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_ Thus began my life in London in the house of my uncle, John Grimmer,
who was called the Goldsmith. In truth, however, he was more than
this, since not only did he fashion and trade in costly things; he
lent out moneys to interest upon security to great people who needed
it, and even to the king Richard and his Court. Also he owned ships
and did much commerce with Holland, France, yes, and with Spain and
Italy. Indeed, although he appeared so humble, his wealth was very
large and always increased, like a snowball rolling down a hill;
moreover, he owned much land, especially in the neighbourhood of
London where it was likely to grow in value.
"Money melts," he would say, "furs corrupt with moth and time, and
thieves break in and steal. But land--if the title be good--remains.
Therefore buy land, which none can carry away, near to a market or a
growing town if may be, and hire it out to fools to farm, or sell it
to other fools who wish to build great houses and spend their goods in
feeding a multitude of idle servants. Houses eat, Hubert, and the
larger they are, the more they eat."
No word did he say to me as to my dwelling on with him, yet there I
remained, by common consent, as it were. Indeed on the morrow of my
coming a tailor appeared to measure me for such garments as he thought
I should wear, by his command, I suppose, as I was never asked for
payment, and he bade me furnish my chamber to my own liking, also
another room at the back of the house that was much larger than it
seemed, which he told me was to be mine to work in, though at what I
was to work he did not say.
For a day or two I remained idle, staring at the sights of London and
only meeting my uncle at meals which sometimes we ate alone and
sometimes in the company of sea-captains and learned clerks or of
other merchants, all of whom treated him with great deference and as I
soon guessed, were in truth his servants. At night, however, we were
always alone and then he would pour out his wisdom on me while I
listened, saying little. On the sixth day, growing weary of this
idleness, I made bold to ask him if there was aught that I could do.
"Aye, plenty if you have a mind to work," he answered. "Sit down now,
and take pen and paper and write what I shall tell you."
Then he dictated a short letter to me as to shipping wine from Spain,
and when it was sanded, read it carefully.
"You have it right," he said, seeming pleased, "and your script is
clear if boyish. They taught you none so ill yonder at Hastings where
I thought you had only learned to handle ropes and arrows. Work? Yes,
there is plenty of it of the more private sort which I do not give to
this scribe or to that who might betray my secrets. For know," he went
on in a stern voice, "there is one thing which I never pardon, and it
is betrayal. Remember that, nephew Hubert, even in the arms of your
loves, if you should be fool enough to seek them, or in your cups."
So he talked on, and while he did so went to an iron chest that he
unlocked, and thence drew out a parchment roll which he bade me take
to my workroom and copy there. I did so, and found that it was an
inventory of his goods and estates, and oh! before I had done I wished
that there were fewer of them. All the long day I laboured, only
stopping for a bite at noon, till my head swam and my fingers ached.
Yet as I did so I felt proud, for I guessed that my uncle had set me
this task for two reasons: first, to show his trust in me, and,
secondly, to acquaint me with the state of his possessions, but as it
were in the way of business. By nightfall I had finished and checked
the copy which with the original I hid in my robe when the green-robed
waiting maid summoned me to eat.
At our meal my uncle asked me what I had seen that day and I replied--
naught but figures and crabbed writing--and handed him the parchments
which he compared item by item.
"I am pleased with you," he said at last, "for heresofar I find but a
single error and that is my fault, not yours; also you have done two
days' work in one. Still, it is not fit that you who are accustomed to
the open air should bend continually over deeds and inventories.
Therefore, to-morrow I shall have another task for you, for like
yourself your horse needs exercise."
And so he had, for with two stout servants riding with me and guiding
me, he sent me out of London to view a fair estate of his upon the
borders of the Thames and to visit his tenants there and make report
of their husbandry, also of certain woods where he proposed to fell
oak for shipbuilding. This I did, for the servants made me known to
the tenants, and got back at night-fall, able to tell him all which he
was glad to learn, since it seemed that he had not seen this estate
for five long years.
