________________________________________________
_ Our preparations did not take us very long. We put a change of
clothing apiece and some spare boots into my Gladstone bag, also we
took our revolvers and an express rifle each, together with a good
supply of ammunition, a precaution to which, under Providence, we
subsequently owed our lives over and over again. The rest of our gear,
together with our heavy rifles, we left behind us.
A few minutes before the appointed time we once more attended in
Ayesha's boudoir, and found her also ready, her dark cloak thrown over
her winding-sheetlike wrappings.
"Are ye prepared for the great venture?" she said.
"We are," I answered, "though for my part, Ayesha, I have no faith in
it."
"Ah, my Holly," she said, "thou art of a truth like those old Jews--of
whom the memory vexes me so sorely--unbelieving, and hard to accept
that which they have not known. But thou shalt see; for unless my
mirror beyond lies," and she pointed to the font of crystal water,
"the path is yet open as it was of old time. And now let us start upon
the new life which shall end--who knoweth where?"
"Ah," I echoed, "who knoweth where?" and we passed down into the great
central cave, and out into the light of day. At the mouth of the cave
we found a single litter with six bearers, all of them mutes, waiting,
and with them I was relieved to see our old friend Billali, for whom I
had conceived a sort of affection. It appeared that, for reasons not
necessary to explain at length, Ayesha had thought it best that, with
the exception of herself, we should proceed on foot, and this we were
nothing loth to do, after our long confinement in these caves, which,
however suitable they might be for sarcophagi--a singularly
inappropriate word, by the way, for these particular tombs, which
certainly did not consume the bodies given to their keeping--were
depressing habitations for breathing mortals like ourselves. Either by
accident or by the orders of /She/, the space in front of the cave
where we had beheld that awful dance was perfectly clear of
spectators. Not a soul was to be seen, and consequently I do not
believe that our departure was known to anybody, except perhaps the
mutes who waited on /She/, and they were, of course, in the habit of
keeping what they saw to themselves.
In a few minutes' time we were stepping out sharply across the great
cultivated plain or lake bed, framed like a vast emerald in its
setting of frowning cliff, and had another opportunity of wondering at
the extraordinary nature of the site chosen by these old people of Kôr
for their capital, and at the marvellous amount of labour, ingenuity,
and engineering skill that must have been brought into requisition by
the founders of the city to drain so huge a sheet of water, and to
keep it clear of subsequent accumulations. It is, indeed, so far as my
experience goes, an unequalled instance of what man can do in the face
of nature, for in my opinion such achievements as the Suez Canal or
even the Mont Cenis Tunnel do not approach this ancient undertaking in
magnitude and grandeur of conception.
When we had been walking for about half an hour, enjoying ourselves
exceedingly in the delightful cool which about this time of the day
always appeared to descend upon the great plain of Kôr, and which in
some degree atoned for the want of any land or sea breeze--for all
wind was kept off by the rocky mountain wall--we began to get a clear
view of what Billali had informed us were the ruins of the great city.
And even from that distance we could see how wonderful those ruins
were, a fact which with every step we took became more evident. The
town was not very large if compared to Babylon or Thebes, or other
cities of remote antiquity; perhaps its outer wall contained some
twelve square miles of ground, or a little more. Nor had the walls, so
far as we could judge when we reached them, been very high, probably
not more than forty feet, which was about their present height where
they had not through the sinking of the ground, or some such cause,
fallen into ruin. The reason of this, no doubt, was that the people of
Kôr, being protected from any outside attack by far more tremendous
ramparts than any that the hand of man could rear, only required them
for show and to guard against civil discord. But on the other hand
they were as broad as they were high, built entirely of dressed stone,
hewn, no doubt, from the vast caves, and surrounded by a great moat
about sixty feet in width, some reaches of which were still filled
with water. About ten minutes before the sun finally sank we reached
this moat, and passed down and through it, clambering across what
evidently were the piled-up fragments of a great bridge in order to do
so, and then with some little difficulty over the slope of the wall to
its summit. I wish that it lay within the power of my pen to give some
idea of the grandeur of the sight that then met our view. There, all
bathed in the red glow of the sinking sun, were miles upon miles of
ruins--columns, temples, shrines, and the palaces of kings, varied
with patches of green bush. Of course, the roofs of these buildings
had long since fallen into decay and vanished, but owing to the
extreme massiveness of the style of building, and to the hardness and
durability of the rock employed, most of the party walls and great
columns still remained standing.[*]
[*] In connection with the extraordinary state of preservation of
these ruins after so vast a lapse of time--at least six thousand
years--it must be remembered that Kôr was not burnt or destroyed
by an enemy or an earthquake, but deserted, owing to the action of
a terrible plague. Consequently the houses were left unharmed;
also the climate of the plain is remarkably fine and dry, and
there is very little rain or wind; as a result of which these
relics have only to contend against the unaided action of time,
that works but slowly upon such massive blocks of masonry.
