 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Allen Quattermane by H. Ryder Haggard CHAPTER XIII. ABOUT THE ZU VENDI PEOPLE And now the curtain is down for a few hours, and the actors in this novel drama are plunged in dewy sleep. Perhaps we should accept Nyleptha, whom the reader may, if poetically inclined, imagine lying in her bed of estate encompassed by her maidens, tiring women, guards, and all the other people and appurtenances that surround a throne. And yet not able to slumber, for thinking of the strangers who had visited a country where no such strangers had ever come before, and wondering, as she lay awake, who they were and what their past had been, and if she was ugly compared to the women of their native place. I, however, not being poetically inclined, will take advantage of the lull to give some account of the people among whom we found ourselves, compiled needless to state, from information which we subsequently collected. The name of this country, to begin at the beginning, is Zu Vendis from Zu, Yellow, and Vendis, Place, or Country. Why it is called the Yellow Country, I have never been able to ascertain accurately, nor do the inhabitants themselves know. Three reasons are, however, given, each of which would suffice to account for it. The first is that the name owes its origin to the great quantity of gold that is to be found in the land. Indeed, in this respect, Zu Vendis is a veritable El Dorado, the precious metal being extraordinarily plentiful. At present it is collected from purely alluvial diggings, which we subsequently inspected, and which are situated within a day's journey from Milosis, being mostly found in pockets and in nuggets weighing from an ounce up to six or seven pounds in weight. But other diggings of a similar nature are known to exist, and I have besides seen great veins of gold bearing quartz. In Zu Vendis gold is a much commoner metal than silver, and thus it is curiously enough come to pass that silver is the legal tender of the country. The second reason given is that at certain times of the year the native grasses of the country, which are very sweet and good, turn as yellow as ripe corn, and the third arises from a tradition that the people were originally yellow-skinned, but grew white after living for many generations upon these high lands. Zu Vendis is a country about the size of France, is, roughly speaking, oval in shape, and on every side cut off from the surrounding territory by limitable forests of impenetrable thorn, beyond which are said to be hundreds of miles of morasses, deserts, and great mountains. It is, in short, a huge, high table-land rising up in the center of the dark continent, much as in southern Africa flat-topped mountains rise from the level of the surrounding velt. Milosis itself lies, according to my aneroid, at a level of about 9,000 feet above the sea. But most of the land is even higher, the greatest elevation of the open country being, I believe, about 11,000 feet. As a consequence the climate is, comparatively speaking, a cold one, being very similar to that of southern England, only brighter and not so rainy. The land is, however, exceedingly fertile, and grows all cereals and temperate fruits and timber to perfection. And in the low-lying parts, even produces a hardy variety of sugarcane, coal is found in great abundance, and in many places crops out from the surface. And so is pure marble, both black and white. The same may be said of almost every metal except silver, which is scarce, and only to be obtained from a range of mountains in the north. Zuvendis comprises in her boundaries a great variety of scenery, including two ranges of snow-clad mountains, one on the western boundary beyond the impenetrable belt of thorn forest, and the other piercing the country from north to south, and passing at a distance of about 80 miles from Milosis, from which town its higher peaks are distinctly visible. This range forms the chief watershed of the land. There are also three large lakes, the biggest, namely that whereon we emerged, and which is named Milosis after the city, covering some 200 square miles of country, and numerous small ones, some of them salt. The population of this favored land is, comparatively speaking, dense, numbering at a rough estimate from 10 to 12 millions. It is almost purely agricultural in its habits and divided into great classes as in civilized countries. There is a territorial nobility, a considerable middle-class formed principally of merchants, officers of the army, etc., but the great bulk of the people are well-to-do peasants who live upon the lands of the lords from whom they hold under a species of futile tenure. The best bred people in the country are, as I think I have said, pure whites with a somewhat southern cast of countenance, but the common herd are much darker, though they do not show any negro or other African characteristics. As to their descent I can give no certain information. Their written records, which extend back for about a thousand years, give no hint of it. One very ancient chronicler does indeed, in alluding to some old tradition that existed in his day, talk of it as having probably originally come down with the people from the coast. But that may mean little or nothing. In short, the origin of the zuvendi is lost in the mists of time. Once they came, or of what race they are, no man knows. Their architecture and some of their sculpture suggests an Egyptian or possibly an Assyrian origin. But it is well known that their present remarkable style of building has only sprung up within the last eight hundred years, and they certainly retain no traces of Egyptian theology or customs. Again, their appearance and some of their habits are rather Jewish, but here again it seems hardly conceivable that they should have utterly lost all traces of the Jewish religion. Still, for ought I know, they may be one of the lost ten tribes whom people are so fond of discovering all over the world, or they may not. I do not know, and so can only describe them as I find them, and leave wiser heads than mine to make what they can out of it, if indeed this account should ever be read at all, which is exceedingly doubtful. And now, after I have said all this, I am, after all, going to hazard a theory of my own, though it is only a very little one, as the young lady said in Mitigation of Her Baby. This theory is founded on a legend which I have heard among the Arabs on the East Coast, which is to the effect that more than two thousand years ago there were troubles in the country which was known as Babylonia. And that thereon a vast horde of Persians came down to Bushire, where they took ship and were driven by the northeast monsoon to the East Coast of Africa, where according to the legend the sun and fire worshipers fell into conflict with the belt of Arab settlers, who even then were settled on the East Coast. And finally broke their way through them, and vanishing into the interior were no more seen. Now I ask, is it not at least possible that the Zuvendi people are the descendants of these sun and fire worshipers who broke through the Arabs and vanished? As a matter of fact there is a good deal in their characters and customs that tallies with the somewhat vague ideas that I have of Persians. Of course we have no books of reference here, but Sir Henry says that if his memory does not fail him there was a tremendous revolt in Babylon about five hundred B.C., whereon a vast multitude were expelled from the city. Anyhow it is a well established fact that there have been many separate emigrations of Persians from the Persian Gulf to the East Coast of Africa up to as lately as seven hundred years ago. There are Persian tombs at Calwa on the East Coast, still in good repair, which bear dates showing them to be just seven hundred years old. End note. There is another theory which might account for the origin of the Zuvendi, which does not seem to have struck my friend Mr. Quatermayn and his companions, and that is that they are descendants of the Phoenicians. The cradle of the Phoenician race is supposed to have been on the western shore of the Persian Gulf. Hence, as there is good evidence to show, they emigrated in two streams, one of which took possession of the shores of Palestine, while the other is supposed by Savants to have emigrated down the coast of eastern Africa where near Mozambique signs and remains of their occupation are not wanting. Indeed it would have been very extraordinary if they did not, when leaving the Persian Gulf, make straight for the East Coast, seeing that the northeast monsoon blows for six months in the year dead in that direction, while for the other six months it blows back again. And, by the way of illustrating the probability, I may add that to this day a very extensive trade is carried on between the Persian Gulf and Lamu and other East African ports as far south as Madagascar, which is of course the ancient ebony isle of the Arabian Nights. Editor In addition to being an agricultural people, the Zuvendi are, oddly enough, excessively warlike. And as they cannot from the exigencies of their position make war upon other nations, they fight among each other like the famed Kulkeni cats, with the happy result that the population never outgrows the power of the country to support it. This habit of theirs is largely fostered by the political condition of the country. The monarchy is nominally an absolute one, save insofar as it is tempered by the power of the priests and the informal council of the great lords. But as in many other institutions, the king's writ does not run unquestioned throughout the length and breadth of the land. In short, the whole system is a purely feudal one, though absolute serfdom or slavery is unknown. All the great lords holding nominally from the throne, but a number of them being