her head, declared that, as the +Son of Heaven had made no comment on her proposal of opening and closing +the discussion, she should take no part other than safeguarding the +interests of propriety. This much increased the alarm, and, kneeling at +her feet, the swan-like beauties, Deep-Snow and Winter Moon implored her +aid and compassion. But, rising indignantly, the August Aunt sought her +own apartments, and for the first time the inmates of the Pepper Chamber +saw with regret the golden dragons embroidered on her back. + +It was then that the Round-Faced Beauty ventured a remark. This maiden, +having been born in the far-off province of Suchuan, was considered a +rustic by the distinguished elegance of the Palace and, therefore, had +never spoken unless decorum required. Still, even her detractors were +compelled to admit the charms that had gained her her name. Her face had +the flawless outline of the pearl, and like the blossom of the plum was +the purity of her complexion, upon which the darkness of her eyebrows +resembled two silk-moths alighted to flutter above the brilliance of her +eyes--eyes which even the August Aunt had commended after a banquet of +unsurpassed variety. Her hair had been compared to the crow's plumage; +her waist was like a roll of silk, and her discretion in habiting +herself was such that even the Lustrous Lady and the Lady Tortoise drew +instruction from the splendours of her robes. It created, however, a +general astonishment when she spoke. + +"Paragons of beauty, what is this dull and opaque-witted person that +she should speak?" + +"What, indeed!" said the Celestial Sister. "This entirely +undistinguished person cannot even imagine." + +A distressing pause followed, during which many whispered anxiously. The +Lustrous Lady broke it. + +"It is true that the highly ornamental Round-Faced Beauty is but lately +come, yet even the intelligent Ant may assist the Dragon; and in the +presence of alarm, what is decorum? With a tiger behind one, who can +recall the Book of Rites and act with befitting elegance?" + +"The high-born will at all times remember the Rites!" retorted the +Celestial Sister. "Have we not heard the August Aunt observe: 'Those who +understand do not speak. Those who speak do not understand'?" + +The Round-Faced Beauty collected her courage. + +"Doubtless this is wisdom; yet if the wise do not speak, who should +instruct us? The August Aunt herself would be silent." + +All were confounded by this dilemma, and the little Lady Summer-Dress, +still weeping, entreated that the Round-Faced Beauty might be heard. +The Heavenly Blossoms then prepared to listen and assumed attitudes of +attention, which so disconcerted the Round-Faced Beauty that she blushed +like a spring tulip in speaking. + +"Beautiful ladies, our Lord, who is unknown to us all, has issued an +august command. It cannot be disputed, for the whisper of disobedience +is heard as thunder in the Imperial Presence. Should we not aid each +other? If any lady has formed a dream in her soul of the Ideal +Man, might not such a picture aid us all? Let us not be +'say-nothing-do-nothing,' but act!" + +They hung their heads and smiled, but none would allow that she had +formed such an image. The little Lady Tortoise, laughing behind her +fan of sandalwood, said roguishly: "The Ideal Man should be handsome, +liberal in giving, and assuredly he should appreciate the beauty of his +wives. But this we cannot say to the Divine Emperor." + +A sigh rustled through the Pepper Chamber. The Celestial Sister looked +angrily at the speaker. + +"This is the talk of children," she said. "Does no one remember +Kung-fu-tse's [Confucius] description of the Superior Man?" + +Unfortunately none did--not even the Celestial Sister herself. + +"Is it not probable," said the Round-Faced Beauty, "that the Divine +Emperor remembers it himself and wishes--" + +But the Celestial Sister, yawning audibly, summoned the attendants to +bring rose-leaves in honey, and would hear no more. + +The Round-Faced Beauty therefore wandered forth among the mossy rocks +and drooping willows of the Imperial Garden, deeply considering the +matter. She ascended the bow-curved bridge of marble which crossed the +Pool of Clear Weather, and from the top idly observed the reflection of +her rose-and-gold coat in the water while, with her taper fingers, she +crumbled cake for the fortunate gold-fish that dwelt in it. And, so +doing, she remarked one fish, four-tailed among the six-tailed, and in +no way distinguished by elegance, which secured by far the largest share +of the crumbs dropped into the pool. Bending lower, she observed this +singular fish and its methods. + +The others crowded about the spot where the crumbs fell, all herded +together. In their eagerness and stupidity they remained like a cloud of +gold in one spot, slowly waving their tails. But