XIII
AYESHA UNVEILS
"There," said _She_, "he has gone, the white-bearded old fool! Ah, howlittle knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathereth it up likewater, but like water it runneth through his fingers, and yet, if hishands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools callout, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so? But how call they thee?'Baboon,' he says," and she laughed; "but that is the fashion of thesesavages who lack imagination, and fly to the beasts they resemble for aname. How do they call thee in thine own country, stranger?"
"They call me Holly, oh Queen," I answered.
"Holly," she answered, speaking the word with difficulty, and yet with amost charming accent; "and what is 'Holly'?"
"'Holly' is a prickly tree," I said.
"So. Well, thou hast a prickly and yet a tree-like look. Strong artthou, and ugly, but if my wisdom be not at fault, honest at the core,and a staff to lean on. Also one who thinks. But stay, oh Holly, standnot there, enter with me and be seated by me. I would not see thee crawlbefore me like those slaves. I am aweary of their worship and theirterror; sometimes when they vex me I could blast them for very sport,and to see the rest turn white, even to the heart." And she held thecurtain aside with her ivory hand to let me pass in.
I entered, shuddering. This woman was very terrible. Within the curtainswas a recess, about twelve feet by ten, and in the recess was a couchand a table whereon stood fruit and sparkling water. By it, at its end,was a vessel like a font cut in carved stone, also full of pure water.The place was softly lit with lamps formed out of the beautiful vesselsof which I have spoken, and the air and curtains were laden with asubtle perfume. Perfume too seemed to emanate from the glorious hair andwhite-clinging vestments of _She_ herself. I entered the little room,and there stood uncertain.
"Sit," said _She_, pointing to the couch. "As yet thou hast no cause tofear me. If thou hast cause, thou shalt not fear for long, for I shallslay thee. Therefore let thy heart be light."
I sat down on the foot of the couch near to the font-like basin ofwater, and _She_ sank down softly on to the other end.
"Now, Holly," she said, "how comest thou to speak Arabic? It is my owndear tongue, for Arabian am I by my birth, even 'al Arab al Ariba' (anArab of the Arabs), and of the race of our father Yárab, the son ofKâhtan, for in that fair and ancient city Ozal was I born, in theprovince of Yaman the Happy. Yet dost thou not speak it as we used tospeak. Thy talk doth lack the music of the sweet tongue of the tribes ofHamyar which I was wont to hear. Some of the words too seemed changed,even as among these Amahagger, who have debased and defiled its purity,so that I must speak with them in what is to me another tongue."[*]
[*] Yárab the son of Kâhtan, who lived some centuries before the time of Abraham, was the father of the ancient Arabs, and gave its name Araba to the country. In speaking of herself as "al Arab al Ariba," _She_ no doubt meant to convey that she was of the true Arab blood as distinguished from the naturalised Arabs, the descendants of Ismael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, who were known as "al Arab al mostáraba." The dialect of the Koreish was usually called the clear or "perspicuous" Arabic, but the Hamaritic dialect approached nearer to the purity of the mother Syriac.--L. H. H.
"I have studied it," I answered, "for many years. Also the language isspoken in Egypt and elsewhere."
"So it is still spoken, and there is yet an Egypt? And what Pharaoh sitsupon the throne? Still one of the spawn of the Persian Ochús, or arethe Achæmenians gone, for far is it to the days of Ochús."
"The Persians have been gone for Egypt for nigh two thousand years, andsince then the Ptolemies, the Romans, and many others have flourishedand held sway upon the Nile, and fallen when their time was ripe," Isaid, aghast. "What canst thou know of the Persian Artaxerxes?"
She laughed, and made no answer, and again a cold chill went throughme. "And Greece," she said; "is there still a Greece? Ah, I loved theGreeks. Beautiful were they as the day, and clever, but fierce at heartand fickle, notwithstanding."
"Yes," I said, "there is a Greece; and, just now, it is once more apeople. Yet the Greeks of to-day are not what the Greeks of the old timewere, and Greece herself is but a mockery of the Greece that was."
"So! The Hebrews, are they yet at Jerusalem? And does the Temple thatthe wise king built stand, and if so what God do they worship therein?Is their Messiah come, of whom they preached so much and prophesied soloudly, and doth He rule the earth?"
"The Jews are broken and gone, and the fragments of their people strewthe world, and Jerusalem is no more. As for the temple that Herodbuilt----"
"Herod!" she said. "I know not Herod. But go on."
"The Romans burnt it, and the Roman eagles flew across its ruins, andnow Judæa is a desert."
