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THE FALL OF BABBULKUND
- I said
- 'I will arise now and see Babbulkund, City of Marvel. She is
of one age with the earth; the stars are her sisters. Pharaohs of
the old time coming conquering from Araby first saw her, a solitary
mountain in the desert, and cut the mountain into towers and terraces.
They destroyed one of the hills of God, but they made Babbulkund. She
is carven, not built; her palaces are one with her terraces, there is
neither join nor cleft. Hers is the beauty of the youth of the world.
She deemeth herself to be the middle of Earth, and hath four gates
facing outward to the Nations. There sits outside her eastern gate a
colossal god of stone. His face flushes with the lights of dawn. When
the morning sunlight warms his lips they part a little, and he giveth
utterance to the words 'Oon Oom,' and the language is long since dead
in which he speaks, and all his worshippers are gathered to their
tombs, so that none knoweth what the words portend that he uttereth at
dawn. Some say that he greets the sun as one god greets another in the
language thereof, and others say that he proclaims the day, and others
that he uttereth warning. And at every gate is a marvel not credible
until beholden.'
And I gathered three friends and said to them: 'We are what we have
seen and known. Let us journey now and behold Babbulkund, that our
minds may be beautified with it and our spirits made holier.'
So we took ship and travelled over the lifting sea, and remembered not
things done in the towns we knew, but laid away the thoughts of them
like soiled linen and put them by, and dreamed of Babbulkund.
But when we came to the land of which Babbulkund is the abiding glory,
we hired a caravan of camels and Arab guides, and passed southwards
in the afternoon on the three days' journey through the desert that
should bring us to the white walls of Babbulkund. And the heat of
the sun shone upon us out of the bright grey sky, and the heat of the
desert beat up at us from below.
About sunset we halted and tethered our horses, while the Arabs
unloaded the provisions from the camels and prepared a fire out of
the dry scrub, for at sunset the heat of the desert departs from it
suddenly, like a bird. Then we saw a traveller approaching us on a
camel coming from the south. When he was come near we said to him:
'Come and encamp among us, for in the desert all men are brothers, and
we will give thee meat to eat and wine, or, if thou art bound by thy
faith, we will give thee some other drink that is not accursed by the
prophet.'
The traveller seated himself beside us on the sand, and crossed his
legs and answered:
'Hearken, and I will tell you of Babbulkund, City of Marvel.
Babbulkund stands just below the meeting of the rivers, where Oonrana,
River of Myth, flows into the Waters of Fable, even the old stream
Plegáthanees. These, together, enter her northern gate rejoicing. Of
old they flowed in the dark through the Hill that Nehemoth, the first
of Pharaohs, carved into the City of Marvel. Sterile and desolate they
float far through the desert, each in the appointed cleft, with life
upon neither bank, but give birth in Babbulkund to the sacred purple
garden whereof all nations sing. Thither all the bees come on a
pilgrimage at evening by a secret way of the air. Once, from his
twilit kingdom, which he rules equally with the sun, the moon saw
and loved Babbulkund, clad with her purple garden; and the moon wooed
Babbulkund, and she sent him weeping away, for she is more beautiful
than all her sisters the stars. Her sisters come to her at night into
her maiden chamber. Even the gods speak sometimes of Babbulkund, clad
with her purple garden. Listen, for I perceive by your eyes that
ye have not seen Babbulkund; there is a restlessness in them and an
unappeased wonder. Listen. In the garden whereof I spoke there is a
lake that hath no twin or fellow in the world; there is no companion
for it among all the lakes. The shores of it are of glass, and the
bottom of it. In it are great fish having golden and scarlet scales,
and they swim to and fro. Here it is the wont of the eighty-second
Nehemoth (who rules in the city to-day) to come, after the dusk has
fallen, and sit by the lake alone, and at this hour eight hundred
slaves go down by steps through caverns into vaults beneath the lake.
Four hundred of them carrying purple lights march one behind the
other, from east to west, and four hundred carrying green lights
march one behind the other, from west to east. The two lines cross and
re-cross each other in and out as the slaves go round and round, and
the fearful fish flash up and down and to and fro.'
