XXIII
THE TEMPLE OF TRUTH
Our preparations did not take us very long. We put a change of clothingapiece and some spare boots into my Gladstone bag, also we took ourrevolvers and an express rifle each, together with a good supply ofammunition, a precaution to which, under Providence, we subsequentlyowed our lives over and over again. The rest of our gear, together withour heavy rifles, we left behind us.
A few minutes before the appointed time we once more attended inAyesha's boudoir, and found her also ready, her dark cloak thrown overher winding-sheetlike wrappings.
"Are ye prepared for the great venture?" she said.
"We are," I answered, "though for my part, Ayesha, I have no faith init."
"Ah, my Holly," she said, "thou art of a truth like those old Jews--ofwhom the memory vexes me so sorely--unbelieving, and hard to acceptthat which they have not known. But thou shalt see; for unless my mirrorbeyond lies," and she pointed to the font of crystal water, "the path isyet open as it was of old time. And now let us start upon the new lifewhich shall end--who knoweth where?"
"Ah," I echoed, "who knoweth where?" and we passed down into the greatcentral cave, and out into the light of day. At the mouth of the cave wefound a single litter with six bearers, all of them mutes, waiting, andwith them I was relieved to see our old friend Billali, for whom Ihad conceived a sort of affection. It appeared that, for reasons notnecessary to explain at length, Ayesha had thought it best that, withthe exception of herself, we should proceed on foot, and this we werenothing loth to do, after our long confinement in these caves,which, however suitable they might be for sarcophagi--a singularlyinappropriate word, by the way, for these particular tombs, whichcertainly did not consume the bodies given to their keeping--weredepressing habitations for breathing mortals like ourselves. Either byaccident or by the orders of _She_, the space in front of the cave wherewe had beheld that awful dance was perfectly clear of spectators. Nota soul was to be seen, and consequently I do not believe that ourdeparture was known to anybody, except perhaps the mutes who waited on_She_, and they were, of course, in the habit of keeping what they sawto themselves.
In a few minutes' time we were stepping out sharply across the greatcultivated plain or lake bed, framed like a vast emerald in its settingof frowning cliff, and had another opportunity of wondering at theextraordinary nature of the site chosen by these old people of Kôr fortheir capital, and at the marvellous amount of labour, ingenuity, andengineering skill that must have been brought into requisition by thefounders of the city to drain so huge a sheet of water, and to keepit clear of subsequent accumulations. It is, indeed, so far as myexperience goes, an unequalled instance of what man can do in the faceof nature, for in my opinion such achievements as the Suez Canal oreven the Mont Cenis Tunnel do not approach this ancient undertaking inmagnitude and grandeur of conception.
When we had been walking for about half an hour, enjoying ourselvesexceedingly in the delightful cool which about this time of the dayalways appeared to descend upon the great plain of Kôr, and which insome degree atoned for the want of any land or sea breeze--for all windwas kept off by the rocky mountain wall--we began to get a clear view ofwhat Billali had informed us were the ruins of the great city. And evenfrom that distance we could see how wonderful those ruins were, a factwhich with every step we took became more evident. The town was notvery large if compared to Babylon or Thebes, or other cities of remoteantiquity; perhaps its outer wall contained some twelve square miles ofground, or a little more. Nor had the walls, so far as we could judgewhen we reached them, been very high, probably not more than forty feet,which was about their present height where they had not through thesinking of the ground, or some such cause, fallen into ruin. The reasonof this, no doubt, was that the people of Kôr, being protected from anyoutside attack by far more tremendous ramparts than any that the hand ofman could rear, only required them for show and to guard against civildiscord. But on the other hand they were as broad as they were high,built entirely of dressed stone, hewn, no doubt, from the vast caves,and surrounded by a great moat about sixty feet in width, some reachesof which were still filled with water. About ten minutes before thesun finally sank we reached this moat, and passed down and through it,clambering across what evidently were the piled-up fragments of a greatbridge in order to do so, and then with some little difficulty over theslope of the wall to its summit. I wish that it lay within the power ofmy pen to give some idea of the grandeur of the sight that then met ourview. There, all bathed in the red glow of the sinking sun, were milesupon miles of ruins--columns, temples, shrines, and the palaces ofkings, varied with patches of green bush. Of course, the roofs of thesebuildings had long since fallen into decay and vanished, but owing tothe extreme massiveness of the style of building, and to the hardnessand durability of the rock employed, most of the party walls and greatcolumns still remained standing.[*]
[*] In connection with the extraordinary state of preservation of these ruins after so vast a lapse of time-- at least six thousand years--it must be remembered that Kôr was not burnt or destroyed by an enemy or an earthquake, but deserted, owing to the action of a terrible plague. Consequently the houses were left unharmed; also the climate of the plain is remarkably fine and dry, and there is very little rain or wind; as a result of which these relics have only to contend against the unaided action of time, that works but slowly upon such massive blocks of masonry. --L. H. H.
