Part 9

HILARION. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but one and the same Person!"

(_The three faces separate; and three great gods appear._

_The first, who is pink, bites the end of his great toe._

_The second, who is blue, uplifts his four arms._

_The third, who is green, wears a necklace of human skulls._

_Before them instantly arise three goddesses--one is enveloped in a net; another offers a cup; the third brandishes a bow._

_And these gods, these goddesses, decuple themselves, multiply. Arms grow from their shoulders; at the end of these arms hands appear bearing standards, axes, bucklers, swords, parasols and drums. Fountains gush from their heads, plants grow from their nostrils._

_Riding upon birds rocked in palanquins, enthroned upon seats of gold, standing in ivory niches,--they dream, voyage, command, drink wine, respire the breath of flowers. Dancing girls whirl in the dance; giants pursue monsters; at the entrances of grottoes solitaries meditate. Eyes cannot be distinguished from stars; nor clouds from banderolles; peacocks quench their thirst at rivers of gold dust; the embroidery of pavilions seems to blend with the spots of leopards; coloured rays intercross in the blue air, together with flying arrows, and swinging censers._

_And all this develops like a lofty frieze, resting its base upon the rocks, and rising to the sky._)

ANTHONY (_dazzled by the sight_).

"How vast is their number! What do they seek?"

HILARION. "The god who rubs his abdomen with his elephant-trunk, is the solar Deity, the inspiring spirit of wisdom.

"That other whose six heads are crowned with towers, and whose fourteen arms wield javelins,--is the prince of armies,--the Fire-Consumer.

"The old man riding the crocodile washes the soul of the dead upon the shore. They will be tormented by that black woman with the putrid teeth, who is the Ruler of Hell.

"That chariot drawn by red mares, driven by one who has no legs, bears the master of the sun through heaven's azure. The moon-god accompanies him, in a litter drawn by three gazelles.

"Kneeling upon the back of a parrot, the Goddess of Beauty presents to Love, her son, her rounded breast. Behold her now, further off, leaping for joy in the meadows. Look! Look! Coiffed with dazzling mitre, she trips lightly over the ears of growing wheat, over the waves; she rises in air, extending her power over all elements.

"And among these gods are the Genii of the winds, of the planets, of the months, of the days,--a hundred thousand others;--multiple are their aspects, rapid their transformations. Behold, there is one who changes from a fish into a tortoise: he assumes the form of a boar, the shape of a dwarf."

ANTHONY. "Wherefore?"

HILARION. "That he may preserve the equilibrium of the universe, and combat the works of evil. But life exhausts itself; forms wear away; and they must achieve progression in their metamorphoses."

(_All upon a sudden appears a_ NAKED MAN _seated in the midst of the sand, with legs crossed._)

(_A large halo vibrates, suspended in air behind him. The little ringlets of his black hair in which blueish tints shift symmetrically surround a protuberance upon the summit of his skull. His arms, which are very long, hang down against his sides. His two hands rest flat upon his thighs, with the palms open. The soles of his feet are like the faces of two blazing suns; and he remains completely motionless--before Anthony and Hilarion--with all the gods around him, rising in tiers above the rocks, as if upon the benches of some vast circus. His lips, half-open; and he speaks in a deep voice_):

"I am the Master of great charities, the succor of all creatures; and not less to the profane than to believers, do I expound the law.

"That I might deliver the world, I resolved to be born among men. The gods wept when I departed from them.

"I sought me first a woman worthy to give me birth: a woman of warrior race, the wife of a king, exceedingly good, excessively beautiful, with body firm as adamant;--and at time of the full moon, without the auxiliation of any male, I entered her womb.

"I issued from it by the right side. Stars stopped in their courses."

HILARION (_murmurs between his teeth_).

"And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy!"[1]

(_Anthony watches more attentively._)

THE BUDDHA[2] (_continuing_).

"From the furthest recesses of the Himalayas, a holy man one hundred years of age, hurried to see me."

HILARION. "A man named Simeon ... who should not see death, before he had seen the Christ of the Lord."[3]

THE BUDDHA. "I was led unto the schools; and it was found that I knew more than the teachers."

