They lodged me like a prince in a tributary country that first night.
was tired. 'Twas a stiff stage I had come the day before, and they gaveme a couch whose ethereal softness seemed to close like the wings of abird as I plunged at its touch into fathomless slumbers. But the next dayhad hardly broken when I was awake, and, stretching my limbs upon thepiled silk of a legless bed upon the floor, found myself in a great chamberwith a purple tapestry across the entrance, and a square arch leading to aflat terrace outside.
It was a glorious daybreak, making my heart light within me, the airlike new milk, and the colours of the sunrise lay purple and yellow in barsacross my room. I yawned and stretched, then rising, wrapped a silkenquilt about me and went out into the flat terrace top, wherefrom all the citycould be seen stretched in an ivory and emerald patchwork, with open,blue water on one side, and the Martian plain trending away in illimitabledistance upon the other.
Directly underneath in the great square at the bottom of Hath's palacesteps were gathered a concourse of people, brilliant in many-coloureddresses. They were sitting or lying about just as they might for all I knewhave done through the warm night, without much order, save that wherethe black streaks of inlaid stone marked a carriage- way across the squarenone were stationed. While I won- dered what would bring so manytogether thus early, there came a sound of flutes--for these people can donothing without piping like finches in a thicket in May--and from thestorehouses half-way over to the harbour there streamed a line of cartspiled high with provender. Down came the teams attended by theirslaves, circling and wheeling into the open place, and as they passed eachgroup those lazy, lolling beggars crowded round and took the dole theywere too thriftless to earn themselves. It was strange to see how listlessthey were about the meal, even though Provi- dence itself put it into theirhands; to note how the yellow-girted slaves scudded amongst them,serving out the loaves, themselves had grown, harvested, and baked;slipping from group to group, rousing, exhorting, admin- istering to a helpless throng that took their efforts without thought or thanks.
I stood there a long time, one foot upon the coping and my chin uponmy hand, noting the beauty of the ruined town and wondering how such afeeble race as that which lay about, breakfasting in the limpid sunshine,could have come by a city like this, or kept even the ruins of its walls andbuildings from the covetousness of others, until presently there was arustle of primrose garments and my friend of the day before stood by me.
"Are you rested, traveller?" she questioned in that pretty voice of hers.
"Rested ambrosially, An.""It is well; I will tell the Government and it will come up to wash anddress you, afterwards giving you breakfast.""For the breakfast, damsel, I shall be grateful, but as for the washingand dressing I will defend myself to the last gasp sooner than submit tosuch administration.""How strange! Do you never wash in your country?""Yes, but it is a matter left largely to our own discretion; so, my deargirl, if you will leave me for a minute or two in quest of that meal youhave mentioned, I will guarantee to be ready when it comes."Away she slipped, with a shrug of her rosy shoulders, to returnpresently, carrying a tray covered with a white cloth, whereon were half adozen glittering covers whence came most fragrant odours of cookedthings.
"Why, comrade," I said, sitting down and lifting lid by lid, for the cold,sweet air outside had made me hungry, "this is better than was hoped for; Ithought from what I saw down yonder I should have to trot behind atumbril for my breakfast, and eat it on my heels amongst your sleepyfriends below."An replied, "The stranger is a prince, we take it, in his own country,and princes fare not quite like common people, even here.""So," I said, my mouth full of a strange, unknown fish, and a cake softas milk and white as cotton in the pod. "Now that makes me feel at home!""Would you have had it otherwise with us?""No! now I come to think of it, it is most natural things should bemuch alike in all the corners of the universe; the splendid simplicity that rules the spheres, works much the same, no doubt, upon one side of thesun as upon the other. Yet, somehow--you can hardly wonder at it--yesterday I looked to find your world, when I realised where I had tumbled to,a world of djin and giants; of mad possibilities over realised, and here Isee you dwellers by the utterly remote little more marvellous than if I hadcome amongst you on the introduction of a cheap tourist ticket, and roundsome neglected corner of my own distant world!""I hardly follow your meaning, sir.""No, no, of course you cannot. I was forgetting you did not know!
There, pass me the stuff on yonder platter that looks like caked mud froman anchor fluke, and swells like breath of paradise, and let me questionyou;" and while I sat and drank with that yellow servitor sitting in front ofme, I plied her with questions, just as a baby might who had come into theworld with a full-blown gift of speech. But though she was ready andwilling enough to answer, and laughed gaily at my quaint ignorance ofsimple things, yet there was little water in the well.
