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The Brook Kerith: A Syrian story, a novel by George Augustus Moore |
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_ CHAPTER XXVIII The brethren waxed rich, and after their midday meal they talked of the exceeding good fortune that had been vouchsafed to them, dwelling on the matter so earnestly that a scruple sometimes rose up in their hearts. Did we do well to forgo all troubles? Do the selfish find favour in God's sight? they were asking, when Caleb said: we have visitors to-day, and looking across the chasm they saw three men emerging from the shadow of the high rock. They may be robbers, Benjamin cried, and we would do well to tell the brethren working along the terraces to pass the word down to him who stands by the bridge-head that he is to raise the bridge and refuse to lower it till the strangers speak to him of their intentions and convince him that they are peaceful. That is well said, Benjamin, Eleazar replied: Amos, who is standing by the fig-tree yonder, will pass on the word. They cried out to him and watched the warning being passed from Essene to Essene till it reached the brother standing by the bridge-head. He looked in the direction of the strangers coming down the path, and then in haste set himself to pull the ropes and press the levers whereby the bridge was raised and lowered. Now they are speaking across the brook to each other, Benjamin said: and the group on the balcony saw the bridge being let down for the strangers to cross over. It seems to me, Benjamin continued, Bartholomew might have spent more time inquiring out their intentions. But we are many and they are few, Caleb answered, and the Essenes on the balcony watched somewhat anxiously Bartholomew conducting the strangers back and forth through the terraces. Is not Bartholomew as trustworthy as any amongst us? Eleazar asked. It isn't likely that he would mistake robbers for pilgrims; and as if Bartholomew divined the anxiety of those above him he called up the rocks that the visitors he was bringing were Essenes from the lake. Essenes from the lake! Caleb cried. Then we shall learn, Eleazar replied, which is preferable, celibacy or marriage. But we mustn't speak at once to them of such matters. We must prepare food for them, which they will require after their long journey. Our president will be with you in a moment, Bartholomew said, addressing Shallum, a tall thin man, whose long neck, sloping shoulders and dark round eyes reminded his brethren of an ungainly bird. His companions, Shaphan and Eleakim, were of different appearances. Shaphan's skull, smooth and glistening, rose, a great dome above a crumpled face; he moped like a sick monkey, dashing tears from his eyes continually, whereas Eleakim, a sprightly little fellow with half-closed eyes like a pig, agreed that Shallum should speak for them. Shallum began: we are, as you have already heard, from the great cenoby at the head of the lake and, therefore, I need not tell you the reason why you are here and why the residue are yonder, but will confine myself to the story of our flight from the lake to the brook. Honourable President and Brethren, it is known unto you that the division of our order was not brought about by any other reason than a dispute on both sides for the maintenance of the order. We know that, Hazael answered, and attribute no sinfulness to the brethren that differed from us. Our dream, Shallum continued, was to perpetuate holiness in this world, and our dream abides, for man is a reality only in his dreams; his acts are but a grotesque of his dream. At these words the Essenes gathered close together, and with brightening eyes listened, for they interpreted these words to mean that the brethren by the lake had fallen headlong into unseasonable pleasures, whereof they were now reaping the fruit: no sweet one, if the fruit might be judged by the countenances of their visitors. As I have said, Shallum continued, it was with us as it has been with men always--our acts became a mockery of our dreams almost from the beginning, for when you left us we gave out that we were willing to receive women who would share our lives and with us perpetuate holiness. We gave out that we were willing to view all who came and consider their qualifications, and to take them as wives if they should satisfy us, that they would obey our rule and bear children; but the women that came in response to our advertisement, though seemingly of pious and honourable demeanour, were not satisfied with us. Our rule is, as you brethren know well, to wear the same smock till it be in rags, and never to ask for a new pair of sandals till the last pieces of the old pair have left our feet. We presented, therefore, no fair show before the women who came to us, and when our rule was told to them, they withdrew, dissatisfied with our appearances, with the food we ate, and the hours we kept, and of all with the rule that they should live apart from us, only keeping company with us at such times when women are believed to be most fruitful. Such was the first batch in brief; the second batch (they came in batches) pleaded that they could not be wives for us, it being that we were held in little esteem by the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and we were reproved by