HILARION. "... In the midst of the doctors ... and all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom!"[4]

(_Anthony makes a sign to Hilarion to be silent._)

THE BUDDHA. "Continually did I meditate in the gardens. The shadows of the trees turned with the turning of the sun; but the shadow of that which sheltered me turned not.

"None could equal me in the knowledge of the Scriptures, the enumeration of atoms, the conduct of elephants, the working of wax, astronomy, poetry, pugilism, all the exercises and all the arts!

"In accordance with custom, I took to myself a wife; and I passed the days in my kingly palace;--clad in pearls, under a rain of perfumes, refreshed by the fans of thirty thousand women,--watching my peoples from the height of my terraces adorned with fringes of resonant bells.

"But the sight of the miseries of the world turned me away from pleasure. I fled.

"I begged my way upon the high roads, clad myself in rags gathered within the sepulchres;--and, hearing of a most learned hermit, I chose to become his slave. I guarded his gate! I washed his feet.

"Thus I annihilated all sensation, all joy, all languor.

"Then, concentrating my thoughts within vaster meditation, I learned to know the essence of things, the illusion of forms.

"Soon I exhausted the science of the Brahmans. They are gnawed by covetousness and desire under their outward aspect of austerity; they daub themselves with filth, they live upon thorns,--hoping to arrive at happiness by the path of death!"

HILARION.... "Pharisees, hypocrites, whited sepulchres, generation of vipers!"

THE BUDDHA. "I also accomplished wondrous things,--eating but one grain of rice each day (and the grains of rice in those times were no larger than at present)--my hair fell off; my body became black; my eyes receding within their sockets, seemed even as stars beheld at the bottom of a well.

"During six years I kept myself motionless, exposed to the flies, the lions and the serpents; and the great summer suns, the torrential rains, lightnings and snows, hails and tempests,--all of these I endured without even the shelter of my lifted hand.

"The travellers who passed by, believing me dead, cast clods of earth upon me!

"Only the temptation of the Devil remained!

"I summoned him.

"His sons came,--hideous, scale-covered, nauseous as charnel-houses,--shrieking, hissing, bellowing; interclashing their panoplies, rattling together the bones of dead men. Some belched flame through their nostrils; some made darkness about me with their wings; some wore chaplets of severed fingers; some drank serpent-venom from the hollows of their hands;--they were swine-headed; they were rhinoceros-headed or toad-headed; they assumed all forms that inspire loathing or affright."

ANTHONY (_to himself_).

"I also endured all that in other days!"

THE BUDDHA. "Then did he send me his daughters--beautiful with daintily painted faces, and wearing girdles of gold. Their teeth were whiter than the jasmine-flower; their thighs round as the trunk of an elephant. Some extended their arms and yawned, that they might so display the dimples of their elbows; some winked their eyes; some laughed; some half-opened their garments. There were blushing virgins, matrons replete with dignity, queens who came with great trains of baggage and of slaves."

ANTHONY (_aside_). "Ah! he too ..."

THE BUDDHA. "Having vanquished the Demon, I nourished myself for twelve years with perfumes only;--and as I had acquired the five virtues, the five faculties, the ten forces, the eighteen substances, and had entered into the four spheres of the invisible world, Intelligence became mine! I became the Buddha."

(_All the gods bow themselves down. Those having several heads, bend them all simultaneously. He lifts his mighty hand aloft, and resumes_:)

"That I might effect the deliverance of beings, I have made hundreds of thousands of sacrifices! To the poor I gave robes of silk, beds, chariots, houses, heaps of gold and of diamonds. I gave my hands to the one-handed, my legs to the lame, my eyes to the blind;--even my head I severed for the sake of the decapitated. In the day that I was King, I gave away provinces;--when I was a Brahman I despised no one. When I was a solitary, I spake kindly words to the robber who slew me. When I was a tiger I allowed myself to die of hunger.

"And having, in this last existence, preached the law, nothing now remains for me to do. The great period is accomplished! Men, animals, the gods, the bamboos, the oceans, the mountains, the sand-grains of the Ganges, together with the myriad myriads of the stars,--all shall die;--and until the time of the new births, a flame shall dance upon the wrecks of worlds destroyed!"

