Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice

by James Branch Cabell

  21.

  How Anaitis Voyaged

  Now the tale tells that Jurgen and this Lady of the Lake camepresently to the wharves of Cameliard, and went aboard the shipwhich had brought Anaitis and Merlin into Glathion. This ship wasnow to every appearance deserted: yet all its saffron colored sailswere spread, as though in readiness for the ship's departure.

  "The crew are scrambling, it may be, for the largesse, and fightingover Gogyrvan's silver pieces," says Anaitis, "but I think they willnot be long in returning. So we will sit here upon the prow, andawait their leisure."

  "But already the vessel moves," says Jurgen, "and I hear behindus the rattling of silver chains and the flapping of shiftedsaffron-colored sails."

  "They are roguish fellows," says Anaitis, smiling. "Evidently, theyhid from us, pretending there was nobody aboard. Now they think togive us a surprise when the ship sets out to sea as though it wereof itself. But we will disappoint these merry rascals, by seeming tonotice nothing unusual."

  So Jurgen sat with Anaitis in the two tall chairs that were in theprow of the vessel, under a canopy of crimson stuff embroidered withgold dragons, and just back of the ship's figurehead, which was adragon painted with thirty colors: and the ship moved out of theharbor, and so into the open sea. Thus they passed Enisgarth.

  "And it is a queer crew that serve you, Anaitis, who are Queen ofCocaigne: for I can hear them talking, far back of us, and theirlanguage is all a cheeping and a twittering, as though the mice andthe bats were holding conference."

  "Why, you must understand that these are outlanders who speak adialect of their own, and are not like any other people you haveever seen."

  "Indeed, now, that is very probable, for I have seen none of yourcrew. Sometimes it is as though small flickerings passed over thedeck, and that is all."

  "It is but the heat waves rising from the deck, for the day iswarmer than you would think, sitting here under this canopy. Andbesides, what call have you and I to be bothering over the pranks ofcommon mariners, so long as they do their proper duty?"

  "I was thinking, O woman with unusual eyes, that these are hardlycommon mariners."

  "And I was thinking, Duke Jurgen, that I would tell you a tale ofthe Old Gods, to make the time speed more pleasantly as we sit hereuntroubled as a god and a goddess."

  Now they had passed Camwy: and Anaitis began to narrate the historyof Anistar and Calmoora and of the unusual concessions they grantedeach other, and of how Calmoora contented her five lovers: andJurgen found the tale perturbing.

  While Anaitis talked the sky grew dark, as though the sun wereashamed and veiled his shame with clouds: and they went forward in agray twilight which deepened steadily over a tranquil sea. So theypassed the lights of Sargyll, most remote of the Red Islands, whileAnaitis talked of Procris and King Minos and Pasiphae. As color wentout of the air new colors entered into the sea, which now assumedthe varied gleams of water that has long been stagnant. And asilence brooded over the sea, so that there was no noise anywhereexcept the sound of the voice of Anaitis, saying, "All men that livehave but a little while to live, and none knows his fate thereafter.So that a man possesses nothing certainly save a brief loan of hisown body; and yet the body of man is capable of much curiouspleasure."

  They came thus to a low-lying naked beach, where there was no signof habitation. Anaitis said this was the land they were seeking, andthey went ashore.

  "Even now," says Jurgen, "I have seen none of the crew who broughtus hither."

  And the beautiful dark woman shrugged, and marveled why he needperpetually be bothering over the doings of common sailors.

  They went forward across the beach, through sand hills, to a moor,seeing no one, and walking in a gray fog. They passed many gray fatsluggish worms and some curious gray reptiles such as Jurgen hadnever imagined to exist, but Anaitis said these need not troublethem.

  "So there is no call to be fingering your charmed sword as we walkhere, Duke Jurgen, for these great worms do not ever harm theliving."

  "For whom, then, do they lie here in wait, in this gray fog,wherethrough the green lights flutter, and wherethrough I hear attimes a thin and far-off wailing?"

  "What is that to you, Duke Jurgen, since you and I are still in thewarm flesh? Surely there was never a man who asked more idlequestions."

  "Yet this is an uncomfortable twilight."

  "To the contrary, you should rejoice that it is a fog too heavy tobe penetrated by the Moon."

  "But what have I to do with the Moon?"

  "Nothing, as yet. And that is as well for you, Duke Jurgen, since itis authentically reported you have derided the day which is sacredto the Moon. Now the Moon does not love derision, as I well know,for in part I serve the Moon."

  "Eh?" says Jurgen: and he began to reflect.

  So they came to a wall that was high and gray, and to the door whichwas in the wall.

  "You must knock two or three times," says Anaitis, "to get intoCocaigne."

  Jurgen observed the bronze knocker upon the door, and he grinned inorder to hide his embarrassment.

  "It is a quaint fancy," said he, "and the two constituents of itappear to have been modeled from life."

  "They were copied very exactly from Adam and Eve," says Anaitis,"who were the first persons to open this gateway."

  "Why, then," says Jurgen, "there is no earthly doubt that mendegenerate, since here under my hand is the proof of it."

  With that he knocked, and the door opened, and the two of thementered.