them for not sending animals for sacrifice to the Temple, a thing that we must do if we would have them live with us. But it being against our rule to send animals to the Temple for sacrifice, we bade them farewell and sent forth messengers into other lands, inviting the Gentiles to come to us to receive instruction in the Jewish religion, with promises to them that if our rule of life was agreeable to them, and they were exact in the appointments of all rites and ceremonies, we should be willing to marry them after their time of probationship was over. On this second advertisement, women came to us from Arabia and Mesopotamia, and though we did not approve of the fine garments they wore and the sweet perfumes that trailed after them, we liked these things, as all men do, with our senses; and our minds being filled with thoughts of the children that would continue the order of the Essenes, we spoke but little against the fine linen that these women brought and the perfumes they exhaled, whereby our ruin was consummated. Joazabdus, our president, himself fell into the temptation of woman's beauty and was led into sinful acquiescence of a display of the images she had brought with her; for without a display of them on either side of the bridal bed she would not permit his embraces. She was of our religion in all else, having abjured her gods and goddesses at every other moment of the day and night; but licence of her body she could not grant except under the eyes of Astarte, and Joazabdus, being a weak man, allowed the images to remain. As soon as the news of these images spread, we went in deputation to our president to beg him to cast out the images from our midst, but he answered us: but one image remains--that of Astarte: none looks upon it but she, and if I cast out the image that she reverences she will go hence and with the fruit of my body within her body, and a saint may be lost to us. But we answered him that even as Jacob set up parti-coloured rods before the conceiving ewes that they might bear parti-coloured lambs, so to gaze in the marriage-bed upon the image of Astarte would surely stamp upon the children that might come the image of that demon. But he was not to be moved, whereupon we withdrew, saying to one another: we shall not move him out of his wickedness; and that was why we went to his brother Daddeus and asked him to accept the headship of the community in his brother's place. And seeing that he was unwilling to set himself against his brother, we said: our God comes before all things, and here we have heathen goddesses in our midst; and the end of it was that Cozby, that was the Chaldean woman's name, put poison into Daddeus' food, thinking to establish her rule thereby, but as soon as the death of Daddeus became known many left the cenoby polluted in their eyes by heathenism and murder. So it always falls out, Hazael cried, wine and women have lost the world many saints. Wine deceives the minds of those that drink it, and it exalts men above themselves, and leads them into acts that in any other moment they would shrink from, leaving them more stupid than the animals. Nor is the temptation of women less violent than that of wine. Women's beauty is even more potent, for once a man perceives it he becomes as if blind to all other things; his reason deserts him, he broods upon it by day, and falls at last, as our brother has told us, into unseasonable pleasures, like Solomon himself, about whom many things are related, but not so far as I know that he became so intoxicated with women's various beauty that he found his pleasure at last in his own humiliation. If Solomon did not, others have; for there is a story of a king that allowed his love of a certain queen to take so great a hold upon him that he asked her to come up the steps of his throne to strike him on the face, to take his crown from his head and set it upon her own. This was in his old age, and it is in old age that men fall under the unreasonable sway of women--he was once a wise man, so we should refrain from blame, and pity our brethren who have fallen headlong into the sway of these Chaldean and Arabian women. I might say much more on this subject, but words are useless, so deeply is the passion for women ingrained in the human heart. Proceed, therefore, Brother: we would hear the trouble that women have brought on thee, Brother Eleakim. At once all eyes were turned towards the little fellow whose wandering odours put into everybody's mind thoughts of the great price he must have paid in bracelets and fine linen, but Eleakim told a different story--that he was sought for himself alone, too much so, for the Arabian woman that fell to his lot was not content with the chaste and reasonable intercourse suitable for the begetting of children, the reason for which they had met, but would practise with him heathen rites, and of a kind so terrible that one night he fled to his president to ask for counsel. But the president, who was absorbed in his own pleasures, drove him from his door, saying that every man must settle such questions with his wife. Hazael threw up his hands. Say no more, Brother Eleakim, thou didst well to leave that cenoby. We welcome thee, and having heard thee in brief we would now hear Brother Shaphan. At once all eyes were turned towards the short, thick, silent