practically independent, having the power of life and death, waging war against and making peace with their neighbors as the whim or their interests lead them. And even on occasion rising an open rebellion against their royal master or mistress, and safely shut up in their castles and fenced cities as far from the seat of government, successfully defying them for years. Zuvendis has had its king-makers as well as England, a fact that will be well appreciated when I state that eight different dynasties have sat upon the throne in the last one thousand years, every one of which took its rise from some noble family that succeeded in grasping the purple after a sanguinary struggle. At the date of our arrival in the country things were a little better than they had been for some centuries. The last king, the father of Nileptha and Saracis, having been an exceptionally able and vigorous ruler, and as a consequence he kept down the power of the priests and nobles. On his death, two years before we reached Zuvendis, the twin sisters, his children, were following an ancient precedent called to the throne, since an attempt to exclude either would instantly have provoked a sanguinary civil war. But it was generally felt in the country that this measure was a most unsatisfactory one, and could hardly be expected to be permanent. Indeed, as it was, the various intrigues that were set on foot by ambitious nobles to obtain the hand of one or the other of the queens in marriage had disquieted the country, and the general opinion was that there would be bloodshed before long. I will now pass on to the question of the Zuvandi religion, which is nothing more or less than sun worship of a pronounced and highly developed character. Around this sun worship is grouped the entire social system of the Zuvendi. It sends its roots through every institution and custom of the land. From the cradle to the grave, the Zuvendi follows the sun in every sense of the saying. As an infant he is solemnly held up in its light and dedicated to the symbol of good, the expression of power, and the hope of eternity, the ceremony answering to our baptism. Whilst still a tiny child, his parents point out the glorious orb as the presence of a visible and beneficent god, and he worships it and its uprising and downsetting. Then, when still quite small, he goes holding fast to the pendant end of his mother's calf, Toga, up to the temple of the son of the nearest city. And there, when at midday the bright beams strike down upon the golden central altar and beat back the fire that burns thereon, he hears the white-robed priests raise their solemn chant of praise and sees the people fall down to a door. And then, amidst the blowing of the golden trumpets, watches the sacrifice thrown into the fiery furnace beneath the altar. Here he comes again to be declared a man by the priests, and consecrated to war and to good works. Here before the solemn altar he leads his bride. And here, too, if differences shall unhappily arise, he divorces her. And so on, down life's long pathway till the last mile is traveled, and he comes again armed indeed, and with dignity, but no longer a man. Here they bear him dead, and lay his beer upon the falling brazen doors before the eastern altar. And when the last ray from the setting sun falls upon his white face, the bolts are drawn, and he vanishes into the raging furnace beneath, and is ended. The priests of the sun do not marry, but are recruited as young men specially devoted to the work by their parents, and supported by the state. The nomination to the higher offices of the priesthood lies with the crown, but once appointed the nominees cannot be dispossessed. And it is scarcely too much to say that they really rule the land. To begin with, they are a united body sworn to obedience and secrecy, so that an order issued by the high priest at Milosis will be instantly and unhesitatingly acted upon by the resident priest of a little country town three or four hundred miles off. They are the judges of the land, criminal and civil, an appeal lying only to the Lord paramount of the district, and from him to the king. And they have, of course, practically unlimited jurisdiction over religious and moral offenses, together with a right of excommunication, which, as in the faiths of more highly civilized lands, is a very effective weapon. Indeed, their rights and powers are almost unlimited, but I may as well state here that the priests of the sun are wise in their generation, and do not push things too far. It is but very seldom that they go to extremes against anybody. Being more inclined to exercise the barrogative of mercy, then run the risk of exasperating the powerful and vigorous-minded people on whose neck they have set their yoke, lest it should rise and break it off altogether. Another source of the power of the priests is their practical monopoly of learning, and their very considerable astronomical knowledge, which enables them to keep a hold on the popular mind by predicting eclipses and even comets. In Zuvendice only a few of the upper classes can read and write, but nearly all the priests have this knowledge, and are therefore looked upon as learned men. The law of the country is, on the hold, mild and just, but differs in several respects from our civilized law. For instance, the law of England is much more severe upon offenses against property than against the person, as becomes a people whose ruling passion is money. A man may half kick his wife to death, or inflict horrible sufferings upon his children, at a much cheaper rate of punishment than he can compound for the theft of a pair of old boots. In Zuvendice this is not so. For there they rightly or wrongly look upon the person as of more consequence than goods and chattels, and not, as in England, as a sort of necessary appendage to the latter. For murder the punishment is death. For treason death. For defrauding the orphan and the widow, for sacrilege, and for attempting to quit the country, which is looked on as a sacrilege. Death. In each case the method of execution is the same, and a rather awful one. The culprit is thrown alive into the fiery furnace beneath one of the altars to the sun. For all other offenses, including the offensive idleness, the punishment is forced labor upon the vast national buildings which are always going on in some part of the country with or without periodical floggings, according to the crime. The social system of Zuvendice allows considerable liberty to the individual, provided he does not offend against the laws and customs of the country. They are polygamous in theory, though most of them have only one wife on account of the expense. By law a man is bound to provide a separate establishment for each wife. The first wife also is the legal wife, and her children are said to be of the house of the father. The children of the other wives are of the houses of their respective mothers. This does not, however, imply any slur upon either mother or children. Again, a first wife can, on entering into the married state, make a bargain that her husband shall marry no other wife. This, however, is very rarely done, as the women are the great upholders of polygamy, which not only provides for their surplus numbers, but gives greater importance to the first wife, as practically the head of several households. Marriage is looked upon as primarily a civil contract, and subject to certain conditions, and to a proper provision for children, is dissoluble at the will of both contracting parties. The divorce, or unloosing, being formally and ceremoniously accomplished by going through certain portions of the marriage ceremony backwards. The Zuvendi are, on the whole, a very kindly, pleasant, and lighthearted people. They are not great traders, and care little about money, only working to earn enough to support themselves in that class of life in which they were born. They are exceedingly conservative, and look with disfavor upon changes. Their legal tender is silver, cut into little squares of different weights. Gold is the baser coin, and is about the same value as our silver. It is, however, much prized for its beauty, and largely used for ornaments and decorative purposes. Most of the trade, however, is carried on by means of sale and barter, payment being made in kind. Agriculture is the great business of the country, and is really well understood and carried out, most of the available acreage being under cultivation. Great attention is also given to the breeding of cattle and horses, the latter being unsurpassed by any I have ever seen, either in Europe or Africa. The land belongs, theoretically, to the crown, and under the crown to the great lords, who again divided among smaller lords, and so on down to the little peasant farmer who works his forty ristu acres on a system of half-profits with his immediate lord. In fact, the whole system is, as I have said, distinctly futile, and it interested us much to meet with such an old friend far in the unknown heart of Africa. The taxes are very heavy. The state takes a third of a man's total earnings, and the priesthood about five percent on the remainder. But on the other hand, if a man through any cause falls into bona fide misfortune, the state supports him in the position of life to which he belongs. If he is idle, however, he is sent to work on the government undertakings, and the state looks after his wives and children. The state also makes all the roads, and builds all townhouses, about which great care is shown, letting them out to families at a small rent. It also keeps up a standing army of about twenty thousand men, and provides watchmen, etc. In return for their five percent, the priests attend to the service of the temples, carry out all religious ceremonies, and keep schools where they teach whatever they think desirable, which is not