--L. H. H.
Straight before us stretched away what had evidently been the main
thoroughfare of the city, for it was very wide, wider than the Thames
Embankment, and regular, being, as we afterwards discovered, paved, or
rather built, throughout of blocks of dressed stone, such as were
employed in the walls, it was but little overgrown even now with grass
and shrubs that could get no depth of soil to live in. What had been
the parks and gardens, on the contrary, were now dense jungle. Indeed,
it was easy even from a distance to trace the course of the various
roads by the burnt-up appearance of the scanty grass that grew upon
them. On either side of this great thoroughfare were vast blocks of
ruins, each block, generally speaking, being separated from its
neighbour by a space of what had once, I suppose, been garden-ground,
but was now dense and tangled bush. They were all built of the same
coloured stone, and most of them had pillars, which was as much as we
could make out in the fading light as we passed swiftly up the main
road, that I believe I am right in saying no living foot had pressed
for thousands of years.[*]
[*] Billali told me that the Amahagger believe that the site of the
city is haunted, and could not be persuaded to enter it upon any
consideration. Indeed, I could see that he himself did not at all
like doing so, and was only consoled by the reflection that he was
under the direct protection of /She/. It struck Leo and myself as
very curious that a people which has no objection to living
amongst the dead, with whom their familiarity has perhaps bred
contempt, and even using their bodies for purposes of fuel, should
be terrified at approaching the habitations that these very
departed had occupied when alive. After all, however, it is only a
savage inconsistency.--L. H. H.
Presently we came to an enormous pile, which we rightly took to be a
temple covering at least eight acres of ground, and apparently
arranged in a series of courts, each one enclosing another of smaller
size, on the principle of a Chinese nest of boxes, the courts being
separated one from the other by rows of huge columns. And, while I
think of it, I may as well state a remarkable thing about the shape of
these columns, which resembled none that I have ever seen or heard of,
being fashioned with a kind of waist at the centre, and swelling out
above and below. At first we thought that this shape was meant to
roughly symbolise or suggest the female form, as was a common habit
amongst the ancient religious architects of many creeds. On the
following day, however, as we went up the slopes of the mountain, we
discovered a large quantity of the most stately looking palms, of
which the trucks grew exactly in this shape, and I have now no doubt
but that the first designer of those columns drew his inspiration from
the graceful bends of those very palms, or rather of their ancestors,
which then, some eight or ten thousand years ago, as now, beautified
the slopes of the mountain that had once formed the shores of the
volcanic lake.
At the /façade/ of this huge temple, which, I should imagine, is
almost as large as that of El-Karnac, at Thebes, some of the largest
columns, which I measured, being between eighteen to twenty feet in
diameter at the base, by about seventy feet in height, our little
procession was halted, and Ayesha descended from her litter.
"There was a spot here, Kallikrates," she said to Leo, who had run up
to help her down, "where one might sleep. Two thousand years ago did
thou and I and that Egyptian asp rest therein, but since then have I
not set foot here, nor any man, and perchance it has fallen," and,
followed by the rest of us, she passed up a vast flight of broken and
ruined steps into the outer court, and looked round into the gloom.
