CHAPTER XXIII. A WOMAN OF BULIKA
I turned aside into an alley, and sought shelter in a small archway. Inthe mouth of it I stopped, and looked out at the moonlight which filledthe alley. The same instant a woman came gliding in after me, turned,trembling, and looked out also. A few seconds passed; then a hugeleopard, its white skin dappled with many blots, darted across thearchway. The woman pressed close to me, and my heart filled with pity. Iput my arm round her.
"If the brute come here, I will lay hold of it," I said, "and you mustrun."
"Thank you!" she murmured.
"Have you ever seen it before?" I asked.
"Several times," she answered, still trembling. "She is a pet of theprincess's. You are a stranger, or you would know her!"
"I am a stranger," I answered. "But is she, then, allowed to run loose?"
"She is kept in a cage, her mouth muzzled, and her feet in gloves ofcrocodile leather. Chained she is too; but she gets out often, and sucksthe blood of any child she can lay hold of. Happily there are not manymothers in Bulika!"
Here she burst into tears.
"I wish I were at home!" she sobbed. "The princess returned only lastnight, and there is the leopardess out already! How am I to get into thehouse? It is me she is after, I know! She will be lying at my own door,watching for me!--But I am a fool to talk to a stranger!"
"All strangers are not bad!" I said. "The beast shall not touch you tillshe has done with me, and by that time you will be in. You are happy tohave a house to go to! What a terrible wind it is!"
"Take me home safe, and I will give you shelter from it," she rejoined."But we must wait a little!"
I asked her many questions. She told me the people never did anythingexcept dig for precious stones in their cellars. They were rich, and hadeverything made for them in other towns.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because it is a disgrace to work," she answered. "Everybody in Bulikaknows that!"
I asked how they were rich if none of them earned money. She repliedthat their ancestors had saved for them, and they never spent. When theywanted money they sold a few of their gems.
"But there must be some poor!" I said.
"I suppose there must be, but we never think of such people. When onegoes poor, we forget him. That is how we keep rich. We mean to be richalways."
"But when you have dug up all your precious stones and sold them, youwill have to spend your money, and one day you will have none left!"
"We have so many, and there are so many still in the ground, that thatday will never come," she replied.
"Suppose a strange people were to fall upon you, and take everything youhave!"
"No strange people will dare; they are all horribly afraid of ourprincess. She it is who keeps us safe and free and rich!"
Every now and then as she spoke, she would stop and look behind her.
I asked why her people had such a hatred of strangers. She answered thatthe presence of a stranger defiled the city.
"How is that?" I said.
"Because we are more ancient and noble than any othernation.--Therefore," she added, "we always turn strangers out beforenight."
"How, then, can you take me into your house?" I asked.
"I will make an exception of you," she replied.
"Is there no place in the city for the taking in of strangers?"
"Such a place would be pulled down, and its owner burned. How is purityto be preserved except by keeping low people at a proper distance?Dignity is such a delicate thing!"
She told me that their princess had reigned for thousands of years; thatshe had power over the air and the water as well as the earth--and, shebelieved, over the fire too; that she could do what she pleased, and wasanswerable to nobody.
When at length she was willing to risk the attempt, we took our waythrough lanes and narrow passages, and reached her door without havingmet a single live creature. It was in a wider street, between twotall houses, at the top of a narrow, steep stair, up which she climbedslowly, and I followed. Ere we reached the top, however, she seemed totake fright, and darted up the rest of the steps: I arrived just in timeto have the door closed in my face, and stood confounded on the landing,where was about length enough, between the opposite doors of the twohouses, for a man to lie down.
Weary, and not scrupling to defile Bulika with my presence, I tookadvantage of the shelter, poor as it was.
Lilith: A Romance Page 23