SILENCE--A FABLE
ALCMAN. The mountain pinnacles slumber; valleys, crags and caves are silent.
LISTEN to me, said the Demon as he placed his hand upon my head. Theregion of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders ofthe river Zaire. And there is no quiet there, nor silence.
The waters of the river have a saffron and sickly hue; and they flownot onwards to the sea, but palpitate forever and forever beneath thered eye of the sun with a tumultuous and convulsive motion. For manymiles on either side of the river's oozy bed is a pale desert ofgigantic water-lilies. They sigh one unto the other in that solitude,and stretch towards the heaven their long and ghastly necks, and nod toand fro their everlasting heads. And there is an indistinct murmur whichcometh out from among them like the rushing of subterrene water. Andthey sigh one unto the other.
But there is a boundary to their realm--the boundary of the dark,horrible, lofty forest. There, like the waves about the Hebrides, thelow underwood is agitated continually. But there is no wind throughoutthe heaven. And the tall primeval trees rock eternally hither andthither with a crashing and mighty sound. And from their high summits,one by one, drop everlasting dews. And at the roots strange poisonousflowers lie writhing in perturbed slumber. And overhead, with a rustlingand loud noise, the gray clouds rush westwardly forever, until theyroll, a cataract, over the fiery wall of the horizon. But there is nowind throughout the heaven. And by the shores of the river Zaire thereis neither quiet nor silence.
It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, havingfallen, it was blood. And I stood in the morass among the tall and therain fell upon my head--and the lilies sighed one unto the other in thesolemnity of their desolation.
And, all at once, the moon arose through the thin ghastly mist, and wascrimson in color. And mine eyes fell upon a huge gray rock which stoodby the shore of the river, and was lighted by the light of the moon. Andthe rock was gray, and ghastly, and tall,--and the rock was gray. Uponits front were characters engraven in the stone; and I walked throughthe morass of water-lilies, until I came close unto the shore, that Imight read the characters upon the stone. But I could not decypher them.And I was going back into the morass, when the moon shone with afuller red, and I turned and looked again upon the rock, and upon thecharacters;--and the characters were DESOLATION.
And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of therock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover theactions of the man. And the man was tall and stately in form, and waswrapped up from his shoulders to his feet in the toga of old Rome. Andthe outlines of his figure were indistinct--but his features were thefeatures of a deity; for the mantle of the night, and of the mist, andof the moon, and of the dew, had left uncovered the features of hisface. And his brow was lofty with thought, and his eye wild with care;and, in the few furrows upon his cheek I read the fables of sorrow, andweariness, and disgust with mankind, and a longing after solitude.
And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, andlooked out upon the desolation. He looked down into the low unquietshrubbery, and up into the tall primeval trees, and up higher at therustling heaven, and into the crimson moon. And I lay close withinshelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man. And theman trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned, and he sat upon therock.
And the man turned his attention from the heaven, and looked out uponthe dreary river Zaire, and upon the yellow ghastly waters, and upon thepale legions of the water-lilies. And the man listened to the sighs ofthe water-lilies, and to the murmur that came up from among them. And Ilay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man. And theman trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned and he sat upon therock.
Then I went down into the recesses of the morass, and waded afar inamong the wilderness of the lilies, and called unto the hippopotamiwhich dwelt among the fens in the recesses of the morass. And thehippopotami heard my call, and came, with the behemoth, unto the footof the rock, and roared loudly and fearfully beneath the moon. And I layclose within my covert and observed the actions of the man. And the mantrembled in the solitude;--but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.
Then I cursed the elements with the curse of tumult; and a frightfultempest gathered in the heaven where, before, there had been no wind.And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest--and therain beat upon the head of the man--and the floods of the river camedown--and the river was tormented into foam--and the water-liliesshrieked within their beds--and the forest crumbled before the wind--andthe thunder rolled--and the lightning fell--and the rock rocked to itsfoundation. And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions ofthe man. And the man trembled in the solitude;--but the night waned andhe sat upon the rock.
Then I grew angry and cursed, with the curse of silence, the river,and the lilies, and the wind, and the forest, and the heaven, and thethunder, and the sighs of the water-lilies. And they became accursed,and were still. And the moon ceased to totter up its pathway toheaven--and the thunder died away--and the lightning did not flash--andthe clouds hung motionless--and the waters sunk to their level andremained--and the trees ceased to rock--and the water-lilies sighed nomore--and the murmur was heard no longer from among them, nor any shadowof sound throughout the vast illimitable desert. And I looked upon thecharacters of the rock, and they were changed;--and the characters wereSILENCE.
And mine eyes fell upon the countenance of the man, and his countenancewas wan with terror. And, hurriedly, he raised his head from his hand,and stood forth upon the rock and listened. But there was no voicethroughout the vast illimitable desert, and the characters upon the rockwere SILENCE. And the man shuddered, and turned his face away, and fledafar off, in haste, so that I beheld him no more.
Now there are fine tales in the volumes of the Magi--in the iron-bound,melancholy volumes of the Magi. Therein, I say, are glorious historiesof the Heaven, and of the Earth, and of the mighty sea--and of the Geniithat over-ruled the sea, and the earth, and the lofty heaven. There wasmuch lore too in the sayings which were said by the Sybils; and holy,holy things were heard of old by the dim leaves that trembled aroundDodona--but, as Allah liveth, that fable which the Demon told me ashe sat by my side in the shadow of the tomb, I hold to be the mostwonderful of all! And as the Demon made an end of his story, he fellback within the cavity of the tomb and laughed. And I could not laughwith the Demon, and he cursed me because I could not laugh. And the lynxwhich dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom, and lay down atthe feet of the Demon, and looked at him steadily in the face.