Twilight Land
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Howard Pyle >> Twilight Land
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He took the young man by the hand and led him into a third
room--vaulted as the other two had been, lit as they had been by
a carbuncle in the roof above. But when the young man's eyes saw
what was in this third room, he was like a man turned drunk with
wonder. He had to lean against the wall behind him, for the sight
made him dizzy.
In the middle of the room was such as basin as he had seen in the
two other rooms, only it was filled with jewels--diamonds and
rubies and emeralds and sapphires and precious stones of all
kinds--that sparkled and blazed and flamed like a million stars.
Around the wall, and facing the basin from all sides, stood six
golden statues. Three of them were statues of the kings and three
of them were statues of the queens who had gathered together all
this vast and measureless wealth of ancient Egypt.
There was space for a seventh statue, but where it should have
stood was a great arched door of adamant. The door was tightly
shut, and there was neither lock nor key to it. Upon the door
were written these words in letters of flame:
"Behold! Beyond this door is that alone which shall satisfy all
thy desires."
"Tell me, Zadok," said the young man, after he had filled his
soul with all the other wonders that surrounded him--"tell me
what is there that lies beyond that door?"
"That I am forbidden to tell thee, O master!" said the King of
the Demons of the Earth.
"Then open the door for me," said the young man; "for I cannot
open it for myself, as there is neither lock nor key to it."
"That also I am forbidden to do," said Zadok.
"I wish that I knew what was there," said the young man.
The Demon laughed. "Some time," said he, "thou mayest find for
thyself. Come, let us leave here and go to the palace which thy
father built years ago, and which he left behind him when he
quitted this place for the place in which thou knewest him."
He led the way and the young man followed; they passed through
the vaulted rooms and out through the door of adamant, and Zadok
locked it behind them and gave the key to the young man.
"All this is thine now," he said; "I give it to thee as I gave it
to thy father. I have shown thee how to enter, and thou mayst go
in whenever it pleases thee to do so."
They ascended the steps, and so reached the garden above. Then
Zadok struck his heel upon the ground, and the earth closed as it
had opened. He led the young man from the spot until they had
come to a wide avenue that led to the palace beyond. "Here I
leave thee," said the Demon, "But if ever thou hast need of me,
call and I will come."
Thereupon he vanished like a flash, leaving the young man
standing like one in a dream.
He saw before him a garden of such splendor and magnificence as
he had never dreamed of even in his wildest fancy. There were
seven fountains as clear as crystal that shot high into the air
and fell back into basins of alabaster. There was a broad avenue
as white as snow, and thousands of lights lit up everything as
light as day. Upon either side of the avenue stood a row of black
slaves, clad in garments of white silk, and with jewelled turbans
upon their heads. Each held a flaming torch of sandal-wood.
Behind the slaves stood a double row of armed men, and behind
them a great crowd of other slaves and attendants, dressed each
as magnificently as a prince, blazing and flaming with
innumerable jewels and ornaments of gold.
But of all these things the young man thought nothing and saw
nothing; for at the end of the marble avenue there arose a
palace, the like of which was not in the four quarters of the
earth--a palace of marble and gold and carmine and
ultramarine--rising into the purple starry sky, and shining in
the moonlight like a vision of Paradise. The palace was
illuminated from top to bottom and from end to end; the windows
shone like crystal, and from it came sounds of music and
rejoicing.
When the crowd that stood waiting saw the young man appear, they
shouted: "Welcome! Welcome! To the master who has come again! To
Aben Hassen the Fool!"
The young man walked up the avenue of marble to the palace,
surrounded by the armed attendants in their dresses of jewels and
gold, and preceded by dancing-girls as beautiful as houris, who
danced and sung before him. He was dizzy with joy. "All--all
this," he exulted, "belongs to me. And to think that if I had
listened to the Talisman of Solomon I would have had none of it."
That was the way he came back to the treasure of the ancient
kings of Egypt, and to the palace of enchantment that his father
had quitted.
For seven months he lived a life of joy and delight, surrounded
by crowds of courtiers as though they were a king, and going from
pleasure to pleasure without end. Nor had he any fear of an end
coming to it, for he knew that his treasure was inexhaustible. He
made friends with the princes and nobles of the land. From far
and wide people came to visit him, and the renown of his
magnificence filled all the world. When men would praise any one
they would say, "He is as rich," or as "magnificent," or as
"generous, as Aben Hassen the Fool."
So for seven months he lived a life of joy and delight; then one
morning he awakened and found everything changed to grief and
mourning. Where the day before had been laughter, to-day was
crying. Where the day before had been mirth, to-day was
lamentation. All the city was shrouded in gloom, and everywhere
was weeping and crying.