But upon that traveller speaking night descended, solemn and cold, and
we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and lay down upon the sand in
the sight of the astral sisters of Babbulkund. And all that night the
desert said many things, softly and in a whisper, but I knew not what
he said. Only the sand knew and arose and was troubled and lay down
again, and the wind knew. Then, as the hours of the night went by,
these two discovered the foot-tracks wherewith we had disturbed the
holy desert, and they troubled over them and covered them up; and then
the wind lay down and the sand rested. Then the wind rose again and
the sand danced. This they did many times. And all the while the
desert whispered what I shall not know.
Then I slept awhile and awoke just before sunrise, very cold. Suddenly
the sun leapt up and flamed upon our faces; we all threw off our
blankets and stood up. Then we took food, and afterwards started
southwards, and in the heat of the day rested, and afterwards pushed
on again. And all the while the desert remained the same, like a dream
that will not cease to trouble a tired sleeper.
And often travellers passed us in the desert, coming from the City of
Marvel, and there was a light and a glory in their eyes from having
seen Babbulkund. That evening, at sunset, another traveller neared us,
and we hailed him, saying:
'Wilt thou eat and drink with us, seeing that all men are brothers in
the desert?'
And he descended from his camel and sat by us and said:
'When morning shines on the colossus Neb and Neb speaks, at once the
musicians of King Nehemoth in Babbulkund awake.
'At first their fingers wander over their golden harps, or they stroke
idly their violins. Clearer and clearer the note of each instrument
ascends like larks arising from the dew, till suddenly they all blend
together and a new melody is born. Thus, every morning, the musicians
of King Nehemoth make a new marvel in the City of Marvel; for these
are no common musicians, but masters of melody, raided by conquest
long since, and carried away in ships from the Isles of Song. And, at
the sound of the music, Nehemoth awakes in the eastern chamber of his
palace, which is carved in the form of a great crescent, four miles
long, on the northern side of the city. Full in the windows of its
eastern chamber the sun rises, and full in the windows of its western
chamber the sun sets.
'When Nehemoth awakes he summons slaves who bring a palanquin with
bells, which the King enters, having lightly robed. Then the slaves
run and bear him to the onyx Chamber of the Bath, with the sound of
small bells ringing as they run. And when Nehemoth emerges thence,
bathed and annointed, the slaves run on with their ringing palanquin
and bear him to the Orient Chamber of Banquets, where the King takes
the first meal of the day. Thence, through the great white corridor
whose windows all face sunwards, Nehemoth, in his palanquin, passes
on to the Audience Chamber of Embassies from the North, which is all
decked with Northern wares.
'All about it are ornaments of amber from the North and carven
chalices of the dark brown Northern crystal, and on its floors lie
furs from Baltic shores.
'In adjoining chambers are stored the wonted food of the hardy
Northern men, and the strong wine of the North, pale but terrible.
Therein the King receives barbarian princes from the frigid lands.
Thence the slaves bear him swiftly to the Audience Chamber of
Embassies from the East, where the walls are of turquoise, studded
with the rubies of Ceylon, where the gods are the gods of the East,
where all the hangings have been devised in the gorgeous heart of Ind,
and where all the carvings have been wrought with the cunning of the
isles. Here, if a caravan hath chanced to have come in from Ind or
from Cathay, it is the King's wont to converse awhile with Moguls or
Mandarins, for from the East come the arts and knowledge of the world,
and the converse of their people is polite. Thus Nehemoth passes on
through the other Audience Chambers & receives, perhaps, some Sheihks
of the Arab folk who have crossed the great desert from the West, or
receives an embassy sent to do him homage from the shy jungle people
to the South. And all the while the slaves with the ringing palanquin
run westwards, following the sun, and ever the sun shines straight
into the chamber where Nehemoth sits, and all the while the music from
one or other of his bands of musicians comes tinkling to his ears.