man, who had till now ventured into no words; and as they looked upon him their thoughts dwelt on the strange choice the curator had made when he chose Brother Shaphan for a husband; for though they were without knowledge of women, their sense told them that Brother Shaphan would not be pleasing to a woman. But Eleakim's story had prepared them for every strange taste, and they waited eagerly for Shaphan. But Shaphan had not spoken many words when tears began to roll down his cheeks, and the brethren of the Brook Kerith bethought themselves that it might be a kindly act to avert their eyes from him till he recovered his composure; but as his grief continued they sought to comfort him, telling him that his troubles were now ended. He would not, however, lift his face from his hands at their entreaty, and his companions said that the intervals between his tears since he was married were never long. At these words Shaphan lifted his face from his hands and dashed some tears from his eyelids. He will tell us now, the brethren said to themselves, but he only uttered a few incoherent words, and his face sank back into his hands. And it was then that Jesus appeared at the end of the domed gallery. Hazael signed to one of the brethren to bring a chair to him, and when Jesus was seated Hazael told him who the strangers were in these words: great trouble has fallen upon our order, he said, the wives the brethren have taken unto themselves against my counsel have not obeyed their husbands. Wilt tell our Brother Jesus the trouble that has befallen those that stayed by the lake, Shallum? I will, Shallum replied, for it will please him to hear my story and it will be a satisfaction to me to tell the quarrels that set my wife and me apart till at last I was forced to send her back to her own people. My story will be profitable to you, though you are without wives, for to err is human. The brethren were at once all ear for the new story, but Shallum was so prolix in his telling of his misfortunes that the brethren begged him to tell them again of the ranging of the gods and goddesses on either side of the president's marriage-bed. He paid no heed to them, however, but proceeded with his own story, and so slow was his procedure that Hazael had to interrupt him again. Shallum, he said, it is clear to me that our shepherd has come with some important tidings to me, and it will be kind of thee to forgo the rest of thy story for the present at least, till I have conferred with our shepherd. I should have been loath, Jesus interposed, to interrupt a discourse which seems to be pleasing to you all and which would be to me too if I had knowledge of the matters which concern you, but the differences of men with their wives and wives with their husbands are unknown to me, my life having been spent on the hills with rams and ewes. As he said these words a smile came into his eyes. The first smile I have seen on his face for many years, Hazael said to himself, and Jesus continued: I have left my flock in charge of my serving boy, for I have come to tell the president that he must not be disappointed if many sheep are lost on the hills this year; robbers having hidden themselves again in the caves and fortified themselves among cliffs so difficult that to capture them soldiers must be let down in chests and baskets--a perilous undertaking this is, for the robbers are armed and determined upon revolt against Herod, who they say is not a Jew, and holds his power in Judea from the Romans. They are robbers inasmuch as they steal my sheep, but they are men who value their country higher than their lives. This I know, for I have conferred with them: and Jesus told the Essenes a story of an old man who lived in a cave with his family of seven, all of whom besought him to allow them to surrender to the Romans. Cowards, he said, under his breath, and made pact with them that they should come out of the cave one by one, which they did, and as they came he slew them and threw their bodies into the precipice, sons and daughters, and then he slew his wife, and after reproaching Herod with the meanness of his family, although he was then a king, he threw himself from the cliff's edge. It is a great story that thou tellest, Jesus, Manahem said, and it is well to hear that there are great souls still amongst us, as in the days of the Maccabees. However this may be, Saddoc interposed, these men in their strife against the Romans must look to our flocks for food. Three sheep were taken from me last night, Jesus answered, and the rest will go one by one, two by two, three by three, unless the revolt be quelled. And if the revolt be not quelled, Saddoc continued, the robbers will need all we have gotten, which is little; they may even need our cave here, and unless we join them they will cast us over the precipices. It was to ask: are we to take up arms against these robbers that I came hither, Jesus said. You will confer amongst yourselves, brethren, Hazael said, and will forgive me if I withdraw: Jesus would like to speak with me privately. The Essenes bowed, and Hazael walked up the domed gallery with Jesus, and as soon as they disappeared at the other end Shallum began: your shepherd tells you the truth; the hills are once more infested with the remains of Theudas' army. But who may Theudas be? one