"So, so! They were a great people, those Romans, and went straight totheir end--ay, they sped to it like Fate, or like their own eagles ontheir prey!--and left peace behind them."
"Solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant," I suggested.
"Ah, thou canst speak the Latin tongue, too!" she said, in surprise. "Ithath a strange ring in my ears after all these days, and it seems tome that thy accent does not fall as the Romans put it. Who was it wrotethat? I know not the saying, but it is a true one of that great people.It seems that I have found a learned man--one whose hands have held thewater of the world's knowledge. Knowest thou Greek also?"
"Yes, oh Queen, and something of Hebrew, but not to speak them well.They are all dead languages now."
She clapped her hands in childish glee. "Of a truth, ugly tree that thouart, thou growest the fruits of wisdom, oh Holly," she said; "but ofthose Jews whom I hated, for they called me 'heathen' when I would havetaught them my philosophy--did their Messiah come, and doth He rule theworld?"
"Their Messiah came," I answered with reverence; "but He came poor andlowly, and they would have none of Him. They scourged Him, and crucifiedHim upon a tree, but yet His words and His works live on, for He was theSon of God, and now of a truth He doth rule half the world, but not withan Empire of the World."
"Ah, the fierce-hearted wolves," she said, "the followers of Sense andmany gods--greedy of gain and faction-torn. I can see their dark facesyet. So they crucified their Messiah? Well can I believe it. That He wasa Son of the Living Spirit would be naught to them, if indeed He was so,and of that we will talk afterwards. They would care naught for any Godif He came not with pomp and power. They, a chosen people, a vesselof Him they call Jehovah, ay, and a vessel of Baal, and a vessel ofAstoreth, and a vessel of the gods of the Egyptians--a high-stomachedpeople, greedy of aught that brought them wealth and power. So theycrucified their Messiah because He came in lowly guise--and now arethey scattered about the earth? Why, if I remember, so said one of theirprophets that it should be. Well, let them go--they broke my heart,those Jews, and made me look with evil eyes across the world, ay, anddrove me to this wilderness, this place of a people that was beforethem. When I would have taught them wisdom in Jerusalem they stoned me,ay, at the Gate of the Temple those white-bearded hypocrites and Rabbishounded the people on to stone me! See, here is the mark of it to thisday!" and with a sudden move she pulled up the gauzy wrapping on herrounded arm, and pointed to a little scar that showed red against itsmilky beauty.
I shrank back, horrified.
"Pardon me, oh Queen," I said, "but I am bewildered. Nigh upon twothousand years have rolled across the earth since the Jewish Messiahhung upon His cross at Golgotha. How then canst thou have taught thyphilosophy to the Jews before He was? Thou art a woman and no spirit.How can a woman live two thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, ohQueen?"
She leaned back upon the couch, and once more I felt the hidden eyesplaying upon me and searching out my heart.
"Oh man!" she said at last, speaking very slowly and deliberately, "itseems that there are still things upon the earth of which thou knowestnaught. Dost thou still believe that all things die, even as those veryJews
believed? I tell thee that naught dies. There is no such thing asDeath, though there be a thing called Change. See," and she pointed tosome sculptures on the rocky wall. "Three times two thousand years havepassed since the last of the great race that hewed those pictures fellbefore the breath of the pestilence which destroyed them, yet are theynot dead. E'en now they live; perchance their spirits are drawn towardsus at this very hour," and she glanced round. "Of a surety it sometimesseems to me that my eyes can see them."
"Yes, but to the world they are dead."
"Ay, for a time; but even to the world are they born again and again. I,yes I, Ayesha[*]--for that, stranger, is my name--I say to thee thatI wait now for one I loved to be born again, and here I tarry till hefinds me, knowing of a surety that hither he will come, and that here,and here only, shall he greet me. Why, dost thou believe that I, whoam all-powerful, I, whose loveliness is more than the loveliness of theGrecian Helen, of whom they used to sing, and whose wisdom is wider, ay,far more wide and deep than the wisdom of Solomon the Wise--I, who knowthe secrets of the earth and its riches, and can turn all things tomy uses--I, who have even for a while overcome Change, that ye callDeath--why, I say, oh stranger, dost thou think that I herd here withbarbarians lower than the beasts?"
[*] Pronounced Assha.--L. H. H.
"I know not," I said humbly.
