CHAPTER III
It was the light touch of the boy An upon my shoulder which roused me.He was bending down, his pretty face full of concernful sympathy, andin a minute said--knowing nothing of my thoughts, of course.
"It is the wine, stranger, the pink oblivion, it sometimes makes onefeel like that until enough is taken; you stopped just short of whatyou should have had, and the next cup would have been delight--I shouldhave told you."
"Ay," I answered, glad he should think so, "it was the wine, no doubt;your quaint drink, sir, tangled up my senses for the moment, but theyare clearer now, and I am eager past expression to learn a little moreof this strange country I have wandered into."
"I would rather," said the boy, relapsing again into his state ofkindly lethargy, "that you learnt things as you went, for talking iswork, and work we hate, but today we are all new and fresh, and if everyou are to ask questions now is certainly the time. Come with me tothe city yonder, and as we go I will answer the things you wish toknow;" and I went with him, for I was humble and amazed, and, in truth,at that moment, had not a word to say for myself.
All the way from the plain where I had awoke to the walls of the citystood booths, drinking-places, and gardens divided by labyrinths ofcanals, and embowered in shrubberies that seemed coming into leaf andflower as we looked, so swift was the process of their growth. Thesewaterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in everydirection; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafyscreens separating one lane from another till the place was full oftheir happy chirruping. Every booth and way-side halting-place wasthronged with these delicate and sprightly people, so friendly, sogracious, and withal so purposeless.
I began to think we should never reach the town itself, for first myguide would sit down on a green stream-bank, his feet a-dangle in theclear water, and bandy wit with a passing boat as though there werenothing else in the world to think of. And when I dragged him out ofthat, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I amall agape to see it," he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundredyards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sippingcoloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked him bythe sleeve and said: "Seth, good comrade--was it not so you called yourcity just now?--take me to the gates, and I will be grateful to you,"then on again down a flowery lane, aimless and happy, wasting my timeand his, with placid civility I was led by that simple guide.
Wherever we went the people stared at me, as well they might, as Iwalked through them overtopping the tallest by a head or more. Thedrinking-cups paused half-way to their mouths; the jests died away upontheir lips; and the blinking eyes of the drinkers shone with amomentary sparkle of wonder as their minds reeled down thosemany-tinted floods to the realms of oblivion they loved.
I heard men whisper one to another, "Who is he?"; "Whence does hecome?"; "Is he a tribute-taker?" as I strolled amongst them, my mindstill so thrilled with doubt and wonder that to me they seemed hardlymore than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and theivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk asincontinent as the babble of a stream.
Then happily, as I walked along with bent head brooding over theincredible thing that had happened, my companion's shapely legs gaveout, and with a sigh of fatigue he suggested we should take a skiffamongst the many lying about upon the margins and sail towards thetown, "For," said he, "the breeze blows thitherward, and 'tis a shameto use one's limbs when Nature will carry us for nothing!"
"But have you a boat of your own hereabouts?" I queried; "for to tellthe truth I came from home myself somewhat poorly provided with meansto buy or barter, and if your purse be not heavier than mine we muststill do as poor men do."
"Oh!" said An, "there is no need to think of that, no one here to hireor hire of; we will just take the first skiff we see that suits us."
"And what if the owner should come along and find his boat gone?"
"Why, what should he do but take the next along the bank, and themaster of that the next again--how else could it be?" said the Martian,and shrugging my shoulders, for I was in no great mood to argue, wewent down to the waterway, through a thicket of budding trees underlaidwith a carpet of small red flowers filling the air with a scent ofhoney, and soon found a diminutive craft pulled up on the bank. Therewere some dainty cloaks and wraps in it which An took out and laidunder a tree. But first he felt in the pouch of one for a sweetmeatwhich his fine nostrils, acute as a squirrel's, told him was there, andtaking the lump out bit a piece from it, afterwards replacing it in theowner's pocket with the frankest simplicity.
Then we pushed off, hoisted the slender mast, set the smallest lug-sailthat ever a sailor smiled at, and, myself at the helm, and that goldenyouth amidships, away we drifted under thickets of drooping canestasselled with yellow catkin-flowers, up the blue alley of the waterinto the broader open river beyond with its rapid flow and crowdingboats, the white city front now towering clear before us.
The air was full of sunshine and merry voices; birds were singing,trees were budding; only my heart was heavy, my mind confused. Yet whyshould I be sad, I said to myself presently? Life beat in my pulses;what had I to fear? This world I had tumbled into was new and strange,no doubt, but tomorrow it would be old and familiar; it discredited mymanhood to sit brow-bent like that, so with an effort I roused myself.
