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THE IDLE CITY
There was once a city which was an idle city, wherein men told vain tales.
And it was that city's custom to tax all men that would enter in, with the
toll of some idle story in the gate.
So all men paid to the watchers in the gate the toll of an idle story, and
passed into the city unhindered and unhurt. And in a certain hour of the
night when the king of that city arose and went pacing swiftly up and down
the chamber of his sleeping, and called upon the name of the dead queen,
then would the watchers fasten up the gate and go into that chamber to the
king, and, sitting on the floor, would tell him all the tales that they
had gathered. And listening to them some calmer mood would come upon the
king, and listening still he would lie down again and at last fall asleep,
and all the watchers silently would arise and steal away from the chamber.
A while ago wandering, I came to the gate of that city. And even as I came
a man stood up to pay his toll to the watchers. They were seated
cross-legged on the ground between him and the gate, and each one held a
spear. Near him two other travellers sat on the warm sand waiting. And the
man said:
"Now the city of Nombros forsook the worship of the gods and turned
towards God. So the gods threw their cloaks over their faces and strode
away from the city, and going into the haze among the hills passed through
the trunks of the olive groves into the sunset. But when they had already
left the Earth, they turned and looked through the gleaming folds of the
twilight for the last time at their city; and they looked half in anger
and half in regret, then turned and went away for ever. But they sent back
a Death, who bore a scythe, saying to it: 'Slay half in the city that
forsook us, but half of them spare alive that they may yet remember their
old forsaken gods.'
"But God sent a destroying angel to show that He was God, saying unto him:
'Go into that city and slay half of the dwellers therein, yet spare a half
of them that they may know that I am God.'
"And at once the destroying angel put his hand to his sword, and the sword
came out of the scabbard with a deep breath, like to the breath that a
broad woodman takes before his first blow at some giant oak. Thereat the
angel pointed his arms downwards, and bending his head between them, fell
forward from Heaven's edge, and the spring of his ankles shot him
downwards with his wings furled behind him. So he went slanting earthward
through the evening with his sword stretched out before him, and he was
like a javelin that some hunter hath hurled that returneth again to the
earth: but just before he touched it he lifted his head and spread his
wings with the under feathers forward, and alighted by the bank of the
broad Flavro that divides the city of Nombros. And down the bank of the
Flavro he fluttered low, like to a hawk over a new-cut cornfield when the
little creatures of the corn are shelterless, and at the same time down
the other bank the Death from the gods went mowing.
"At once they saw each other, and the angel glared at the Death, and the
Death leered back at him, and the flames in the eyes of the angel
illumined with a red glare the mist that lay in the hollows of the sockets
of the Death. Suddenly they fell on one another, sword to scythe. And the
angel captured the temples of the gods, and set up over them the sign of
God, and the Death captured the temples of God, and led into them the
ceremonies and sacrifices of the gods; and all the while the centuries
slipped quietly by, going down the Flavro seawards.
"And now some worship God in the temple of the gods, and others worship the
gods in the temple of God, and still the angel hath not returned again to
the rejoicing choirs, and still the Death hath not gone back to die with
the dead gods; but all through Nombros they fight up and down, and still
on each side of the Flavro the city lives."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Then another traveler rose up, and said:
"Solemnly between Huhenwazy and Nitcrana the huge grey clouds came
floating. And those great mountains, heavenly Huhenwazi and Nitcrana, the
king of peaks, greeted them, calling them brothers. And the clouds were
glad of their greeting, for they meet with companions seldom in the lonely
heights of the sky.
"But the vapours of evening said unto the earth-mist, 'What are those
shapes that dare to move above us and to go where Nitcrana is and
Huhenwazi?'
"And the earth-mist said in answer unto the vapours of evening, 'It is
only an earth-mist that has become mad and has left the warm and
comfortable earth, and has in his madness thought that his place is with
Huhenwazi and Nitcrana.'
"'Once,' said the vapours of evening, 'there were clouds, but this was
many and many a day ago, as our forefathers have said. Perhaps the mad one
thinks he is the clouds.'
"Then spake the earth-worms from the warm deeps of the mud, saying 'O
earth-mist, thou art indeed the clouds, and there are no clouds but thou.
And as for Huhenwazi and Nitcrana, I cannot see them, and therefore they
are not high, and there are no mountains in the world but those that I
cast up every morning out of the deeps of the mud.'
"And the earth-mist and the vapours of evening were glad at the voice of
the earth-worms, and looking earthward believed what they had said.
