CHAPTER XV
SORAIS' SONG
After our escape from Agon and his pious crew we returned to
our quarters in the palace and had a very good time. The two
Queens, the nobles and the people vied with each other in doing
us honour and showering gifts upon us. As for that painful little
incident of the hippopotami it sank into oblivion, where we were
quite content to leave it. Every day deputations and individuals
waited on us to examine our guns and clothing, our chain shirts,
and our instruments, especially our watches, with which they
were much delighted. In short, we became quite the rage, so
much so that some of the fashionable young swells among the Zu-Vendi
began to copy the cut of some of our clothes, notably Sir Henry's
shooting jacket. One day, indeed, a deputation waited on us
and, as usual, Good donned his full-dress uniform for the occasion.
This deputation seemed somehow to be a different class to those
who generally came to visit us. They were little insignificant
men of an excessively polite, not to say servile, demeanour;
and their attention appeared to be chiefly taken up with observing
the details of Good's full-dress uniform, of which they took
copious notes and measurements. Good was much flattered at the
time, not suspecting that he had to deal with the six leading
tailors of Milosis. A fortnight afterwards, however, when on
attending court as usual he had the pleasure of seeing some seven
or eight Zu-Vendi 'mashers' arrayed in all the glory of a very
fair imitation of his full-dress uniform, he changed his mind.
I shall never forget his face of astonishment and disgust.
It was after this, chiefly to avoid remark, and also because
our clothes were wearing out and had to be saved up, that we
resolved to adopt the native dress; and a very comfortable one
we found it, though I am bound to say that I looked sufficiently
ridiculous in it, and as for Alphonse! Only Umslopogaas would
have none of these things; when his moocha was worn out the fierce
old Zulu made him a new one, and went about unconcerned, as grim
and naked as his own battleaxe.
Meanwhile we pursued our study of the language steadily and made
very good progress. On the morning following our adventure in
the temple, three grave and reverend signiors presented themselves
armed with manuscript books, ink-horns and feather pens, and
indicated that they had been sent to teach us. So, with the
exception of Umslopogaas, we all buckled to with a will, doing
four hours a day. As for Umslopogaas, he would have none of
that either. He did not wish to learn that 'woman's talk', not
he; and when one of the teachers advanced on him with a book
and an ink-horn and waved them before him in a mild persuasive
way, much as a churchwarden invitingly shakes the offertory bag
under the nose of a rich but niggardly parishioner, he sprang
up with a fierce oath and flashed Inkosi-kaas before the eyes
of our learned friend, and there was an end of the attempt to
teach him Zu-Vendi.
Thus we spent our mornings in useful occupation which grew more
and more interesting as we proceeded, and the afternoons were
given up to recreation. Sometimes we made trips, notably one
to the gold mines and another to the marble quarries both of
which I wish I had space and time to describe; and sometimes
we went out hunting buck with dogs trained for that purpose,
and a very exciting sport it is, as the country is full of agricultural
enclosures and our horses were magnificent. This is not to be
wondered at, seeing that the royal stables were at our command,
in addition to which we had four splendid saddle horses given
to us by Nyleptha.
Sometimes, again, we went hawking, a pastime that is in great
favour among the Zu-Vendi, who generally fly their birds at a
species of partridge which is remarkable for the swiftness and
strength of its flight. When attacked by the hawk this bird
appears to lose its head, and, instead of seeking cover, flies
high into the sky, thus offering wonderful sport. I have seen
one of these partridges soar up almost out of sight when followed
by the hawk. Still better sport is offered by a variety of solitary
snipe as big as a small woodcock, which is plentiful in this
country, and which is flown at with a very small, agile, and
highly-trained hawk with an almost red tail. The zigzagging
of the great snipe and the lightning rapidity of the flight and
movements of the red-tailed hawk make the pastime a delightful
one. Another variety of the same amusement is the hunting of
a very small species of antelope with trained eagles; and it
certainly is a marvellous sight to see the great bird soar and
soar till he is nothing but a black speck in the sunlight, and
then suddenly come dashing down like a cannon-ball upon some
cowering buck that is hidden in a patch of grass from everything
but that piercing eye. Still finer is the spectacle when the
eagle takes the buck running.