On another day he sent me to visit ships in which goods of his were
being laden at the wharf, and on another took me with him to a sale of
furs that came from the far north where I was told the snow never
melts and there is always ice in the sea.
Also he made me known to merchants with whom he traded, and to his
agents who were many, though for the most part secret, together with
other goldsmiths who held moneys of his, and in a sense were partners,
forming a kind of company so that they could find great sums in sudden
need. Lastly, his clerks and dependents were made to understand that
if I gave an order it must be obeyed, though this did not happen until
I had been with him for some time.
Thus it came about that within a year I knew all the threads of John
Grimmer's great business, and within two it drifted more and more into
my hands. The last part of it with which he made me acquainted was
that of lending money to those in high places, and even to the State
itself, but at length I was taught this also and came to know sundry
of these men, who in private were humble borrowers, but if they met us
in the street passed us with the nod that the great give to their
inferiors. Then my uncle would bow low, keeping his eyes fixed upon
the ground and bid me do the same. But when they were out of hearing
he would chuckle and say,
"Fish in my net, goldfish in my net! See how they shine who presently
must wriggle on the shore. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity, and
doubtless Solomon knew such in his day."
Hard I worked, and ever harder, toiling at the mill of all these large
affairs and keeping myself in health during such time as I could spare
by shooting at the butts with my big bow where I found that none could
beat me, or practising sword play in a school of arms that was kept by
a master of the craft from Italy. Also on holidays and on Sundays
after mass I rode out of London to visit my uncle's estates where
sometimes I slept a night, and once or twice sailed to Holland or to
Calais with his cargoes.
One day, it was when I had been with him about eighteen months, he
said to me suddenly.
"You plough the field, Hubert, and do not tithe the crop, but live
upon the bounty of the husbandman. Henceforward take as much of it as
you will. I ask no account."
So I found myself rich, though in truth I spent but little, both
because my tastes were simple and it was part of my uncle's policy to
make no show which he said would bring envy on us. From this time
forward he began to withdraw himself from business, the truth being
that age took hold of him and he grew feeble. The highest of the
affairs he left to me, only inquiring of them and giving his counsel
from time to time. Still, because he must do something, he busied
himself in the shop which, as he said, he kept as a trap for the
birds, chaffering in ornaments and furs as though his bread depended
upon his earning a gold piece, and directing the manufacture of
beautiful jewels and cups which he, who was an artist, designed to be
made by his skilled and highly paid workmen, some of whom were
foreigners.
"We end where we began," he would say. "A smith was I from my
childhood and a smith I shall die. What a fate for one of the blood of
Thorgrimmer! Yet I am selling you into the same bondage, or so it
would seem. But who knows? Who knows? We design, but God decrees."
It is to be noted that when old men cease from the occupation of their
lives, often enough within a very little time they also cease from
life itself. So it was with my uncle. Day by day he faded till at last
at the beginning of the third winter after I came to him he took to
his bed where he lay growing ever weaker till at length he died in the
hour of the birth of the new year.
To the last his mind remained clear and strong, and never more so than
on the night of his death. That evening after I had eaten I went to
his room as usual and found him reading a beautiful manuscript of the
book of the Wisdom of Solomon that is called Ecclesiastes, a work
which he preferred to all others, since its thoughts were his. "I
gathered me also silver and gold and the peculiar treasures of kings,"
he read aloud, whether to himself or to me I knew not, and went on,
"So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me.
. . . Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on
the labour that I had laboured to do; and behold all was vanity and
vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun."
