A House of Pomegranates, Oscar Wilde [suggested reading TXT] 📗

drive me from thee,

send me not forth without a heart. The world is cruel, give me thy

heart to take with me.’

 

He tossed his head and smiled. ‘With what should I love my love if

I gave thee my heart?’ he cried.

 

‘Nay, but be merciful,’ said his Soul: ‘give me thy heart, for the

world is very cruel, and I am afraid.’

 

‘My heart is my love’s,’ he answered, ‘therefore tarry not, but get

thee gone.’

 

‘Should I not love also?’ asked his Soul.

 

‘Get thee gone, for I have no need of thee,’ cried the young

Fisherman, and he took the little knife with its handle of green

viper’s skin, and cut away his shadow from around his feet, and it

rose up and stood before him, and looked at him, and it was even as

himself.

 

He crept back, and thrust the knife into his belt, and a feeling of

awe came over him. ‘Get thee gone,’ he murmured, ‘and let me see

thy face no more.’

 

‘Nay, but we must meet again,’ said the Soul. Its voice was low

and flute-like, and its lips hardly moved while it spake.

 

‘How shall we meet?’ cried the young Fisherman. ‘Thou wilt not

follow me into the depths of the sea?’

 

‘Once every year I will come to this place, and call to thee,’ said

the Soul. ‘It may be that thou wilt have need of me.’

 

‘What need should I have of thee?’ cried the young Fisherman, ‘but

be it as thou wilt,’ and he plunged into the waters and the Tritons

blew their horns and the little Mermaid rose up to meet him, and

put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth.

 

And the Soul stood on the lonely beach and watched them. And when

they had sunk down into the sea, it went weeping away over the

marshes.

 

And after a year was over the Soul came down to the shore of the

sea and called to the young Fisherman, and he rose out of the deep,

and said, ‘Why dost thou call to me?’

 

And the Soul answered, ‘Come nearer, that I may speak with thee,

for I have seen marvellous things.’

 

So he came nearer, and couched in the shallow water, and leaned his

head upon his hand and listened.

 

And the Soul said to him, ‘When I left thee I turned my face to the

East and journeyed. From the East cometh everything that is wise.

Six days I journeyed, and on the morning of the seventh day I came

to a hill that is in the country of the Tartars. I sat down under

the shade of a tamarisk tree to shelter myself from the sun. The

land was dry and burnt up with the heat. The people went to and

fro over the plain like flies crawling upon a disk of polished

copper.

 

‘When it was noon a cloud of red dust rose up from the flat rim of

the land. When the Tartars saw it, they strung their painted bows,

and having leapt upon their little horses they galloped to meet it.

The women fled screaming to the waggons, and hid themselves behind

the felt curtains.

 

‘At twilight the Tartars returned, but five of them were missing,

and of those that came back not a few had been wounded. They

harnessed their horses to the waggons and drove hastily away.

Three jackals came out of a cave and peered after them. Then they

sniffed up the air with their nostrils, and trotted off in the

opposite direction.

 

‘When the moon rose I saw a camp-fire burning on the plain, and

went towards it. A company of merchants were seated round it on

carpets. Their camels were picketed behind them, and the negroes

who were their servants were pitching tents of tanned skin upon the

sand, and making a high wall of the prickly pear.

 

‘As I came near them, the chief of the merchants rose up and drew

his sword, and asked me my business.

 

‘I answered that I was a Prince in my own land, and that I had

escaped from the Tartars, who had sought to make me their slave.

The chief smiled, and showed me five heads fixed upon long reeds of

bamboo.

 

‘Then he asked me who was the prophet of God, and I answered him

Mohammed.

 

‘When he heard the name of the false prophet, he bowed and took me

by the hand, and placed me by his side. A negro brought me some

mare’s milk in a wooden dish, and a piece of lamb’s flesh roasted.

 

‘At daybreak we started on our journey. I rode on a red-haired

camel by the side of the chief, and a runner ran before us carrying

a spear. The men of war were on either hand, and the mules

followed with the merchandise. There were forty camels in the

caravan, and the mules were twice forty in number.

 

‘We went from the country of the Tartars into the country of those

who curse the Moon. We saw the Gryphons guarding their gold on the

white rocks, and the scaled Dragons sleeping in their caves. As we

passed over the mountains we held our breath lest the snows might

fall on us, and each man tied a veil of gauze before his eyes. As

we passed through the valleys the Pygmies shot arrows at us from

the hollows of the trees, and at night-time we heard the wild men

beating on their drums. When we came to the Tower of Apes we set

fruits before them, and they did not harm us. When we came to the

Tower of Serpents we gave them warm milk in howls of brass, and

they let us go by. Three times in our journey we came to the banks

of the Oxus. We crossed it on rafts of wood with great bladders of

blown hide. The river-horses raged against us and sought to slay

us. When the camels saw them they trembled.