this fish, concealing +itself behind a miniature rock, waited, looking upward, until the +crumbs were falling, and then, rushing forth with the speed of an +arrow, scattered the stupid mass of fish, and bore off the crumbs to its +shelter, where it instantly devoured them. + +"This is notable," said the Round-Faced Beauty. "Observation enlightens +the mind. To be apart--to be distinguished--secures notice!" And she +plunged into thought again, wandering, herself a flower, among the +gorgeous tree peonies. + +On the following day the August Aunt commanded that a writer among the +palace attendants should, with brush and ink, be summoned to transcribe +the wisdom of the ladies. She requested that each would give three +days to thought, relating the following anecdote. "There was a man who, +taking a piece of ivory, carved it into a mulberry leaf, spending three +years on the task. When finished it could not be told from the original, +and was a gift suitable for the Brother of the Sun and Moon. Do +likewise!" + +"But yet, O Augustness!" said the Celestial Sister, "if the Lord of +Heaven took as long with each leaf, there would be few leaves on the +trees, and if-" + +The August Aunt immediately commanded silence and retired. On the third +day she seated herself in her chair of carved ebony, while the attendant +placed himself by her feet and prepared to record her words. + +"This insignificant person has decided," began her Augustness, looking +round and unscrewing the amber top of her snuff-bottle, "to take an +unintelligent part in these proceedings. An example should be set. +Attendant, write!" + +She then dictated as follows: "The Ideal Man is he who now decorates +the Imperial Throne, or he who in all humility ventures to resemble the +incomparable Emperor. Though he may not hope to attain, his endeavor is +his merit. No further description it needed." + +With complacence she inhaled the perfumed snuff, as the writer appended +the elegant characters of her Imperial name. + +If it is permissible to say that the faces of the beauties lengthened +visibly, it should now be said. For it had been the intention of every +lady to make an illusion to the Celestial Emperor and depict him as the +Ideal Man. Nor had they expected that the August Aunt would take any +part in the matter. + +"Oh, but it was the intention of this commonplace and undignified person +to say this very thing!" cried the Lustrous Lady, with tears in the +jewels of her eyes. "I thought no other high-minded and distinguished +lady would for a moment think of it." + +"And it was my intention also!" fluttered the little Lady Tortoise, +wringing her hands! "What now shall this most unlucky and unendurable +person do? For three nights has sleep forsaken my unattractive eyelids, +and, tossing and turning on a couch deprived of all comfort, I could +only repeat, 'The Ideal Man is the Divine Dragon Emperor!'" + +"May one of entirely contemptible attainments make a suggestion in this +assemblage of scintillating wit and beauty?" inquired the Celestial +Sister. "My superficial opinion is that it would be well to prepare a +single paper to which all names should be appended, stating that His +Majesty in his Dragon Divinity comprises all ideals in his sacred +Person." + +"Let those words be recorded," said the August Aunt. "What else should +any lady of discretion and propriety say? In this Palace of Virtuous +Peace, where all is consecrated to the Son of Heaven, though he deigns +not to enter it, what other thought dare be breathed? Has any lady +ventured to step outside such a limit? If so, let her declare herself!" + +All shook their heads, and the August Aunt proceeded: "Let the writer +record this as the opinion of every lady of the Imperial Household, and +let each name be separately appended." + +Had any desired to object, none dared to confront the August Aunt; +but apparently no beauty so desired, for after three nights' sleepless +meditation, no other thought than this had occurred to any. + +Accordingly, the writer moved from lady to lady and, under the +supervision of the August Aunt, transcribed the following: "The Ideal +Man is the earthly likeness of the Divine Emperor. How should it be +otherwise?" And under this sentence wrote the name of each lovely one +in succession. The papers were then placed in the hanging sleeves of the +August Aunt for safety. + +By the decree of Fate, the father of the Round-Faced Beauty had, before +he became an ancestral spirit, been a scholar of distinction, having +graduated at the age of seventy-two with a composition commended by the +Grand Examiner. Having no gold and silver to give his daughter, he +had formed her mind, and had presented her with the sole jewel of his +family-a pearl as large as a bean. Such was her sole dower, but the +accomplished Aunt may excel the indolent Prince. + +Yet, before the thought