"Old chap!" I said to my companion, as he sat astride of a thwartslowly chewing something sticky and eyeing me out of the corner of hiseyes with vapid wonder, "tell me something of this land of yours, orsomething about yourself--which reminds me I have a question to ask. Itis a bit delicate, but you look a sensible sort of fellow, and willtake no offence. The fact is, I have noticed as we came along halfyour population dresses in all the colours of the rainbow--'fancysuitings' our tailors could call it at home--and this half of thecensus are undoubtedly men and women. The rub is that the other half,to which you belong, all dress alike in YELLOW, and I will be firedfrom the biggest gun on the Carolina's main deck if I can tell what sexyou belong to! I took you for a boy in the beginning, and the way youclosed with the idea of having a drink with me seemed to show I wasdead on the right course. Then a little later on I heard you and afriend abusing our sex from an outside point of view in a way which wasvery disconcerting. This, and some other things, have set me all abroadagain, and as fate seems determined to make us chums for thisvoyage--why--well, frankly, I should be glad to know if you be boy orgirl? If you are as I am, no more nor less then--for I likeyou--there's my hand in comradeship. If you are otherwise, as thosesleek outlines seem to promise--why, here's my hand again! But man orwoman you must be--come, which is it?"
If I had been perplexed before, to watch that boy now was more curiousthan ever. He drew back from me with a show of wounded dignity, thenbit his lips, and sighed, and stared, and frowned. "Come," I saidlaughingly, "speak! it engenders ambiguity to be so ambiguous ofgender! 'Tis no great matter, yes or no, a plain answer will set usfairly in our friendship; if it is comrade, then comrade let it be; ifmaid, why, I shall not quarrel with that, though it cost me a likelymessmate."
"You mock me."
"Not I, I never mocked any one."
"And does my robe tell you nothing?"
"Nothing so much; a yellow tunic and becoming enough, but nothing aboutit to hang a deduction on. Come! Are you a girl, after all?"
"I do not count myself a girl."
"Why, then, you are the most blooming boy that ever eyes were set upon;and though 'tis with some tinge of regret, yet cheerfully I welcome youinto the ranks of manhood."
"I hate your manhood, send it after the maidhood; it fits me just asbadly."
"But An, be reasonable; man or maid you must be."
"Must be; why?"
"Why?" Was ever such a question put to a sane mortal before? I staredat that ambiguous thing before me, and then, a little wroth to beplayed with, growled out something about Martians being all drunk ormad.
"Oh, if it comes to that," I answered, touching the Navy scabbard stillat my hip, and regaining my temper at the sight of hers, "why, I have asting also--and twice as long as yours! But in truth, An, let us nottalk of these things; if something in what I have said has offendednice Martian scruples I am sorry, and will question no more, leaving mywonder for time to settle."
"No," said the other, "it was my fault to be hasty of offence; I am notso angered once a year. But in truth your question moves us yellowrobes deeply. Did you not really know that we who wear this saffrontunic are slaves,--a race apart, despised by all."
"'Slaves,' no; how should I know it?"
"I thought you must understand a thing so fundamental, and it was thatthought which made your questions seem unkind. But if indeed you havecome so far as not to understand even this, then let me tell you oncewe of this garb were women--priestesses of the immaculate conceptionsof humanity; guardians of those great hopes and longings which die soeasily. And because we forgot our high station and took to apinganother sex the gods deserted and men despised us, giving us, in thefierceness of their contempt, what we asked for. We are the slave antsof the nest, the work-bees of the hive, come, in truth, of those herewho still be men and women of a sort, but toilers only; unknown inlove, unregretted in death--those who dangle all children but theirown--slaves cursed with the accomplishment of their own ambition."
There was no doubt poor An believed what she said, for her attitude wasone of extreme dejection while she spoke, and to cheer her I laughed.
"Oh! come, it can't be as bad as that. Surely sometimes some of youwin back to womanhood? You yourself do not look so far gone but whatsome deed of abnegation, some strong love if you could but conceive itwould set you right again. Surely you of the primrose robes cansometimes love?"
Whereat unwittingly I troubled the waters in the placid soul of thatoutcast Martian! I cannot exactly describe how it was, but she benther head silently for a moment or two, and then, with a sigh, liftingher eyes suddenly to mine, said quietly, "Yes, sometimes;sometimes--but very seldom," while for an instant across her face thereflashed the summer lightning of a new hope, a single transient glanceof wistful, timid entreaty; of wonder and delight that dared not evenyet acknowledge itself.