"Had they any kind of crafts or science; any cult of stars or figures?"But again she shook her head, and said, "Hath might know, Hathunderstood most things, but her- self knew little of either." "Armies ornavies?" and again the Martian shrugged her shoulders, questioning inturn-"What for?""What for!" I cried, a little angry with her engaging dulness, "Why, tokeep that which the strong hand got, and to get more for those who comenext; navies to sweep yonder blue seas, and armies to ward what theyshould bring home, or guard the city walls against all enemies,--for Isuppose, An," I said, putting down my knife as the cheering thought cameon me,--"I suppose, An, you have some en-emies? It is not likeProvidence to give such riches as you possess, such lands, such cities, andnot to supply the anti- dote in some one poor enough to covet them."At once the girl's face clouded over, and it was obvious a tendersubject had been chanced upon. She waved her hand impatiently asthough to change the subject, but I would not be put off.
"Come," I said, "this is better than breakfast. It was the one thing- this unknown enemy of yours--wanting to lever the dull mass of your toopeacefulness. What is he like? How strong? How stands the quarrelbetween you? I was a soldier myself before the sea allured me, and lovehorse and sword best of all things.""You would not jest if you knew our enemy!""That is as it may be. I have laughed in the face of many a strongerfoe than yours is like to prove; but anyhow, give me a chance to judge.
Come, who is it that frightens all the blood out of your cheeks by a baremention and may not be laughed at even behind these substantial walls?""First, then, you know, of course, that long ago this land of ours washarried from the West.""Not I.""No!" said An, with a little warmth. "If it comes to that, you knownothing."Whereat I laughed, and, saying the reply was just, vowed I would notinterrupt again; so she wont on saying how Hath--that interminable Hath!
-would know it all better than she did, but long ago the land was overrunby a people from beyond the broad, blue waters outside; a people huge ofperson, hairy and savage, uncouth, unlettered, and poor An's voicetrembled even to describe them; a people without mercy or compunction,dwellers in woods, eaters of flesh, who burnt, plundered, and destroyed allbefore them, and had toppled over this city along with many others in anancient foray, the horrors of which, still burnt lurid in her people's minds.
"Ever since then," went on the girl, "these odious terrors of the outerland have been a nightmare to us, making hectic our pleasures, and fillingour peace with horrid thoughts of what might be, should they chance tocome again.""'Tis unfortunate, no doubt, lady," I answered. "Yet it was long ago,and the plunderers are far away. Why not rise and raid them in turn?
To live under such a nightmare is miserable, and a poet on my side of theether has said-"'He either fears his fate too much,Or his deserts are small,Who will not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all.'
It seems to me you must either bustle and fight again, or sit tamelydown, and by paying the coward's fee for peace, buy at heavy price,indulgence from the victor.""We," said An simply, and with no show of shame, "would rather diethan fight, and so we take the easier way, though a heavy one it is.
Look!" she said, drawing me to the broad window whence we could get aglimpse of the westward town and the harbour out beyond the walls.
"Look! see yonder long row of boats with brown sails hanging loosereefed from every yard ranged all along the quay. Even from here youcan make out the thin stream of porter slaves passing to and fro betweenthem and the granaries like ants on a sunny path. Those are our tax-men's ships, they came yesterday from far out across the sea, as punctualas fate with the first day of spring, and two or three nights hence we trustwill go again: and glad shall we be to see them start, although they leavescupper deep with our cloth, our corn, and gold.""Is that what they take for tribute?""That and one girl--the fairest they can find.""One--only one! 'Tis very moderate, all things considered.""She is for the thither king, Ar-hap, and though only one as you say,stranger, yet he who loses her is apt sometimes to think her one too manylost.""By Jupiter himself it is well said! If I were that man I would stir upheaven and hell until I got her back; neither man, nor beast, nor devilshould stay me in my quest!" As I spoke I thought for a minute An'sfingers trembled a little as she fixed a flower upon my coat, while therewas something like a sigh in her voice as she said-"The maids of this country are not accustomed, sir, to be so stronglyloved."By this time, breakfasted and rehabilitated, I was ready to go forth.
The girl swung back the heavy curtain that served in place of door acrossthe entrance of my chamber, and leading the way by a corridor and marblesteps while I followed, and whether it was the Martian air or the meal Iknow not, but thinking mighty well of myself until we came presently onto the main palace stairs, which led by stately flights from the uppergalleries to the wide square below.
As we passed into the full sunshine--and no sunshine is so crisplygolden as the Martian--amongst twined flowers and shrubs and gay, quaintbirds building in the cornices, a sleek youth rose slowly from where hehad spread his cloak as couch upon a step and approaching asked-"You are the stranger of yesterday?""Yes," I answered.
