第51章

AYESHA UNVEILS.

"There," said _i_ She _i_ , "he has gone, the white-bearded old fool! Ah, how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life.He gathereth it up like water, but like water it runneth through his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so? But how call they thee?

'Baboon,' he says," and she laughed; "but that is the fashion of these savages who lack imagination, and fly to the beasts they resemble for a name.How do they call thee in thine own country, stranger?""They call me Holly, O queen," I answered.

"Holly," she answered, speaking the word with difficulty, and yet with a most charming accent; "and what is Holly?""'Holly' is a prickly tree," I said.

"So.Well, thou hast a prickly and yet a treelike look.Strong art thou, and ugly, but, if my wisdom be not at fault, honest at the core, and a staff to lean on.Also one who thinks.But stay, O Holly, stand not there, enter with me and be seated by me.I would not see thee crawl before me like those slaves.I am weary of their worship and their terror; sometimes when they vex me I could blast them for very sport, and to see the rest turn white, even to the heart." And she held the curtain aside with her ivory hand to let me pass in.

I entered, shuddering.This woman was very terrible.

Within the curtains was a recess, about twelve feet by ten, and in the recess was a couch and a table whereon stood fruit and sparkling water.By it, at its end, was a vessel like a font cut in carved stone, also full of pure water.The place was softly lit with lamps formed out of the beautiful vessels of which Ihave spoken, and the air and curtains were laden with a subtle perfume.Perfume too seemed to emanate from the glorious hair and white, clinging vestments of _i_She _i_ herself.I entered the little room, and there stood uncertain.

"Sit," said _i_ She _i_ , pointing to the couch."As yet thou hast no cause to fear me.If thou hast cause, thou shalt not fear for long, for I shall slay thee.

Therefore let thy heart be light."

I sat down on the end of the couch near to the font like basin of water, and _i_ She _i_ sank down softly on to the other end.

"Now, Holly," she said, "how comest thou to speak Arabic ? It is my own dear tongue, for Arabian am I by birth, even ' _i_ al Arab al Ariba _i_ '" (an Arab of the Arabs), "and of the race of our father Yara`b, the son of Ka^htan, for in that fair and ancient city Ozal was I born, in the province of Yaman the Happy.Yet dost thou not speak it as we used to speak.Thy talk doth lack the music of the sweet tongue of the tribes of Hamyar which I was wont to hear.Some of the words too seem changed, even as among these Amahagger, who have debased and defiled its purity, so that I must speak with them in what is to to me another tongue.""I have studied it," I answered, "for many years.Also the language is spoken in Egypt and elsewhere.""So it is still spoken, and there is yet an Egypt? And what Pharaoh sits upon the throne? Still one of the spawn of the Persian Ochus, or are the Achaemenians gone, for so far is it to the days of Ochus?""The Persians have been gone from Egypt for nigh two thousand years, and since then the Ptolemies, the Romans, and many others have flourished and held sway upon the Nile, and fallen when their time was ripe," Isaid, aghast."What canst thou know of the Persian Artaxerxes?"_i_ She _i_ laughed, and made no answer, and again a cold chill went through me."And Greece," she said;"is there still a Greece? Ah, I loved the Greeks.

Beautiful were they as the day, and clever, but fierce at heart and fickle, notwithstanding.""Yes," I said, "there is a Greece; and, just now, it is once more a people.Yet the Greeks of to-day are not what the Greeks of the old time were, and Greece herself is but a mockery of the Greece that was.""So! The Hebrews, are they yet at Jerusalem? And does the Temple that the wise king built stand? and if so, what God do they worship therein? Is their Messiah come, of whom they preached so much and prophesied so loudly, and doth he rule the earth?""The Jews are broken and gone, and the fragments of their people strew the world, and Jerusalem is no more.As for the temple that Herod built""Herod!" she said."I know not Herod.But go on.""The Romans burned it, and the Roman eagles flew across its ruins, arid now Judaea is a desert.""So, so! They were a great people, those Romans, and went straight to their enday, they sped to it like Fate, or like their own eagles on their prey!and left peace behind them.""Solitudinera faciunt, pacem appellant," I suggested.

"Ah, thou canst speak the Latin tongue, too!" she said; in surprise."It hath a strange ring in my ears after all these days, and it seems to me that thy accent does not fall as the Romans put it.Who was it wrote that? I know not the saying, but it is a true one of that great people.It seems that I have found a learned manone whose hands have held the water of the world's knowledge.Knowest thou Greek also?""Yes, O queen, and something of Hebrew, but not to speak them well.They are all dead languages now."_i_ She _i_ clapped her hands in childish glee."Of a truth, ugly tree that thou art, thou growest the fruits of wisdom, O Holly," she said; "but of those Jews whom I hatedfor they called me 'heathen' when Iwould have taught them my philosophydid their Messiah come, and doth he rule the world?""Their Messiah came," I answered, with reverence; "but he came poor and lowly, and they would have none of him.They scourged him, and crucified him upon a tree, but yet his words and his works live on, for he was the Son of God, and now of a truth he doth rule half the world, but not with an empire of the world.""Ah, the fierce-hearted wolves," she said, "the followers of Sense and of many godsgreedy of gain and faction torn.I can see their dark faces yet.So they crucified their Messiah? Well can I believe it.