(_Then a great dizziness comes upon the gods. They stagger, fall into convulsions, and vomit forth their existences. Their crowns burst apart; their banners fly away. They tear off their attributes, their sexes, fling over their shoulders the cups from which they quaffed immortality, strangle themselves with their serpents, vanish in smoke;--and when all have disappeared_ ...)

HILARION (_solemnly exclaims_):

"Thou hast even now beheld the belief of many hundreds of millions of men."

(_Anthony is prostrate upon the ground, covering his face with his hands. Hilarion, with his back turned to the cross, stands near him and watches him._

_A considerable time elapses._

_Then a singular being appears--having the head of a man upon the body of a fish. He approaches through the air, upright, beating the sand from time to time with his tail; and the patriarchal aspect of his face by contrast with his puny little arms, causes Anthony to laugh._)

OANNES (_in a plaintive voice_):

"Respect me! I am the contemporary of beginnings.

"I dwelt in that formless world where hermaphroditic creatures slumbered, under the weight of an opaque atmosphere, in the deeps of dark waters--when fingers, fins, and wings were blended, and eyes without heads were floating like mollusks, among human-headed bulls, and dog-footed serpents.

"Above the whole of these beings, OMOROCA, bent like a hoop, extended her woman-body. But Belus cleft her in two halves; with one he made the earth; with the other, heaven;--and the two equal worlds do mutually contemplate each other.

"I, the first consciousness of CHAOS, arose from the abyss that I might harden matter, and give a law unto forms:--also I taught men to fish and to sow: I gave them knowledge of writing, and of the history of the gods.

"Since then I have dwelt in the deep pools left by the Deluge. But the desert grows vaster about them; the winds cast sand into them; the sun devours them;--and I die upon my couch of slime, gazing at the stars through the water. Thither I return!"

(_He leaps and disappears in the Nile._)

HILARION. "That is an ancient God of the Chaldæans!"

ANTHONY (_ironically_). "What, then, were those of Babylon?"

HILARION. "Thou canst behold them!"

(_And they find themselves upon the platform of a lofty quadrangular tower dominating six other towers, which, narrowing as they rise, form one monstrous pyramid. Far below a great black mass is visible--the city, doubtless--extending over the plains. The air is cold; the sky darkly blue; multitudes of stars palpitate above._

_In the midst of the platform rises a column of white stone. Priests in linen robes pass and repass around it, so as to describe by their evolutions a moving circle; and with faces uplifted, they gaze upon the stars._ ...)

HILARION. (_pointing out several of these stars to Anthony_):

"There are thirty principal stars. Fifteen look upon the upper side of the earth; fifteen below. At regular intervals one shoots from the upper regions to those below; while another abandons the inferior deeps to rise to sublime altitudes ...

"Of the seven planets, two are beneficent; two evil; three ambiguous:--all things in the world depend upon the influence of these eternal fires. According to their position or movement presages may be drawn;--and here thou dost tread the most venerable place upon earth. Here Pythagoras and Zoroaster have met;--here for twelve thousand years these men have observed the skies that they might better learn to know the gods."

ANTHONY. "The stars are not gods."

HILARION. "Aye, they say the stars are gods; for all things about us pass away;--the heavens only remain immutable as eternity."

ANTHONY. "Yet there is a master!"

HILARION (_pointing to the column_):

"He! Belus!--the first ray, the Sun, the Male! The Other, whom he fecundates, is beneath him!"

(_Anthony beholds a garden, illuminated by lamps_: _He finds himself in the midst of the crowd, in an avenue of cypress-trees. To right and left are little pathways leading to huts constructed within a wood of pomegranate trees, and enclosed by treillages of bamboo._

_Most of the men wear pointed caps, and garments bedizened like the plumage of a peacock. But there are also people from the North clad in bearskins, nomads wearing mantles of brown wool, pallid Gangarides with long earrings;--and there seems to be as much confusion of rank as there is confusion of nations; for sailors and stone-cutters elbow the princes who wear tiaras blazing with carbuncles and who carry long canes with carven knobs. All proceed upon their way with dilated nostrils, absorbed by the same desire._

_From time to time, they draw aside to make way for some long covered wagon drawn by oxen, or some ass jolting upon his back a woman bundled up in thick veils, who finally disappears in the direction of the cabins._