On other days we would pay visits to the country seats at some
of the great lords' beautiful fortified places, and the villages
clustering beneath their walls. Here we saw vineyards and corn-fields
and well-kept park-like grounds, with such timber in them as
filled me with delight, for I do love a good tree. There it
stands so strong and sturdy, and yet so beautiful, a very type
of the best sort of man. How proudly it lifts its bare head
to the winter storms, and with what a full heart it rejoices
when the spring has come again! How grand its voice is, too,
when it talks with the wind: a thousand aeolian harps cannot
equal the beauty of the sighing of a great tree in leaf. All
day it points to the sunshine and all night to the stars, and
thus passionless, and yet full of life, it endures through the
centuries, come storm, come shine, drawing its sustenance from
the cool bosom of its mother earth, and as the slow years roll
by, learning the great mysteries of growth and of decay. And
so on and on through generations, outliving individuals, customs,
dynasties -- all save the landscape it adorns and human nature
-- till the appointed day when the wind wins the long battle
and rejoices over a reclaimed space, or decay puts the last stroke
to his fungus-fingered work.
Ah, one should always think twice before one cuts down a tree!
In the evenings it was customary for Sir Henry, Good, and myself
to dine, or rather sup, with their Majesties -- not every night,
indeed, but about three or four times a week, whenever they had
not much company, or the affairs of state would allow of it.
And I am bound to say that those little suppers were quite the
most charming things of their sort that I ever had to do with.
How true is the saying that the very highest in rank are always
the most simple and kindly. It is from your half-and-half sort
of people that you get pomposity and vulgarity, the difference
between the two being very much what you one sees every day in
England between the old, out-at-elbows, broken-down county family,
and the overbearing, purse-proud people who come and 'take the
place'. I really think that Nyleptha's greatest charm is her
sweet simplicity, and her kindly genuine interest even in little
things. She is the simplest woman I ever knew, and where her
passions are not involved, one of the sweetest; but she can look
queenly enough when she likes, and be as fierce as any savage too.
For instance, never shall I forget that scene when I for the
first time was sure that she was really in love with Curtis.
It came about in this way -- all through Good's weakness for
ladies' society. When we had been employed for some three months
in learning Zu-Vendi, it struck Master Good that he was getting
rather tired of the old gentlemen who did us the honour to lead
us in the way that we should go, so he proceeded, without saying
a word to anybody else, to inform them that it was a peculiar
fact, but that we could not make any real progress in the deeper
intricacies of a foreign language unless we were taught by ladies
-- young ladies, he was careful to explain. In his own country,
he pointed out, it was habitual to choose the very best-looking
and most charming girls who could be found to instruct any strangers
who happened to come that way, etc.
All of this the old gentlemen swallowed open-mouthed. There
was, they admitted, reason in what he said, since the contemplation
of the beautiful, as their philosophy taught, induced a certain
porosity of mind similar to that produced upon the physical body
by the healthful influences of sun and air. Consequently it
was probable that we might absorb the Zu-Vendi tongue a little
faster if suitable teachers could be found. Another thing was
that, as the female sex was naturally loquacious, good practice
would be gained in the viva voce department of our studies.
To all of this Good gravely assented, and the learned gentlemen
departed, assuring him that their orders were to fall in with
our wishes in every way, and that, if possible, our views should
be met.
Imagine, therefore the surprise and disgust of myself, and I
trust and believe Sir Henry, when, on entering the room where
we were accustomed to carry on our studies the following morning,
we found, instead of our usual venerable tutors, three of the
best-looking young women whom Milosis could produce -- and that
is saying a good deal -- who blushed and smiled and curtseyed,
and gave us to understand that they were there to carry on our
instruction. Then Good, as we gazed at one another in bewilderment,
thought fit to explain, saying that it had slipped his memory
before -- but the old gentlemen had told him, on the previous
evening, that it was absolutely necessary that our further education
should be carried on by the other sex. I was overwhelmed, and
appealed to Sir Henry for advice in such a crisis.
'Well,' he said, 'you see the ladies are here, ain't they? If
we sent them away, don't you think it might hurt their feelings,
eh? One doesn't like to be rough, you see; and they look regular
blues, don't they, eh?'
By this time Good had already begun his lessons with the handsomest
of the three, and so with a sigh I yielded. That day everything
went very well: the young ladies were certainly very clever,
and they only smiled when we blundered. I never saw Good so
attentive to his books before, and even Sir Henry appeared to
tackle Zu-Vendi with a renewed zest. 'Ah,' thought I, 'will
it always be thus?'
Next day we were much more lively, our work was pleasingly interspersed with questions about our native country, what the ladies were
like there, etc., all of which we answered as best as we could
in Zu-Vendi, and I heard Good assuring his teacher that her loveliness
was to the beauties of Europe as the sun to the moon, to which
she replied with a little toss of the head, that she was a plain
teaching woman and nothing else, and that it was not kind 'to
deceive a poor girl so'. Then we had a little singing that was
really charming, so natural and unaffected. The Zu-Vendi love-songs
are most touching. On the third day we were all quite intimate.