very much. Some of the temples also possess private property, but priests as individuals cannot hold property. And now comes a question which I find some difficulty in answering. Are the zuvendi a civilized or barbarous people? Sometimes I think the one, sometimes the other. In some branches of art they have attained the very highest proficiency. Take for instance their buildings and their statuary. I do not think that the latter can be equaled either in beauty or imaginative power anywhere in the world. And as for the former, it may have been rivaled in ancient Egypt, but I am sure that it has never been since. But on the other hand they are totally ignorant of many other arts, till Sir Henry, who happened to know something about it, showed them how to do it by mixing silica and lime. They could not make a piece of glass, and their crockery is rather primitive. A water-clock is their nearest approach to a watch. Indeed, ours delighted them exceedingly. They know nothing about steam, electricity, or gunpowder, and mercifully for themselves nothing about printing or the penny-post. Thus they are spared many evils. For of a truth our age has learnt the wisdom of the Old World saying, He who increases knowledge, increases sorrow. As regards their religion, it is a natural one for imaginative people who know no better, and might therefore be expected to turn to the Son and worship Him as the All-Father. But it cannot justly be called elevating or spiritual. It is true that they do sometimes speak of the Son as the garment of the Spirit. But it is a vague term, and what they really adore is the fiery orb himself. They also call him the Hope of Eternity. But here again the meaning is vague, and I doubt if the phrase conveys any very clear impression to their minds. Some of them do indeed believe in a future life for the good. I know Nyleptha does firmly. But it is a private fate the rising from the promptings of the Spirit, not an essential of their creed. So on the whole I cannot say that I consider this Son worship as a religion indicative of a civilized people, however magnificent and imposing its ritual, or however moral and high sounding the maxims of its priest, many of whom I am sure have their own opinions on the whole subject. Though of course they have nothing but praise for a system which provides them with so many of the good things of this world. There are now only two more matters to which I need allude, namely the language and the system of calligraphy. As for the former, it is soft sounding and very rich and flexible. Sir Henry says that it sounds something like modern Greek, but of course it has no connection with it. It is easy to acquire, being simple in its construction, and a peculiar quality about it is its euphony, and the way in which the sound of the words adapts itself to the meaning to be expressed. Long before we mastered the language, we could frequently make out what was meant by the ring of the sentence. It is on this account that the language lends itself so well to poetical declamation, of which these remarkable people are very fond. The Zuvendi alphabet seems, Sir Henry says, to be derived like every other known system of letters from a Phoenician source, and therefore more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing. Whether this is a fact I cannot say not being learned in such matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists of twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O, are not very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsy and puzzling. And note, there are twenty-two letters in the Phoenician alphabet. See Appendix, Maspros, Histoire ancienne des peuples de l'Oriente, page 746, etc. Unfortunately, Mr. Quatermain gives us no specimen of the Zuvendi writing, but what he here states seems to go a long way towards substantiating the theory advanced in the note on page 149. Editor. But as the people of Zuvendi are not given to the writing of novels, or of anything except business documents and records of the briefest character, it answers their purpose well enough. End of chapter 13. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Alan Quatermain. By H. Ryder Haggard. Chapter 14. The Flower Temple. It was half past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning following our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly twelve hours. And I must say that I did indeed feel better. Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep, and what a difference twelve hours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil and danger. It is like going to bed one man and getting up another. I set up upon my silken couch. Never had I slept upon such a bed before. And the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass fixed on me from the recesses of his silken couch. There was nothing else of him to be seen except his eyeglass. But I knew from the look of it that he was awake, and waiting till I woke up to begin. I say, Quatermain, he commenced sure enough. Did you observe her skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush. Now look here, Good, I remonstrated, when there came a sound at the curtain which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary who signified by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath. We gladly consented, and were conducted to a delightful marble chamber with a pool of running crystal water in the center of it, into which we gaily plunged. When we had bathed, we returned to our apartment and dressed, and then went into the central room where we had supped on the previous evening to find a morning meal already prepared for us. And a capital meal it was, though I should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfast we lounged round and admired the tapestries and carpets and some pieces of statuary that were placed about, wondering the while what was going to happen next. Indeed, by this time our minds were in such a state of complete bewilderment that we were, as a matter of fact, ready for anything that might arrive. As for our sense of astonishment, it was pretty well obliterated. Whilst we were still thus engaged, our friend, the captain of the guard, presented himself, and with many obeisances signified that we were to follow him, which we did, not without doubts and heart-searchings. For we guessed that the time had come when we should have to settle the bill for those confounded hippopotami with our cold-eyed friend Agon, the High Priest. However there was no help for it, and personally I took great comfort in the promise of the protection of the sister queens, knowing that if ladies have a will they can generally find a way. So off we started as though we liked it. A minute's walk through a passage and an outer court brought us to the great double gates of the palace that open on to the wide highway which runs uphill through the heart of Milosis to the temple of the sun a mile away, and thence down the slope on the farther side of the temple to the outer wall of the city. These gates are very large and massive, and an extraordinarily beautiful work in metal. Between them, for one set is placed at the entrance to an interior, and one at that of the exterior wall, is a fos, forty-five feet in width. This fos is filled with water and spanned by a drawbridge, which when lifted makes the palace nearly impregnable to anything except siege guns. As we came one half of the wide gates were flung open, and we passed over the drawbridge, and presently stood gazing up one of the most imposing, if not the most imposing, roadways in the world. It is a hundred feet from curb to curb, and on either side not cramped and crowded together, as is our European fashion, but each standing in its own grounds, and built equidistant from, and in similar style to the rest, are a series of splendid, single-storied mansions, all of red granite. These are the townhouses of the nobles of the court, and stretch away in unbroken lines for a mile or more till the eye is arrested by the glorious vision of the temple of the sun that crowns the hill and heads the roadway. As we stood gazing at this splendid sight, of which more anon, there suddenly dashed up to the gateway four chariots, each drawn by two white horses. These chariots are two-wheeled and made of wood. They are fitted with a stout pole, the weight of which is supported by leathering girths that form a portion of the harness. The wheels are made with four spokes only, are tired with iron, and quite innocent of springs. In the front of the chariot, and immediately over the pole, is a small seat for the driver, railed round to prevent him from being jolted off. Inside the machine itself are three low seats, one at each side and one with the back to the horses, opposite to which is the door. The whole vehicle is lightly and yet strongly made, and knowing to the grace of the curves, though primitive, not half so ugly as might be expected. But if the chariots left something to be desired, the horses did not. They were simply splendid, not very large, but strongly built, and well ribbed up, with small heads remarkably large and round hooves, and a great look of speed and blood. I have often wondered whence this breed, which presents many distinct characteristics, came. But like that of its owners, its history is obscure. Like the people, the horses have always been there. The first and last of these chariots were occupied by guards, but the center two were empty, except for the driver, and to these we were conducted. Alphonse and I got into the first, and Sir Henry, Good, and Umslopogos, into the one behind, and then suddenly off we went. And we did go. Among the zuvendi it is not usual to trot horses either riding or driving, especially when the journey to be made is a short one. They go at full gallop. As soon as we were seated, the driver called out, the