Dreams, Olive Schreiner [recommended ebook reader TXT] 📗

men. And when others had

well drunken they set the jars among the old ones beside the wall, and took

their places at the table. And I saw that some of the jars were very old

and mildewed and dusty, but others had still drops of new must on them and

shone from the furnace.

 

And I said to God, “What is that?” For amid the sound of the singing, and

over the dancing of feet, and over the laughing across the wine-cups I

heard a cry.

 

And God said, “Stand a way off.”

 

And he took me where I saw both sides of the curtain. Behind the house was

the wine-press where the wine was made. I saw the grapes crushed, and I

heard them cry. I said, “Do not they on the other side hear it?”

 

God said, “The curtain is thick; they are feasting.”

 

And I said, “But the men who came in last. They saw?”

 

God said, “They let the curtain fall behind them—and they forget!”

 

I said, “How came they by their jars of wine?”

 

God said, “In the treading of the press these are they who came to the top;

they have climbed out over the edge, and filled their jars from below, and

have gone into the house.”

 

And I said, “And if they had fallen as they climbed—?”

 

God said, “They had been wine.”

 

I stood a way off watching in the sunshine, and I shivered.

 

God lay in the sunshine watching too.

 

Then there rose one among the feasters, who said, “My brethren, let us

pray!”

 

And all the men and women rose: and strong men bowed their heads, and

mothers folded their little children’s hands together, and turned their

faces upwards, to the roof. And he who first had risen stood at the table

head, and stretched out both his hands, and his beard was long and white,

and his sleeves and his beard had been dipped in wine; and because the

sleeves were wide and full they held much wine, and it dropped down upon

the floor.

 

And he cried, “My brothers and my sisters, let us pray.”

 

And all the men and women answered, “Let us pray.”

 

He cried, “For this fair banquet-house we thank thee, Lord.”

 

And all the men and women said “We thank thee, Lord.”

 

“Thine is this house, dear Lord.”

 

“Thine is this house.”

 

“For us hast thou made it.”

 

“For us.”

 

“Oh, fill our jars with wine, dear Lord.”

 

“Our jars with wine.”

 

“Give peace and plenty in our time, dear Lord.”

 

“Peace and plenty in our time”—I said to God, “Whom is it they are talking

to?” God said, “Do I know whom they speak of?” And I saw they were

looking up at the roof; but out in the sunshine, God lay.

 

“—dear Lord!”

 

“Dear Lord.”

 

“Our children’s children, Lord, shall rise and call thee blessed.”

 

“Our children’s children, Lord.”—I said to God, “The grapes are crying!”

God said, “Still! I hear them”—“shall call thee blessed.”

 

“Shall call thee blessed.”

 

“Pour forth more wine upon us, Lord.”

 

“More wine.”

 

“More wine.”

 

“More wine!”

 

“Wine!!”

 

“Wine!!”

 

“Wine!!!”

 

“Dear Lord!”

 

Then men and women sat down and the feast went on. And mothers poured out

wine and fed their little children with it, and men held up the cup to

women’s lips and cried, “Beloved! drink,” and women filled their lovers’

flagons and held them up; and yet the feast went on.

 

And after a while I looked, and I saw the curtain that hung behind the

house moving.

 

I said to God, “Is it a wind?”

 

God said, “A wind.”

 

And it seemed to me, that against the curtain I saw pressed the forms of

men and women. And after a while the feasters saw it move, and they

whispered, one to another. Then some rose and gathered the most worn-out

cups, and into them they put what was left at the bottom of other vessels.

Mothers whispered to their children, “Do not drink all, save a little drop

when you have drunk.” And when they had collected all the dregs they

slipped the cups out under the bottom of the curtain without lifting it.

After a while the curtain left off moving.

 

I said to God, “How is it so quiet?”

 

He said, “They have gone away to drink it.”

 

I said, “They drink it—their own!”

 

God said, “It comes from this side of the curtain, and they are very

thirsty.”

 

Then the feast went on, and after a while I saw a small, white hand slipped

in below the curtain’s edge along the floor; and it motioned towards the

wine jars.

 

And I said to God, “Why is that hand so bloodless?”

 

And God said, “It is a wine-pressed hand.”

 

And men saw it and started to their feet; and women cried, and ran to the

great wine jars, and threw their arms around them, and cried, “Ours, our

own, our beloved!” and twined their long hair about them.

 

I said to God, “Why are they frightened of that one small hand?”

 

God answered, “Because it is so white.”

 

And men ran in a great company towards the curtain, and struggled there. I

heard them strike upon the floor. And when they moved away the curtain

hung smooth and still; and there was a small stain upon the floor.

 

I said to God, “Why do they not wash it out?”

 

God said, “They cannot.”

 

And they took small stones and put them down along the edge of the curtain

to keep it down. Then the men and women sat down again at the tables.

 

And I said to God, “Will those stones keep it down?”

 

God said, “What think you?”

 

I said, “If the wind blew?”

 

God said, “If the wind blew?”

 

And the feast went on.

 

And suddenly I cried to God, “If one should rise among them, even of

themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and

cry, ‘My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?’—and

with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the

fragments, cry, ‘Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not

wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!’ and he should overturn the—”

 

God said, “Be still!—, see there.”

 

I looked: before the banquet-house, among the grass, I saw a row of

mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads. I

asked God what they were.

 

He answered, “They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and

cried.”

 

And I asked God how they came there.

 

He said, “The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards.”

 

I said, “Who buried them?”

 

God said, “The men who cast them down.”

 

I said, “How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over

them?”

 

God said, “Because the bones cried out, they covered them.”

 

And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God

why it was.

 

God said, “Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while,

when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also,

and plant flowers over it.”

 

And still the feast went on.

 

Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw

their arms about each other, and danced and sang. They pledged each other

in the wine, and kissed each other’s blood-red lips.

 

Higher and higher grew the revels.

 

Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in

their glasses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades. Women dyed

their children’s garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny

mouths were red. Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a

vessel, and their garments were bespattered. Children sat upon the floor

with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats. They put

their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.

 

And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder

and louder the singing. But here and there among the revellers were those

who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there were men who

sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they

looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And when one

touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and

sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine

in the cup, but they did not move.

 

And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and

fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she

listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she

was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.

 

The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay

their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more

leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers’

shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of

their mothers’ robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he staggered

struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon the

balustrades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered to the

wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but sleep

overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.

 

Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it reached

the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from step to

step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin white smoke

rose up from it.

 

I was silent; I could not breathe; but God called me to come further.

 

And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay the

ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one which I

had seen standing.

 

I said to God, “What did the men who built it here?”

 

God said, “They feasted.”

 

I said, “On what?”

 

God said, “On wine.”

 

And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a large

circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press had stood.

 

I said to God, “How came it that this large house fell?”

 

God said, “Because the earth was sodden.”

 

He called me to come further.

 

And at last we came upon a hill where blue waters played, and white marble

lay upon the earth. I said to God, “What was here once?”

 

God said, “A pleasure house.”

 

I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried aloud for joy to God,

“The marble blossoms!”

 

God said, “Ay, ‘twas a fairy house. There has not been one like to it, nor

ever shall be. The pillars and the porticoes blossomed; and the wine cups

were as gathered flowers: on this side all the curtain was broidered with

fair designs, the stitching was of gold.”

 

I said to God, “How came it that it fell?”

 

God said,