"Because I wait for him I love. My life has perchance been evil, I knownot--for who can say what is evil and what good?--so I fear to die evenif I could die, which I cannot until mine hour comes, to go and seek himwhere he is; for between us there might rise a wall I could not climb,at least, I dread it. Surely easy would it be also to lose the way inseeking in those great spaces wherein the planets wander on for ever.But the day will come, it may be when five thousand more years havepassed, and are lost and melted into the vault of Time, even as thelittle clouds melt into the gloom of night, or it may be to-morrow,when he, my love, shall be born again, and then, following a law thatis stronger than any human plan, he shall find me _here_, where oncehe knew me, and of a surety his heart will soften towards me, though Isinned against him; ay, even though he knew me not again, yet will helove me, if only for my beauty's sake."
For a moment I was dumbfounded, and could not answer. The matter was toooverpowering for my intellect to grasp.
"But even so, oh Queen," I said at last, "even if we men be born againand again, that is not so with thee, if thou speakest truly." Here shelooked up sharply, and once more I caught the flash of those hiddeneyes; "thou," I went on hurriedly, "who hast never died?"
"That is so," she said; "and it is so because I have, half by chance andhalf by learning, solved one of the great secrets of the world. Tellme, stranger: life is--why therefore should not life be lengthened for awhile? What are ten or twenty or fifty thousand years in the history oflife? Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessena mountain top by a span in thickness? In two thousand years these caveshave not changed, nothing has changed but the beasts, and man, who is asthe beasts. There is naught that is wonderful about the matter, couldstthou but understand. Life is wonderful, ay, but that it should be alittle lengthened is not wonderful. Nature hath her animating spirit aswell as man, who is Nature's child, and he who can find that spirit,and let it breathe upon him, shall live with her life. He shall not liveeternally, for Nature is not eternal, and she herself must die, even asthe nature of the moon hath died. She herself must die, I say, or ratherchange and sleep till it be time for her to live again. But when shallshe die? Not yet, I ween, and while she lives, so shall he who hathall her secret live with her. All I have it not, yet have I some, moreperchance than any who were before me. Now, to thee I doubt not thatthis thing is a great mystery, therefore I will not overcome thee withit now. Another time I will tell thee more if the mood be on me, thoughperchance I shall never speak thereof again. Dost thou wonder how Iknew that ye were coming to this land, and so saved your heads from thehot-pot?"
"Ay, oh Queen," I answered feebly.
"Then gaze upon that water," and she pointed to the font-like vessel,and then, bending forward, held her hand over it.
I rose and gazed, and instantly the water darkened. Then it cleared, andI saw as distinctly as I ever saw anything in my life--I saw, I say, ourboat upon that horrible canal. There was Leo lying at the bottom asleepin it, with a coat thrown over him to keep off the mosquitoes, in such afashion as to hide his face, and myself, Job, and Mahomed towing on thebank.
I started back, aghast, and cried out that it was magic, for Irecognised the whole scene--it was one which had actually occurred.
"Nay, nay; oh Holly," she answered, "it is no magic, that is a fictionof ignorance. There is no such thing as magic, though there is such athing as a knowledge of the secrets of Nature. That water is my glass;in it I see what passes if I will to summon up the pictures, which isnot often. Therein I can show thee what thou wilt of the past, if it beanything that hath to do with this country and with what I have known,or anything that thou, the gazer, hast known. Think of a face if thouwilt, and it shall be reflected from thy mind upon the water. I know notall the secret yet--I can read nothing in the future. But it is an oldsecret; I did not find it. In Arabia and in Egypt the sorcerers knewit centuries gone. So one day I chanced to bethink me of that oldcanal--some twenty ages since I sailed upon it, and I was minded tolook thereon again. So I looked, and there I saw the boat and three menwalking, and one, whose face I could not see, but a youth of noble form,sleeping in the boat, and so I sent and saved ye. And now farewell. Butstay, tell me of this youth--the Lion, as the old man calls him. I wouldlook upon him, but he is sick, thou sayest--sick with the fever, andalso wounded in the fray."
"He is very sick," I answered sadly; "canst thou do nothing for him, ohQueen! who knowest so much?"
"Of a surety I can. I can cure him; but why speakest thou so sadly? Dostthou love the youth? Is he perchance thy son?"
"He is my adopted son, oh Queen! Shall he be brought in before thee?"
"Nay. How long hath the fever taken him?"
"This is the third day."
"Good; then let him lie another day. Then will he perchance throw it offby his own strength, and that is better than that I should cure him,for my medicine is of a sort to shake the life in its very citadel. If,however, by to-morrow night, at that hour when the fever first took him,he doth not begin to mend, then will I come to him and cure him. Stay,who nurses him?"