Straight before us stretched away what had evidently been the mainthoroughfare of the city, for it was very wide, wider than the ThamesEmbankment, and regular, being, as we afterwards discovered, paved,or rather built, throughout of blocks of dressed stone, such as wereemployed in the walls, it was but little overgrown even now with grassand shrubs that could get no depth of soil to live in. What had been theparks and gardens, on the contrary, were now dense jungle. Indeed, itwas easy even from a distance to trace the course of the various roadsby the burnt-up appearance of the scanty grass that grew upon them. Oneither side of this great thoroughfare were vast blocks of ruins, eachblock, generally speaking, being separated from its neighbour by a spaceof what had once, I suppose, been garden-ground, but was now dense andtangled bush. They were all built of the same coloured stone, and mostof them had pillars, which was as much as we could make out in thefading light as we passed swiftly up the main road, that I believe I amright in saying no living foot had pressed for thousands of years.[*]
[*] Billali told me that the Amahagger believe that the site of the city is haunted, and could not be persuaded to enter it upon any consideration. Indeed, I could see that he himself did not at all like doing so, and was only consoled by the reflection that he was under the direct protection of _She_. It struck Leo and myself as very curious that a people which has no objection to living amongst the dead, with whom their familiarity has perhaps bred contempt, and even using their bodies for purposes of fuel, should be terrified at approaching the habitations that these very departed had occupied when alive. After all, however, it is only a savage inconsistency.--L. H. H.
Presently we came to an enormous pile, which we rightly took to be atemple covering at least eight acres of ground, and apparently arrangedin a series of courts, each one enclosing another of smaller size, onthe principle of a Chinese nest of boxes, the courts being separated onefrom the other by rows of huge columns. And, while I think of it, I mayas well state a remarkable thing about the shape of these columns, whichresembled none that I have ever seen or heard of, being fashioned with akind of waist at the centre, and swelling out above and below. At firstwe thought that this shape was meant to roughly symbolise or suggestthe female form, as was a common habit amongst the ancient religiousarchitects of many creeds. On the following day, however, as we went upthe slopes of the mountain, we discovered a large quantity of the moststately looking palms, of which the trunks grew exactly in this shape,and I have now no doubt but th
at the first designer of those columnsdrew his inspiration from the graceful bends of those very palms, orrather of their ancestors, which then, some eight or ten thousand yearsago, as now, beautified the slopes of the mountain that had once formedthe shores of the volcanic lake.
At the _façade_ of this huge temple, which, I should imagine, is almostas large as that of El-Karnac, at Thebes, some of the largest columns,which I measured, being between eighteen to twenty feet in diameter atthe base, by about seventy feet in height, our little procession washalted, and Ayesha descended from her litter.
"There was a spot here, Kallikrates," she said to Leo, who had run up tohelp her down, "where one might sleep. Two thousand years ago did thouand I and that Egyptian asp rest therein, but since then have I not setfoot here, nor any man, and perchance it has fallen," and, followed bythe rest of us, she passed up a vast flight of broken and ruined stepsinto the outer court, and looked round into the gloom. Presently sheseemed to recollect, and, walking a few paces along the wall to theleft, halted.
