Lamekis

by Charles de Fieux

  After that I got in the device built for the purpose along with a criminal whom I had chosen to accompany me for his punishment. It took us three days and nights to descend. On the fourth day the slave and I stopped moving. I had agreed with my chief minister that if by some unforeseen miracle I reached the bottom of the abyss, I would pull on a string to follow out the orders I had given. Around an hour after the signal was given, the device lifted up again in order to let down the provisions and slaves that I might need in my plan…207

  The author’s extraordinary adventure

  The Houcaïs was at this point in his story when a winged man who yelled out, “That’s enough,” suddenly took him up. Instead of my ceiling I saw the sky where he went farther and farther away. I watched them go for a long time.

  After losing sight of them I looked down to examine the objects around me, but darkness had followed the brightness of the beautiful day and it was completely silent. I made a quick movement and found out that I was free again and the hideous monster haunting me was gone. I took a deep breath and thought about all the wonders. My sound judgment led me to believe that everything I had seen was a pure illusion born, perhaps, out of my feverish work. I ended up convincing myself so completely that the fanciful visions were the result of overwork that I resolved to give up Lamekis. I would become crazy, I rationalized, and I was getting close. I had to try to keep what little sanity I had left.

  I spent the rest of the night between contemplating and nodding off peacefully. Just after sunrise I awoke with a start. As usual I got up to work half-asleep without thinking of the strange events I had been victim of the night before, but moving around chased away my drowsiness. My mind cleared up and I remembered everything that had happened. I realized that the danger had passed, so my fears vanished as well. The morning light was a comfort and I resolved again to treat the night’s adventure as an illusion.

  “Ah, obviously I’m right,” I said aloud, “I have to stop this abstract work. My brain is overheating and will end up becoming deranged.” This said I quickly searched for Part 5 of Lamekis, which I had already begun. “Send it back to nothingness,” I said. “Tear it to pieces. I will banish it forever.”

  What a fright I had saying this! I heard a howling that seemed to come from the street and it sounded like the dog that had caused all the trouble. And now I had no idea where I was. I rushed to a window and what did I see? A dog with blue fur that I knew by its mastiff snout to be the same animal that had followed me. Didn’t I have reason to be amazed at the transformation and to think that what had happened was not as fantastic as my reason led me to believe? I could barely keep my eyes on the dog—its eyes were so fierce and piercing that I could barely look at them. It stared at me, wagging its tail like it was glad to see me.

  I did not know what to think or do. I could feel my heart beating fast and I was about to faint when I felt a slap on my shoulder. In the state I was in I thought I was going to be the victim of another prodigy. Wasn’t the strange blow an omen? I shuddered and showed all the signs of utter fear. And then a burst of laughter that I recognized reassured me. It was a lady friend who sometimes had coffee with me and I felt ashamed of myself. Too jealous of what the reaction might mean, I asked her to look into the street to see what was happening.

  “But, there’s nothing there,” she said with a look of surprise.

  “You don’t see anything?” It was my turn to look surprised. “An animal? A strange dog whose fur is not like a normal dog’s? It’s right across from us, wagging its tail and staring at me…”

  “Come on, you’re crazy,” the lady said. “You’re just having fun, I guess, or you’re working too hard and getting dizzy. Your imagination is making you see things. I’m telling you, I don’t see anything,” she repeated when I shrugged my shoulders, “unless you’re so amazed by that black dog sitting in the alley.”

  “What?” I almost screamed. “You think that dog is black?”

  “Of course,” she replied wide-eyed, “or you’re dreaming or, as I said before, you’re having fun at my expense. I don’t see the point of the joke. Let me in on it whenever you feel like it.”

  I was furious at her stubbornness not to agree with what I saw so clearly. It was the middle of the day and I could not believe that I was dreaming. I was wide-awake and felt fine. The lady could not deny it, but she swore to me in all seriousness that I was having trouble with my eyes and when the coffee was brought she asked my servant to be a witness—he corroborated her so naturally that I had no more doubts that I was losing my mind.