horses sprang forward, and we were whirled away at a speed sufficient to take one's breath, and which, till I got accustomed to it, kept me in momentary fear of an upset. As for the wretched Alphonse, he clung with a despairing face to the side of what he called this devil of a fiacra, thinking that every moment was his last. Presently it occurred to him to ask where we were going, and I told him that, as far as I could ascertain, we were going to be sacrificed by burning. You should have seen his face as he grasped the side of the vehicle and cried out in his terror, but the wild-looking charioteer only lent forward over his flying steeds and shouted. And the air, as it went singing past, bore away the sound of Alphonse's lamentations. And now, before us, in all its marvelous splendor and dazzling loveliness, shone out the temple of the sun, the peculiar pride of the zuvendi, to whom it was what Solomon's, or rather Herod's, temple was to the Jews. The wealth and skill and labor of generations had been given to the building of this wonderful place, which had been only finally completed within the last fifty years. Nothing was spared that the country could produce, and the result was indeed worthy of the effort. Not so much on account of its size, for there are larger veins in the world, as because of its perfect proportions, the richness and beauty of its materials, and the wonderful workmanship. The building that stands by itself on a space of some eight acres of garden ground on the hilltop, around which are the dwelling places of the priests, is built in the shape of a sunflower, with a dome covered central hall, from which radiate twelve petal-shaped quartz, each dedicated to one of the twelve months, and serving as the repositories of statues reared in memory of the illustrious dead. The width of the circle beneath the dome is three hundred feet, the height of the dome is four hundred feet, and the length of the rays is one hundred and fifty feet, and the height of their roofs three hundred feet, so that they run into the central dome exactly as the petals of the sunflower run into the great raised heart. Thus the exact measurement from the center of the central altar to the extreme point at any one of the rounded rays would be three hundred feet, the width of the circle itself, or total of six hundred feet from the rounded extremity of one ray, or petal, to the extremity of the opposite one. End note. These are internal measurements, Alan Quaterbane. The building itself is a pure and polished white marble, which shows out in marvelous contrast to the red granite of the frowning city, on whose brow it glistens indeed like an imperial diadem upon the forehead of a dusky queen. The outer surface of the dome and of the twelve petal quartz is covered entirely with thin sheets of beaten gold, and from the extreme point of the roof of each of these petals a glorious golden form with a trumpet in its hand and widespread wings is figured in the very act of soaring into space. I really must leave whoever reads this to imagine the surpassing beauty of these golden roofs flashing when the sun strikes, flashing like a thousand fires of flame on a mountain of polished marble, so fiercely that the reflection can be clearly seen from the great peaks of the range a hundred miles away. It is a marvelous sight, this golden flower upborn upon the cool white marble walls, and I doubt if the world can show such another. What makes the whole effect even more gorgeous is that a belt of a hundred and fifty feet around the marble wall of the temple is planted with an indigenous species of sunflower, which were at the time when we first saw them a sheet of golden bloom. The main entrance to this wonderful place is between the two northernmost of the rays or petal quartz, and is protected first by the usual bronze gates, and then by doors made of solid marble, beautifully carved with allegorical subjects and overlaid with gold. When these are passed there is only the thickness of the wall, which is however twenty-five feet for the Zivendi build for all time, and another slight wall also of white marble introduced in order to avoid causing a visible gap in the inner skin of the wall, and you stand in the circular hall under the great dome. Advancing to the central altar you look upon as beautiful a sight as the imagination of man can conceive. You are in the middle of the holy place, and above you the great white marble dome, for the inner skin, like the outer, is of polished marble throughout, arches away in graceful curves, something like that of St. Paul's in London, only at a slighter angle, and from the funnel-like opening at the exact apex a bright beam of light pours down upon the golden altar. At the east and the west are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacred twilight to the heart. In every direction white mystic wonderful open out the ray-like quartz, each pierced through by a single arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. End note, light was also emitted by sliding shutters under the eaves of the dome and in the roof, Alan Quatermain. Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which thrills the nerves like a glance from a beauty's eyes, you turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame, crowned with curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble, overlaid with pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night, and except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed over the altar itself, exactly as the petals of a water lily close over the yellow crown in stormy weather. But when the sun at midday pierces through the funnel in the dome, and lights upon the golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery, only to close again when the ray has passed. Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles, at equal distances from each other on the north and south of the sacred place, are ten golden angels, or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped and draped. These figures, which are slightly larger than life-size, stand with bent heads in an attitude of adoration, their faces shadowed by their wings, and are most imposing and of exceeding beauty. There is but one thing further which calls for description in this altar, which is that to the east the flooring in front of it is not of pure white marble as elsewhere throughout the building, but of solid brass, and this is also the case in front of the other two altars. The eastern and western altars, which are semicircular in shape and placed against the wall of the building, are much less imposing, and are not enfolded in golden petals. They are, however, also of gold. The sacred fire burns on each, and a golden winged figure stands on either side of them. Two great golden rays run up the wall behind them. But where the third or middle one should be is an opening in the wall, wide on the outside, but narrow within, like a loophole turned inwards. Through the eastern loophole stream the first beams of the rising sun, and strike right across the circle, touching the folded petals of the great gold flower as they pass, till they impinge upon the western altar. In the same way at night the last rays of the sinking sun rest for a while on the eastern altar before they die away into darkness. It is the promise of the dawn to the evening and the evening to the dawn. With the exception of those three altars and the winged figures about them, the whole space beneath the vast white dome is utterly emptied and devoid of ornamentation, a circumstance that to my fancy adds greatly to its splendor. Such is a brief description of this wonderful and lovely building, to the glories of which, to my mind so much enhanced by their complete simplicity, I only wish I had the power to do justice. But I cannot, so it is useless talking more about it. But when I compare this great work of genius to some of the tawdry buildings and tinsel ornamentation produced in these latter days by European ecclesiastical architects, I feel that even highly civilized art might learn something from the zuvendi masterpieces. I can only say that the exclamation which sprang to my lips, as soon as my eyes first became accustomed to the dim light of that glorious building and its white and curving beauties, perfect and thrilling as those of a naked goddess, grew upon me one by one, was, well, a dog would feel religious here. It is vulgarly put, but perhaps it conveys my meaning more clearly than any polished utterance. At the temple gates our party was received by a guard of soldiers who appeared to be under the orders of a priest, and by them we were conducted into one of the ray, or petal courts, as the priests call them, and there left for at least half an hour. Here we conferred together, and realizing that we stood in great danger of our lives, determined if any attempt should be made upon us to sell them as dearly as we could. Umslopogas announcing his fixed intention of committing sacrilege on the person of Agon, the high priest, by splitting his head within Kosikas. From where we stood we could perceive that an immense multitude were pouring into the temple, evidently an expectation of some unusual event, and I could not help fearing that we had to do with it. And here I may explain that every day when the sunlight falls upon the central altar and the trumpet sound a burnt sacrifice is altered to the sun, consisting generally of the carcass of a sheep or ox, or sometimes of fruit or corn. This event comes off about midday, of course not always exactly at that hour, but as the vendice is situated not far from the line, although being so high above the sea it is very temperate, midday and the falling of the sunlight on the altar were generally simultaneous. Today the sacrifice was to take place at about eight minutes past twelve. Just