in her mind, she hesitated and trembled, +recalling the lesson of the gold-fish; and it was with anxiety that +paled her roseate lips that, on a certain day, she had sought the Willow +Bridge Pavilion. There had awaited her a palace attendant skilled with +the brush, and there in secrecy and dire affright, hearing the footsteps +of the August Aunt in every rustle of leafage, and her voice in the +call of every crow, did the Round-Faced Beauty dictate the following +composition:-- + +"Though the sky rain pearls, it cannot equal the beneficence of the Son +of Heaven. Though the sky rain jade it cannot equal his magnificence. He +has commanded his slave to describe the qualities of the Ideal Man. +How should I, a mere woman, do this? I, who have not seen the Divine +Emperor, how should I know what is virtue? I, who have not seen the +glory of his countenance, how should I know what is beauty? Report +speaks of his excellencies, but I who live in the dark know not. But to +the Ideal Woman, the very vices of her husband are virtues. Should he +exalt another, this is a mark of his superior taste. Should he dismiss +his slave, this is justice. To the Ideal Woman there is but one Ideal +Man--and that is her lord. From the day she crosses his threshold, to +the day when they clothe her in the garments of Immortality, this is her +sole opinion. Yet would that she might receive instruction of what only +are beauty and virtue in his adorable presence." + +This being written, she presented her one pearl to the attendant and +fled, not looking behind her, as quickly as her delicate feet would +permit. + +On the seventh day the compositions, engraved on ivory and bound with +red silk and tassels, were presented to the Emperor, and for seven +days more he forgot their existence. On the eighth the High Chamberlain +ventured to recall them to the Imperial memory, and the Emperor glancing +slightly at one after another, threw them aside, yawning as he did so. +Finally, one arrested his eyes, and reading it more than once he laid it +before him and meditated. An hour passed in this way while the forgotten +Lord Chamberlain continued to kneel. The Son of Heaven, then raising his +head, pronounced these words: "In the society of the Ideal Woman, she to +whom jealousy is unknown, tranquillity might possibly be obtained. Let +prayer be made before the Ancestors with the customary offerings, for +this is a matter deserving attention." + +A few days passed, and an Imperial attendant, escorted by two mandarins +of the peacock-feather and crystal-button rank, desired an audience of +the August Aunt, and, speaking before the curtain, informed her that his +Imperial Majesty would pay a visit that evening to the Hall of Tranquil +Longevity. Such was her agitation at this honour that she immediately +swooned; but, reviving, summoned all the attendants and gave orders for +a banquet and musicians. + +Lanterns painted with pheasants and exquisite landscapes were hung on +all the pavilions. Tapestries of rose, decorated with the Five-Clawed +Dragons, adorned the chambers; and upon the High Seat was placed a robe +of yellow satin embroidered with pearls. All was hurry and excitement. +The Blossoms of the Palace were so exquisitely decked that one grain +more of powder would have made them too lily-like, and one touch more of +rouge, too rosecheeked. It was indeed perfection, and, like lotuses upon +a lake, or Asian birds, gorgeous of plumage, they stood ranged in the +outer chamber while the Celestial Emperor took his seat. + +The Round-Faced Beauty wore no jewels, having bartered her pearl for her +opportunity; but her long coat of jade-green, embroidered with golden +willows, and her trousers of palest rose left nothing to be desired. In +her hair two golden peonies were fastened with pins of kingfisher work. +The Son of Heaven was seated upon the throne as the ladies approached, +marshaled by the August Aunt. He was attired in the Yellow Robe with the +Flying Dragons, and upon the Imperial Head was the Cap, ornamented +with one hundred and forty-four priceless gems. From it hung the twelve +pendants of strings of pearls, partly concealing the august eyes of the +Jade Emperor. No greater splendour can strike awe into the soul of man. + +At his command the August Aunt took her seat upon a lesser chair at the +Celestial Feet. Her mien was majestic, and struck awe into the assembled +beauties, whose names she spoke aloud as each approached and prostrated +herself. She then pronounced these words: + +"Beautiful ones, the Emperor, having considered the opinions submitted +by you on the subject of the Superior Man, is pleased to express his +august commendation. Dismiss, therefore, anxiety from your minds, and +prepare to assist at the humble concert of music we have prepared for +his Divine pleasure." + +Slightly raising himself in his chair, the Son