He closed the book, saying,
"So shall you find, Nephew, you, and every man in the evil days of age
when you shall say, 'I have no pleasure in them.' Hubert, I am going
to my long home, nor do I grieve. In youth I met with sorrow, for
though I have never told you, I was married then and had one son, a
bright boy, and oh! I loved him and his mother. Then came the plague
and took them both. So having naught left and being by nature one of
those who could wean himself from women, which I fear that you are
not, Hubert, noting all the misery there is in the world and how those
who are called noble whom I hate, grind down the humble and the poor,
I turned myself to good works. Half of all my gains I have given and
still give to those who minister to poverty and sickness; you will
find a list of them when I am gone should you wish to continue the
bounty, as to which I do not desire to bind you in any way. For know,
Hubert, that I have left you all that is mine; the gold and the ships
with the movables and chattels to be your own, but the lands which are
the main wealth, for life and afterwards to be your children's, or if
you should die childless, then to go to certain hospitals where the
sick are tended."
Now I would have thanked him, but he waved my words aside and went on:
"You will be a very rich man, Hubert, one of the richest in all
London; yet set not your heart on wealth, and above all do not ape
nobility or strive to climb from the honest class of which you come
into the ranks of those idle and dissolute cut-throats and pick-brains
who are called the great. Lighten their pockets if you will, but do
not seek to wear their silken, scented garments. That is my counsel to
you."
He paused a while, picking at the bedclothes as the dying do, and
continued,
"You told me that your mother thought you would be a wanderer, and it
is strange that now my mind should be as hers was in this matter. For
I seem to see you far away amidst war and love and splendour, holding
Wave-Flame aloft as did that Thorgrimmer who begat us. Well, go where
you are called or as occasion drives, though you have much to keep you
at home. I would that you were wed, since marriage is an anchor that
few ships can drag. Yet I am not sure, for how know I whom you should
wed, and once that anchor is down no windlass will wind it up and
death alone can cut its chain. One word more. Though you are so young
and strong remember that as I am, so shall you be. To-day for me,
to-morrow for thee, said the wise old man, and thus it ever was and
is.
"Hubert, I do not know why we are born to struggle and to suffer and
at last be noosed with the rope of Doom. Yet I hope the priests are
right and that we live again, though Solomon thought not so; that is,
if we live where there is neither sin nor sorrow nor fear of death. If
so, be sure that in some new land we shall meet afresh, and there I
shall ask account of you of the wealth I entrusted to your keeping.
Think of me kindly at times, for I have learned to love you who are of
my blood, and while we live on in the hearts of those we love, we are
not truly dead. Come hither that I may bless you in your coming in and
going out while you still look upon the sun."
So he blessed me in beautiful and tender words, and kissed me on the
brow, after which he bade me leave him and send the woman to watch
him, because he desired to sleep.
When she looked at him at midnight just as the bells rang in the new
year, he was dead.
According to his wish John Grimmer, the last of that name, was buried
by the bones of his forgotten wife and child, who had left the world
over fifty years before, in the chancel of that church in the Cheap
which was within a stone's throw of his dwelling house. By his desire
also the funeral was without pomp, yet many came to it, some of them
of high distinction, although the day was cold and snowy. I noted,
moreover, the deference they showed to me who by now was known to be
his heir, even if they had never spoken with me before, as was the
case with certain of them, taking occasion to draw me aside and say
that they trusted that their ancient friendship with my honoured uncle
would be continued by myself.
Afterwards I looked up their names in his private book and found that
one and all of those who had spoken thus owed moneys to his estate.
When the will was sworn and I found myself the master of many legions,
or rather of more money, land, and other wealth than I had ever
dreamed of, at first I was minded to be rid of trade and to take up my
abode upon one or other of my manors, where I might live in plenty for
the rest of my days. In the end, however, I did not do so, partly
because I shrank from new faces and surroundings, and partly because I
was sure that such would not have been my uncle's wish.
Instead I set myself to play and outpass his game. He had died very
rich; I determined that I would die five or ten times richer; the
richest man in England if I could, not because I cared for money, of
which indeed I spent but little upon myself, but because the getting
of it and the power that it brought, seemed to me the highest kind of
sport. So bending my mind to the matter I doubled and trebled his
enterprises on this line and on that, and won and won again, for even
where skill and foresight failed, Fortune stood my friend with a such
strange persistence that at length I became superstitious and grew
frightened of her gifts. Also I took pains to hide my great riches
from the public eye, placing much of them in the names of others whom
I could trust, and living most modestly in the same old house, lest I
should become a man envied by the hungry and marked for plunder by the
spendthrift great.