of the brethren asked. So you have not heard, Shallum cried, of Theudas, and you living here within a few miles of the track he followed with his army down to Jordan. Little news reaches us here, Saddoc said, and he asked Shallum to tell of Theudas, and Shallum related how Theudas had gathered a great following together in Jerusalem and provoked a great uprising of the people whom he called to follow him through the gates of the city, which they did, and over the hills as far as Jordan. The current of the river, he said, will stop, and the water rise up in a great wall as soon as I impose my hands. We have no knowledge if the waters would have obeyed his bidding, for before the waters had time to divide a Roman soldier struck off the prophet's head and carried it to Jerusalem on a spear, where the sight of it was well received by the priests, for Theudas preached against the Temple, against the law, and the traditions as John and his disciples had done beforetimes. A great number, he continued, were slain by the Roman soldiers, and the rest dispersed, having hidden themselves in the caves, and become robbers and rebels. Nor was Theudas the last, he began again, there was another, an Egyptian, a prophet or a sorcerer of great repute, at whose bidding the people assembled when he announced that the walls of the city would fall as soon as he lifted up his hands. They must follow him through the breach into the desert to meet the day of judgment by the Dead Sea. And what befell this last prophet? Saddoc asked. He was pursued by the Roman soldiers, Eleakim cried, starting out of a sudden reverie. And was he taken prisoner? Manahem asked. No, for he threw a rope into the air and climbed out of sight, Eleakim answered. He must have been a great prophet or an angel more like, for a prophet could not climb up a rope thrown into the air, Caleb said. No, a prophet could not do that. But it is easier, Shaphan snorted, to climb up a rope thrown into the air than to return to a wife, if the flesh be always unwilling. At the words all eyes were turned to Shaphan, who seemed to have recovered his composure. It is a woeful thing to be wedded, he cried. But why didst thou accept a wife? Manahem asked. Why were ye not guided by our counsels? We hoped, Shaphan said, to bring saints into the world and we know not yet that robbers may not be the fruit of our wives' wombs. But if the flesh was always unwilling, Manahem answered, thou hast naught to fear. It would be better, Shallum interrupted, to turn us adrift on the hills than that we should return to the lake where all is disorder now. Ye are not many here, Eleakim said, to defend yourselves against robbers, and we have hands that can draw swords. Our president alone can say if ye may remain, Manahem said; he is in the gallery now and coming towards us. Our former brethren, Hazael, have renounced their wives, Manahem began, and would return to us and help to defend our cave. You come submissive to our wisdom? Hazael asked. The three strangers replied that they did so, and Hazael stood, his eyes fixed on the three strangers. We will defend you against robbers if these would seek to dispossess you of your cave, Eleakim cried. We have but two cells vacant, Hazael said. It matters not to us where we sleep if we sleep alone; and the president smiling at Shaphan's earnestness said: but three more mouths to feed will be a strain upon our stores of grain. Even though there be three more mouths to feed, Shallum answered, there will be six more hands to build a wall against the robbers. To build a wall against robbers? Hazael said. It is a long while we have been dreaming of that wall; and now it seems the time has come to hold a council. We have been speaking of a wall to protect us against robbers ever since we came here, Manahem cried, and Saddoc answered: we have delayed too long, we must build: the younger brethren will reap the benefit of our toil. We all seem to be in favour of the wall, Hazael said. Are there no dissentients? None. For the next year or more we shall be builders rather than interpreters of the Scriptures. Mathias will come to the wall to discourse to us, Caleb interjected, and Saddoc answered him: whatsoever may befall us, we are certain of one thing, we shall always be listening to Mathias. But Mathias is a man of great learning, Caleb replied. Of Greek learning may be, Saddoc answered. But even that is not sure, some years ago---- But if Greek wisdom be of no value why is it taught here? Caleb interrupted, and the old Essene answered: that Greek wisdom was not taught in the Brook Kerith, but Greek reasoning was applied to the interpretation of Scripture. But there will be no occasion for Mathias' teaching for some years. Years, sayest thou, Saddoc? Amos interjected. I spoke plainly, did I not? Saddoc answered. If it will take us years to build the wall, Amos said, we may as well save ourselves the trouble of becoming builders, for the robbers will be upon us before it is high enough to keep them out; we shall lose our lives before a half-finished wall, and methinks I might as well have been left to my flock on the hills. Thou speakest truly, Saddoc replied, for I doubt if thou wilt prove a better builder than thou wast a shepherd. If my sheep were poor, thy interpretations of the Scriptures are poorer