CHAP. XXXVIII.
A small black bird with yellow wings, usually met with along the brookflitting from stone to stone, diverted his thoughts from Jerusalem andset him wondering what instinct had brought the bird up from the brookon to a dry hill-top. The bird must have sensed the coming rain, hesaid, and he came up here to escape the torrent. On looking round thesky for confirmation of the bird's instinct, he saw dark cloudsgathering everywhere and in a manner that to his shepherd's eyebetokened rain. The bird seems a little impatient with the clouds fornot breaking, he continued, and at that moment the bird turned sharplyfrom the rock on which he was about to alight, and Jesus, divining acause for the change of intention, sought behind the rock for it andfound it in a man lying there with foam upon his lips. He seemed toJesus like one returning to himself out of a great swoon, and helpinghim to his feet Jesus seated him on a rock. In a little while, Paulsaid, I shall be able to continue my journey. Thou'rt Jesus whom I leftspeaking in the cenoby. Give me a little water to drink. I forgot tofill the bottle before I left the brook, Jesus answered. There is alittle left, but not the fresh water that I would like to give thee,Paul, but water from overnight. It matters not, Paul said, and havingdrunk a little and bathed his temples, Paul asked Jesus to help him tohis feet, but after a few yards he tottered into Jesus' arms and had torest again, and while resting he said: I rushed out of the cenoby, for Ifelt the swoon was nigh upon me. I am sorry to have interrupted thydiscourse, he added, but refrain from repeating any of it, for my brainis too tired to listen to thee. Thou'lt understand the weakness of asick man and pardon me. Now I'm beginning to remember. I had a promisefrom thee to lead me out of this desert. Yes, Paul, I promised to guidethee to Caesarea---- But I rushed away, Paul said, and thou hast followedme, knowing well that I should not find my way alone to Caesarea. Ishould have missed it and perhaps fallen into the hands of the Jews orfallen over the precipice and become food for vultures. Now my strengthis coming back to me, but without thee I shall not find my way out ofthe desert. Fear nothing, Paul, I shall not leave thee till I have seenthee safely on thy way to Caesarea or within sight of that city. Thouhast come to guide me? Paul asked, looking up. Yes, to guide thee, Paul,to accompany thee to Caesarea, if not all the way the greater part of it,Jesus answered. Thou'lt sleep to-morrow at a village about two hoursfrom Caesarea, and there we shall part. But be not afraid. I'll not leavethee till thou'rt safe out of reach of the Jews. But I must be atCaesarea to-morrow, Paul said, or else my mission to Italy and Spain willbe delayed, perhaps forfeited. My mission to Spain, dost hear me? Do notspeak of thy mission now, Jesus answered, for he was afraid lest adiscussion might spring up between him and Paul, and he was glad whenPaul asked him how it was he had come upon him in this great wilderness.He asked Jesus if he had traced his footsteps in the sand, or if anangel had guided him. My eyes are not young enough to follow footstepsin the sand, Jesus replied, and I saw no angel, but a bird turned asidefrom the rock on which he was about to alight abruptly, and going toseek the cause of it I found thee.... Now if thy strength be coming backwe will try to walk a little farther.
I'll lean on thee, and then, just as if Paul felt that Jesus might tellhim once again that he was Jesus of Nazareth whom Pilate had condemnedto the cross, he began to put questions: was Jesus sure that it was notan angel disguised as a bird that had directed him? Jesus could onlyanswer that as far as he knew the bird was a bird and no more. But birdsand angels are alike contained within the will of God; whereupon Paulinvited Jesus to speak of the angels that doubtless alighted among therocks and conversed with the Essenes without fear of falling into sin,there being no women in the cenoby. But in the churches and synagoguesit was different, and he had always taught that women must be careful tocover their hair under veils lest angels might be tempted. For thesoiled angel, he explained, is unable to return to heaven, and thereforepasses into the bodies of men and women and becomes a demon, and whenthe soiled angel can find neither men nor women to descend into theyabide in animals, and become arch demons.
Paul, who had seemed to Jesus to have recovered a great part of hisstrength, spoke with great volubility and vehemence, saying that angelswere but the messengers of God, and to carry on the work of the worldGod must have messengers, but angels had no power to carry messages fromman back to God. There was but one Mediator, and he was on the point ofsaying that this Mediator was Jesus Christ our Lord, but he checkedhimself, and said instead that the power to perform miracles was nottransmitted from God to man by means of angels. Angels, he continued,were no more than God's messengers, and he related that when he had sheda mist and darkness over the eyes of Elymas, the sooth-sayer in Cyprus,he had received the power to do so direct from God; he affirmed too, andin great earnestness, that it was not an angel but God himself that hadprompted him to tell the cripple at Iconium to stand upright on hisfeet; he had been warned in a vision not to go into Bithynia; and atTroas a man had appeared to him in the night and ordered him to comeover to Macedonia, which was his country; he did not know if the man wasa real man in the flesh or the spirit of a man who had lived in theflesh: but he was not an angel. Of that Paul was sure and certain; thenhe related how he had taken ship and sailed to Samothrace, and next dayto Neopolis, and the next day to Philippi, and how in the city ofThyatira he had bidden a demon depart out of a certain damsel whobrought her master much gain by soothsaying. And for doing this he hadbeen cast into prison. He knew not of angels, and it was an earthquakethat caused the prison doors to open and not an angel. Peter had metangels, but he, Paul, had never met one, he knew naught of angels,except the terrible Kosmokratores, the rulers of this world, theplanetary spirits of the Chaldeans, and he feared angel worship, and hadspoken to the Colossians against it, saying: remember there is alwaysbut one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came todeliver us from those usurping powers and their chief, the Prince of thePowers of the Air. They it was, as he had told the Corinthians, thatcrucified the Lord of glory. But perhaps even they may be saved, forthey knew not what they did.
