13. The Hidden Kingdom of Twi
Knowing that at last they were free to roam according to their desire,the travelers rode gaily along the paths, taking but scant heed oftheir way.
"Our faces are set toward new adventures," remarked the prince. "Letus hope they will prove more pleasant than the last."
"To be sure!" responded Nerle. "Let us hope, at any rate, that weshall suffer more privations and encounter more trouble than we did inthat mountainous Kingdom of Spor." Then he added: "For one reason, Iregret you are my master."
"What is that reason?" asked the prince, turning to smile upon hisesquire.
"You have a way of overcoming all difficulties without any troublewhatsoever, and that deprives me of any chance of coming to harm whilein your company."
"Cheer up, my boy!" cried Marvel. "Did I not say there are newadventures before us? We may not come through them so easily as wecame through the others."
"That is true," replied Nerle; "it is always best to hope." And then heinquired: "Why do you stop here, in the middle of the path?"
"Because the path has ended rather suddenly," answered Marvel. "Hereis a thick hedge of prickly briers barring our way."
Nerle looked over his master's shoulder and saw that a great hedge,high and exceedingly thick, cut off all prospect of their advancing.
"This is pleasant," said he; "but I might try to force our way throughthe hedge. The briers would probably prick me severely, and that wouldbe delightful."
"Try it!" the prince returned, with twinkling eyes.
Nerle sprang from his horse to obey, but at the first contact with thebriers he uttered a howl of pain and held up his hands, which werebleeding in a dozen places from the wounds of the thorns.
"Ah, that will content you for a time, I trust," said Marvel. "Nowfollow me, and we will ride along beside the hedge until we find anopening. For either it will come to an end or there will prove to be away through it to the other side."
So they rode alongside the hedge for hour after hour; yet it did notend, nor could they espy any way to get through the thickly mattedbriers. By and by night fell, and they tethered their horses to someshrubs, where there were a few scanty blades of grass for them to crop,and then laid themselves down upon the ground, with bare rocks forpillows, where they managed to sleep soundly until morning.
They had brought a supply of food in their pouches, and on this theybreakfasted, afterward continuing their journey beside the hedge.
At noon Prince Marvel uttered an exclamation of surprise and stoppedhis horse.
"What is it?" asked Nerle.
"I have found the handkerchief with which you wiped the blood from yourhands yesterday morning, and then carelessly dropped," replied theprince. "This proves that we have made a complete circle around thishedge without finding a way to pass through it."
"In that case," said Nerle, "we had better leave the hedge and go inanother direction."
"Not so," declared Marvel. "The hedge incloses some unknown country,and I am curious to find out what it is."
"But there is no opening," remonstrated Nerle.
"Then we must make one. Wouldn't you like to enjoy a little more pain?"
"Thank you," answered Nerle, "my hands are still smarting verycomfortably from the pricks of yesterday."
"Therefore I must make the attempt myself," said the prince, anddrawing his sword he whispered a queer word to it, and straightwaybegan slashing at the hedge.
The brambles fell fast before his blade, and when he had cut a big heapof branches from the hedge Nerle dragged them to one side, and theprince began again.
It was marvelous how thick the hedge proved. Only a magic sword couldhave done this work and remained sharp, and only a fairy arm could haveproved strong enough to hew through the tough wood. But the magicsword and fairy arm were at work, and naught could resist them.
After a time the last branches were severed and dragged from the path,and then the travelers rode their horses through the gap into theunknown country beyond.
They saw at first glance that it was a land of great beauty; but afterthat one look both Prince Marvel and Nerle paused and rubbed theireyes, to assure themselves that their vision was not blurred.
Before them were two trees, exactly alike. And underneath the treestwo cows were grazing--each a perfect likeness of the other. At theirleft were two cottages, with every door and window and chimney theexact counterpart of another. Before these houses two little boys wereplaying, evidently twins, for they not only looked alike and dressedalike, but every motion one made was also made by the other at the sametime and in precisely the same way. When one laughed the otherlaughed, and when one stubbed his toe and fell down, the other didlikewise, and then they both sat up and cried lustily at the same time.
At this two women--it was impossible to tell one from the other--rushedout of the two houses, caught up the two boys, shook and dusted them inprecisely the same way, and led them by their ears back into the houses.