  Yes, of course, I said to myself, it’s slipping away. My work is addling me. Well, I’ll give it up entirely. Hopefully it’s not too late!

  That’s what I was thinking, but it did not last long.

  I was talking and acting so strangely that the lady left advising me in friendship never to have someone over when I was working. “It makes you weird or else you’re acting like this just to get rid of whoever is interrupting you. Either way you’re an insupportable bore.”

  She concluded her short speech by leaving. In spite of my affection for her, I was glad to see her go. I was out of sorts and when the mind is worked up it doesn’t like to be distracted. The soul needs solitude to recover—the more you try to stifle or stall it, the more it suffers. That’s what I felt.

  When I was alone I sounded myself out. After testing my mind a little I figured that it was healthy and sound and my body felt fine, so that could not be the problem. With that done, I decided that the vision of the animal that was disturbing me, that was the spitting image of Falbao in Lamekis, the brave and wonderful dog, was real and meant something specific to me. It made me think of a time in my life that I never spoke about because of its peculiarity. Here is the perfect opportunity for me to unburden myself of it. The public, which has shown an interest in my life up to now, will not be upset if I entertain it like this. I won’t try to convince you to put any faith in it because it is too extraordinary to hope that anyone will take me at my word.

  I was crossing the Tuileries at 11 a.m., carefree and without a worry in the world, when all of a sudden I heard someone talking in my ear. I spun around, but no one was there. I stopped short, a little taken aback, but was even more so when I realized that without opening my mouth or uttering a word I was clearly answering the strange voice and holding a conversation with it. The dialogue lasted a while and I was so afraid of interrupting it that I closed my eyes and listened like a good audience.

  I stayed in this extraordinary state long enough to recite a “Miserere” and it would have lasted longer if it were not for the misplaced generosity of a good woman who saw me standing in the middle of the path with my eyes closed, not moving. She took me for a lost, blind man and kindly offered to lead me where I wanted to go, being sorry, she said, that such misfortune befell someone of my age. As angry as I was to have my mental activity interrupted, enjoying it so divinely as I was, I could not help laughing at the old girl’s imagination. She looked astonished when I opened my eyes and as she went on her way she mumbled, “Excuse me, Monsieur, for waking you up. I would never have imagined that you were asleep standing up.”

  The reader is no doubt anxious to know what the secret voice told me and what it was all about—there will come a time when I will satisfy all curiosity, but for now I cannot linger on the matter. Let’s go back to where we were.

  Remembering this experience, I had no doubt that the adventure with the dog was fantastic but real and I resigned myself to whatever might come. I got dressed and left in order to follow the animal if it wanted to lead me somewhere as it had done before. A steadfast man is only surprised the first time; when it happens again he will try everything—as will be proven in a moment.

  I was barely on the street when the dog, which I can call Falbao since it looked just like how I depicted him in Lamekis, came up to me and acted as happy as ever to see me. I responded in kind and as I was anxious to know what he wanted I motioned
with my finger to walk and I was ready to follow. He understood me, barked in joy (or so it seemed to me), turned the corner and left me to follow.

  He led me straight into the ditches separating Paris from the suburb of Saint Antoine. This time I forced myself to venture in. He stopped at a timeworn opening in an old wall and went through. I had to bend over to follow and had all kinds of trouble dragging myself along the hard 100 feet. There were rocks and roots blocking the passage that I had to break to move forward. Then, for almost a quarter of a league, I was walking between two walls that looked like they were built as dams. Falbao kept turning around to reassure me, it seemed. My good feelings for him gave me courage and I trudged on.