 

‘The kings of each city levied tolls on us, but would not suffer us

to enter their gates. They threw us bread over the walls, little

maize-cakes baked in honey and cakes of fine flour filled with

dates. For every hundred baskets we gave them a bead of amber.

 

‘When the dwellers in the villages saw us coming, they poisoned the

wells and fled to the hill-summits. We fought with the Magadae who

are born old, and grow younger and younger every year, and die when

they are little children; and with the Laktroi who say that they

are the sons of tigers, and paint themselves yellow and black; and

with the Aurantes who bury their dead on the tops of trees, and

themselves live in dark caverns lest the Sun, who is their god,

should slay them; and with the Krimnians who worship a crocodile,

and give it earrings of green glass, and feed it with butter and

fresh fowls; and with the Agazonbae, who are dog-faced; and with

the Sibans, who have horses’ feet, and run more swiftly than

horses. A third of our company died in battle, and a third died of

want. The rest murmured against me, and said that I had brought

them an evil fortune. I took a horned adder from beneath a stone

and let it sting me. When they saw that I did not sicken they grew

afraid.

 

‘In the fourth month we reached the city of Illel. It was night-time when we came to the grove that is outside the walls, and the

air was sultry, for the Moon was travelling in Scorpion. We took

the ripe pomegranates from the trees, and brake them, and drank

their sweet juices. Then we lay down on our carpets, and waited

for the dawn.

 

‘And at dawn we rose and knocked at the gate of the city. It was

wrought out of red bronze, and carved with sea-dragons and dragons

that have wings. The guards looked down from the battlements and

asked us our business. The interpreter of the caravan answered

that we had come from the island of Syria with much merchandise.

They took hostages, and told us that they would open the gate to us

at noon, and bade us tarry till then.

 

‘When it was noon they opened the gate, and as we entered in the

people came crowding out of the houses to look at us, and a crier

went round the city crying through a shell. We stood in the

market-place, and the negroes uncorded the bales of figured cloths

and opened the carved chests of sycamore. And when they had ended

their task, the merchants set forth their strange wares, the waxed

linen from Egypt and the painted linen from the country of the

Ethiops, the purple sponges from Tyre and the blue hangings from

Sidon, the cups of cold amber and the fine vessels of glass and the

curious vessels of burnt clay. From the roof of a house a company

of women watched us. One of them wore a mask of gilded leather.

 

‘And on the first day the priests came and bartered with us, and on

the second day came the nobles, and on the third day came the

craftsmen and the slaves. And this is their custom with all

merchants as long as they tarry in the city.

 

‘And we tarried for a moon, and when the moon was waning, I wearied

and wandered away through the streets of the city and came to the

garden of its god. The priests in their yellow robes moved

silently through the green trees, and on a pavement of black marble

stood the rose-red house in which the god had his dwelling. Its

doors were of powdered lacquer, and bulls and peacocks were wrought

on them in raised and polished gold. The tilted roof was of sea-green porcelain, and the jutting eaves were festooned with little

bells. When the white doves flew past, they struck the bells with

their wings and made them tinkle.

 

‘In front of the temple was a pool of clear water paved with veined

onyx. I lay down beside it, and with my pale fingers I touched the

broad leaves. One of the priests came towards me and stood behind

me. He had sandals on his feet, one of soft serpent-skin and the

other of birds’ plumage. On his head was a mitre of black felt

decorated with silver crescents. Seven yellows were woven into his

robe, and his frizzed hair was stained with antimony.

 

‘After a little while he spake to me, and asked me my desire.

 

‘I told him that my desire was to see the god.

 

‘“The god is hunting,” said the priest, looking strangely at me

with his small slanting eyes.

 

‘“Tell me in what forest, and I will ride with him,” I answered.

 

‘He combed out the soft fringes of his tunic with his long pointed

nails. “The god is asleep,” he murmured.

 

‘“Tell me on what couch, and I will watch by him,” I answered.

 

‘“The god is at the feast,” he cried.

 

‘“If the wine be sweet I will drink it with him, and if it be

bitter I will drink it with him also,” was my answer.

 

‘He bowed his head in wonder, and, taking me by the hand, he raised

me up, and led me into the temple.

 

‘And in the first chamber I saw an idol seated on a throne of

jasper bordered with great orient pearls. It was carved out of

ebony, and in stature was of the stature of a man. On its forehead