XXIII
THE SILVER SKY
Never, in all the days of Babylon, had there been an evening more fairthan this. At sunset the burning day melted and flowed away, down thewestern sky, in a flood of liquid gold. A faint breath of air came overthe river from across the distant Tigris, out of the cool hills of Elam,the conqueror's land. On the river-bank rose the palm-trees, castingtheir shadows into the softly slipping water; and the turf beneath themwas all strewn with sunset gold. To the north lay Babylon, huge andblack and silent, her dying thousands shut away behind the vastlytowering walls. To the west and south stretched great irrigated fieldsof ripening grain, in the midst of which were many shadufs, with theirpatient buffaloes at the interminable work of drawing water from theclay wells. Still farther back were the crumbling brick huts of thetillers of the soil. On the edge of the river two long-legged cranesstood quietly meditating. Overhead a flock of pelicans wound their slowway southward towards the marshes where they dwelt. From the fardistance was heard the loud cry of the bittern. Otherwise the land wassilent--wrapped in evening prayer.
Along the river-bank, under the shadowy palms, with the golden lightglowing about her, walked Istar, musing gently upon many things. Voicesfrom the infinite addressed her. The iron was leaving her soul. Her mindwas transfused with quietude. She ceased to notice or to feel the achingof her bruised body. She was holding communion with deeper things, andshe moved with her head bent forward and her eyes upon the ground.Presently she paused at the brink of the river--the fair, well-flowingriver, that held in its pure depths the body of the storm-eyed, herbeloved. Its flashing waters encompassed her with glory. Her mortal eyesgrew blind with light. Presently, out of the glowing depth, there cameto her, as once before, a voice--but now a voice most familiar, mostdear to her ears, most longed-for since its silence. Belshazzar spokefrom the beyond, in the words that Allaraine had written on the templewall, and that had appeared to her again from the river, on the night ofdeath:
"Hast thou found man's relation to God? The silver sky waits for thysoul."
And now in the heart of the woman was no bitterness, no rebellion, onlyknowledge of the truth. And, answering the question of the Lord, spokenin the voice of her dead, she whispered, softly:
"Man and man, as man and God, are bound by those ties of eternal lovethat made the covenant of Creation. Consciously or unconsciously, allliving things must live with this as their law, for they are God'schildren, God's brothers, God Himself sent forth to wander for a whilein time, but in the end returning to their eternal source, which is God.
"All the sin, all the sorrow of the world, I have known, have suffered.Yet no loss nor grief can take away the great joy of love, its purity,its perfection.
"I acknowledge the wisdom of the All-Father displayed in His creation.Let Him do with me as He will."
As she ceased to speak a blinding, silver stillness wrapped her aboutand held her immovable. From its depths in the far-off heavens therecame to her ears sounds such as she had known in the long-ago: the songof the infinite, the infinite, unceasing chorus, the wind-choir thatsings the Creator's hymn.
Still she could see the green fields and the water, and the ferny palmsabove her head. Still she beheld the broad river running full of pinkand molten gold. Still the breath of the evening wind came to her lips.The world was all about her; but she was no longer of it all.
High over her head, in the unclouded sky, a vast web of shimmeringsilver was spreading out and out, like a broad, firmly woven veil. Itscintillated with dazzling light into Istar's upraised and half-blindeyes, yet it struck them with no pain. It was the silver sky ofBabylonish dreams opening above her, while the celestial voices sangever more softly, but ever more beautifully, the pure, swaying harmoniesof the great hymn of freedom. God's presence lived in the beauty of theearthly evening scarcely less than in the splendor of that heavenly one.In the midst of the scene of supernatural wonder, Istar sank to herknees, and there remained transfixed before the miracle that came to beenacted before her.
From out of the silver-spun cloud two figures, at first merely dense,opaque bodies of mist, began to descend from the heights, growinggradually more and more distinct in form as they came, leaving behindthem a silver trail that moved and swayed, fine and threadlike, in theair, above them. As they approached her, Istar, in her ecstasy, quicklyrecognized them both; the one, his floating locks of deepest auburnstar-crowned, his trailing garments of changing blue, carrying in hishand the sunset lyre, was Allaraine, the archetype of song. The secondwas more spiritual still, a storm-eyed being with thick, black locksuncrowned, clothed in misty white, girdled in silver, bearing in hishand a palm-branch of the same shimmering white metal, his face, hands,and feet showing transparently pure, while in his back, upon the leftside, was a mark of brilliant light, glowing with ruby fire, andresembling a hallowed wound--the releasing dagger-stroke that had freedBelshazzar from Babylon--Belshazzar, beloved of the woman to whom hecame again.
Slowly, slowly, to that infinite, sweet chorus, these two descended tilltheir celestial feet touched earth, and Istar, with joyful greeting,rose up and went to meet them. As she held forth both maimed, mortalhands, the eyes of Allaraine glowed with sorrow, but Belshazzar's facewas alight with the fulness of great joy.
