by Lord Dunsany
THE IDLE CITY
There was once a city which was an idle city, wherein men told vain tales.
And it was that city's custom to tax all men that would enter in, with thetoll of some idle story in the gate.
So all men paid to the watchers in the gate the toll of an idle story, andpassed into the city unhindered and unhurt. And in a certain hour of thenight when the king of that city arose and went pacing swiftly up and downthe chamber of his sleeping, and called upon the name of the dead queen,then would the watchers fasten up the gate and go into that chamber to theking, and, sitting on the floor, would tell him all the tales that theyhad gathered. And listening to them some calmer mood would come upon theking, and listening still he would lie down again and at last fall asleep,and all the watchers silently would arise and steal away from the chamber.
A while ago wandering, I came to the gate of that city. And even as I camea man stood up to pay his toll to the watchers. They were seatedcross-legged on the ground between him and the gate, and each one held aspear. Near him two other travellers sat on the warm sand waiting. And theman said:
"Now the city of Nombros forsook the worship of the gods and turnedtowards God. So the gods threw their cloaks over their faces and strodeaway from the city, and going into the haze among the hills passed throughthe trunks of the olive groves into the sunset. But when they had alreadyleft the Earth, they turned and looked through the gleaming folds of thetwilight for the last time at their city; and they looked half in angerand half in regret, then turned and went away for ever. But they sent backa Death, who bore a scythe, saying to it: 'Slay half in the city thatforsook us, but half of them spare alive that they may yet remember theirold forsaken gods.'
"But God sent a destroying angel to show that He was God, saying unto him:'Go into that city and slay half of the dwellers therein, yet spare a halfof them that they may know that I am God.'
"And at once the destroying angel put his hand to his sword, and the swordcame out of the scabbard with a deep breath, like to the breath that abroad woodman takes before his first blow at some giant oak. Thereat theangel pointed his arms downwards, and bending his head between them, fellforward from Heaven's edge, and the spring of his ankles shot himdownwards with his wings furled behind him. So he went slanting earthwardthrough the evening with his sword stretched out before him, and he waslike a javelin that some hunter hath hurled that returneth again to theearth: but just before he touched it he lifted his head and spread hiswings with the under feathers forward, and alighted by the bank of thebroad Flavro that divides the city of Nombros. And down the bank of theFlavro he fluttered low, like to a hawk over a new-cut cornfield when thelittle creatures of the corn are shelterless, and at the same time downthe other bank the Death from the gods went mowing.
"At once they saw each other, and the angel glared at the Death, and theDeath leered back at him, and the flames in the eyes of the angelillumined with a red glare the mist that lay in the hollows of the socketsof the Death. Suddenly they fell on one another, sword to scythe. And theangel captured the temples of the gods, and set up over them the sign ofGod, and the Death captured the temples of God, and led into them theceremonies and sacrifices of the gods; and all the while the centuriesslipped quietly by, going down the Flavro seawards.
"And now some worship God in the temple of the gods, and others worship thegods in the temple of God, and still the angel hath not returned again tothe rejoicing choirs, and still the Death hath not gone back to die withthe dead gods; but all through Nombros they fight up and down, and stillon each side of the Flavro the city lives."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Then another traveler rose up, and said:
"Solemnly between Huhenwazy and Nitcrana the huge grey clouds camefloating. And those great mountains, heavenly Huhenwazi and Nitcrana, theking of peaks, greeted them, calling them brothers. And the clouds wereglad of their greeting, for they meet with companions seldom in the lonelyheights of the sky.
"But the vapours of evening said unto the earth-mist, 'What are thoseshapes that dare to move above us and to go where Nitcrana is andHuhenwazi?'
"And the earth-mist said in answer unto the vapours of evening, 'It isonly an earth-mist that has become mad and has left the warm andcomfortable earth, and has in his madness thought that his place is withHuhenwazi and Nitcrana.'
"'Once,' said the vapours of evening, 'there were clouds, but this wasmany and many a day ago, as our forefathers have said. Perhaps the mad onethinks he is the clouds.'
"Then spake the earth-worms from the warm deeps of the mud, saying 'Oearth-mist, thou art indeed the clouds, and there are no clouds but thou.And as for Huhenwazi and Nitcrana, I cannot see them, and therefore theyare not high, and there are no mountains in the world but those that Icast up every morning out of the deeps of the mud.'
"And the earth-mist and the vapours of evening were glad at the voice ofthe earth-worms, and looking earthward believed what they had said.