Again the astonished travelers rubbed their eyes, and then PrinceMarvel looked at Nerle and said:
"I thought at first that I saw everything double, but there seems to beonly one of YOU."
"And of you," answered the boy. "But see! there are two hills ahead ofus, and two paths lead from the houses over the hills! How strange itall is!"
Just then two birds flew by, close together and perfect mates; and thecows raised their heads and "mooed" at the same time; and two men--alsotwins--came over the two hills along the two paths with twodinner-pails in their hands and entered the two houses. They were metat the doors by the two women, who kissed them exactly at the same timeand helped them off with their coats with the same motions, and closedthe two doors with two slams at the same instant.
Nerle laughed. "What sort of country have we got into?" he asked.
"Let us find out," replied the prince, and riding up to one of thehouses he knocked on the door with the hilt of his sword.
Instantly the doors of both houses flew open, and both men appeared inthe doorways. Both started back in amazement at sight of thestrangers, and both women shrieked and both little boys began to cry.Both mothers boxed the children's ears, and both men gasped out:
"Who--who are you?"
Their voices were exactly alike, and their words were spoken in unison.Prince Marvel replied, courteously:
"We are two strangers who have strayed into your country. But I do notunderstand why our appearance should so terrify you."
"Why--you are singular! There is only half of each of you!" exclaimedthe two men, together.
"Not so," said the prince, trying hard not to laugh in their faces."We may be single, while you appear to be double; but each of us isperfect, nevertheless."
"Perfect! And only half of you!" cried the men. And again the twowomen, who were looking over their husbands' shoulders, screamed atsight of the strangers; and again the two boys, who were clinging totheir mothers' dresses in the same positions, began to cry.
"We did not know such strange people existed!" said the two men, bothstaring at the strangers and then wiping the beads of perspiration fromtheir two brows with two faded yellow handkerchiefs.
"Nor did we!" retorted the prince. "I assure you we are as muchsurprised as you are."
Nerle laughed again at this, and to hear only one of the strangersspeak and the other only laugh seemed to terrify the double peopleanew. So Prince Marvel quickly asked:
"Please tell us what country this is?"
"The Land of Twi," answered both men, together.
"Oh! the Land of Twi. And why is the light here so dim?" continued theprince.
"Dim?" repeated the men, as if surprised; "why, this is twilight, ofcourse."
"Of course," said Nerle. "I hadn't thought of that. We are in thelong hidden Land of Twi, which all men have heard of, but no man hasfound before."
"And who may you be?" questioned the prince, looking from one man tothe other, curiou
sly.
"We are Twis," they answered.
"Twice?"
"Twis--inhabitants of Twi."
"It's the same thing," laughed Nerle. "You see everything twice inthis land."
"Are none of your people single?" asked Prince Marvel.
"Single," returned the men, as if perplexed. "We don't understand."
"Are you all double?--or are some of you just one?" said the prince,who found it difficult to put his question plainly.
"What does 'one' mean?" asked the men. "There is no such word as 'one'in our language."
"They have no need of such a word," declared Nerle.
"We are only poor laborers," explained the men. "But over the hillslie the cities of Twi, where the Ki and the Ki-Ki dwell, and also theHigh Ki."
"Ah!" said Marvel, "I've heard of your High Ki. Who is he?"
The men shook their heads, together and with the same motion.
"We have never seen the glorious High Ki," they answered. "The sightof their faces is forbidden. None but the Ki and the Ki-Ki has seenthe Supreme Rulers and High Ki."
"I'm getting mixed," said Nerle. "All this about the Ki and the Ki-Kiand the High Ki makes me dizzy. Let's go on to the city and exploreit."
"That is a good suggestion," replied the prince. "Good by, myfriends," he added, addressing the men.
They both bowed, and although they still seemed somewhat frightenedthey answered him civilly and in the same words, and closed their doorsat the same time.
So Prince Marvel and Nerle rode up the double path to the hills, andthe two cows became frightened and ran away with the same swingingstep, keeping an exact space apart. And when they were a safe distancethey both stopped, looked over their right shoulders, and "mooed" atthe same instant.