"We come to thee, O woman honored of God; and thou shalt choose betweenus.
"I, Allaraine, thy brother, would lead thee back among thy fellows inthy great purification to the perfection of rest, of insensibility toall creation except God and His word."
"Istar, beloved, through suffering a soul, an immortal soul, hath beenborn in thee; and thou mayst come forth now to rest a little on the longpilgrimage that will lead thee finally back into the God whence allsouls are sprung."
"Choose, Istar. Choose."
Istar turned her eyes to Allaraine and looked upon him long andearnestly, and her face grew radiant. Then, most slowly, she moved hergaze till it met with that of the great storm-orbs of Belshazzar. And inthat look the worn-out body dropped from off her soul, which, clothed ingarments of translucent light, began its ascent between the twomessengers that had come for her. They passed, all three, above theshadowy turf, above the line of waving palms, above the glowing riverwhich ran its threadlike course from distant Karchemish into the sunsetgulf; above, finally, the towering black walls of the Great City, and sointo the clouds of the silver sky, to which no mortal eye may followthem.
* * * * *
Through this last hour and the period of her transfiguration, Charmides,still standing at the edge of the grove of palms, had watched the figureof Istar upon the river-bank. Rejoicing in the great beauty of theevening, he waited peacefully, believing her wrapped in prayer. Nothingsaw he of the celestial world that had opened to her, nothing knew ofthe heavenly messengers that had come. But when her body fell back uponthe earth, he, thinking that she had fainted from exhaustion, ranquickly to the spot where his eyes had last beheld her. When he came tothe place there was nothing there--no trace of the plague-marked form ofher that had dwelt in the temple of Istar in the Great City. Long hesearched there alone in the evening, till, out of the far, blue space avoice, the voice of the woman he had so worshipped, spoke to him:
"Thou faithful and true, seek for me no more; for that of me which wasnot is not now. But my spirit shalt thou know to be watching near theealways. Behold, I am returned unto our Father."
So, knowing all things dumbly in his heart, the young Greek obeyed hervoice, and, turning slowly away, went forth from the grove of palms, andreturned that night alone to his young wife in Babylon.
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Jowett's translation of Plato's _Statesman_, vol. iii., pp. 562,571.
[2] Jowett's translation of Plato's _Phaedo_, vol. i., pp. 407, 408.
[3] 541 B.C.
[4] Herodotus gives it as higher than this, a few writers less, thegreatest estimate being three hundred and seventy-five feet, the leastseventy-five.
[6] The worship of the goddess Istar began originally in the city ofErech.
[7] Her archetypal name, Istar being only a cognomen, the name givenher by the people.
[8] According to the calculations of Babylonish historians.
[9] The fish-god.
[10] The incident of Nabu-Nahid's strange gods is an historical fact.
[11] Fourteen miles.
[12] An historical fact.
[ Transcriber's Note:
The following is a list of variations in the spelling of personal and place names which have been retained:
Agade / Agade Ea-bani / Ea-Bani Lillat / Lilat Nabu-Nahid / Nabu-Nahid / Nabu-Nahid Nabopolassar / Nabopollassar Tiamat / Tiamat Vul-raman / Vul-Raman
The Incantation in the Prologue uses the spelling "archtype".
The following is a list of changes made to the original. The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.
Nabonidus: Or "Nabu-Nahid, last native king Nabonidus: Or "Nabu-Nahid", last native king
right side, oars-shattered, sides still uncrushed, while right side, oars shattered, sides still uncrushed, while
heave-offerings of oxen and of doves. heave-offerings of oxen and of doves."
Our voyage had been too long already. Our voyage had been too long already."
her out. her out."
Up to this point Theron and his son stoood beside Up to this point Theron and his son stood beside
"Y face and form, my Charmides, are beautiful--more "Your face and form, my Charmides, are beautiful--more
is never his feeling for any other of her sex. Woman is never his feeling for any other of her sex. Woman's
"Dishonor--in the rites of Ashtoreth! Nay. you "Dishonor--in the rites of Ashtoreth! Nay, you
it was his home, But it was night before they entered it was his home. But it was night before they entered
The great mutitude hardly caught his attention. He The great multitude hardly caught his attention. He
that from the first I have feared She is become no that from the first I have feared. She is become no
"Bunantitum Bit-Egibi." "Bunanitum Bit-Egibi."
thy companion, Ribata of Skumukin?" thy companion, Ribata of Shumukin?"
the bed She gave a little cry of astonishment and the bed. She gave a little cry of astonishment and
Chaldean kings that had done as much Chaldean kings that had done as much.
"Belitsum--lady--what is thy grief?" He asked, "Belitsum--lady--what is thy grief?" he asked, ]
Istar of Babylon: A Phantasy Page 33