But when the middle of the day draws near, the slaves run to the
cool grooves that lie along the verandahs on the northern side of the
palace, forsaking the sun, and as the heat overcomes the genius of the
musicians, one by one their hands fall from their instruments, till at
last all melody ceases. At this moment Nehemoth falls asleep, and the
slaves put the palanquin down and lie down beside it. At this hour the
city becomes quite still, and the palace of Nehemoth and the tombs of
the Pharaohs of old face to the sunlight, all alike in silence. Even
the jewellers in the market-place, selling gems to princes, cease from
their bargaining and cease to sing; for in Babbulkund the vendor of
rubies sings the song of the ruby, and the vendor of sapphires sings
the song of the sapphire, and each stone hath its song, so that a man,
by his song, proclaims and makes known his wares.
'But all these sounds cease at the meridian hour, the jewellers in the
market-place lie down in what shadow they can find, and the princes
go back to the cool places in their palaces, and a great hush in
the gleaming air hangs over Babbulkund. But in the cool of the late
afternoon, one of the King's musicians will awake from dreaming of his
home and will pass his fingers, perhaps, over the strings of his harp
and, with the music, some memory may arise of the wind in the glens of
the mountains that stand in the Isles of Song. Then the musician will
wrench great cries out of the soul of his harp for the sake of the old
memory, and his fellows will awake and all make a song of home, woven
of sayings told in the harbour when the ships came in, and of tales in
the cottages about the people of old time. One by one the other bands
of musicians will take up the song, and Babbulkund, City of Marvel,
will throb with this marvel anew. Just now Nehemoth awakes, the slaves
leap to their feet and bear the palanquin to the outer side of the
great crescent palace between the south and the west, to behold the
sun again. The palanquin, with its ringing bells, goes round once
more; the voices of the jewellers sing again in the market-place
the song of the emerald, the song of the sapphire; men talk on the
housetops, beggars wail in the streets, the musicians bend to their
work, all the sounds blend together into one murmur, the voice of
Babbulkund speaking at evening. Lower and lower sinks the sun, till
Nehemoth, following it, comes with his panting slaves to the great
purple garden of which surely thine own country has its songs, from
wherever thou art come.
'There he alights from his palanquin and goes up to a throne of ivory
set in the garden's midst, facing full westwards, and sits there
alone, long regarding the sunlight until it is quite gone. At this
hour trouble comes into the face of Nehemoth. Men have heard him
muttering at the time of sunset: 'Even I too, even I too.' Thus do
King Nehemoth and the sun make their glorious ambits about Babbulkund.
'A little later, when the stars come out to envy the beauty of the
City of Marvel, the King walks to another part of the garden and sits
in an alcove of opal all alone by the marge of the sacred lake. This
is the lake whose shores and floors are of glass, which is lit
from beneath by slaves with purple lights and with green lights
intermingling, and is one of the seven wonders of Babbulkund. Three of
the wonders are in the city's midst and four are at her gates. There
is the lake, of which I tell thee, and the purple garden of which I
have told thee and which is a wonder even to the stars, and there is
Ong Zwarba, of which I shall tell thee also. And the wonders at the
gates are these. At the eastern gate Neb. And at the northern gate
the wonder of the river and the arches, for the River of Myth, which
becomes one with the Waters of Fable in the desert outside the city,
floats under a gate of pure gold, rejoicing, and under many arches
fantastically carven that are one with either bank. The marvel at the
western gate is the marvel of Annolith and the dog Voth. Annolith sits
outside the western gate facing towards the city. He is higher than
any of the towers or palaces, for his head was carved from the summit
of the old hill; he hath two eyes of sapphire wherewith he regards
Babbulkund, and the wonder of the eyes is that they are to-day in the
same sockets wherein they glowed when first the world began, only the
marble that covered them has been carven away and the light of day let
in and the sight of the envious stars. Larger than a lion is the dog
Voth beside him; every hair is carven upon the back of Voth, his war
hackles are erected and his teeth are bared. All the Nehemoths have
worshipped the god Annolith, but all their people pray to the dog
Voth, for the law of the land is that none but a Nehemoth may worship
the god Annolith. The marvel at the southern gate is the marvel of the
jungle, for he comes with all his wild untravelled sea of darkness and
trees and tigers and sunward-aspiring orchids right through a marble
gate in the city wall and enters the city, and there widens and holds
a space in its midst of many miles across. Moreover, he is older than
the City of Marvel, for he dwelt long since in one of the valleys
of the mountain which Nehemoth, first of Pharaohs, carved into
Babbulkund.