"Then I bring a message from Prince Hath, saying it would pleasurehim greatly if you would eat the morning meal with him.""Why," I answered, "it is very civil indeed, but I have breakfastedalready.""And so has Hath," said the boy, gently yawning. "You see I camehere early this morning, but knowing you would pass sooner or later Ithought it would save me the trouble if I lay down till you came--thosequaint people who built these places were so prodigal of steps," andsmiling apologetically he sank back on his couch and began toying with aleaf.
"Sweet fellow," I said, and you will note how I was getting into theirstyle of conversation, "get back to Hath when you have rested, give himmy most gracious thanks for the intended courtesy, but tell him theinvitation should have started a week earlier; tell him from me, younimble- footed messenger, that I will post-date his kindness and cometomorrow; say that meanwhile I pray him to send any ill news he has forme by you. Is the message too bulky for your slender shoulders?""No," said the boy, rousing himself slowly, "I will take it," and then heprepared to go. He turned again and said, without a trace of incivility,"But indeed, stranger, I wish you would take the message yourself. Thisis the third flight of stairs I have been up today."Everywhere it was the same friendly indolence. Half the breakfasterswere lying on coloured shawls in groups about the square; the other halfwere strolling off--all in one direction, I noticed--as slowly as could betowards the open fields beyond; no one was active or had anything to dosave the yellow folk who flitted to and fro fostering the others, and doing the city work as though it were their only thought in life. There were noshops in that strange city, for there were no needs; some booths I sawindeed, and temple-like places, but hollow, and used for birds and beasts-things these lazy Martians love. There was no tramp of busy feet, for noone was busy; no clank of swords or armour in those peaceful streets, forno one was warlike; no hustle, for no one hurried; no wide-packed assesnodding down the lanes, for there was nothing to fill their packs with, andthough a cart sometimes came by with a load of lolling men and maids, ora small horse, for horses they had, paced along, itself nearly as lazy as themaster he bore, with trappings sewed over bits of coloured shell and coral,yet somehow it was all extraordinarily unreal. It was a city full of theghosts of the life which once pulsed through its ways. The streets werepeopled, the chatter of voices everywhere, the singing boys and laughinggirls wandering, arms linked together, down the ways filled every echowith their merriment, yet somehow it was all so shallow that again andagain I rubbed my eyes, wonder- ing if I were indeed awake, or whether itwere not a pro- longed sleep of which the tomorrow were still to come.
"What strikes me as strangest of all, good comrade," I observedpleasantly to the tripping presence at my elbow, "is that these countrymenof yours who shirk to climb a flight of steps, and have palms as soft asrose petals, these wide ways paved with stones as hard as a usurer's heart."An laughed. "The stones were still in their native quar- ries had itbeen left to us to seek them; we are like the conies in the ruins, sir, theinheritors of what other hands have done.""Ay, and undone, I think, as well, for coming along I have noted axechippings upon the walls, smudges of ancient fire and smoke upon thecornices."An winced a little and stared uneasily at the walls, mut- tering belowher breath something about trying to hide with flower garlands the marksthey could not banish, but it was plain the conversation was not pleasing toher. So unpleasant was talk or sight of woodmen (Thither-folk, as shecalled them, in contradiction to the Hither people about us here), that thegirl was clearly relieved when we were free of the town and out into theopen play- ground of the people. The whole place down there was a gay, shifting crowd. The booths of yesterday, the ar- cades, the archways,were still standing, and during the night unknown hands had redeckedthem with flowers, while another day's sunshine had opened the coppicebuds so that the whole place was brilliant past expression. And here theHither folk were varying their idleness by a general holiday. They werestanding about in groups, or lying ranked like new-plucked flowers on thebanks, piping to each other through reeds as soft and melodious as runningwater. They were playing inconsequent games and breaking off in themiddle of them like children looking for new pleasures. They wereidling about the drinking booths, delicately stupid with quaint, thin wines,dealt out to all who asked; the maids were ready to chevy or be cheviedthrough the blossoming thickets by anyone who chanced upon them, themen slipped their arms round slen- der waists and wandered down thepaths, scarce seeming to care even whose waist it was they circled or intowhose ear they whispered the remainder of the love-tale they had begun tosome one else. And everywhere it was "Hi," and "Ha," and "So," and"See," as these quaint people called to one another, knowing each other asfamiliarly as ants of a nest, and by the same magic it seemed to me.
"An," I said presently, when we had wandered an hour or so throughthe drifting throng, "have these good country- men of yours no othernames but monosyllabic, nothing to designate them but these chirrupingsyllables?""Is it not enough?" answered my companion. "Once in- deed I thinkwe had longer names, but," she added, smiling, "how much trouble itsaves to limit each one to a single sound. It is uncivil to one's neighboursto burden their tongues with double duty when half would do.""But have you no patronymics--nothing to show the child comes of thesame source as his father came?""We have no fathers.""What! no fathers?" I said, starting and staring at her.