_Anthony feels afraid; he half-resolves to turn back. But an unutterable curiosity takes possession of him, and draws him on._

_At the foot of the cypress-trees there are ranks of women squatting upon deerskins, all wearing in lieu of diadem, a plaited fillet of ropes. Some, magnificently attired, loudly call upon the passers-by. Others, more timid, seek to veil their faces with their arms, while some matron standing behind them, their mother doubtless, exhorts them. Others, their heads veiled with a black shawl, and their bodies entirely nude, seem from afar off to be statues of flesh. As soon as a man has thrown some money upon their knees, they arise._

_And the sound of kisses is heard under the foliage,--sometimes a great sharp cry._)

HILARION. "These are the virgins of Babylon, who prostitute themselves to the goddess."

ANTHONY. "What goddess?"

HILARION. "Behold her!"

(_And he shows him at the further end of the avenue, upon the threshold of an illuminated grotto, a block of stone representing a woman._)

ANTHONY. "Ignominy!--how abominable to give a sex to God!"

HILARION. "Thou thyself dost figure him in thy mind as a living person!"

(_Anthony again finds himself in darkness._

_He beholds in the air a luminous circle, poised upon horizontal wings. This ring of light, girdles like a loose belt, the waist of a little man wearing a mitre upon his head and carrying a wreath in his hand. The lower part of his figure is completely concealed by immense feathers outspreading about him like a petticoat._

_It is_--ORMUZD--_the God of the Persians. He hovers in the air above, crying aloud_:)

"I fear! I can see his monstrous jaws! I did vanquish thee, O Ahriman! But again thou dost war against me.

"First revolting against me, thou didst destroy the eldest of creatures, Kaiomortz, the Man-Bull. Then didst thou seduce the first human couple, Meschia and Meschiané; and thou didst fill all hearts with darkness, thou didst urge thy battalions against heaven!

"I also had mine own, the people of the stars; and from the height of my throne I contemplated the marshalling of the astral hosts.

"Mithra, my son, dwelt in heavens inaccessible. There he received souls, from thence did he send them forth; and he arose each morning to pour forth the abundance of his riches.

"The earth reflected the splendour of the firmament. Fire blazed upon the crests of the mountains,--symbolizing that other fire of which I had created all creatures. And that the holy flame might not be polluted, the bodies of the dead were not burned; the beaks of birds carried them aloft toward heaven.

"I gave to men the laws regulating pastures, labour, the choice of wood for the sacrifices, the form of cups, the words to be uttered in hours of sleeplessness;--and my priests unceasingly offered up prayers, so that worship might be as the eternity of God in its endlessness. Men purified themselves with water; loaves were offered upon the altars, sins were confessed aloud.

"Homa[5] gave himself to men to be drank, that they might have his strength communicated to them while the Genii of heaven were combating the demons, the children of Iran were pursuing the serpents. The King, whom an innumerable host of courtiers served upon their knees, represented me in his person, and wore my coiffure. His gardens had the magnificence of a heaven upon earth; and his tomb represented him in the act of slaying a monster,--emblem of Good destroying Evil.

"For it was destined that I should one day definitely conquer Ahriman, by the aid of Time-without-limits.

"But the interval between us disappears;--the deep night rises! To me! ye Amschaspands, ye Izeds, ye Ferouers! Succor me, Mithra! seize thy sword! And thou, Kaosyac, who shall return for the universal deliverance, defend me! What!--none to aid! Ah! I die! Thou art the victor, Ahriman!"

(_Hilarion, standing behind Anthony, restrains a cry of joy;--and_ ORMUZD _is swallowed up in the darkness._)

(_Then appears_:)

THE GREAT DIANA OF EPHESUS

(_black with enamelled eyes, her elbows pressed to her side, her forearms extended, with hands open._

_Lions crawl upon her shoulders; fruits, flowers, and stars intercross upon her bosom; further down three rows of breasts appear; and from her belly to her feet she is covered with a tightly fitting sheath from which bulls, stags, griffins, and bees, seem about to spring, their bodies half-protruding from it. She is illuminated by the white light emanating from a disk of silver, round as the full moon, placed behind her head._)

"Where is my temple? Where are my Amazons?

"What is this I feel?--I, the Incorruptible!--a strange faintness comes upon me!"...