"It is here," she said, and at the same time beckoned to the two mutes,who were loaded with provisions and our little belongings, to advance.One of them came forward, and, producing a lamp, lit it from his brazier(for the Amahagger when on a journey nearly always carried with them alittle lighted brazier, from which to provide fire). The tinder of thisbrazier was made of broken fragments of mummy carefully damped, and,if the admixture of moisture was properly managed, this unholy compoundwould smoulder away for hours.[*] As soon as the lamp was lit we enteredthe place before which Ayesha had halted. It turned out to be a chamberhollowed in the thickness of the wall, and, from the fact of there stillbeing a massive stone table in it, I should think that it had probablyserved as a living-room, perhaps for one of the door-keepers of thegreat temple.
[*] After all we are not much in advance of the Amahagger in these matters. "Mummy," that is pounded ancient Egyptian, is, I believe, a pigment much used by artists, and especially by those of them who direct their talents to the reproduction of the works of the old masters.--Editor.
Here we stopped, and after cleaning the place out and making it ascomfortable as circumstances and the darkness would permit, we ate somecold meat, at least Leo, Job and I did, for Ayesha, as I think I havesaid elsewhere, never touched anything except cakes of flour, fruit andwater. While we were still eating, the moon, which was at her full, roseabove the mountain-wall, and began to flood the place with silver.
"Wot ye why I have brought you here to-night, my Holly?" said Ayesha,leaning her head upon her hand and watching the great orb as she rose,like some heavenly queen, above the solemn pillars of the temple. "Ibrought you--nay, it is strange, but knowest thou, Kallikrates, thatthou liest at this moment upon the very spot where thy dead body laywhen I bore thee back to those caves of Kôr so many years ago? It allreturns to my mind now. I can see it, and horrible is it to my sight!"and she shuddered.
Here Leo jumped up and hastily changed his seat. However thereminiscence might affect Ayesha, it clearly had few charms for him.
"I brought you," went on Ayesha presently, "that ye might look uponthe most wonderful sight that ever the eye of man beheld--the full moonshining over ruined Kôr. When ye have done your eating--I would that Icould teach you to eat naught but fruit, Kallikrates, but that will comeafter thou hast laved in the fire. Once I, too, ate flesh like a brutebeast. When ye have done we will go out, and I will show you this greattemple and the God whom men once worshipped therein."
Of course we got up at once, and started. And here again my pen failsme. To give a string of measurements and details of the various courtsof the temple would only be wearisome, supposing that I had them, andyet I know not how I am to describe what we saw, magnificent as it waseven in its ruin, almost beyond the power of realisation. Court upon dimcourt, row upon row of mighty pillars--some of them (especially at thegateways) sculptured from pedestal to capital--space upon space of emptychambers that spoke more eloquently to the imagination than any crowdedstreets. And over all, the dead silence of the dead, the sense of utterloneliness, and the brooding spirit of the Past! How beautiful it was,and yet how drear! We did not dare to speak aloud. Ayesha herself wasawed in the presence of an antiquity compared to which even her lengthof days was but a little thing; we only whispered, and our whispersseemed to run from column to column, till they were lost in the quietair. Bright fell the moonlight on pillar and court and shattered wall,hiding all their rents and imperfections in its silver garment, andclothing their hoar majesty with the peculiar glory of the night. It wasa wonderful sight to see the full moon looking down on the ruined faneof Kôr. It was a wonderful thing to think for how many thousands ofyears the dead orb above and the dead city below had gazed thus uponeach other, and in the utter solitude of space poured forth each to eachthe tale of their lost life and long-departed glory. The whitelight fell, and minute by minute the quiet shadows crept acrossthe grass-grown courts like the spirits of old priests haunting thehabitations of their worship--the white light fell, and the long shadowsgrew till the beauty and grandeur of each scene and the untamed majestyof its present Death seemed to sink into our very souls, and speak moreloudly than the shouts of armies concerning the pomp and splendour thatthe grave had swallowed, and even memory had forgotten.