'Now the opal alcove in which the King sits at evening by the lake
stands at the edge of the jungle, and the climbing orchids of the
jungle have long since crept from their homes through clefts of the
opal alcove, lured by the lights of the lake, and now bloom there
exultingly. Near to this alcove are the hareems of Nehemoth.
'The King hath four hareems--one for the stalwart women from the
mountains to the north, one for the dark and furtive jungle women, one
for the desert women that have wandering souls and pine in Babbulkund,
and one for the princesses of his own kith, whose brown cheeks blush
with the blood of ancient Pharaohs and who exult with Babbulkund in
her surpassing beauty, and who know nought of the desert or the jungle
or the bleak hills to the north. Quite unadorned and clad in simple
garments go all the kith of Nehemoth, for they know well that he grows
weary of pomp. Unadorned all save one, the Princess Linderith, who
weareth Ong Zwarba and the three lesser gems of the sea. Such a
stone is Ong Zwarba that there are none like it even in the turban of
Nehemoth nor in all the sanctuaries of the sea. The same god that made
Linderith made long ago Ong Zwarba; she and Ong Zwarba shine together
with one light, and beside this marvellous stone gleam the three
lesser ones of the sea.
'Now when the King sitteth in his opal alcove by the sacred lake with
the orchids blooming around him all sounds are become still. The sound
of the tramping of the weary slaves as they go round and round never
comes to the surface. Long since the musicians sleep, and their hands
have fallen dumb upon their instruments, and the voices in the city
have died away. Perhaps a sigh of one of the desert women has become
half a song, or on a hot night in summer one of the women of the hills
sings softly a song of snow; all night long in the midst of the purple
garden sings one nightingale; all else is still; the stars that look
on Babbulkund arise and set, the cold unhappy moon drifts lonely
through them, the night wears on; at last the dark figure of Nehemoth,
eighty-second of his line, rises and moves stealthily away.'
The traveller ceased to speak. For a long time the clear stars,
sisters of Babbulkund, had shone upon him speaking, the desert wind
had arisen and whispered to the sand, and the sand had long gone
secretly to and fro; none of us had moved, none of us had fallen
asleep, not so much from wonder at his tale as from the thought that
we ourselves in two days' time should see that wondrous city. Then we
wrapped our blankets around us and lay down with our feet towards the
embers of our fire and instantly were asleep, and in our dreams we
multiplied the fame of the City of Marvel.
The sun arose and flamed upon our faces, and all the desert glinted
with its light. Then we stood up and prepared the morning meal, and,
when we had eaten, the traveller departed. And we commended his soul
to the god of the land whereto he went, of the land of his home to the
northward, and he commended our souls to the god of the people of
the land wherefrom we had come. Then a traveller overtook us going on
foot; he wore a brown cloak that was all in rags and he seemed to have
been walking all night, and he walked hurriedly but appeared weary, so
we offered him food and drink, of which he partook thankfully. When
we asked him where he was going, he answered 'Babbulkund.' Then we
offered him a camel upon which to ride, for we said, 'We also go to
Babbulkund.' But he answered strangely: 'Nay, pass on before me, for
it is a sore thing never to have seen Babbulkund, having lived while
yet she stood. Pass on before me and behold her, and then flee away at
once, returning northward.'