at twelve o'clock a priest appeared and made a sign, and the officer of the guard signified to us that we were expected to advance, which we did with the best grace that we could muster, all except Alphonse, whose irrepressible teeth instantly began to chatter. In a few seconds we were out of the court and looking at a vast sea of human faces stretching away to the farthest limits of the great circle, all straining to catch a glimpse of the mysterious strangers who had committed sacrilege. The first strangers, mind you, who, to the knowledge of the multitude, had ever set foot in zu vendis since such time that the memory of man runeth not to the contrary. As we appeared there was a murmur through the vast crowd, then went echoing away up the great dome, and we saw a visible blush of excitement grow on the thousands of faces, like a pink light on a stretch of pale cloud, and a very curious effect it was. On we passed down a lane cut through the heart of the human mass, till presently we stood upon the brazen patch of flooring to the east of the central altar, and immediately facing it. For some thirty feet around the golden winged figures the space was roped off, and the multitudes stood outside the ropes. Within were a circle of white-robed, gold-sinctured priests holding long golden trumpets in their hands, and immediately in front of us was our friend Agon, the High Priest, with his curious cap upon his head. His was the only covered head in that vast assemblage. We took our stand upon the brazen space, little knowing what was prepared for us beneath, but I noticed a curious hissing sound proceeding apparently from the floor, for which I could not account. Then came a pause, and I looked around to see if there was any sign of the two queens, Nileptha and Soraces, but they were not there. To the right of us, however, was a bare space that I guess was reserved for them. We waited, and presently a far-off trumpet blew, apparently high up in the dome. Then came another murmur from the multitude, and up a long lane, leading to the open space to our right, we saw the two queens walking side by side. Behind them were some nobles of the court, among whom I recognized the great Lord Nasta, and behind them again a body of about fifty guards. These last I was very glad to see. Presently they had all arrived and taken their stand, the two queens in the front, the nobles to the right and left, and the guards in a double semi-circle behind them. Then came another silence, and Nileptha looked up and caught my eye. It seemed to me there was meaning in her glance, and I watched it narrowly. From my eye it traveled down to the brazen flooring, on the outer edge of which we stood. Then followed a slight and almost imperceptible side-long movement of the head. I did not understand it, and it was repeated. Then I guessed that she meant us to move back off the brazen floor. One more glance, and I was sure of it. There was danger in standing on the floor. Sir Henry was placed on one side of me, um slo po gas on the other. Keeping my eyes fixed straight before me, I whispered to them, first in Zulu, and then in English, to draw slowly back inch by inch till half their feet were resting on the marble flooring where the brass ceased. Sir Henry whispered on to good and alphonse, and slowly, very very slowly, we shifted backwards. So slowly that nobody, except Nileptha and Sareas, who saw everything, seemed to notice the movement. Then I glanced again at Nileptha, and saw that by an almost imperceptible nod she indicated approval. All the while Agon's eyes were fixed upon the altar before him, apparently in an ecstasy of contemplation, and mine were fixed upon the small of his back in another sort of ecstasy. Suddenly he flung up his long arm, and in a solemn and resounding voice commenced a chant, of which for convenience's sake I append a rough, a very rough translation here, though of course I did not then comprehend its meaning. It was an invocation to the sun, and ran somewhat as follows. There is silence upon the face of the earth and the waters thereof. Yea, the silence doth brood on the waters like a nesting bird. The silence sleepeth also upon the bosom of the profound darkness. Only high up in the great spaces star doth speak unto star. The earth is faint with longing, and wet with the tears of her desire. The star girdled night doth embrace her, but she is not comforted. She lies and shrouded in mists like a corpse in the grave clothes, and stretches her pale hands to the east. Lo, away in the farthest east there is the shadow of a light. The earth seeeth and lifts herself. She looks out from beneath the hollow of her hand. Then thy great angels fly forth from the holy place, O sun. They shoot their fiery swords into the darkness, and shrivel it up. They climb the heavens and cast down the pale stars from their thrones. Yea, they hurl the changeful stars back into the womb of the night. They cause the moon to become wan as the face of a dying man. And behold, thy glory comes, O sun. O thou beautiful one, thou drapes thyself in fire. The wide heavens are thy pathway, thou rolest o'er them as a chariot. The earth is thy bride. Thou dost embrace her, and she brings forth children. Yea, thou favourest her, and she yields her increase. Thou art the all-father, and the giver of life, O sun. The young children stretch out their hands and grow in thy brightness. The old men creep forth, and seeing remember their strength. Only the dead forget thee, O sun. When thou art wroth, then thou dost hide thy face. Thou drawest around thee a thick curtain of shadows. Then the earth grows cold, and the heavens are dismayed. They tremble, and the sound thereof is the sound of thunder. They weep, and their tears are outpoured in the rain. They sigh, and the wild winds are the voice of their sighing. The flowers die, the fruitful fields languish and turn pale. The old men and the little children go into their appointed place when thou withdrawest thy light, O sun. Say, what art thou? O thou matchless splendour. Who set thee on high, O thou flaming terror? When didst thou begin, and when is the day of thy ending? Thou art the raiment of the living spirit. And note, this line is interesting as being one of the few illusions to be found in the Zuvende ritual to evoke divine essence independent of the material splendour of the orb they worship. Ta'ea, the word used here, has a very indeterminate meaning and signifies essence, vital principle, spirit, or even God. None did place thee on high, for thou was the beginning. Thou shalt not be ended when thy children are forgotten. Nay, thou shalt never end, for thy hours are eternal. Thou sittest on high within thy golden house and measurest out the centuries. O father of life, O dark, dispelling sun! He ceased this solemn chant, which, though it seems a poor enough thing after going through my mill, is really beautiful and impressive in the original. And then, after a moment's pause, he glanced up towards the funnel-sloped opening in the dome and added, O sun, descend upon thine altar! As he spoke a wonderful and beautiful thing happened. Down from on high flashed a splendid living ray of light, cleaving the twilight like a sword of fire. Full upon the closed petals it fell, and ran shimmering down their golden sides, and then the glorious flower opened as though beneath the bright influence. Slowly it opened, and as the great petals fell wide and revealed the golden altar on which the fire ever burns, the priests blew a blast upon the trumpets, and from all the people there rose a shout of praise that beat against the domed roof and came echoing down the marble walls. And the sunlight fell full upon the tongue of sacred flame and beat it down, so that it wavered, sank, and vanished into the hollow recesses once it rose. As it vanished, the mellow notes of the trumpets rolled out once more. Again the old priest flung up his hands and called aloud, We sacrifice to thee, O sun. Once more I caught and I left this eye. It was fixed upon the brazen flooring. Look out, I said aloud, and as I said it I saw Agon bend forward and touch something on the altar. As he did so the great white sea of faces around us turned red and then white again, and a deep breath went up like a universal sigh. Nileptha lent forward and with an involuntary movement covered her eyes with her hand. Sareas turned and whispered to the officer of the royal bodyguard, and then with a rending sound the whole of the brazen flooring slid from before our feet. And there in his place was suddenly revealed a smooth marble shaft, terminating in a most awful raging furnace beneath the altar. Big enough and hot enough to heat the iron stern post of a man of war. With a cry of terror we sprang backwards, all except the wretched Alphonse, who was paralyzed with fear, and would have fallen into the fiery furnace which had been prepared for us, had not Sir Henry caught him in his strong hand as he was vanishing and dragged him back. Instantly there arose the most fearful hubbub, and we four got back to back, Alphonse dodging frantically round our little circle in his attempts to take shelter under our legs. We all had our revolvers on. For though we had been politely disarmed of our guns on leaving the palace, of course these people did not know what a revolver was. Umslopogas too had his axe, of which no effort had been made to deprive him. And now he whirled it round his head and sent his piercing Zulu warshout echoing up the marble walls in fine defiant fashion. Next second the priests baffled of their prey had drawn swords from beneath their white robes and were leaping on us like hounds upon a stag at bay. I saw that dangerous as action might be we must act or be lost. So as the first man came bounding along and a great tall fellow he was, I sent a heavy revolver ball through him and down he fell