still, Amos said, and the twain fell to quarrelling apart, while the brethren took counsel together. If this mischief did not befall them, and a wall twenty feet high and many feet in thickness were raised, would they be able to store enough food in the cave to bear a three-months' siege? And would they be able to continue the cultivation of their figs along the terrace if robbers were at the gates? But a siege, Manahem answered these disputants, cannot well be, for the shepherds on the hills would carry the news of the siege to Jericho, whence troops would be sent to our help, and at their approach the robbers would flee into the hills. What we have to fear is not a siege, but a sudden assault; and from a successful assault a wall will save us. That is true, Saddoc said. And to defend the wall we must possess ourselves of weapons, Caleb, Benjamin and Eleakim cried; and Shallum told them that a certain hard wood, of which there was an abundance in Jericho, could be shaped into cutlasses whereby a man's head might be struck off at a blow. At these words the brethren took heart, and Hazael selected Shallum for messenger to go to Jericho for the wood, and a few days afterwards the Essenes were busy carving cutlasses for their defence, and designing a great wall with towers, whilst others were among the cliffs hurling down great masses of stone out of which a wall would soon begin to rise. And every day, an hour after sunrise, the Essenes were quarrying stone and building their wall, and though they had designed it on a great scale, it rose so fast that in two months they were bragging that it would protect them against the great robber, Saulous, a pillager of many caravans, of whom Jesus had much to say when he came down from the hills. The wall will save you, Jesus said, from him. But who will save my flock from Saulous, who is besieged in a cave, and comes forth at night to seek for food for himself and his followers? But if the cave is besieged? Caleb said, laying down his trowel. The cave has two entrances, Jesus answered, and he told them that his belief now was that what remained of the flock should be sent to Jerusalem for sale. The rams, of course, should be kept, and a few of the best ewes for a flock to be raised in happier times. These were his words one sad evening, and they were so convincing that the builders laid down their trowels and repaired to the vaulted gallery to sit in council. But while they sat thinking how they might send representatives to the procurator the robbers were preparing their own doom by seizing a caravan of more than fifty camels laden with wheat for Jerusalem. A very welcome booty no doubt it was considered by the robbers, but booty--was not their only object? They hoped, as the procurator knew well, to bring about an uprising against Roman rule by means of bread riots, and this last raid provided him with a reason for a grand punitive expedition. Many troops of soldiers were sent out with orders to bring all that could be taken alive into Jerusalem for crucifixion, no mean punishment when carried out as the procurator meditated it. He saw it in his thoughts reaching from Jerusalem to Jericho, and a death penalty for all. Pilate's methods of smoking the robbers out of their caves has not proved a sufficient deterrent, he said to himself, and a smile came into his face and he rubbed his hands when the news of the first captures was brought to him, and every day small batches were announced. We shall wait, he said, until we have fifty-three, the exact number of camels that were stolen, and then the populace shall come out with me to view them. The spectacle will perhaps quench the desire of robbery in everybody who is disposed to look upon it as an easy way of gaining a livelihood. And the renown of this crucifixion will spread through Judea. For three days at least malefactors will be seen dying at distances of half-a-mile, and lest their sufferings should inspire an attempt at rescue, a decree shall be placed over every cross that any attempt at rescue will be punishable by crucifixion, and to make certain that there shall be no tampering with Roman justice, the soldiers on guard shall be given extra crosses to be used if a comrade should cut down a robber or give him drugs to mitigate his agony. And all this was done as had been commanded. The robbers were exposed at once on the road from Jerusalem, and it was on the first day of the great crucifixion that Jesus, coming round the shoulder of the hill with his flock, was brought to a sudden stop before a group of three. These, about six or seven hours, a Roman soldier said, in answer to Jesus' question as to the length of time they had been on their crosses, not more than six hours, the soldier repeated, and he turned to his comrade for confirmation of his words. Put a lance into my side, a robber cried out, and God will reward thee in heaven. Thou hast not ceased to groan since the first hour. But put a lance into my side, the robber cried again. I dare not, the soldier answered. Thou'lt hang easier to-morrow. But all night I shall suffer; put a lance into my side, for my heart is like a fire within me. And do the same for me, cried the robbers hanging on either side. All night long, cried the first robber, the pain and the ache and the torment will last; if not a lance, give