  After a lot of road and fatigue, Falbao turned to his left, but he was barely out of sight when 30 bats and as many owls flew out making a dreadful noise. I was pretty frightened, but I rose to the occasion and abandoned myself to fate; Falbao, who had come back, managed to put me back on track. The new road he led me on was wide, smooth and very bright. It was paved with marble and cleaner than it should have been. The surface was wet, probably from water leaking through the walls, I thought, and was rather proud of my discovery: history had taught me that there were once underground temples dedicated to the pagan divinities of the dark house of the dead. I figured that I was on one of these pathways and the thought of this made me a little calmer than I naturally should have been—as I said before, the mind, like the body, can get used to anything, it is only the first steps on a hard road that count. The mind is resilient and easily joins in.

  If I made a detailed description of the adventure I am about to tell, I would have to say some ghastly things. I came across many graves and all kinds of evidence of the barbarism and inhumanity of the ancient pagan priests. The sights were too offensive to retell. I can say that the catacombs seemed to have been built only as a theater for tyranny and with that I close the curtain and come to things less terrible and more comfortable for me.

  At last we arrived at an iron gate through which I made out another passage whose marble walls were engraved with hieroglyphs. At the end of this passage was a marble door with a Corinthian arch, which opened onto a large vestibule lit by five globes giving off a dim, pale light. I had no doubt that this was where Falbao wanted to lead me. He scratched at the foot of the gate and it opened. We got to the vestibule, but instead of going up the marble stairs he turned to his right and went down by other stairs. It was lit by two globes like in the vestibule and although the light was dim it was enough to see things clearly.

  More than 500 steps to go down before we finally reached another vestibule, but it was full of golden bas-reliefs. I was more than a little astonished at what they represented. I saw all the adventures of Lamekis described in the first four parts of the work, executed with such skill that there was no mistaking them. Every cartouche followed the sequence of events in the story. Falbao looked like he was inviting me to look over them. Since I was ready to do anything he asked I examined them closely.

  The first208 showed a sacrifice to Serapis performed on a ship in gratitude for the end of the storm that had put Lamekis’ ship on the verge of destruction several times. I saw Lamekis and Sinouis on the deck, the only ones not sleeping, deep in conversation. In the same relief I saw Semiramis go down into the underground temple and I could see in the skillfully etched expression how afraid she was. Then the procession of priests where every person and especially the Queen were perfectly distinguishable. Beneath this I saw the destruction of the underground by the Nile at the orders of the Queen; Lamekis on the open sea with his family; the death of Milkhea, his wife; the death of his daughter and of Haronza and the wild behavior of her daughter.

  In the next bas-relief I saw the deep sleep in which Lamekis and his family were plunged; the awakening of the High Priest’s son and his abduction by the strangers; his surprise; the humane way he was accepted and raised by Motacoa, son of the Houcaïs and Nasildaë.

  In the 4th cartouche was shown Nasildaë’s descent into the pit of Houzaïl; her meeting Lodaï who had been banished like her; the adventure of the monstrous worm that almost ate Motacoa, her son; the unexpected aide of the admirable Falbao. On the left I saw the moment when Motacoa, followed by Falbao, got out of the Inner Earth and met Boldeon who promised to put him on his father’s throne. On the right of the bas-relief was the awful encounter between Motacoa and the worm men followed by his and Boldeon’s abduction by the monsters; the horrible way they dragged him by his hair; the extraordinary building where they brought him; the strange sight of the naked worm women in the room which the beautiful Ascalis presided; Falbao reappearing to Motacoa who thought he had been lost forever.

  In the 5th I clearly saw the ship carrying Lamekis on a column of water up into the Heavens and resting on top of a tree. I saw the astonishment on all the faces. The fall of the three sailors carried away by the winged creatures was not left out, nor the flight of the crew into the ship right after.

  The 6th bas-relief209 showed the amazing way Lamekis’ ship was marooned by the Sylphs carrying everything off. I saw Lamekis and Sinouis snatched away by the winged monsters. The bottom of the picture recalled their dropping into the volcano and I could see Sinouis fearing for his life and the sky crowded with Sylphs.