"And indeed it is better to be as the earth-mist, and to keep close to the
warm mud at night, and to hear the earth-worm's comfortable speech, and
not to be a wanderer in the cheerless heights, but to leave the mountains
alone with their desolate snow, to draw what comfort they can from their
vast aspect over all the cities of men, and from the whispers that they
hear at evening of unknown distant gods."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Then a man stood up who came out of the west, and told a western tale. He
said:
"There is a road in Rome that runs through an ancient temple that once the
gods had loved; it runs along the top of a great wall, and the floor of
the temple lies far down beneath it, of marble, pink and white.
"Upon the temple floor I counted to the number of thirteen hungry cats.
"'Sometimes,' they said among themselves, 'it was the gods that lived
here, sometimes it was men, and now it's cats. So let us enjoy the sun on
the hot marble before another people comes.'
"For it was at that hour of a warm afternoon when my fancy is able to hear
silent voices.
"And the awful leanness of all those thirteen cats moved me to go into a
neighbouring fish shop, and there to buy a quantity of fishes. Then I
returned and threw them all over the railing at the top of the great wall,
and they fell for thirty feet, and hit the sacred marble with a smack.
"Now, in any other town but Rome, or in the minds of any other cats, the
sight of fishes falling out of heaven had surely excited wonder. They rose
slowly, and all stretched themselves, then they came leisurely towards the
fishes. 'It is only a miracle,' they said in their hearts."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Proudly and slowly, as they spoke, drew up to them a camel, whose rider
sought entrance to the city. His face shone with the sunset by which for
long he had steered for the city's gate. Of him they demanded toll.
Whereat he spoke to his camel, and the camel roared and kneeled, and the
man descended from him. And the man unwrapped from many silks a box of
divers metals wrought by the Japanese, and on the lid of it were figures
of men who gazed from some shore at an isle of the Inland Sea. This he
showed to the watchers, and when they had seen it, said, "It has seemed to
me that these speak to each other thus:
"'Behold now Oojni, the dear one of the sea, the little mother sea that
hath no storms. She goeth out from Oojni singing a song, and she returneth
singing over her sands. Little is Oojni in the lap of the sea, and scarce
to be perceived by wondering ships. White sails have never wafted her
legends afar, they are told not by bearded wanderers of the sea. Her
fireside tales are known not to the North, the dragons of China have not
heard of them, nor those that ride on elephants through Ind.
"'Men tell the tales and the smoke ariseth upwards; the smoke departeth
and the tales are told.
"'Oojni is not a name among the nations, she is not know of where the
merchants meet, she is not spoken of by alien lips.
"'Indeed, but Oojni is a little among the isles, yet is she loved by those
that know her coasts and her inland places hidden from the sea.
"Without glory, without fame, and without wealth, Oojni is greatly loved
by a little people, and by a few; yet not by few, for all her dead still
love her, and oft by night come whispering through her woods. Who could
forget Oojni even among the dead?
"For here in Oojni, wot you, are homes of men, and gardens, and golden
temples of the gods, and sacred places inshore from the sea, and many
murmurous woods. And there is a path that winds over the hills to go into
mysterious holy lands where dance by night the spirits of the woods, or
sing unseen in the sunlight; and no one goes into these holy lands, for
who that love Oojni could rob her of her mysteries, and the curious aliens
come not. Indeed, but we love Oojni though she is so little; she is the
little mother of our race, and the kindly nurse of all seafaring birds.
"And behold, even now caressing her, the gentle fingers of the mother sea,
whose dreams are far with that old wanderer Ocean.
"And yet let us forget not Fuzi-Yama, for he stands manifest over clouds
and sea, misty below, and vague and indistinct, but clear above for all
the isles to watch. The ships make all their journeys in his sight, the
nights and the days go by him like a wind, the summers and winters under
him flicker and fade, the lives of men pass quietly here and hence, and
Fuzi-Yama watches there--and knows."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
And I, too, would have told them a tale, very wonderful and very true; one
that I had told in many cities, which as yet had no believers. But now the
sun had set, and the brief twilight gone, and ghostly silences were rising
from far and darkening hills. A stillness hung over that city's gate. And
the great silence of the solemn night was more acceptable to the watchers
in the gate than any sound of man. Therefore they beckoned to us, and
motioned with their hands that we should pass untaxed into the city. And
softly we went up over the sand, and between the high rock pillars of the
gate, and a deep stillness settled among the watchers, and the stars over
them twinkled undisturbed.
For how short a while man speaks, and withal how vainly. And for how long
he is silent. Only the other day I met a king in Thebes, who had been
silent already for four thousand years.
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