It was during the summer following my uncle's death that I went to the
wharves to see to the unloading of a ship that came in from Venice,
bearing many goods from the East on my account, such as ivory, silks,
spices, glass, carpets, and I know not what. Having finished my
business and seen these precious things warehoused, I handed over the
checking of a list of them to another and turned to seek my horse.
Then it was that I saw a number of half-grown lads and other idlers
mobbing a man who stood among them wrapped in a robe of what looked
like tattered sheepskin, yet was not because the wool on it was of a
reddish hue and very long and soft, which robe was thrown over his
head hiding his face. At this man--a tall figure who stood there
patiently like a martyr at the stake--these lewd fellows were hurling
offal, such as fishes' heads and rotted fruits that lay in plenty on
the quay, together with coarse words. "Blackamoor" was one I caught.
Such sights were common enough, but there was a quiet dignity of
bearing about this victim which moved me, so that I went to the rabble
commanding them to desist. One of them, a rough bumpkin, not knowing
who I was, pushed me aside, bidding me mind my own business,
whereupon, being very strong, I dealt him such a blow between the eyes
that he went down like a felled ox and lay there half stunned. His
companions beginning to threaten me, I blew upon my whistle, whereon
two of my serving-men, without whom I seldom rode in those troublous
times, ran up from behind a shed, laying hands upon their short
swords, on seeing which the idlers took to their heels.
When they had gone I turned to look at the stranger, whose hood had
fallen back in the hustling, and saw that he was about thirty years of
age, and of a dark and noble countenance, beardless, but with straight
black hair, black flashing eyes, and an aquiline nose. Another thing I
noted about him was that the lobe of his ear was pierced and in a
strange fashion, since the gristle was stretched to such a size that a
small apple could have been placed within its ring. For the rest the
man's limbs were so thin as though from hunger, that everywhere his
bones showed, while his skin was scarred with cuts and scratches, and
on his forehead was a large bruise. He seemed bewildered also and very
weak, yet I think he understood that I was playing a friend's part to
him, for he bowed towards me in a stately, courteous way and kissed
the air thrice, but what this meant at the time I did not know.
I spoke to him in English, but he shook his head gently to show that
he did not understand. Then, as though by an afterthought, he touched
his breast several times, and after each touch, said in a voice of
strange softness, "Kari," which I took it he meant was his name. At
any rate, from that time forward I called him Kari.
Now the question was how to deal with him. Leave him there to be
mocked or to perish I could not, nor was there anywhere whither I
could send him. Therefore it seemed the only thing to do was to take
him home with me. So grasping his arm gently I led him off the quay
where our horses were and motioned to him to mount one that had been
ridden by a servant whom I bade to walk. At the sight of these horses,
however, a great terror took hold of him for he trembled all over, a
sweat bursting out upon his face, and clung to me as though for
protection, making it evident that he had never seen such an animal
before. Indeed, nothing would persuade him to go near them, for he
shook his head and pointed to his feet, thus showing me that he
preferred to walk, however weak his state.
The end of it was that walk he did and I with him from Thames side to
the Cheap, since I dared not leave him alone for fear lest he should
run away. A strange sight we presented, I leading this dusky wanderer
through the streets, and glad was I that night was falling so that few
saw us and those who did thought, I believe, that I was bringing some
foreign thief to jail.
At length we reached the Boat House as my dwelling was called, from
the image of the old Viking vessel that my uncle had carved and set
above the door, and I led him in staring about him with all his eyes,
which in his thin face looked large as those of an owl, taking him up
the stairs, which seemed to puzzle him much, for at every step he
lifted his leg high into the air, to an empty guest room.
