第52章

That he was a Son of the Living Spirit would be naught to them, if indeed he was so, and of that we will talk afterwards.They would care naught for any God if he came not with pomp and power.They, a chosen people, a vessel of him they call Jehovah! ay, and a vessel of Baal, and a vessel of Astoreth, and a vessel of the gods of the Egyptiansa high-stomached people, greedy of aught that brought them wealth and power.So they crucified their Messiah because he came in lowly guiseand now are they scattered about the earth.

Why, if I remember, so said one of their prophets that it should be.Well, let them go; they broke my heart, those Jews, and made me look with evil eyes across the world, ay, and drove me to this wilderness, this place of a people that was before them.When I would have taught them wisdom in Jerusalem they stoned me, ay, at the gate of the Temple those white-bearded hypocrites and rabbis hounded the people on to stone me! See, here is the mark of it to this day!" and with a sudden move she pulled up the gauzy wrapping on her rounded arm, and pointed to a little scar that showed red against its milky beauty.I shrank back horrified.

"Pardon me, O queen," I said, "but I am bewildered.

Nigh upon two thousand years have rolled across the earth since the Jewish Messiah hung upon his cross at Golgotha.How then canst thou have taught thy philosophy to the Jews before he was? Thou art a woman, and no spirit.How can a woman live two thousand years? Why dost thou befool me, O queen?"_i_ She _i_ leaned back on the couch, and once more Ifelt the hidden eyes playing upon me and searching out my heart.

"O man!" she said at last, speaking very slowly and deliberately, "it seems that there are still things upon the earth of which thou knowest naught.Dost thou still believe that all things die, even as those very Jews believed? I tell thee that naught really dies.

There is no such thing as Death, though there be a thing called Change.See," and she pointed to some sculptures on the rocky wall."Three times two thousand years have passed since the last of the great race that hewed those pictures fell before the breath of the pestilence which destroyed them, yet they are not dead.E'en now they live; perchance their spirits are drawn towards us at this very hour," and she glanced round."Of a surety it sometimes seems to me that my eyes can see them.""Yes, but to the world they are dead."

"Ay, for a time; but even to the world they are born again and again.I, yes I, Ayeshafor that is my name, strangerI say to thee that I wait now for one I loved to be born again, and here I tarry till he finds me, knowing of a surety that hither he will come, and that here, and here only, shall he greet me.

Why, dost thou suppose that I, who am all powerful, I, whose loveliness is more than the loveliness of the Grecian Helen, of whom they used to sing, and whose wisdom is wider, ay, far more wide and deep than the wisdom of Solomon the WiseI, who know the secrets of the earth and its riches, and can turn all things to my usesI, who have even for a while overcome Change, that ye call Deathwhy, I say, O stranger, dost thou think that I herd here with barbarians lower than the beasts?""I know not," I said, humbly.

"Because I wait for him I love.My life has perchance been evil, I know notfor who can say what is evil and what good?so I fear to die even if I could die, which I cannot until mine hour comes, to go and seek him where he is; for between us there might rise a wall I could not climb; at least, I dread it.Surely easy would it be also to lose the way in seeking in those great spaces wherein the planets wander on forever.But the day will come, it may be when five thousand more years have passed, and are lost and melted into the vault of Time, even as the little clouds melt into the gloom of night, or it may be to-morrow, when he, my love, shall be born again, and then, following a law that is stronger than any human plan, he shall find me here, where once he knew me, and of a surety his heart will soften towards me though I sinned against him; ay, even though he know me not again, yet will he love me, if only for my beauty's sake."For a moment I was dumbfounded, and could not answer.

The matter.was too overpowering for my intellect to grasp.

"But even so, O queen," I said at last, "even if we men be born again and again, that is not so with thee, if thou speakest truly." Here she looked up sharply, and once more I caught the flash of those hidden eyes;"thou," I went on, hurriedly, "who hast never died?""That is so," she said; "and it is so because I have, half by chance and half by learning, solved one of the great secrets of the world.Tell me, stranger: life iswhy therefore should not life be lengthened for a while? What are ten or twenty or fifty thousand years in the history of life? Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain-top by a span in thickness? In two thousand years these caves have not changed, nothing has changed, but the beasts and man, who is as the beasts.There is naught that is wonderful about the matter, couldst thou but understand.Life is wonderful, ay, but that it should be a little lengthened is not wonderful.Nature hath her animating spirit as well as man, who is Nature's child, and he who can find that spirit, and let it breathe upon him, shall live with her life.He shall not live eternally, for Nature is not eternal, and she herself must die, even as the nature of the moon hath died._i_ She _i_ herself must die, I say, or rather change and sleep till it be time for her to live again.But when shall she die? Not yet, I ween, and while she lives, so shall he who hath all her secret live with her.All I have it not, yet have I some, more perchance than any who were before me.Now, to thee I doubt not that this thing is a great mystery, therefore I will not overcome thee with it now.

Another time will I tell thee more if the mood be on me, though perchance I shall never speak thereof again.Dost thou wonder how I knew that ye were coming to this land, and so saved your heads from the hot pot?""Ay, O queen," I answered, feebly.