"Our white servant, him whom Billali names the Pig; also," and hereI spoke with some little hesitation, "a woman named Ustane, a veryhandsome woman of this country, who came and embraced him when shefirst saw him, and hath stayed by him ever since, as I understand is thefashion of thy people, oh Queen."
"My people! speak not to me of my people," she answered hastily; "theseslaves are no people of mine, they are but dogs to do my bidding tillthe day of my deliverance comes; and, as for their customs, naught haveI to do with them. Also, call me not Queen--I am weary of flattery andtitles--call me Ayesha, the name hath a sweet sound in mine ears, it isan echo from the past. As for this Ustane, I know not. I wonder if itbe she against whom I was warned, and whom I in turn did warn? Hathshe--stay, I will see;" and, bending forward, she passed her hand overthe font of water and gazed intently into it. "See," she said quietly,"is that the woman?"
I looked into the water, and there, mirrored upon its placid surface,was the silhouette of Ustane's stately face. She was bending forward,with a look of infinite tenderness upon her features, watching somethingbeneath her, and with her chestnut locks falling on to her rightshoulder.
"It is she," I said, in a low voice, for once more I felt much disturbedat this most uncommon sight. "She watches Leo asleep."
"Leo!" said Ayesha, in an absent voice; "why, that is 'lion' in theLatin tongue. The old man hath named happily for once. It is verystrange," she went on, speaking to herself, "very. So like--but it isnot possible!" With an impatient gesture she passed her hand overthe water once more. It darkened
, and the image vanished silently andmysteriously as it had risen, and once more the lamplight, and thelamplight only, shone on the placid surface of that limpid, livingmirror.
"Hast thou aught to ask me before thou goest, oh Holly?" she said, aftera few moments' reflection. "It is but a rude life that thou must livehere, for these people are savages, and know not the ways of cultivatedman. Not that I am troubled thereby, for behold my food," and shepointed to the fruit upon the little table. "Naught but fruit dothever pass my lips--fruit and cakes of flour, and a little water. I havebidden my girls to wait upon thee. They are mutes, thou knowest, deafare they and dumb, and therefore the safest of servants, save to thosewho can read their faces and their signs. I bred them so--it hath takenmany centuries and much trouble; but at last I have triumphed. Once Isucceeded before, but the race was too ugly, so I let it die away; butnow, as thou seest, they are otherwise. Once, too, I reared a race ofgiants, but after a while Nature would no more of it, and it died away.Hast thou aught to ask of me?"
"Ay, one thing, oh Ayesha," I said boldly; but feeling by no means asbold as I trust I looked. "I would gaze upon thy face."
She laughed out in her bell-like notes. "Bethink thee, Holly," sheanswered; "bethink thee. It seems that thou knowest the old myths of thegods of Greece. Was there not one Actæon who perished miserably becausehe looked on too much beauty? If I show thee my face, perchance thouwouldst perish miserably also; perchance thou wouldst eat out thy heartin impotent desire; for know I am not for thee--I am for no man, saveone, who hath been, but is not yet."
"As thou wilt, Ayesha," I said. "I fear not thy beauty. I have put myheart away from such vanity as woman's loveliness, that passeth like aflower."
"Nay, thou errest," she said; "that does _not_ pass. My beauty endureseven as I endure; still, if thou wilt, oh rash man, have thy will; butblame not me if passion mount thy reason, as the Egyptian breakers usedto mount a colt, and guide it whither thou wilt not. Never may the manto whom my beauty has been unveiled put it from his mind, and thereforeeven with these savages do I go veiled, lest they vex me, and I shouldslay them. Say, wilt thou see?"
"I will," I answered, my curiosity overpowering me.