"No, nor mothers either, or at least none that we remem- ber, for again,why should we? Mayhap in that strange dis- trict you come from youkeep count of these things, but what have we to do with either when theirinitial duty is done. Look at that painted butterfly swinging on the honey laden catkin there. What knows she of the mother who shed her life intoa flowercup and forgot which flower it was the minute afterwards. We,too, are insects, stranger.""And do you mean to say of this great concourse here, that every atomis solitary, individual, and can claim no kin- dred with another save theloose bonds of a general fraterni- ty--a specious idea, horrible,impracticable!"Whereat An laughed. "Ask the grasshoppers if it is im- practicable;ask the little buzzing things of grass and leaves who drift hither and thitherupon each breath of wind, finding kinsmen never but comradeseverywhere--ask them if it is horrible."This made me melancholy, and somehow set me thinking of thefriends immeasurably distant I had left but yesterday.
What were they doing? Did they miss me? I was to have called formy pay this afternoon, and tomorrow was to have run down South to seethat freckled lady of mine. What would she think of my absence? Whatwould she think if she knew where I was? Gods, it was too mad, tooabsurd! I thrust my hands into my pockets in fierce des- peration, andthere they clutched an old dance programme and an out-of-date check fora New York ferry-boat. I scowled about on that sunny, helpless people,and laying my hand bitterly upon my heart felt in the breast-pocketbeneath a packet of unpaid Boston tailors' bills and a note from mylandlady asking if I would let her aunt do my washing while I was onshore. Oh! what would they all think of me? Would they brand me as adeserter, a poltroon, and a thief, letting my name presently sink down inshame and mystery in the shadowy realm of the forgotten? Dread- fulthoughts! I would think no more.
Maybe An had marked my melancholy, for presently she led me to astall where in fantastic vases wines of sorts I have described before wereput out for all who came to try them. There was medicine here for everykind of dulness--not the gross cure which earthly wine effects, but sonicely proportioned to each specific need that one could regulate one'sdebauch to a hairbreadth, rising through all the gamut of satisfaction, fromthe staid contentment coming of that flask there to the wild extravagances of the further- most vase. So my stripling told me, running her fingerdown the line of beakers carved with strange figures and cased in silver,each in its cluster of little attendant drinking- cups, like-coloured, andwaiting round on the white napkins as the shore boats wait to unload acargo round the sides of a merchant vessel.
"And what," I said, after curiously examining each liquor in turn,"what is that which stands alone there in the humble earthen jar, as thoughunworthy of the company of the others.""Oh, that," said my friend, "is the most essential of them all--that is thewine of recovery, without which all the others were deadly poisons.""The which, lady, looks as if it had a moral attaching to it.""It may have; indeed I think it has, but I have forgotten. Prince Hathwould know! Meanwhile let me give you to drink, great stranger, let meget you something.""Well, then," I laughed, "reach me down an antidote to fate, a specificfor an absent mistress, and forgetful friends.""What was she like?" said An, hesitating a little and frowning.
"Nay, good friend," was my answer, "what can that matter to you?""Oh, nothing, of course," answered that Martian, and while she tookfrom the table a cup and filled it with fluid I felt in the pouch of mysword-belt to see if by chance a bit of money was Iying there, but therewas none, only the pips of an orange poor Polly had sucked andlaughingly thrown at me.
However, it did not matter. The girl handed me the cup, and I put mylips to it. The first taste was bitter and acrid, like the liquor of long-steeped wood. At the second taste a shiver of pleasure ran through me,and I opened my eyes and stared hard. The third taste grossness andheavi- ness and chagrin dropped from my heart; all the com- plexion ofProvidence altered in a flash, and a stupid irresistible joy, unreasoning,uncontrollable took possession of my fibre. I sank upon a mossy bankand, lolling my head, beamed idiotically on the lolling Martians all aboutme. How long I was like that I cannot say. The heavy minutes ofsodden contentment slipped by unnoticed, un- umbered, till presently I feltthe touch of a wine-cup at my lips again, and drinking of another liquor dulness vanished from my mind, my eyes cleared, my heart throbbed; afantastic gaiety seized upon my limbs; I bounded to my feet, and seizingAn's two hands in mine, swung that damsel round in a giddy dance,capering as never dancer danced before, till spent and weary I sank downagain from sheer lack of breath, and only knew thereafter that An wassitting by me saying, "Drink! drink stranger, drink and forget!" and as athird time a cup was pressed to my lips, aches and pleasures, stupidnessand joy, life itself, seemed slipping away into a splendid golden vacuity, ahazy epi- sode of unconscious Elysium, indefinite, and unfathomable.