Here besides the bed and other furniture was a silver basin with its
jug, one of the beautiful things that John Grimmer had brought I know
not whence. On these Kari fixed his eyes at once, staring at them in
the light of the candles that I had lit, as though they were familiar
to him. Indeed, after glancing at me as though for permission, he went
to the jug that was kept full of water in case of visitors of whom I
had many on business, lifted it, and after pouring a few drops of the
water on to the floor as though he made some offering, drank deeply,
thus showing that he was parched with thirst.
Then without more ado he filled the basin and throwing off his
tattered robe began to wash himself to the waist, round which he wore
another garment, of dirty cotton I thought, which looked like a
woman's petticoat. Watching him I noted two things, that his poor body
was as scratched and scarred as though by old thorn wounds, as were
his face and hands, also marked with great bruises as though from
kicks and blows, and secondly that hung about his neck was a wondrous
golden image about four inches in length. It was of rude workmanship
with knees bent up under the chin, but the face, in which little
emeralds were set for eyes, was of a great and solemn dignity.
This image Kari washed before he touched himself with water, bowing to
it the while, and when he saw me observing him, looked upwards to the
sky and said a word that sounded like /Pachacamac/, from which I took
it to be some idol that the poor man worshipped. Lastly, tied about
his middle was a hide bag filled with I knew not what.
Now I found a washball made of oil of olives mixed with beech ash and
showed him the use of it. At first he shrank from this strange thing,
but coming to understand its office, served himself of it readily,
smiling when he saw how well it cleansed his flesh. Further, I fetched
a shirt of silk with a pair of easy shoes and a fur-lined robe that
had belonged to my uncle, also hosen, and showed him how to put them
on, which he learned quickly enough. A comb and a brush that were on
the table he seemed to understand already, for with them he dressed
his tangled hair.
When all was finished in a fashion, I led him down the stairs again to
the eating-room where supper was waiting, and offered him food, at the
sight of which his eyes glistened, for clearly he was well-nigh
starving. The chair I gave him he would not sit on, whether from
respect for me or because it was strange to him, I do not know, but
seeing a low stool of tapestry which my uncle had used to rest his
feet, he crouched upon this, and thus ate of whatever I gave him, very
delicately though he was so hungry. Then I poured wine from Portugal
into a goblet and drank some myself to show him that it was harmless,
which, after tasting it, he swallowed to the last drop.
The meal being finished which I thought it was well to shorten lest he
should eat too much who was so weak, again he lifted up his eyes as
though in gratitude, and as a sign of thankfulness, or so I suppose,
knelt before me, took my hand, and pressed it against his forehead,
thereby, although I did not know it at the time, vowing himself to my
service. Then seeing how weary he was I conducted him back to the
chamber and pointed out the bed to him, shutting my eyes to show that
he should sleep there. But this he would not do until he had dragged
the bedding on to the floor, from which I gathered that his people,
whoever they might be, had the habit of sleeping on the ground.
Greatly did I wonder who this man was and from what race he sprang,
since never had I seen any human being who resembled him at all. Of
one thing only was I certain, namely, that his rank was high, since no
noble of the countries that I knew had a bearing so gentle or manners
so fine. Of black men I had seen several, who were called negroes, and
others of a higher sort called Moors; gross, vulgar fellows for the
most part and cut-throats if in an ill-humour, but never a one of them
like this Kari.
It was long before my curiosity was satisfied, and even then I did not
gather much. By slow degrees Kari learned English, or something of it,
though never enough to talk fluently in that tongue into which he
always seemed to translate in his mind from another full of strange
figures of thought and speech. When after many months he had mastered
sufficient of our language, I asked him to tell me his story which he
tried to do. All I could make of it, however, came to this.
He was, he said, the son of a king who ruled over a mighty empire far
far away, across thousands of miles of sea towards that part of the
sky where the sun sank. He declared that he was the eldest lawful son,
born of the King's sister, which seemed dreadful to my ideas though
perhaps he meant cousin or relative, but that there were scores of
other children of his father, which, if true, showed that this king
must be a very loose-living man who resembled in his domesticities the
wise Solomon of whom my uncle was so fond.