Good narrated some of his previous love affairs to his fair
teacher, and so moved was she that her sighs mingled with his
own. I discoursed with mine, a merry blue-eyed girl, upon Zu-Vendian
art, and never saw that she was waiting for an opportunity to
drop a specimen of the cockroach tribe down my back, whilst in
the corner Sir Henry and his governess appeared, so far as I
could judge, to be going through a lesson framed on the great
educational principles laid down by Wackford Squeers Esq., though
in a very modified or rather spiritualized form. The lady softly
repeated the Zu-Vendi word for 'hand', and he took hers; 'eyes',
and he gazed deep into her brown orbs; 'lips', and -- but just
at that moment my young lady dropped the cockroach down my back
and ran away laughing. Now if there is one thing I loathe more
than another it is cockroaches, and moved quite beyond myself,
and yet laughing at her impudence, I took up the cushion she
had been sitting on and threw it after her. Imagine then my
shame -- my horror, and my distress -- when the door opened,
and, attended by two guards only, in walked Nyleptha. The cushion
could not be recalled (it missed the girl and hit one of the
guards on the head), but I instantly and ineffectually tried
to look as though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing,
and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir
Henry whistled and looked silly. As for the poor girls, they
were utterly dumbfounded.
And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower
even above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red,
and then pale as death.
'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair
but unconscious disciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman.'
The men hesitated, as well they might.
'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice,
'or will ye not?'
Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears.
By this time Sir Henry had recovered himself, and saw that
the comedy was likely to turn into a tragedy.
'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time
getting in front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee,
Nyleptha -- shame! Thou shalt not kill her.'
'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her.
Thou couldst hardly do less in honour,' answered the
infuriated Queen; 'but she shall die -- she shall die,'
and she stamped her little foot.
'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thy
servant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.' And he bowed
towards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.
'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost
make a mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and
I suppose not knowing what else to do, she burst into such a
storm of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionate
distress, that, old as I am, I must say I envied Curtis his task
of supporting her. It was rather odd to see him holding her
in his arms considering what had just passed -- a thought that
seemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself
free and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message
to the girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city
and return to their homes in the country, and that no further
harm would come to them; and accordingly they went, one of them
remarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and that
it was a satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little
serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and,
overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my favourite
lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After that
our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless
to say to my great relief.
That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal
supper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache.
That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth
she was present at supper as usual, and with the most gracious
and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table.
No allusion was made to the little affair described above beyond
her saying, with a charming air of innocence, that when she came
to see us at our studies the other day she had been seized with
a giddiness from which she had only now recovered. She supposed,
she added with a touch of the humour that was common to her,
that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected her.
In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not
look quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those
quick glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of
a man must have gone through him like a knife, and the subject
dropped entirely. Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended
to put us through an examination to see what we had learnt, and
to express herself well satisfied with the results. Indeed,
she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her
own account, and very interesting we found it.
And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and
laughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and
look at us and read us all like a book, only from time to time
saying a few words, and smiling that quick ominous smile of hers
which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloud
than anything else. And as near to her as he dared would sit
Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting
seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking personally,
I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and soon I found
out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heart
bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, and
the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she also
was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not
be sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman;
but I noticed one or two little things, and, as elephant hunters
know, dried grass shows which way the wind has set.
And so another three months passed over us, by which time we
had all attained to a very considerable mastery of the Zu-Vendi
language, which is an easy one to learn. And as the time went
on we became great favourites with the people, and even with
the courtiers, gaining an enormous reputation for cleverness,
because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show them
how to make glass, which was a national want, and also, by the
help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predict
various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by
the native astronomers. We even succeeded in demonstrating the
principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned men,
who were filled with amazement; and several other things of the
same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made
up their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out
of the country (which indeed was an apparent impossibility even
if we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour and
made officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent
quarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was
asked upon questions of national policy.
But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one,
on the horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded
hippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed that
our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful
priesthood headed by Agon appeased. On the contrary, it was
burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed,
and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright
direct hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the priests had been
the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as well as
from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration.
But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange
inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow
to this state of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went
far towards destroying the priestly prestige. A still worse
affront to them, however, was the favour with which we were regarded,
and the trust that was reposed in us. All these things tended
to make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan,
the most powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom.
Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of
some of the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to
us had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened
to break out into open flame. Nasta had for some years been
a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage, and when we appeared
on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there
were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means
out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha
smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess
the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to
Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain
side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door
was closed on him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the
thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding
through the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn
the gates of Milosis with our heads.