(_Her flowers wither, her over-ripe fruits become detached and fall. The lions and the bulls hang their heads; the deer foam at the mouth, with a slimy foam, as though exhausted; the buzzing bees die upon the ground._

_She presses her breasts, one after the other. All are empty! But under a desperate effort her sheath bursts. She seizes it by the bottom, like the skirt of a robe, throws her animals, her fruits, her flowers, into it,--then withdraws into the darkness._

_And afar off there are voices, murmuring, growling, roaring, bellowing, belling. The density of the night is augmented by breaths. Drops of warm rain fall._)

ANTHONY. "How sweet the odour of the palm trees, the trembling of leaves, the transparency of springs! I feel the desire to lie flat upon the Earth that I might feel her against my heart; and my life would be reinvigorated by her eternal youth!"

(_He hears the sound of castanets and of cymbals; and men appear, clad in white tunics with red stripes,--leading through the midst of a rustic crowd an ass, richly harnessed, its tail decorated with knots of ribbons, and its hoofs painted._

_A box, covered with a saddle-cloth[6] of yellow material shakes to and fro upon its back, between two baskets,--one receives the offerings contributed,--eggs, grapes, pears, cheeses, fowls, little coins; and the other basket is full of roses, which the leaders of the ass pluck to pieces as they walk before the animal, shedding the leaves upon the ground._

_They wear earrings and large mantles; their locks are plaited, their cheeks painted, olive-wreaths are fastened upon their foreheads by medallions bearing figurines;--all wear poniards in their belts, and brandish ebony-handled whips, having three thongs to which osselets are attached._[7]

_Those who form the rear of the procession, place upon the soil,--so as to remain upright as a candelabrum,--a tall pine, which burns at its summit, and shades under its lower branches a lamb._

_The ass halts. The saddle-cloth is removed. Underneath appears a second covering of black felt. Then one of the men in white tunics begins to dance, rattling his crotali;--another, kneeling before the box, beats a tambourine and_--)

THE OLDEST OF THE BAND, _begins_:--

"Here is the Good Goddess, the Idæan of the mountains, the Great Mother of Syria! Come ye hither, good people all!

"She gives joy to men, she heals the sick; she sends inheritances; she satisfies the hunger of love!

"We bear her through the land, rain or shine, in fair weather, or in foul.

"Oft times we lie in the open air, and our table is not always well served. Robbers dwell in the woods. Wild beasts rush from their caverns. Slippery paths border the precipices. Behold her! behold her!"

(_They lift off the covering; and a box is seen, inlaid with little pebbles._)

"Loftier than the cedars, she looks down from the blue ether. Vaster than the wind she encircles the world. Her breath is exhaled by the nostrils of tigers; the rumbling of her voice is heard beneath the volcanoes; her wrath is the tempest; the pallor of her face has whitened the moon. She ripens the harvest; by her the tree-bark swells with sap; she makes the beard to grow. Give her something; for she hates the avaricious!"

(_The box opens; and under a little pavilion of blue silk appears a small image of Cybele--glittering with spangles, crowned with towers, and seated in a chariot of red stone, drawn by two lions, with uplifted paws._

_The crowd presses forward to see._)

THE ARCHIGALLUS (_continues_):

"She loves the sound of resounding tympanums, the echo of dancing feet, the howling of wolves, the sonorous mountains and the deep gorges, the flower of the almond tree, the pomegranate and the green fig, the whirling dance, the snoring flute, the sugary sap, the salty tear,--blood! To thee, to thee!--Mother of the mountains!"

(_They scourge themselves with their whips; and their chests resound with the blows;--the skins of the tambourines vibrate almost to bursting. They seize their knives; they gash their arms._)

"She is sorrowful; let us be sorrowful! Thereby your sins will be remitted. Blood purifies all--fling its red drops abroad like blossoms! She, the Great Mother, demands the blood of another creature--of a pure being!"

(_The Archigallus raises his knife above the head of a lamb._)

ANTHONY (_seized with horror_):

"Do not slay the lamb!"

(_There is a gush of purple blood. The priest sprinkles the crowd with it; and all--including Anthony and Hilarion--standing around the burning tree, silently watch the last palpitations of the victim._