Then it was my turn to sit silent, and the pause was so awkward that ina minute, to break it, I exclaimed--
"Let's drop personalities, old chap--I mean my dear Miss An. Tell mesomething about your people, and let us begin properly at the top: haveyou got a king, for instance?"
To this the girl, pulling herself out of the pleasant slough of herlistlessness, and falling into my vein, answered--
"Both yes and no, sir traveller from afar--no chiefly, and yet perhapsyes. If it were no then it were so, and if yes then Hath were ourking."
"A mild king I should judge by your uncertainty. In the place where Icame from kings press their individualities somewhat more clearly ontheir subjects' minds. Is Hath here in the city? Does he come to yourfeasts today?"
An nodded. Hath was on the river, he had been to see the sunrise; evennow she thought the laughter and singing down behind the bend might bethe king's barge coming up citywards. "He will not be late," said mycompanion, "because the marriage-feast is set for tomorrow in thepalace."
I became interested. Kings, palaces, marriage-feasts--why, here wassomething substantial to go upon; after all these gauzy folk might turnout good fellows, jolly comrades to sojourn amongst--andmarriage-feasts reminded me again I was hungry.
"Who is it," I asked, with more interest in my tone, "who getsmarried?--is it your ambiguous king himself?"
Whereat An's purple eyes broadened with wonder: then as though shewould not be uncivil she checked herself, and answered with smotheredpity for my ignorance, "Not only Hath himself, but every one, stranger,they are all married tomorrow; you would not have them married one at atime, would you?"--this with inexpressible derision.
I said, with humility, something like that happened in the place I camefrom, asking her how it chanced the convenience of so many came to oneclimax at the same moment. "Surely, An, this is a marvel ofarrangement. Where I dwelt wooings would sometimes be long or sometimesshort, and all maids were not complacent by such universal agreement."
The girl was clearly perplexed. She stared at me a space, then said,"What have wooings long or short to do with weddings? You talk as ifyou did your wooing first and then came to marriage--we get marriedfirst and woo afterwards!"
"'Tis not a bad idea, and I can see it might lend an ease and certaintyto the pastime which our method lacks. But if the woman is got firstand sued subsequently, who brings you together? Who sees to theessential preliminaries of assortment?"
An, looking at my shoes as though she speculated on the remoteness ofthe journey I had come if it were measured by my ignorance, replied,"The urn, stranger, the urn does that--what else? How it may be inthat out-fashioned region you have come from I cannot tell, buthere--'tis so commonplace I should have thought you must have knownit--we put each new year the names of all womenkind into an urn and themen draw for them, each town, each village by itself, and those theydraw are theirs; is it conceivable your race has other methods?"
I told her it was so--we picked and chose for ourselves, beseeching thedamsels, fighting for them, and holding the sun of romance was at itssetting just where the Martians held it to rise. Whereat An burst outlaughing--a clear, ringing laugh that set all the light-hearted folk inthe nearest boats laughing in sympathy. But when the grotesqueness ofthe idea had somewhat worn off, she turned grave and asked me if such afancy did not lead to spite, envy, and bickerings. "Why, it seems tome," she said, shaking her curly head, "such a plan might fire cities,desolate plains, and empty palaces--"
"Such things have been."
"Ah! our way is much the better. See!" quoth that gentle philosopher."'Here,' one of our women would say, 'am I to-day, unwed, as free ofthought as yonder bird chasing the catkin down; tomorrow I shall bemarried, with a whole summer to make love in, relieved at one bound ofall those uncertainties you acknowledge to, with nothing to do but lieabout on sunny banks with him whom chance sends me, come to the goal oflove without any travelling to get there.' Why, you must acknowledgethis is the perfection of ease."
"But supposing," I said, "chance dealt unkindly to you from yournuptial urn, supposing the man was not to your liking, or anothercoveted him?" To which An answered, with some shrewdness--
"In the first case we should do what we might, being no worse off thanthose in your land who had played ill providence to themselves. In thesecond, no maid would covet him whom fate had given to another, it weretoo fatiguing, or if such a thing DID happen, then one of them wouldwaive his claims, for no man or woman ever born was worth a wrangle,and it is allowed us to barter and change a little."