  Lamekis’ astonishment at the white Sylph perched on his shoulder was perfectly recognizable in the 7th when its mouth was up against his ear whispering sage advice. It was in stark contrast with Sinouis and his black spirit. The two figures were exquisitely depicted. In the distance I could see a dwelling. Sinouis looked like he was urging Lamekis to enter. The latter resisted the temptation and taking his hand tore him away from the imminent danger. The picture hid nothing, not even the facial expressions. Everything was artfully told.

  The 8th picture showed how Motacoa was saved from the four monsters around the Ascalis Princess’ throne. On the bottom was the battle between Motacoa and Za-ra-ouf and the victory over the latter by the brave and faithful Falbao. On the left I could see the total defeat of the monsters by Falbao’s rising and Boldeon’s bravery in his attack.

  The story of the three children of the Sun was the subject of the 9th. In the background the Princess telling the story was scared by the unexpected arrival of the toad monsters. I saw Falbao digging furiously at the ground and the alarm on all the faces.

  The 10th bas-relief210 reminded me of the deadly battle between Falbao and the toad monsters and his defeat caused by the awful owl. The other side showed the fury with which Motacoa attacked the monsters to free his faithful dog from their overpowering blows. I saw the monsters’ fright and flight and the care Motacoa showed Falbao to bring him out of his stupor. In the distance appeared the second battle; the conqueror scoffed at the new assault, threw out the owl staff and put the enemies to flight again.

  The adventures of the Ascalis Princess took up the 11th picture. I saw her guided by the chief minister with torch in hand to satisfy her pressing desire to see the Lindiagar, her father, which was forbidden by law. Never was inner satisfaction pictured better than was expressed on the face of the Princess of the Amphicleocles at this crucial moment. And I read on the King’s face the joy he felt at seeing his daughter. That’s all there was in this part of the sculpture. On the left was depicted the moment when Lindiagar suddenly showed up in the middle of the Council of Seven, his majesty in his critical speech and the dismay of the Council. On the right I saw the procession of the King to the temple of Fulghane; his entrance into the sanctuary and the respect caused by the royal babouche. In the distance could be seen the sanctuary, the High Throne where the Lindiagar was in his glory and the dismay of the High Priestess in humiliation at the foot of the statue. I read the scorn on her face. Everything was so well expressed that the whole story came rushing up in my memory.

  The surprise of Sinouis when the light followed the darkness; the vision of the tables and guests; the betrayed joy of Lamekis believing that he had found his wife Clemelis again;
his flight after recognizing the threat to his virtue; these were the subjects of the 12th and last bas-relief.

  After examining this final bas-relief, Falbao lowered his head and went to the back of the room. I followed him and he pushed open a door directly across from the one we entered. Never in my life had I seen anything so strange. It was a big gallery with mirrored walls, as clean as they were extraordinary. Instead of reflecting what I looked like, they reflected what I was thinking and everything I had seen in my life. The number of images scared me and I stepped back, but a bright flash struck me all of a sudden and melted my astonishment because I looked toward the back of the room: a throne as bright as the sun stood there. Because of the flashes of light I could not tell what it was made of, but what really surprised me was that it was surrounded by all kinds of animals that all seemed buried in a deep sleep.

  I was getting unsettled by all these wonders when Falbao suddenly started barking. His howls echoed in the chamber and the light vanished into darkness with such a horrific noise that I was completely frozen in fear. I fell backward and passed out.

  I will never forget the extraordinary dream that troubled me. I felt my soul disconnecting from my body and flying into the immensity of the Heavens. It reveled there in its avid thirst for knowledge, which it had sought so often before its freedom—a wonderful and charming state! Why did you vanish away? Oh, happy lethargy, why didn’t you last forever? I saw…a whirlwind…but, hidden power that stirs around in me, your orders are supreme, forgive me—I will be quiet.211 Either I would say too much or not enough.