It appeared, further, according to the tale, that this king, his
father, had another son born of a different mother, and that of this
son he was fonder than of my guest, Kari. His name was Urco, and he
was jealous of and hated Kari the lawful heir. Moreover, as is common,
a woman came into the business, since Kari had a wife, the loveliest
lady in all the land, though as I understood, not of the same tribe or
blood as himself, and with this wife of his Urco fell in love. So
greatly did he desire her, although he had plenty of wives of his own,
that being the general of the King's troops, he sent Kari, with the
consent of their father, to command an army that was to fight a
distant savage nation, hoping that he would be killed, much as David
did in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba, of whom the Bible tells the
story. But as it happened, instead of being killed like Uriah, Kari
conquered the distant nation, and after two years returned to the
King's court, where he found that his brother Urco had led astray his
wife whom he had taken into his household. Being very angry, Kari
recovered his wife by command of the King, and put her to death
because of her faithlessness.
Thereon the King, his father, a stern man, ordered him into banishment
because he had broken the laws of the land, which did not permit of
private vengeance over a matter of a woman who was not even of the
royal blood, however fair she might be. Before he went, however, Urco,
who was mad at the loss of his love, caused some kind of poison to be
given to Kari, which although it does not kill, for he dared not kill
him because of his station, deprives him who takes it of his reason,
sometimes for ever and sometimes for a year or more. After this, said
Kari, he remembered little or nothing, save long travellings in boats
and through forests, and then again upon a raft or boat on which he
was driven alone, for many, many days, drinking a jar of water which
he had with him, and eating some dried flesh and with it a marvellous
drug of his people, some of which remained to him in the leathern bag
that has power to keep the life in a man for weeks, even if he is
labouring hard.
At last, he declared, he was picked up by a great ship such as he had
never seen before, though of this ship he recalled little. Indeed he
remembered nothing more until he found himself upon the quay where I
discovered him, and of a sudden his mind seemed to return but he said
he believed that he had come ashore in a boat in which were fishermen,
having been thrown into it by the people on the ship which went on
elsewhere, and that he had walked up the shores of a river. This story
the bruises on his forehead and body seemed to bear out, but it was
far from clear, and by the time I learned it months afterwards of
course no traces of the fishermen or their boat could be found. I
asked him the name of the country from which he came. He answered that
it was called /Tavantinsuyu/. He added that it was a wonderful country
in which were cities and churches and great snow-clad mountains and
fertile valleys and high plains and hot forests through which ran wide
rivers.
From all the learned men whom I could meet, especially those who had
travelled far, I made inquiries concerning this country called
Tavantinsuyu, but none of them had so much as heard its name. Indeed,
they declared that my brown man must have come from Africa, and that
his mind being disordered, he had invented this wondrous land which he
said lay far away to the west where the sun sank.
So there I must leave this matter, though for my part I was sure that
Kari was not mad, whatever he might have been in the past. A great
dreamer he was, it is true, who declared that the poison which his
brother had given him had "eaten a hole in his mind" through which he
could see and hear things which others could not. Thus he was able to
read the secret motives of men and women with wonderful clearness, so
much so that sometimes I asked him, laughing, if he could not give me
some of that poison that I might see into the hearts of those with
whom I dealt. Of another thing, too, he was always certain, namely,
that he would return to his country Tavantinsuyu of which he thought
day and night, and that /I should accompany him/. At this I laughed
again and said that if so it would be after we were both dead.
By degrees he learned English quite well and even how to read and
write it, teaching me in return much of his own language which he
called /Quichua/, a soft and beautiful tongue, though he said that
there were also many others in his country, including one that was
secret to the King and his family, which he was not allowed to reveal
although he knew it. In time I mastered enough of this Quichua to be
able to talk to Kari in brief sentences of it when I did not wish
others to understand what I said.