at the mouth of the shaft and slid shrieking frantically into the fiery gulf that had been prepared for us. Whether it was his cries or the, to them, awful sound and effect of the pistol shot or what I know not, but the other priests halted, paralyzed and dismayed, and before they could come on again Sareas had called out something and we together with the two queens and most of the courtiers were being surrounded with a wall of armed men. In a moment it was done and still the priests hesitated and the people hung in the balance like a herd of startled buck as it were making no sign one way or the other. The last yell of the burning priest had died away the fire had finished him and a great silence fell upon the place. Then the high priest Agon turned and his face was as the face of a devil. Let the sacrifice be sacrificed he cried to the queens. Has not sacrilege enough been done by these strangers and would ye as queens throw the cloak of your majesty over evildoers? Are not the creatures sacred to the sun dead and is not a priest of the sun also dead but now slain by the magic of these strangers who come as the winds out of heaven once we know not and who are what we know not? Beware, O queens, how ye tamper with the great majesty of the God even before his high altar there is a power that is more than your power there is a justice that is higher than your justice Beware how ye lift an impious hand against it let the sacrifice be sacrificed, O queens then Sareas made answer in her deep quiet tones that always seemed to me to have a suspicion mockery about them however serious the theme O Agon, thou hast spoken according to thy desire and thou hast spoken truth but it is thou who would lift an impious hand against the justice of thy God bethink thee the midday sacrifice is accomplished the sun hath claimed his priest as a sacrifice this was a novel idea and the people applauded it bethink thee what are these men they are strangers found floating on the bosom of a lake who brought them here how came they here how know ye that they also are not servants of the sun is this the hospitality that ye would have our nation show to those whom chance brings to them to throw them to the flames shame on you, shame on you what is hospitality to receive the stranger and show him favor to bind up his wounds and find a pillow for his head and food for him to eat but thy pillow is the fiery furnace and thy food the hot savor of the flame shame on thee, I say she paused a little to watch the effect of her speech upon the multitude and seeing that it was favorable changed her tone from one of remonstrance to one of command oh, place there she cried place, I say, make way for the queens and those whom the queens cover with their cough mantle and if I refuse oh, queen said Agon between his teeth then will I cut a path with my guards was the proud answer I, even in the presence of thy sanctuary and through the bodies of thy priests Agon turned livid with baffled fury he glanced at the people as though meditating and appealed to them and saw clearly that their sympathies were all the other way the Zuvendi are very curious and sociable people and great as was their sense of the enormity that we had committed in shooting the sacred hippopotamie they did not like the idea of the only real-life strangers they had seen or heard of being consigned to a fiery furnace thereby putting an end forever to their chance of extracting knowledge and information from and gossiping about us Agon saw this and hesitated and then for the first time Nileptha spoke in her soft sweet voice b'think thee, Agon, she said as my sister queen has said these men may also be servants of the sun for themselves they cannot speak for their tongues are tied let the matter be adjourned till such time as they have learnt our language who can be condemned without a hearing when these men can plead for themselves then it will be time to put them to the proof here was a clever loophole of escape and the vindictive old priest took it little as he liked it so be it oh queens, he said let the men go in peace and when they have learnt our tongue then let them speak and I even I will make humble supplication at the altar lest pestilence fall on the land by cause of the sacrilege these words were received with a murmur of applause and in another minute we were marching out of the temple surrounded by the royal guards but it was not till long afterwards that we learnt the exact substance of what had passed and how hardly our lives had been wrung out of the cruel grip of the zoovendi priesthood in the face of which even the queens were practically powerless had it not been for their strenuous efforts to protect us we should have been slain even before we set foot in the temple of the sun the attempt to drop us bodily into the fiery pit as an offering was the last artifice to attain this end when several others quite unsuspected by us had already failed End of Chapter 14 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Alan Quatterman by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 15 Sareas's Song After our escape from Aghan and his pious crew we returned to our quarters in the palace and had a very good time The two queens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing us honour and showering gifts upon us As for that painful little incident of the hippopotamie it sank into oblivion where we were quite content to leave it Every day deputations and individuals waited on us to examine our guns and clothing our chain shirts and our instruments especially our watches with which they were much delighted In short we became quite the rage so much so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zuvendi began to copy the cut of some of our clothes notably Sir Henry's shooting jacket One day indeed a deputation waited on us and as usual Good donned his full dress uniform for the occasion This deputation seemed somehow to be a little different class to those who generally came to visit us They were little insignificant men of an excessively polite not to say servile, demeanour and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing the details of Good's full dress uniform of which they took copious notes and measurements Good was much flattered at the time not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading tailors of Milosis A fortnight afterwards however when on attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven or eight Zuvendi mashers arrayed in all the glory of a very fair imitation of his full dress uniform he changed his mind I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust It was after this chiefly to avoid remark and also because our clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up that we resolved to adopt the native dress and a very comfortable one we found it though I am bound to say that I look sufficiently ridiculous in it and as for Alphonse only Umslopagas would have none of these things When his mookah was worn out the fierce old Zulu made him a new one about unconcerned as grim and naked as his own battle-axe Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made very good progress On the morning following our adventure in the temple three grave and reverend seniors presented themselves armed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather-pins and indicated that they had been sent to teach us So with the exception of Umslopagas we all buckled to with a will doing four hours a day As for Umslopagas he would have none of that either He did not wish to learn that women's talk, not he and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive way much as a church warden invitingly shakes the oratory bag under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner he sprang up with a fierce oath and flashed in Kosikas before the eyes of our learned friend and there was an end of the attempt to teach him Zuvendi Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more and more interesting as we proceeded and the afternoons were given up to recreation Sometimes we made trips notably one to the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both of which I wished I had space and time to describe and sometimes we went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose and a very exciting sport it is as the country is full of agricultural enclosures and our horses were magnificent This is not to be wondered at seeing that the royal stables were at our command in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given to us by Nileptha Sometimes again we went hawking a pastime that is in great favor among the Zuvendi who generally fly their birds at a species of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and strength of its flight When attacked by the hawk this bird appears to lose its head and instead of seeking cover flies high into the sky thus offering wonderful sport I have seen one of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed by the hawk Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitary snipe as big as a small woodcock which is plentiful in this country and which is flown at with a very small agile and highly trained hawk with an almost red tail The zigzagging of the great snipe and the lightening rapidity of the flight and movements of the red tail hawk make the pastime a delightful one Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of a very small species of antelope with trained eagles and it certainly is a marvelous sight to see the great bird soar and soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight and then suddenly come dashing down like a cannonball upon some cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything but that piercing eye Still finer is the spectacle when the eagle takes the buck running On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some of the