Then, though we understood him not, we left him, for he was insistent,
and passed on our journey southwards through the desert, and we came
before the middle of the day to an oasis of palm trees standing by a
well and there we gave water to the haughty camels and replenished our
water-bottles and soothed our eyes with the sight of green things and
tarried for many hours in the shade. Some of the men slept, but of
those that remained awake each man sang softly the songs of his own
country, telling of Babbulkund. When the afternoon was far spent
we travelled a little way southwards, and went on through the cool
evening until the sun fell low and we encamped, and as we sat in our
encampment the man in rags overtook us, having travelled all the day,
and we gave him food and drink again, and in the twilight he spoke,
saying:
'I am the servant of the Lord the God of my people and I go to do his
work on Babbulkund. She is the most beautiful city in the world;
there hath been none like her, even the stars of God go envious of her
beauty. She is all white, yet with streaks of pink that pass through
her streets and houses like flames in the white mind of a sculptor,
like desire in Paradise. She hath been carved of old out of a holy
hill, no slaves wrought the City of Marvel, but artists toiling at the
work they loved. They took no pattern from the houses of men, but
each man wrought what his inner eye had seen and carved in marble the
visions of his dream. All over the roof of one of the palace chambers
winged lions flit like bats, the size of every one is the size of the
lions of God, and the wings are larger than any wing created; they are
one above the other more than a man can number, they are all carven
out of one block of marble, the chamber itself is hollowed from it,
and it is borne aloft upon the carven branches of a grove of clustered
tree-ferns wrought by the hand of some jungle mason that loved the
tall fern well. Over the River of Myth, which is one with the Waters
of Fable, go bridges, fashioned like the wisteria tree and like the
drooping laburnum, and a hundred others of wonderful devices, the
desire of the souls of masons a long while dead. Oh! very beautiful is
white Babbulkund, very beautiful she is, but proud; and the Lord the
God of my people hath seen her in her pride, and looking towards
her hath seen the prayers of Nehemoth going up to the abomination
Annolith, and all the people following after Voth. She is very
beautiful, Babbulkund; alas that I may not bless her. I could live
always on one of her inner terraces looking on the mysterious jungle
in her midst and the heavenward faces of the orchids that, clambering
from the darkness, behold the sun. I could love Babbulkund with a
great love, yet am I the servant of the Lord the God of my people,
and the King hath sinned unto the abomination Annolith, and the people
lust exceedingly for Voth. Alas for thee, Babbulkund, alas that I may
not even now turn back, for to-morrow I must prophesy against thee
and cry out against thee, Babbulkund. But ye travellers that have
entreated me hospitably, rise and pass on with your camels, for I can
tarry no longer, and I go to do the work on Babbulkund of the Lord the
God of my people. Go now and see the beauty of Babbulkund before I cry
out against her, and then flee swiftly northwards.'
A smouldering fragment fell in upon our camp fire and sent a strange
light into the eyes of the man in rags. He rose at once, and his
tattered cloak swirled up with him like a great wing; he said no more,
but turned round from us instantly southwards, and strode away into
the darkness towards Babbulkund. Then a hush fell upon our encampment,
and the smell of the tobacco of those lands arose. When the last flame
died down in our camp fire I fell asleep, but my rest was troubled by
shifting dreams of doom.
Morning came, and our guides told us that we should come to the city
ere nightfall. Again we passed southwards through the changeless
desert; sometimes we met travellers coming from Babbulkund, with the
beauty of its marvels still fresh in their eyes.
When we encamped near the middle of the day we saw a great number of
people on foot coming towards us running, from the southwards. These
we hailed when they were come near, saying, 'What of Babbulkund?'
- They answered
- 'We are not of the race of the people of Babbulkund,
but were captured in youth and taken away from the hills that are to
the northward. Now we have all seen in visions of the stillness the
Lord the God of our people calling to us from His hills, and therefore
we all flee northward. But in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been
troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams of doom, and none may
interpret what the dreams portend. Now this is the dream that King
Nehemoth dreamed on the first night of his dreaming. He saw move
through the stillness a bird all black, and beneath the beatings of
his wings Babbulkund gloomed and darkened; and after him flew a bird
all white, beneath the beatings of whose wings Babbulkund gleamed and
shone; and there flew by four more birds alternately black and white.