She lifted her white and rounded arms--never had I seen such armsbefore--and slowly, very slowly, withdrew some fastening beneath herhair. Then all of a sudden the long, corpse-like wrappings fell from herto the ground, and my eyes travelled up her form, now only robed ina garb of clinging white that did but serve to show its perfect andimperial shape, instinct with a life that was more than life, and with acertain serpent-like grace that was more than human. On her little feetwere sandals, fastened with studs of gold. Then came ankles more perfectthan ever sculptor dreamed of. About the waist her white kirtle wasfastened by a double-headed snake of solid gold, above which hergracious form swelled up in lines as pure as they were lovely, till thekirtle ended on the snowy argent of her breast, whereon her arms werefolded. I gazed above them at her face, and--I do not exaggerate--shrankback blinded and amazed. I have heard of the beauty of celestial beings,now I saw it; only this beauty, with all its awful loveliness andpurity, was _evil_--at least, at the time, it struck me as evil. How amI to describe it? I cannot--simply I cannot! The man does not livewhose pen could convey a sense of what I saw. I might talk of the greatchanging eyes of deepest, softest black, of the tinted face, of thebroad and noble brow, on which the hair grew low, and delicate, straightfeatures. But, beautiful, surpassingly beautiful as they all were, herloveliness did not lie in them. It lay rather, if it can be said to havehad any fixed abiding place, in a visible majesty, in an imperial grace,in a godlike stamp of softened power, which shone upon that radiantcountenance like a living halo. Never before had I guessed what beautymade sublime could be--and yet, the sublimity was a dark one--the glorywas not all of heaven--though none the less was it glorious. Thoughthe face before me was that of a young woman of certainly not more thanthirty years, in perfect health, and the first flush of ripened beauty,yet it had stamped upon it a look of unutterable experience, and ofdeep acquaintance with grief and passion. Not even the lovely smile thatcrept about the dimples of her mouth could hide this shadow of sin andsorrow. It shone even in the light of the glorious eyes, it was presentin the air of majesty, and it seemed to say: "Behold me, lovely as nowoman was or is, undying and half-divine; memory haunts me from age toage, and passion leads me by the hand--evil have I done, and from age toage evil I shall do, and sorrow shall I know till my redemption comes."
Drawn by some magnetic force which I could not resist, I let my eyesrest upon her shining orbs, and felt a current pass from them to me thatbewildered and half-blinded me.
She laughed--ah, how musically! and nodded her little head at me withan air of sublimated coquetry that would have done credit to a VenusVictrix.
"Rash man!" she said; "like Actæon, thou hast had thy will; be carefullest, like Actæon, thou too dost perish miserably, torn to piecesby the ban-hounds of thine own passions. I too, oh Holly, am a virgingoddess, not to be moved of any man, save one, and it is not thou. Say,hast thou seen enough!"
"I have looked on beauty, and I am blinded," I said hoarsely, lifting myhand to cover up my eyes.
"So! what did I tell thee? Beauty is like the lightning; it is lovely,but it destroys--especially trees, oh Holly!" and again she nodded andlaughed.
Suddenly she paused, and through my fingers I saw an awful change comeover her countenance. Her great eyes suddenly fixed themselves into anexpression in which horror seemed to struggle with some tremendous hopearising through the depths of her dark soul. The lovely face grew rigid,and the gracious willowy form seemed to erect itself.
"Man," she half whispered, half hissed, throwing back her head like asnake about to strike--"Man, whence hadst thou that scarab on thy hand?Speak, or by the Spirit of Life I will blast thee where thou standest!"and she took one light step towards me, and from her eyes there shonesuch an awful light--to me it seemed almost like a flame--that I fell,then and there, on the ground before her, babbling confusedly in myterror.
"Peace," she said, with a sudden change of manner, and speaking in herformer soft voice. "I did affright thee! Forgive me! But at times, ohHolly, the almost infinite mind grows impatient of the slowness of thevery finite, and am I tempted to use my power out of vexation--verynearly wast thou dead, but I remembered----. But the scarab--about thescarabæus!"
"I picked it up," I gurgled feebly, as I got on to my feet again, andit is a solemn fact that my mind was so disturbed that at the moment Icould remember nothing else about the ring except that I had picked itup in Leo's cave.
"It is very strange," she said with a sudden access of womanliketrembling and agitation which seemed out of place in this awfulwoman--"but once I knew a scarab like to that. It--hung round theneck--of one I loved," and she gave a little sob, and I saw that afterall she was only a woman, although she might be a very old one.
"There," she went on, "it must be one like to it, and yet never didI see one like to it, for thereto hung a history, and he who wore itprized it much.[*] But the scarab that I knew was not set thus in thebezel of a ring. Go now, Holly, go, and, if thou canst, try to forgetthat thou hast of thy folly looked upon Ayesha's beauty," and, turningfrom me, she flung herself on her couch, and buried her face in thecushions.
[*] I am informed by a renowned and learned Egyptologist, to whom I have submitted this very interesting and beautifully finished scarab, "Suten se Ra," that he has never seen one resembling it. Although it bears a title frequently given to Egyptian royalty, he is of opinion that it is not necessarily the cartouche of a Pharaoh, on which either the throne or personal name of the monarch is generally inscribed. What the history of this particular scarab may have been we can now, unfortunately, never know, but I have little doubt but that it played some part in the tragic story of the Princess Amenartas and her lover Kallikrates, the forsworn priest of Isis.--Editor.
As for me, I stum
bled from her presence, and I do not remember how Ireached my own cave.