great lords' beautiful fortified places and the villages clustering beneath their walls Here we saw vineyards and cornfields and well-kept park-like grounds With such timber in them has filled me with delight for I do love a good tree There it stands so strong and sturdy and yet so beautiful a very type of the best sort of man How proudly it lifts its bare head to the winter storms and with what a full heart it rejoices when the spring has come again How grand its voice is, too when it talks with the wind A thousand aeolian harps cannot equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf All day it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars and thus passionless and yet full of life it endures through the centuries come storm, come shine drawing its sustenance from the cool bosom of its mother earth and as the slow years roll by learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay and so on and on through generations outliving individuals, customs, dynasties all save the landscape it adorns and human nature till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle and rejoices over a reclaimed space or decay puts the last stroke to his fungus-fingered work One should always think twice before one cuts down a tree In the evenings it was customary first or Henry good and myself to dine or rather sup with their majesties not every night indeed but about three or four times a week whenever they had not much company or the affairs of state would allow of it and I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with how true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always the most simple and kindly it is from your half and half sort of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity the difference between the two being very much what one sees every day in England between the old outed elbows broken down country family and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and take the place I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her sweet simplicity and her kindly, genuine interest even in little things she is the simplest woman I ever knew and where her passions are not involved one of the sweetest but she can look queenly enough when she likes and be as fierce as any savage too for instance never shall I forget that scene when I for the first time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis it came about in this way all through good's weakness for ladies' society when we had been employed for some three months in learning Zuvendi it struck Master Good that he was getting rather tired of the old gentleman who did us the honor to lead us in the way that we should go so he proceeded without saying a word to anybody else to inform them that it was a peculiar fact but that we could not make any real progress in the deeper intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by ladies young ladies he was careful to explain in his own country he pointed out it was habitual to choose the very best looking and most charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers who happened to come that way, etc all of this the old gentleman swallowed open mouthed there was, they admitted, reason in what he said since the contemplation of the beautiful as their philosophy taught induced a certain porosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical body by the healthful influences of sun and air consequently it was probable that we might absorb the Zuvendi tongue a little faster if suitable teachers could be found another thing was that as the female sex was naturally loquacious good practice would be gained in the Viva Voce department of our studies to all of this good gravely assented and the learned gentleman departed assuring him that their orders were to fall in with our wishes in every way and that if possible our views should be met imagine therefore the surprise and disgust of myself and I trust and believe Sir Henry when, on entering the room where we were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning we found instead of our usual venerable tutors three of the best-looking young women whom myelosis could produce and that is saying a good deal who blushed and smiled and curtsied and gave us to understand that they were there to carry on our instruction then good as we gazed at one another in bewilderment thought fit to explain saying that it had slipped his memory before but the old gentleman had told him on the previous evening that it was absolutely necessary that our further education should be carried on by the other sex I was overwhelmed and appealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a Christ well, he said you see the ladies are here, ain't they if we sent them away don't you think it might hurt their feelings, eh? one doesn't like to be rough, you see and they look regular blues, don't they, eh? by this time good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest of the three and so with a sigh I yielded that day everything went very well the young ladies were certainly very clever and they only smiled when we blundered I never saw a good so attentive to his books before and even Sir Henry appeared to tackle Zuvendi with a renewed zest ah, thought I, will it always be thus? next day we were much more lively our work was pleasingly interspersed with questions about our native country what the ladies were like there, etc all of which we answered as best we could in Zuvendi and I heard good assuring his teacher that her loveliness was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon to which she replied with a little toss of the head that she was a plain teaching woman and nothing else and that it was not kind to deceive a poor girl so then we had a little singing that was really charming so natural and unaffected the Zuvendi love songs are most touching on the third day we were all quite intimate good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his fair teacher and so moved was she that her size mingled with his own I discoursed with mine a merry blue-eyed girl upon Zuvendi in art and never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back whilst in the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared so far as I could judge to be going through a lesson framed on the great educational principles laid down by Wackford Squires Esquire though in a very modified or rather spiritualized form the lady softly repeated the Zuvendi word for hand and he took hers eyes and he gazed deep into her brown orbs lips and but just at that moment my young lady dropped the cockroach down my back and ran away laughing now if there is one thing I loathe more than another it is cockroaches and moved quite beyond myself and yet laughing at her impudence I took up the cushion she had been sitting on and threw it after her imagine then my shame my horror and my distress when the door opened and attended by two guards only in walked Nileptha the cushion could not be recalled it missed the girl and hit one of the guards on the head but I instantly and ineffectually tried to look as though I had not thrown it Good ceased his singing and began to murder Zuvendi at the top of his voice and Sir Henry whistled and looked silly as for the poor girls they were utterly dumbfounded and Nileptha she drew herself up till her frame to tower even above that of the tall guards and her face went first red and then pale as death guards she said in a quiet choked voice and pointing at the fair but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squires slay me that woman the men hesitated as well they might will ye do my bidding and again in the same voice or will ye not then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears by this time Sir Henry had recovered himself and saw that the comedy was likely to turn into a tragedy stand back he said in a voice of thunder at the same time getting in front of the terrified girl shame on the Nileptha thou shall not kill her doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her thou could hardly do less in honor answered the infuriated queen but she shall die she shall die and she stamped her little foot it is well he answered then will I die with her I am thy servant O Queen do with me even as thou wilt and he bowed towards her and fixed his clear eyes contentuously on her face I could wish to slay thee too she answered for thou dost make a mock of me and then feeling that she was mastered and I suppose not knowing what else to do she burst into such a storm of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionate distress that old as I am I must say I envied Curtis his task of supporting her it was rather odd to see him holding her in his arms considering what had just passed a thought that seemed to occur to herself for presently she wrenched herself free and went leaving us all much disturbed presently however one of the guards returned with a message to the girls that they were on pain of death to leave the city and return to their homes in the country and that no further harm would come to them and accordingly they went one of them remarking philosophically that it could not be helped and that it was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little serviceable zoovendi mine was an exceedingly nice girl and overlooking the cockroach I made her a present of my favorite lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away after that our former masters resumed their course of instruction needless to say to my great relief that night when in fear and trembling we attended the royal supper table we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache that headache lasted for three whole days but on the fourth she was present at supper as usual and with the most gracious and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table no illusion was made to the little affair