Presently she seemed to recollect, and, walking a few paces along the
wall to the left, halted.
"It is here," she said, and at the same time beckoned to the two
mutes, who were loaded with provisions and our little belongings, to
advance. One of them came forward, and, producing a lamp, lit it from
his brazier (for the Amahagger when on a journey nearly always carried
with them a little lighted brazier, from which to provide fire). The
tinder of this brazier was made of broken fragments of mummy carefully
damped, and, if the admixture of moisture was properly managed, this
unholy compound would smoulder away for hours.[*] As soon as the lamp
was lit we entered the place before which Ayesha had halted. It turned
out to be a chamber hollowed in the thickness of the wall, and, from
the fact of there still being a massive stone table in it, I should
think that it had probably served as a living-room, perhaps for one of
the door-keepers of the great temple.
[*] After all we are not much in advance of the Amahagger in these
matters. "Mummy," that is pounded ancient Egyptian, is, I believe,
a pigment much used by artists, and especially by those of them
who direct their talents to the reproduction of the works of the
old masters.--Editor.
Here we stopped, and after cleaning the place out and making it as
comfortable as circumstances and the darkness would permit, we ate
some cold meat, at least Leo, Job and I did, for Ayesha, as I think I
have said elsewhere, never touched anything except cakes of flour,
fruit and water. While we were still eating, the moon, which was at
her full, rose above the mountain-wall, and began to flood the place
with silver.
"Wot ye why I have brought you here to-night, my Holly?" said Ayesha,
leaning her head upon her hand and watching the great orb as she rose,
like some heavenly queen, above the solemn pillars of the temple. "I
brought you--nay, it is strange, but knowest thou, Kallikrates, that
thou liest at this moment upon the very spot where thy dead body lay
when I bore thee back to those caves of Kôr so many years ago? It all
returns to my mind now. I can see it, and horrible is it to my sight!"
and she shuddered.
Here Leo jumped up and hastily changed his seat. However the
reminiscence might affect Ayesha, it clearly had few charms for him.
"I brought you," went on Ayesha presently, "that ye might look upon
the most wonderful sight that ever the eye of man beheld--the full
moon shining over ruined Kôr. When ye have done your eating--I would
that I could teach you to eat naught but fruit, Kallikrates, but that
will come after thou hast laved in the fire. Once I, too, ate flesh
like a brute beast. When ye have done we will go out, and I will show
you this great temple and the God whom men once worshipped therein."
Of course we got up at once, and started. And here again my pen fails
me. To give a string of measurements and details of the various courts
of the temple would only be wearisome, supposing that I had them, and
yet I know not how I am to describe what we saw, magnificent as it was
even in its ruin, almost beyond the power of realisation. Court upon
dim court, row upon row of mighty pillars--some of them (especially at
the gateways) sculptured from pedestal to capital--space upon space of
empty chambers that spoke more eloquently to the imagination than any
crowded streets. And over all, the dead silence of the dead, the sense
of utter loneliness, and the brooding spirit of the Past! How
beautiful it was, and yet how drear! We did not dare to speak aloud.
Ayesha herself was awed in the presence of an antiquity compared to
which even her length of days was but a little thing; we only
whispered, and our whispers seemed to run from column to column, till
they were lost in the quiet air. Bright fell the moonlight on pillar
and court and shattered wall, hiding all their rents and imperfections
in its silver garment, and clothing their hoar majesty with the
peculiar glory of the night. It was a wonderful sight to see the full
moon looking down on the ruined fane of Kôr. It was a wonderful thing
to think for how many thousands of years the dead orb above and the
dead city below had gazed thus upon each other, and in the utter
solitude of space poured forth each to each the tale of their lost
life and long-departed glory. The white light fell, and minute by
minute the quiet shadows crept across the grass-grown courts like the
spirits of old priests haunting the habitations of their worship--the
white light fell, and the long shadows grew till the beauty and
grandeur of each scene and the untamed majesty of its present Death
seemed to sink into our very souls, and speak more loudly than the
shouts of armies concerning the pomp and splendour that the grave had
swallowed, and even memory had forgotten.