All this was strange enough. I could not but laugh, while An laughedat the lightest invitation, and thus chatting and deriding each other'ssocial arrangements we floated idly townwards and presently came outinto the main waterway perhaps a mile wide and flowing rapidly, asstreams will on the threshold of the spring, with brash or waste ofdistant beaches riding down it, and every now and then a broken branchor tree-stem glancing through waves whose crests a fresh wind liftedand sowed in golden showers in the intervening furrows. The Martiansseemed expert upon the water, steering nimbly between these floatingdangers when they met them, but for the most part hugging the shorewhere a more placid stream better suited their fancies, and for a timeall went well.
An, as we went along, was telling me more of her strange country,pointing out birds or flowers and naming them to me. "Now
that," shesaid, pointing to a small grey owl who sat reflective on a floating logwe were approaching--"that is a bird of omen; cover your face and lookaway, for it is not well to watch it."
Whereat I laughed. "Oh!" I answered, "so those ancient follies havecome as far as this, have they? But it is no bird grey or black orwhite that can frighten folk where I come from; see, I will ruffle hisphilosophy for him," and suiting the action to the words I lifted apebble that happened to lie at the bottom of the boat and flung it atthat creature with the melancholy eyes. Away went the owl, dipping hiswings into the water at every stroke, and as he went wailing out aghostly cry, which even amongst sunshine and glitter made one's fleshcreep.
An shook her head. "You should not have done that," she said; "ourdead whom we send down over the falls come back in the body of yonderlittle bird. But he has gone now," she added, with relief; "see, hesettles far up stream upon the point of yonder rotten bough; I wouldnot disturb him again if I were you--"
Whatever more An would have said was lost, for amidst a sound of flutesand singing round the bend of the river below came a crowd of boatsdecked with flowers and garlands, all clustering round a barge barelyable to move, so thick those lesser skiffs pressed upon it. So closethose wherries hung about that the garlanded rowers who sat at the oarscould scarcely pull, but, here as everywhere, it was the same goodtemper, the same carelessness of order, as like a flowery island in thedancing blue water the motley fleet came up.
I steered our skiff a space out from the bank to get a better view,while An clapped her hands together and laughed. "It is Hath--hehimself and those of the palace with him. Steer a little nearer still,friend--so! between yon floating rubbish flats, for those with Hath aregood to look at."
Nothing loth I made out into mid-stream to see that strange prince goby, little thinking in a few minutes I should be shaking hands withhim, a wet and dripping hero. The crowd came up, and having theadvantage of the wind, it did not take me long to get a front place inthe ruck, whence I set to work, with republican interest in royalty, tostare at the man who An said was the head of Martian society. He didnot make me desire to renounce my democratic principles. The royalfellow was sitting in the centre of the barge under a canopy and on athrone which was a mass of flowers, not bunched together as they wouldhave been with us, but so cunningly arranged that they rose from thefootstool to the pinnacle in a rhythm of colour, a poem in bud andpetals the like of which for harmonious beauty I could not haveimagined possible. And in this fairy den was a thin, gaunt young man,dressed in some sort of black stuff so nondescript that it amounted tolittle more than a shadow. I took it for granted that a substance ofbone and muscle was covered by that gloomy suit, but it was the faceabove that alone riveted my gaze and made me return the stare he gaveme as we came up with redoubled interest. It was not an unhandsomeface, but ashy grey in colour and amongst the insipid countenances ofthe Martians about him marvellously thoughtful. I do not know whetherthose who had killed themselves by learning ever leave ghosts behind,but if so this was the very ideal for such a one. At his feet Inoticed, when I unhooked my eyes from his at last, sat a girl in aloose coral pink gown who was his very antipode. Princess Heru, for soshe was called, was resting one arm upon his knee at our approach andpulling a blue convolvulus bud to pieces--a charming picture of daintyidleness. Anything so soft, so silken as that little lady was neverseen before. Who am I, a poor quarter-deck loafer, that I shouldattempt to describe what poet and painter alike would have failed torealise? I know, of course, your stock descriptives: the melting eye,the coral lip, the peachy cheek, the raven tress; but these were coinedfor mortal woman--and this was not one of them. I will not attempt todescribe the glorious tenderness of those eyes she turned upon mepresently; the glowing radiance of her skin; the infinite grace ofevery action; the incredible soul-searching harmony of her voice, whenlater on I heard it--you must gather something of these things as Igo--suffice it to say that when I saw her there for the first time inthe plenitude of her beauty I fell desperately, wildly in love with her.
Meanwhile, even the most infatuated of mortals cannot stare for everwithout saying something. The grating of our prow against thegarlanded side of the royal barge roused me from my reverie, andnodding to An, to imply I would be back presently, I lightly jumped onto Hath's vessel, and, with the assurance of a free and independentAmerican voter, approached that individual, holding out my palm, andsaying as I did so,
"Shake hands, Mr. President!"