described above beyond her saying with a charming air of innocence that when she came to see us at our studies the other day she had been seized with a giddiness from which she had only now recovered she supposed she added with a touch of the humor that was common to her that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected her in reply Sir Henry said, dryly that he had thought she did not look quite herself on that day where at she flashed one of those quick glances of hers at him which if he had the feelings of a man must have gone through him like a knife and the subject dropped entirely indeed after supper was over Nyleptha condescended to put us through an examination to see what we had learnt and to express herself well satisfied with the results indeed she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry a lesson on her own account and very interesting we found it and all the while that we talked or rather tried to talk and laughed Sir Reyes would sit there in her carven ivory chair and look at us and read us all like a book only from time to time saying a few words and smiling that quick ominous smile of hers which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloud than anything else and as near to her as he dared would sit good looking through his eyeglass for he really was getting seriously devoted to this somber beauty of whom speaking personally I felt terribly afraid I watched her keenly and soon I found out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heart bitterly jealous of Nyleptha another thing I found out and the discovery filled me with dismay and that was that she also was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis of course I could not be sure it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman but I noticed one or two little things and as elephant hunters know dried grass shows which way the wind has set and so another three months passed over us by which time we had all attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zuvendi language which is an easy one to learn and as time went on we became great favourites with the people and even with the courtiers gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness because as I think I have said Sir Henry was able to show them how to make glass which was a national want and also by the help of a 20-year Almanac that we had with us to predict various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by the native astronomers we even succeeded in demonstrating the principle of the steam engine to a gathering of the learned men who were filled with amazement and several other things of the same sort we did and so it came about that the people made up their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out of the country which indeed was an apparent impossibility even if we had wished it and we were advanced to great honour and made officers to the bodyguards of the sister queens while permanent quarters were signed to us in the palace and our opinion was asked upon questions of national policy but blue as the sky seemed there was a cloud and a big one on the horizon we had indeed heard no more of those confounded hippopotamie but it is not on that account to be supposed that our sacrilege was forgotten or the enmity of the great and powerful priesthood headed by Agon appeased on the contrary it was burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright direct hatred born of jealousy hitherto the priests had been the wise men of the land and were on this account as well as from superstitious causes looked on with peculiar veneration but our arrival with our outlandish wisdom and our strange inventions and hints of unimagined things dealt a serious blow to this state of affairs and among the educated zuvendi went far towards destroying the priestly prestige a still worse affront to them however was the favour with which we were regarded and the trust that was reposed in us all these things tended to make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan the most powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of some of the great lords headed by Nasta whose antagonism to us had it best been but thinly veiled and which now threatened to break out into open flame Nasta had for some years been a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage and when we appeared on the scene I fancy from all I could gather that though there were still many obstacles in his path success was by no means out of his reach but now all this had changed the koi Nyleptha smiled no more in his direction and he was not slow to guess the cause infuriated and alarmed he turned his attention to Sareas only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountainside with a bitter jest or two about his fickleness that door was closed on him forever so Nasta bethought himself of the 30,000 wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding through the northern mountain passes and no doubt vowed to adorn the gates of Milosis with our heads but first he determined as I learned to make one more attempt and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open court after the formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been proclaimed by the queens during the year of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance and with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us of it as we sat at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony of the law-giving Sir Henry bit his lip and do what he could to prevent it plainly showed his agitation and what answer will the queen be pleased to give the great lord? asked I in a jesting manner Answer, Makumazon, for we had elected to pass by our Zulu names in Zuvendis she said with a pretty shrug of her ivory shoulder Nay, I know not what is a poor woman to do when the wooer has 30,000 swords wherewith to urge his love and from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room quite her main a word quick said Sir Henry to me Listen, I have never spoken about it but surely you have guessed I love Nyleptha what am I to do fortunately I had more or less already taken the question into consideration and was therefore able to give such answer as seemed the wisest to me you must speak to Nyleptha tonight I said now is your time now or never Listen in the sitting chamber get near to her and whisper to her to meet you at midnight by the Radimas statue at the end of the great hall I will keep watch for you there now or never Curtis we passed on into the other room Nyleptha was sitting her hands before her and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face a little way off was Sareas talking to good in her slow measured tones the time went on in another quarter of an hour I knew that according to their habit the queens would retire as yet Sir Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private indeed though we saw much of the royal sisters it was by no means easy to see them alone I racked my brains and at last an idea came to me will the queen be pleased I said bowing low before Sareas to sing to her servants our hearts are heavy this night sing to us oh lady of the night Sareas's favorite name among the people my songs Makumazan are not such as to lighten the heavy heart yet will I sing if it pleases thee she answered and she rose and went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not unlike a zither and struck a few wandering chords then suddenly like the notes of some deep-throated bird her rounded voice sang out in song so wildly sweet and yet with so eerie and sad a refrain that it made the very blood stand still up up soared the golden notes that seemed to melt far away and then to grow again and travel on laden with all the sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost it was a marvelous song but I had not time to listen to it properly however I got the words of it afterwards and here is a translation of its burden so far as it admits of being translated at all Sareas's song as a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging as a hand that is helplessly raised when death's sickle is swinging so is life I the life that lends passion and breath to my singing as the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken as a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token so is love I the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken as the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending as the shout of the storm god when lightning is the black sky or rending so is power I the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending so short is our life yet with space for all things to forsake us a bitter delusion a dream from which not can awake us till death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall or take us refrain oh the world is fair at the dawning dawning dawning but the red sun sinks in blood the red sun sinks in blood I only wish that I could write down the music too now Curtis now I whispered when she began the second verse and turned my back Nileptha he said for my nerves were so much on the stretch that I could hear every word low as it was spoken even through Sareas's divine notes Nileptha I must speak with thee this night upon my life I must say me not nay oh say me not nay how can I speak with thee she answered looking fixedly before her queens are not like other people I am surrounded and watched listen Nileptha thus I will be before the statue of Radimas in the great hall at midnight I have the counter sign and can pass in Makumazan will be there to keep guard and with him the Zulu oh come my queen deny me not it is not seemly she murmured and tomorrow just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain and Sareas slowly turned her round I will be there said Nileptha hurdly on thy life see that thou fail me not End of chapter 50