And, as the black ones passed Babbulkund darkened, and when the white
ones appeared her streets and houses shone. But after the sixth bird
there came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her place, and there
was only the empty desert where she had stood, and the rivers Oonrana
and Plegáthanees mourning alone. Next morning all the prophets of the
King gathered before their abominations and questioned them of the
dream, and the abominations spake not. But when the second night
stepped down from the halls of God, dowered with many stars, King
Nehemoth dreamed again; and in this dream King Nehemoth saw four birds
only, black and white alternately as before. And Babbulkund darkened
again as the black ones passed, and shone when the white came by; only
after the four birds came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her
place, leaving only the forgetful desert and the mourning rivers.
'Still the abominations spake not, and none could interpret the dream.
And when the third night came forth from the divine halls of her home
dowered like her sisters, again King Nehemoth dreamed. And he saw a
bird all black go by again, beneath whom Babbulkund darkened, and then
a white bird and Babbulkund shone; and after them came no more,
and Babbulkund passed away. And the golden day appeared, dispelling
dreams, and still the abominations were silent, and the King's
prophets answered not to portend the omen of the dream. One prophet
only spake before the King, saying: 'The sable birds, O King, are the
nights, and the white birds are the days,...' This thing the King had
feared, and he arose and smote the prophet with his sword, whose soul
went crying away and had to do no more with nights and days.
'It was last night that the King dreamed his third dream, and this
morning we fled away from Babbulkund. A great heat lies over it, and
the orchids of the jungle droop their heads. All night long the women
in the hareem of the North have wailed horribly for their hills. A
fear hath fallen upon the city, and a boding. Twice hath Nehemoth gone
to worship Annolith, and all the people have prostrated themselves
before Voth. Thrice the horologers have looked into the great crystal
globe wherein are foretold all happenings to be, and thrice the globe
was blank. Yea, though they went a fourth time yet was no vision
revealed; and the people's voice is hushed in Babbulkund.'
Soon the travellers arose and pushed on northwards again, leaving us
wondering. Through the heat of the day we rested as well as we might,
but the air was motionless and sultry and the camels ill at ease. The
Arabs said that it boded a desert storm, and that a great wind would
arise full of sand. So we arose in the afternoon, and travelled
swiftly, hoping to come to shelter before the storm. And the air
burned in the stillness between the baked desert and the glaring sky.
Suddenly a wind arose out of the South, blowing from Babbulkund, and
the sand lifted and went by in great shapes, all whispering. And the
wind blew violently, and wailed as it blew, and hundreds of sandy
shapes went towering by, and there were little cries among them and
the sounds of a passing away. Soon the wind sank quite suddenly, and
its cries died, and the panic ceased among the driven sands. And when
the storm departed the air was cool, and the terrible sultriness and
the boding were passed away, and the camels had ease among them. And
the Arabs said that the storm which was to be had been, as was willed
of old by God.
The sun set and the gloaming came, and we neared the junction
of Oonrana and Plegáthanees, but in the darkness discerned not
Babbulkund. We pushed on hurriedly to reach the city ere nightfall,
and came to the junction of the River of Myth where he meets with the
Waters of Fable, and still saw not Babbulkund. All round us lay the
sand and rocks of the unchanging desert, save to the southwards where
the jungle stood with its orchids facing skywards. Then we perceived
that we had arrived too late, and that her doom had come to
Babbulkund; and by the river in the empty desert on the sand the
man in rags was seated, with his face hidden in his hands, weeping
bitterly.
* * * * *
Thus passed away in the hour of her iniquities before Annolith, in the
two thousand and thirty-second year of her being, in the six thousand
and fiftieth year of the building of the World, Babbulkund, City of
Marvel, sometime called by those that hated her City of the Dog, but
hourly mourned in Araby and Ind and wide through jungle and desert;
leaving no memorial in stone to show that she had been, but remembered
with an abiding love, in spite of the anger of God, by all that knew
her beauty, whereof still they sing.
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