"And indeed it is better to be as the earth-mist, and to keep close to thewarm mud at night, and to hear the earth-worm's comfortable speech, andnot to be a wanderer in the cheerless heights, but to leave the mountainsalone with their desolate snow, to draw what comfort they can from theirvast aspect over all the cities of men, and from the whispers that theyhear at evening of unknown distant gods."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Then a man stood up who came out of the west, and told a western tale. Hesaid:
"There is a road in Rome that runs through an ancient temple that once thegods had loved; it runs along the top of a great wall, and the floor ofthe temple lies far down beneath it, of marble, pink and white.
"Upon the temple floor I counted to the number of thirteen hungry cats.
"'Sometimes,' they said among themselves, 'it was the gods that livedhere, sometimes it was men, and now it's cats. So let us enjoy the sun onthe hot marble before another people comes.'
"For it was at that hour of a warm afternoon when my fancy is able to hearsilent voices.
"And the awful leanness of all those thirteen cats moved me to go into aneighbouring fish shop, and there to buy a quantity of fishes. Then Ireturned and threw them all over the railing at the top of the great wall,and they fell for thirty feet, and hit the sacred marble with a smack.
"Now, in any other town but Rome, or in the minds of any other cats, thesight of fishes falling out of heaven had surely excited wonder. They roseslowly, and all stretched themselves, then they came leisurely towards thefishes. 'It is only a miracle,' they said in their hearts."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
Proudly and slowly, as they spoke, drew up to them a camel, whose ridersought entrance to the city. His face shone with the sunset by which forlong he had steered for the city's gate. Of him they demanded toll.Whereat he spoke to his camel, and the camel roared and kneeled, and theman descended from him. And the man unwrapped from many silks a box ofdivers metals wrought by the Japanese, and on the lid of it were figuresof men who gazed from some shore at an isle of the Inland Sea. This heshowed to the watchers, and when they had seen it, said, "It has seemed tome that these speak to each other thus:
"'Behold now Oojni, the dear one of the sea, the little mother sea thathath no storms. She goeth out from Oojni singing a song, and she returnethsinging over her sands. Little is Oojni in the lap of the sea, and scarceto be perceived by wondering ships. White sails have never wafted herlegends afar, they are told not by bearded wanderers of the sea. Herfireside tales are known not to the North, the dragons of China have notheard of them, nor those that ride on elephants through Ind.
"'Men tell the tales and the smoke ariseth upwards; the smoke departethand the tales are told.
"'Oojni is not a name among the nations, she is not know of where themerchants meet, she is not spoken of by alien lips.
"'Indeed, but Oojni is a little among the isles, yet is she loved by thosethat k
now her coasts and her inland places hidden from the sea.
"Without glory, without fame, and without wealth, Oojni is greatly lovedby a little people, and by a few; yet not by few, for all her dead stilllove her, and oft by night come whispering through her woods. Who couldforget Oojni even among the dead?
"For here in Oojni, wot you, are homes of men, and gardens, and goldentemples of the gods, and sacred places inshore from the sea, and manymurmurous woods. And there is a path that winds over the hills to go intomysterious holy lands where dance by night the spirits of the woods, orsing unseen in the sunlight; and no one goes into these holy lands, forwho that love Oojni could rob her of her mysteries, and the curious alienscome not. Indeed, but we love Oojni though she is so little; she is thelittle mother of our race, and the kindly nurse of all seafaring birds.
"And behold, even now caressing her, the gentle fingers of the mother sea,whose dreams are far with that old wanderer Ocean.
"And yet let us forget not Fuzi-Yama, for he stands manifest over cloudsand sea, misty below, and vague and indistinct, but clear above for allthe isles to watch. The ships make all their journeys in his sight, thenights and the days go by him like a wind, the summers and winters underhim flicker and fade, the lives of men pass quietly here and hence, andFuzi-Yama watches there--and knows."
And the watchers in the gate said, "Enter in."
And I, too, would have told them a tale, very wonderful and very true; onethat I had told in many cities, which as yet had no believers. But now thesun had set, and the brief twilight gone, and ghostly silences were risingfrom far and darkening hills. A stillness hung over that city's gate. Andthe great silence of the solemn night was more acceptable to the watchersin the gate than any sound of man. Therefore they beckoned to us, andmotioned with their hands that we should pass untaxed into the city. Andsoftly we went up over the sand, and between the high rock pillars of thegate, and a deep stillness settled among the watchers, and the stars overthem twinkled undisturbed.
For how short a while man speaks, and withal how vainly. And for how longhe is silent. Only the other day I met a king in Thebes, who had beensilent already for four thousand years.