To tell the truth, while I studied thus and listened to his marvellous
tales, a great desire arose in me to see this land of his and to open
up a trade with it, since there he declared gold was as plentiful as
was iron with us. I thought even of making a voyage of discovery to
the west, but when I spoke of it to certain sea-captains, even the
most venturesome mocked at me and said that they would wait for that
journey till they "went west" themselves, by which in their sea
parlance that they had learned in the Mediterranean, they meant until
they died.[*] When I told Kari this he smiled in his mysterious way
and answered that all the same, I and he should make that journey
together and this before we died, a thing that came about, indeed,
though, not by my own will or his.
[*] Of late there has been much dispute as to the origin of the phrase
"to go west," or in other words, to die. Surely it arises from the
custom of the Ancient Egyptians who, after death, were ferried
across the Nile and entombed upon the western shore.--Ed.
For the rest when Kari saw my workmen fashioning gold and setting
jewels in it for sale to the nobles and ladies of the Court, he was
much interested and asked if he might be allowed to follow this craft,
of which he said he understood something, and thus earn the bread he
ate. I answered, yes, for I knew that it irked his proud nature to be
dependent on me, and gave him gold and silver with a little room
having a furnace in it where he could labour. The first thing he made
was an object about two inches across, round and with a groove at the
back of it, on the front of which he fashioned an image of the sun
having a human face and rays of light projecting all about. I asked
him what was its purpose, whereon he took the piece and thrust it into
the lobe of his ear where the gristle had been stretched in the
fashion that I have described, which it fitted exactly. Then he told
me that in his country all the nobles wore such ornaments and that
those who did so were called "ear-men" to distinguish them from the
common people. Also he told me many other things too long to set out,
which made me desire more than ever to see this empire with my eyes,
for an empire and no less he declared it to be.
Afterwards Kari made many such ornaments which I sold for brooches
with a pin set at the back of them. Also he shaped other things, for
his skill as a goldsmith was wonderful, such as cups and platters of
strange design and rich ornamentation which commanded a great price.
But on every one of them, in the centre or some other part of the
embossment, appeared this image of the sun. I asked him why. He
answered because the sun was his god and his people were Sun-
worshippers. I reminded him that he had said that a certain Pachacamac
whose image he wore about his neck was his god. To this he replied:
"Yes, Pachacamac is the god above gods, the Creator, the Spirit of the
World, but the Sun is his visible house and raiment that all may see
and worship," a saying that I thought had truth in it, seeing that all
Nature is the raiment of God.
I tried to instruct him in our faith, but although he listened
patiently and I think understood, he would not become a Christian,
making it very plain to me that he thought that a man should live and
die in the religion in which he was born and that from what he saw in
London he did not hold that Christians were any better than those who
worshipped the sun and the great spirit, Pachacamac. So I abandoned
this attempt, although there was danger to him while he remained a
heathen. Indeed twice or thrice the priests made inquiry concerning
his faith, being curious as to all that had to do with him. However, I
silenced them by pretending that I was instructing him as well as I
was able and that as yet he did not know enough English to hearken to
their holy expositions. Also when they became persistent I made gifts
to the monasteries to which they belonged, or if they were parish
priests, then to their curés or churches.
Still I was troubled about this matter, for some of these priests were
very fierce and intolerant, and I was sure that in time they would
push the business further.
One more thing I noticed about Kari, namely, that he shrank from women
and indeed seemed to hate them. The maids who had remained with me
since my uncle's death noticed this, by nature as it were, and in
revenge would not serve him. The end of it was that, fearing lest they
should do him some evil turn with the priests or otherwise, I sent
them away and hired men to take their place. This distaste of Kari for
women I set down to all that he had suffered at the hands of his false
and beautiful wife not wrongly as I think. _
Read next: BOOK I: CHAPTER V - THE COMING OF BLANCHE
Read previous: BOOK I: CHAPTER III - HUBERT COMES TO LONDON
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