of Heaven looked down +upon that Garden of Beauty, holding in his hand an ivory tablet bound +with red silk. + +"Lovely ladies," he began, in a voice that assuaged fear, "who among you +was it that laid before our feet a composition beginning thus--'Though +the sky rain pearls'?" + +The August Aunt immediately rose. + +"Imperial Majesty, none! These eyes supervised every composition. No +impropriety was permitted." + +The Son of Heaven resumed: "Let that lady stand forth." + +The words were few, but sufficient. Trembling in every limb, the +Round-Faced Beauty separated herself from her companions and prostrated +herself, amid the breathless amazement of the Blossoms of the Palace. He +looked down upon her as she knelt, pale as a lady carved in ivory, but +lovely as the lotus of Chang-Su. He turned to the August Aunt. "Princess +of Han, my Imperial Aunt, I would speak with this lady alone." + +Decorum itself and the custom of Palaces could not conceal the +indignation of the August Aunt as she rose and retired, driving the +ladies before her as a shepherd drives his sheep. + +The Hall of Tranquil Longevity being now empty, the Jade Emperor +extended his hand and beckoned the Round-Faced Beauty to approach. This +she did, hanging her head like a flower surcharged with dew and swaying +gracefully as a wind-bell, and knelt on the lowest step of the Seat of +State. + +"Loveliest One," said the Emperor, "I have read your composition. +I would know the truth. Did any aid you as you spoke it? Was it the +thought of your own heart?" + +"None aided, Divine," said she, almost fainting with fear. "It +was indeed the thought of this illiterate slave, consumed with an +unwarranted but uncontrollable passion." + +"And have you in truth desired to see your Lord?" + +"As a prisoner in a dungeon desires the light, so was it with this low +person." + +"And having seen?" + +"Augustness, the dull eyes of this slave are blinded with beauty." + +She laid her head before his feet. + +"Yet you have depicted, not the Ideal Man, but the Ideal Woman. This was +not the Celestial command. How was this?" + +"Because, O versatile and auspicious Emperor, the blind cannot behold +the sunlight, and it is only the Ideal Woman who is worthy to comprehend +and worship the Ideal Man. For this alone is she created." + +A smile began to illuminate the Imperial Countenance. "And how, O +Round-Faced Beauty, did you evade the vigilance of the August Aunt?" + +She hung her head lower, speaking almost in a whisper. "With her one +pearl did this person buy the secrecy of the writer; and when the August +Aunt slept, did I conceal the paper in her sleeve with the rest, and her +own Imperial hand gave it to the engraver of ivory." + +She veiled her face with two jade-white hands that trembled excessively. +On hearing this statement the Celestial Emperor broke at once into a +very great laughter, and he laughed loud and long as a tiller of wheat. +The Round-Faced Beauty heard it demurely until, catching the Imperial +eye, decorum was forgotten and she too laughed uncontrollably. So they +continued, and finally the Emperor leaned back, drying the tears in his +eyes with his august sleeve, and the lady, resuming her gravity, hid her +face in her hands, yet regarded him through her fingers. + +When the August Aunt returned at the end of an hour with the ladies, +surrounded by the attendants with their instruments of music, the +Round-Faced Beauty was seated in the chair that she herself had +occupied, and on the whiteness of her brow was hung the chain of pearls, +which had formed the frontal of the Cap of the Emperor. + +It is recorded that, advancing from honour to honour, the Round-Faced +Beauty was eventually chosen Empress and became the mother of the +Imperial Prince. The celestial purity of her mind and the absence of all +flaws of jealousy and anger warranted this distinction. But it is also +recorded that, after her elevation, no other lady was ever exalted in +the Imperial favour or received the slightest notice from the Emperor. +For the Empress, now well acquainted with the Ideal Man, judged it +better that his experiences of the Ideal Woman should be drawn from +herself alone. And as she decreed, so it was done. Doubtless Her Majesty +did well. + +It is known that the Emperor departed to the Ancestral Spirits at an +early age, seeking, as the August Aunt observed, that repose which on +earth could never more be his. But no one has asserted that this lady's +disposition was free from the ordinary blemishes of humanity. + +As for the Celestial Empress (who survives in history as one of the most +astute rulers who ever adorned the Dragon Throne), she continued to rule +her son and the Empire, surrounded by the respectful admiration of all. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories, by +L. 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