me wine to drink, some strong, heady wine that will dull the pain. Thy brethren bear the cross better than thou. Take courage and bear thy pain. I was not a robber because I wished it, my house was set on fire as many another to obtain recruits. Yon shepherd is no better than I. Why am I on the cross and not he? His turn may come, who knows, though he stands so happy among his sheep. To-night he will sleep in a cool cavern, but I shall linger in pain. Give me drink and I will tell thee where the money we have robbed is hidden. The money may not be in the cave, and if it be we might not be able to find it, the soldier answered; and the crucified cried down to him that he could make plain the spot. The soldier was not, however, to be bribed, and they told the crucified that the procurator was coming out to visit the crosses on the morrow, and would be disappointed if he found dead men upon them instead of dying men. Shepherd, the soldiers will not help us, canst thou not help us? Happy shepherd, that will sleep to-night amongst thy sheep. Come by night and give us poison when these soldiers are asleep. We will reward thee. Lift not thy hand against Roman justice, the soldier said to Jesus, lest thou takest his place on the cross. Such are our orders. Jesus hurried away through the hills, pursued by memories of the crucified robbers, and he went on and on, with the intent of escaping from their cries and faces, till, unable to walk farther, he stopped, and, looking round, saw the tired sheep, their eyes mutely asking him why he had come so far, passing by so much good herbage without halting. Poor sheep, he said, I had forgotten you, but there is yet an hour of light before folding-time. Go, seek the herbage among the rocks. My dogs, too, are tired, he added, and want water, and when he had given them some to drink he sat down, hoping that the crucified might not return to his eyes and ears. But he need not have hoped: he was too tired to think of what he had seen and heard, and sat in peace watching the sunset till, as in a vision, a man in a garden, in an agony of doubt, appeared to him. He was betrayed by a disciple and taken before the priests and afterwards before Pilate, who ordered him to be scourged and crucified, and beneath his cross the multitude passed, wagging their heads, inviting him to descend if he could detach himself from the nails. A veil fell and when it was lifted Joseph was bending over him, and soon after was carrying him to his house. The people of that time rose up before him: Esora, Matred, and the camel-driver, the scent of whose sheepskin had led him back to his sheep, and he had given himself to their service with profit to himself, for it had kept his thoughts from straying backwards or forwards, fixing them in the present. He had lived in the ever-fleeting present for many years--how many? The question awoke him from his reverie, and he sat wondering how it was he could think so quietly of things that he had put out of his mind instinctively, till he seemed to himself to be a man detached as much from hope as from regret. It was through such strict rule that I managed to live through the years behind me, he said; I felt that I must never look back, but in a moment of great physical fatigue the past returned, and it lies before me now, the sting taken out of it, like the evening sky in tranquil waters. Even the memory that I once believed myself to be the Messiah promised to the Jews ceases to hurt; what we deem mistakes are part and parcel of some great design. Nothing befalls but by the will of God. My mistakes! why do I speak of them as mistakes, for like all else they were from the beginning of time, and still are and will be till the end of time, in the mind of God. His thoughts continued to unroll, it was not long before he felt himself thinking that the world was right to defend itself against those that would repudiate it. For the world, he said to himself, cannot be else than the world, a truth that was hidden from me in those early days. The world does not belong to us, but to God. It was he that made it, and it is for him to unmake it when he chooses and to remake us if he chooses. Meanwhile we should do well to accept his decrees and to talk no more of destroying the Temple and building it up again in three days. Nor should we trouble ourselves to reprove the keepers of the Temple for having made themselves a God according to their own image and likeness, with passions like a man and angers like a man, thereby falling into idolatry, for what else is our God but an Assyrian king who sits on a throne and metes out punishments and rewards? It may be that the priests will some day come into the knowledge that all things are equal in God's sight, and that he is not to be won by sacrifices, observances or prayers, that he has no need of these things, not even of our love, or it may be that they will remain priests. But though God desires neither sacrifices, observances, nor even love, it cannot be that we are wholly divorced from God. It may be that we are united to him by the daily tasks which he has set us to perform. Jesus was moved to put his pipes to his lips, and the sheep returned to him and followed him into the cavern in which they were to sleep that night. _ |
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