"Come," said Ayesha, after we had gazed and gazed, I know not for howlong, "and I will show you the stony flower of Loveliness and Wonder'svery crown, if yet it stands to mock time with its beauty and fillthe heart of man with longing for that which is behind the veil," and,without waiting for an answer, she led us through two more pillaredcourts into the inner shrine of the old fane.
And there, in the centre of the inmost court, that might have been somefifty yards square, or a little more, we stood face to face with whatis perhaps the grandest allegorical work of Art that the genius of herchildren has ever given to the world. For in the exact centre of thecourt, placed upon a thick square slab of rock, was a huge round ball ofdark stone, some twenty feet in diameter, and standing on the ball was acolossal winged figure of a beauty so entrancing and divine that whenI first gazed upon it, illuminated and shadowed as it was by the softlight of the moon, my breath stood still, and for an instant my heartceased its beating.
The statue was hewn from marble so pure and white that even now, afterall those ages, it shone as the moonbeams danced upon it, and its heightwas, I should say, a trifle over twenty feet. It was the winged figureof a woman of such marvellous loveliness and delicacy of form that thesize seemed rather to add to than to detract from its so human and yetmore spiritual beauty. She was bending forward and poising herself uponher half-spread wings as though to preserve her balance as she leant.Her arms were outstretched like those of some woman about to embraceone she dearly loved, while her whole attitude gave an impression ofthe tenderest beseeching. Her perfect and most gracious form was naked,save--and here came the extraordinary thing--the face, which was thinlyveiled, so that we could only trace the marking of her features. A gauzyveil was thrown round and about the head, and of its two ends one felldown across her left breast, which was outlined beneath it, and one, nowbroken, streamed away upon the air behind her.
"Who is she?" I asked, as soon as I could take my eyes off the statue.
"Canst thou not guess, oh Holly?" answered Ayesha. "Where then is thyimagination? It is Truth standing on the World, and calling to itschildren to unveil her face. See what is writ upon the pedestal. Withoutdoubt it is taken from the book of Scriptures of these men of Kôr," andshe led the way to the foot of the statue, where an inscription of theusual Chinese-looking hieroglyphics was so deeply graven as to be stillquite legible, at least to Ayesha. According to her translation it ranthus:--
"Is there no man that will draw my veil and look upon my face, for it isvery fair? Unto him who draws my veil shall I be, and peace will I givehim, and sweet children of knowledge and good works."
And a voice cried, "Though all those who seek after thee desire th
ee,behold! Virgin art thou, and Virgin shalt thou go till Time be done. Noman is there born of woman who may draw thy veil and live, nor shall be.By Death only can thy veil be drawn, oh Truth!"
And Truth stretched out her arms and wept, because those who sought hermight not find her, nor look upon her face to face.
"Thou seest," said Ayesha, when she had finished translating, "Truthwas the Goddess of the people of old Kôr, and to her they built theirshrines, and her they sought; knowing that they should never find, stillsought they."
"And so," I added sadly, "do men seek to this very hour, but they findout; and, as this Scripture saith, nor shall they; for in Death only isTruth found."
Then with one more look at this veiled and spiritualisedloveliness--which was so perfect and so pure that one might almost fancythat the light of a living spirit shone through the marble prison tolead man on to high and ethereal thoughts--this poet's dream of beautyfrozen into stone, which I shall never forget while I live, we turnedand went back through the vast moonlit courts to the spot whence we hadstarted. I never saw the statue again, which I the more regret, becauseon the great ball of stone representing the World whereon the figurestood, lines were drawn, that probably, had there been light enough, weshould have discovered to be a map of the Universe as it was known tothe people of Kôr. It is at any rate suggestive of some scientificknowledge that these long-dead worshippers of Truth had recognised thefact that the globe is round.