The prince came forward at my bidding and extending his hand for mine.He bowed slow and sedately, in that peculiar way the Martians have, aripple of gratified civility passing up his flesh; lower and lower hebowed, until his face was over our clasped hands, and then, with simplecourtesy, he kissed my finger-tips! This was somewhat embarrassing. Itwas not like the procedure followed in Courts nearer to Washington thanthis one, as far as my reading went, and, withdrawing my fingershastily, I turned to the princess, who had risen, and was eyeing hersomewhat awkwardly, the while wondering what kind of salutation wouldbe suitable in her case when a startling incident happened. The river,as said, was full of floating rubbish brought down from some far-awayuplands by a spring freshet while the royal convoy was making slowprogress upstream and thus met it all bow on. Some of this stuff washeavy timber, and when a sudden warning cry went up from the leadingboats it did not take my sailor instinct long to guess what was amiss.Those in front shot side to side, those behind tried to drop back as,bearing straight down on the royal barge, there came a log of blackwood twenty feet long and as thick as the mainmast of an oldthree-decker.
Hath's boat could no more escape than if it had been planted on a rockypedestal, garlands and curtains trailing in the water hung so heavy onit. The gilded paddles of the slender rowers were so feeble--they hadbut made a half-turn from that great javelin's road when down it cameupon them, knocking the first few pretty oarsmen head over heels andcrackling through their oars like a bull through dry maize stalks. Isprang forward, and snatching a pole from a half-hearted slave, jammedthe end into the head of the log and bore with all my weight upon it,diverting it a little, and thereby perhaps saving the ship herself, butnot enough. As it flashed by a branch caught upon the trailingtapestry, hurling me to the deck, and tearing away with it all thatfinery. Then the great spar, tossing half its dripping length into theair, went plunging downstream with shreds of silk and flowers trailingfrom it, and white water bubbling in its rear.
When I scrambled to my feet all was ludicrous confusion on board. Hathstill stood by his throne--an island in a sea of disorder--staring atme; all else was chaos. The rowers and courtiers were kicking andwallowing in the "waist" of the ship like fish newly shot out of atrawl net, but the princess was gone. Where was she? I brushed thespray from my eyes, and stared overboard. She was not in the bubblingblue water alongside. Then I glanced aft to where the log, now fifteenyards away, was splashing through the sunshine, and, as I looked, afair arm came up from underneath and white fingers clutchedconvulsively at the sky. What man could need more? Down the barge Irushed, and dropping only my swordbelt, leapt in to her rescue. Thegentle Martians were too numb to raise a hand in help; but it was notnecessary. I had the tide with me, and gained at every stroke.Meanwhile that accursed tree, with poor Heru's skirts caught on abranch, was drowning her at its leisure; lifting her up as it rose uponthe crests, a fair, helpless bundle, and then sousing her in its fallinto the nether water, where I could see her gleam now and again likepink coral.
I redoubled my efforts and got alongside, clutching the rind of thatold stump, and swimming and scrambling, at last was within reach of theprincess. Thereon the log lifted her playfully to my arms, and when Ihad laid hold came down, a crushing weight, and forced us far into theclammy bosom of Martian sea. Again we came up, coughing and choking--Itugging furiously at that tangled raiment, and the lady, a mere lump ofsweetness in my other arm--then down again with that log upon me andall the noises of Eblis in my ears.
Up and down we went, over andover, till strength was spent and my ribs seemed breaking; then, with alast desperate effort, I got a knee against the stem, and by sheerstrength freed my princess--the spiteful timber made a last ugly thrustat us as it rolled away--and we were free!
I turned upon my back, and, sure of rescue now, took the lady's headupon my chest, holding her sweet, white fists in mine the while, and,floating, waited for help.
It came only too quickly. The gallant Martians, when they saw theprincess saved, came swiftly down upon us. Over the lapping of thewater in my ears I heard their sigh--like cries of admiration andsurprise, the rattle of spray on the canoe sides mingled with thesplash of oars, the flitting shadows of their prows were all about us,and in less time than it takes to write we were hauled aboard, revived,and taken to Hath's barge. Again the prince's lips were on myfingertips; again the flutes and music struck up; and as I squeezed thewater out of my hair, and tried to keep my eyes off the outline ofHeru, whose loveliness shone through her damp, clinging, pink robe, asif that robe were but a gauzy fancy, I vaguely heard Hath sayingwondrous things of my gallantry, and, what was more to the purpose,asking me to come with him and stay that night at the palace.
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