Jesus was afraid that Paul's vehemence would carry him on into anotherfit like the one that he had just come out of, and he was glad to meet ashepherd, who passed his water-bottle to Paul. Fill thy bottle frommine, the shepherd said to Jesus, and there is half-a-loaf of bread inmy wallet which I'd like thee to have to share with thy traveller in themorning, else he will not be able to begin the journey again. Nay, donot fear to take it, he said, my wife'll have prepared supper for me.Jesus took the bread and bade his mate farewell. There is a cave, Paul,Jesus said, in yonder valley which we can make safe against wolves andpanthers. Lean on my arm. Thy head is still a trouble; drink a littlemore water. See, the shepherd has given me half-a-loaf, which we willshare in the morning. Come, the cave is not far: in yon valley. Paulraised his eyes, and they reasoned with vague, pathetic appeal, for atthat moment Jesus was the stronger. Since it must be so, I'll try, hesaid, and he tottered, leaning heavily on Jesus for what seemed to him along way and then stopped. I can go no farther; thou wouldst do well toleave me to the hyenas. Go thy way. But Jesus continued to encouragehim, saying that the cave in which they were to rest was at the end ofthe valley, and when Paul asked how many yards distant, he did notanswer the exact distance, but halved it, so that Paul might beheartened and encouraged, and when the distance mentioned had beentraversed and the cave was still far away he bore with Paul's reproachesand answered them with kindly voice: we shall soon be there, another fewsteps will bring us into it, and it isn't a long valley; only a gutter,Paul answered, the way the rains have worn through the centuries. Astrange desert, the strangest we have seen yet, and I have travelled athousand leagues but never seen one so melancholy. I like better thegreat desert. I have lived all my life among these hills, Jesus replied,and to my eyes they have lost their melancholy.
All thy life in these deserts, Paul replied eagerly, and his mannersoftened and became almost winning. Thou'lt forgive, he said, anyabruptness there may have been in my speech, I am spe
aking differentlyfrom my wont, but to-morrow I shall be in health and able to follow theeand to listen with interest to thy tales of shepherding among thesehills of which thou must know a goodly number. My speech is improving,isn't it? answer me. Jesus answered that he understood Paul very well;and could tell him many stories of flocks, pillaging by robbers andfights between brave Thracian dogs and wolves, and if such storiesinterested Paul he could relate them. But here is our cave, he said,pointing to a passage between the rocks. We must go down on our handsand knees to enter it; and in answer to Paul, who was anxious to knowthe depth of the cave, Jesus averred that he only knew the cave throughhaving once looked into it. The caves we know best are the vast cavesinto which the shepherd can gather his flocks, trusting to his dogs toscent the approach of a wild animal and to awaken him. Go first and I'llfollow thee, and Jesus crawled till the rocks opened above him and hestood up in what Paul described as a bowel in the mountain; a long caveit was, surely, twisting for miles through the darkness, and especiallyevil-smelling, Paul said. Because of the bats, Jesus answered, andlooking up they saw the vermin hanging among the clefts, a sort ofhideous fruit, measuring three feet from wing to wing, Paul muttered,and as large as rats. We shall see them drop from their roosts as thesky darkens and flit away in search of food, Jesus said. Paul asked whatfood they could find in the desert, and Jesus answered: we are not manymiles from Jericho and these winged rats travel a long way. In BrookKerith they are destructive among our figs; we take many in traps. Ourrule forbids us to take life, but we cannot lose all our figs. I'veoften wondered why we hesitate to light bundles of damp straw in thesecaves, for that is the way to reduce the multitudes, which are worsethan the locusts, for they are eaten; and Jesus told stories of thelocust-eating hermits he had known, omitting, however, all mention ofthe Baptist, so afraid was he lest he might provoke Paul intodisputation. See, he said, that great fellow clinging to that ledge, heis beginning to be conscious of the sun setting, and a moment after thebat flopped away, passing close over their heads into the evening air,followed soon after by dozens of male and female and many half-grownbats that were a few months before on the dug, a stinking colony, thatthe wayfarers were glad to be rid of. But they'll be in and out thewhole night, Jesus said, and I know of no other cave within reach wherewe can sleep safely. Sometimes the wild cats come after them and thenthere is much squealing. But think no more of them. I will roll up mysheepskin for a pillow for thee, and sleep as well as thou mayest,comrade, for to-morrow's march is a long one.