"Come," said Ayesha, after we had gazed and gazed, I know not for how
long, "and I will show you the stony flower of Loveliness and Wonder's
very crown, if yet it stands to mock time with its beauty and fill the
heart of man with longing for that which is behind the veil," and,
without waiting for an answer, she led us through two more pillared
courts into the inner shrine of the old fane.
And there, in the centre of the inmost court, that might have been
some fifty yards square, or a little more, we stood face to face with
what is perhaps the grandest allegorical work of Art that the genius
of her children has ever given to the world. For in the exact centre
of the court, placed upon a thick square slab of rock, was a huge
round ball of dark stone, some twenty feet in diameter, and standing
on the ball was a colossal winged figure of a beauty so entrancing
and divine that when I first gazed upon it, illuminated and shadowed
as it was by the soft light of the moon, my breath stood still, and
for an instant my heart ceased its beating.
The statue was hewn from marble so pure and white that even now, after
all those ages, it shone as the moonbeams danced upon it, and its
height was, I should say, a trifle over twenty feet. It was the winged
figure of a woman of such marvellous loveliness and delicacy of form
that the size seemed rather to add to than to detract from its so
human and yet more spiritual beauty. She was bending forward and
poising herself upon her half-spread wings as though to preserve her
balance as she leant. Her arms were outstretched like those of some
woman about to embrace one she dearly loved, while her whole attitude
gave an impression of the tenderest beseeching. Her perfect and most
gracious form was naked, save--and here came the extraordinary thing--
the face, which was thinly veiled, so that we could only trace the
marking of her features. A gauzy veil was thrown round and about the
head, and of its two ends one fell down across her left breast, which
was outlined beneath it, and one, now broken, streamed away upon the
air behind her.
"Who is she?" I asked, as soon as I could take my eyes off the statue.
"Canst thou not guess, oh Holly?" answered Ayesha. "Where then is thy
imagination? It is Truth standing on the World, and calling to its
children to unveil her face. See what is writ upon the pedestal.
Without doubt it is taken from the book of Scriptures of these men of
Kôr," and she led the way to the foot of the statue, where an
inscription of the usual Chinese-looking hieroglyphics was so deeply
graven as to be still quite legible, at least to Ayesha. According to
her translation it ran thus:--
"Is there no man that will draw my veil and look upon my face, for
it is very fair? Unto him who draws my veil shall I be, and peace
will I give him, and sweet children of knowledge and good works."
And a voice cried, "Though all those who seek after thee desire
thee, behold! Virgin art thou, and Virgin shalt thou go till Time
be done. No man is there born of woman who may draw thy veil and
live, nor shall be. By Death only can thy veil be drawn, oh
Truth!"
And Truth stretched out her arms and wept, because those who
sought her might not find her, nor look upon her face to face.
"Thou seest," said Ayesha, when she had finished translating, "Truth
was the Goddess of the people of old Kôr, and to her they built their
shrines, and her they sought; knowing that they should never find,
still sought they."
"And so," I added sadly, "do men seek to this very hour, but they find
out; and, as this Scripture saith, nor shall they; for in Death only
is Truth found."
Then with one more look at this veiled and spiritualised loveliness--
which was so perfect and so pure that one might almost fancy that the
light of a living spirit shone through the marble prison to lead man
on to high and ethereal thoughts--this poet's dream of beauty frozen
into stone, which I shall never forget while I live, we turned and
went back through the vast moonlit courts to the spot whence we had
started. I never saw the statue again, which I the more regret,
because on the great ball of stone representing the World whereon the
figure stood, lines were drawn, that probably, had there been light
enough, we should have discovered to be a map of the Universe as it
was known to the people of Kôr. It is at any rate suggestive of some
scientific knowledge that these long-dead worshippers of Truth had
recognised the fact that the globe is round. _
Read next: CHAPTER XXIV - WALKING THE PLANK
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