But first he determined, as I learned, to make one more attempt
and to demand the hand of Nyleptha in the open Court after the
formal annual ceremony of the signing of the laws that had been
proclaimed by the Queens during the year.
Of this astounding fact Nyleptha heard with simulated nonchalance,
and with a little trembling of the voice herself informed us
of it as we sat at supper on the night preceding the great ceremony
of the law-giving.
Sir Henry bit his lip, and do what he could to prevent it plainly
showed his agitation.
'And what answer will the Queen be pleased to give to the
great Lord?' asked I, in a jesting manner.
'Answer, Macumazahn' (for we had elected to pass by our Zulu
names in Zu-Vendis), she said, with a pretty shrug of her ivory
shoulder. 'Nay, I know not; what is a poor woman to do, when
the wooer has thirty thousand swords wherewith to urge his love?'
And from under her long lashes she glanced at Curtis.
Just then we rose from the table to adjourn into another room.
'Quatermain, a word, quick,' said Sir Henry to me. 'Listen.
I have never spoken about it, but surely you have guessed: I
love Nyleptha. What am I to do?'
Fortunately, I had more or less already taken the question into
consideration, and was therefore able to give such answer as
seemed the wisest to me.
'You must speak to Nyleptha tonight,' I said. 'Now is your time,
now or never. Listen. In the sitting-chamber get near to her,
and whisper to her to meet you at midnight by the Rademas statue
at the end of the great hall. I will keep watch for you there.
Now or never, Curtis.'
We passed on into the other room. Nyleptha was sitting, her
hands before her, and a sad anxious look upon her lovely face.
A little way off was Sorais talking to Good in her slow measured
tones.
The time went on; in another quarter of an hour I knew that,
according to their habit, the Queens would retire. As yet, Sir
Henry had had no chance of saying a word in private: indeed,
though we saw much of the royal sisters, it was by no means easy
to see them alone. I racked my brains, and at last an idea came
to me.
'Will the Queen be pleased,' I said, bowing low before Sorais,
'to sing to her servants? Our hearts are heavy this night; sing
to us, oh Lady of the Night' (Sorais' favourite name among the
people).
'My songs, Macumazahn, are not such as to lighten the heavy heart,
yet will I sing if it pleases thee,' she answered; and she rose
and went a few paces to a table whereon lay an instrument not
unlike a zither, and struck a few wandering chords.
Then suddenly, like the notes of some deep-throated bird, her
rounded voice rang out in song so wildly sweet, and yet with
so eerie and sad a refrain, that it made the very blood stand
still. Up, up soared the golden notes, that seemed to melt far
away, and then to grow again and travel on, laden with all the
sorrow of the world and all the despair of the lost. It was
a marvellous song, but I had not time to listen to it properly.
However, I got the words of it afterwards, and here is a translation
of its burden, so far as it admits of being translated at all.
SORAIS' SONG
As a desolate bird that through darkness its lost way is winging,
As a hand that is helplessly raised when Death's sickle is swinging,
So is life! ay, the life that lends passion and breath to my singing.
As the nightingale's song that is full of a sweetness unspoken,
As a spirit unbarring the gates of the skies for a token,
So is love! ay, the love that shall fall when his pinion is broken.
As the tramp of the legions when trumpets their challenge are sending,
As the shout of the Storm-god when lightnings the black sky are rending,
So is power! ay, the power that shall lie in the dust at its ending.
So short is our life; yet with space for all things to forsake us,
A bitter delusion, a dream from which nought can awake us,
Till Death's dogging footsteps at morn or at eve shall o'ertake us.
Refrain
Oh, the world is fair at the dawning -- dawning -- dawning,
But the red sun sinks in blood -- the red sun sinks in blood.
I only wish that I could write down the music too.
'Now, Curtis, now,' I whispered, when she began the second verse,
and turned my back.
'Nyleptha,' he said -- for my nerves were so much on the stretch
that I could hear every word, low as it was spoken, even through
Sorais' divine notes -- 'Nyleptha, I must speak with thee this
night, upon my life I must. Say me not nay; oh, say me not nay!'
'How can I speak with thee?' she answered, looking fixedly before
her; 'Queens are not like other people. I am surrounded and watched.'
'Listen, Nyleptha, thus. I will be before the statue of Rademas
in the great hall at midnight. I have the countersign and can
pass in. Macumazahn will be there to keep guard, and with him
the Zulu. Oh come, my Queen, deny me not.'
'It is not seemly,' she murmured, 'and tomorrow --'
Just then the music began to die in the last wail of the refrain,
and Sorais slowly turned her round.
'I will be there,' said Nyleptha, hurriedly; 'on thy life see
that thou fail me not.'