Seven black slaves stood on guard near Aben Hassen the Fool as he
lay upon his couch. "What means all this sorrow?" said he to one
of the slaves.
Instantly all the slaves began howling and beating their heads,
and he to whom the young man had spoken fell down with his face
in the dust, and lay there twisting and writhing like a worm.
"He has asked the question!" howled the slaves--"he has asked
the question!"
"Are you mad?" cried the young man. "What is the matter with
you?"
At the doorway of the room stood a beautiful female slave,
bearing in her hands a jewelled basin of gold, filled with
rose-water, and a fine linen napkin for the young man to wash and
dry his hands upon. "Tell me," said the young man, "what means
all this sorrow and lamentation?"
Instantly the beautiful slave dropped the golden basin upon the
stone floor, and began shrieking and tearing her clothes. "He has
asked the question!" she screamed--"he has asked the question!"
The young man began to grow frightened; he arose from his couch,
and with uneven steps went out into the anteroom. There he found
his chamberlain waiting for him with a crowd of attendants and
courtiers. "Tell me," said Aben Hassen the Fool, "why are you all
so sorrowful?"
Instantly they who stood waiting began crying and tearing their
clothes and beating their hands. As for the chamberlain--he was
a reverend old man--his eyes sparkled with anger, and his
fingers twitched as though he would have struck if he had dared.
"What," he cried, "art thou not contented with all thou hast and
with all that we do for thee without asking the forbidden
question?"
Thereupon he tore his cap from his head and flung it upon the
ground, and began beating himself violently upon the head with
great outcrying.
Aben Hassen the Fool, not knowing what to think or what was to
happen, ran back into the bedroom again. "I think everybody in
this place has gone mad," said he. "Nevertheless, if I do not
find out what it all means, I shall go mad myself."
Then he bethought himself, for the first time since he came to
that land, of the Talisman of Solomon.
"Tell me, O Talisman," said he, "why all these people weep and
wail so continuously?"
"Rest content," said the Talisman of Solomon, "with knowing that
which concerns thine own self, and seek not to find an answer
that will be to thine own undoing. Be thou also further advised:
do not question the Demon Zadok."
"Fool that I am," said the young man, stamping his foot; "here am
I wasting all this time when, if I had but thought of Zadok at
first, he would have told me all. Then he called aloud, Zadok!
Zadok! Zadok!"
Instantly the ground shook beneath his feet, the dust rose in
clouds, and there stood Zadok as black as ink, and with eyes that
shone like fire.
"Tell me," said the young man; "I command thee to tell me, O
Zadok! Why are the people all gone mad this morning, and why do
they weep and wail, and why do they go crazy when I do but ask
them why they are so afflicted?"
"I will tell thee," said Zadok. "Seven-and-thirty years ago there
was a queen over this land--the most beautiful that ever was
seen. Thy father, who was the wisest and most cunning magician in
the world, turned her into stone, and with her all the attendants
in her palace. No one since that time has been permitted to enter
the palace--it is forbidden for any one even to ask a question
concerning it; but every year, on the day on which the queen was
turned to stone, the whole land mourns with weeping and wailing.
And now thou knowest all!"
"What you tell me," said the young man, "passes wonder. But tell
me further, O Zadok, is it possible for me to see this queen whom
my father turned to stone?"
"Nothing is easier," said Zadok.
"Then," said the young man, "I command you to take me to where
she is, so that I may see her with mine own eyes."
"I hear and obey," said the Demon.
He seized the young man by the girdle, and in an instant flew
away with him to a hanging-garden that lay before the queen's
palace.
"Thou art the first man," said Zadok, "who has seen what thou art
about to see for seven-and-thirty years. Come, I will show thee a
queen, the most beautiful that the eyes of man ever looked upon."
He led the way, and the young man followed, filled with wonder
and astonishment. Not a sound was to be heard, not a thing moved,
but silence hung like a veil between the earth and the sky.
Following the Demon, the young man ascended a flight of steps,
and so entered the vestibule of the palace. There stood guards in
armor of brass and silver and gold. But they were without
life--they were all of stone as white as alabaster. Thence they
passed through room after room and apartment after apartment
crowded with courtiers and nobles and lords in their robes of
office, magnificent beyond fancying, but each silent and
motionless--each a stone as white as alabaster. At last they
entered an apartment in the very centre of the palace. There sat
seven-and-forty female attendants around a couch of purple and
gold. Each of the seven-and-forty was beautiful beyond what the
young man could have believed possible, and each was clad in a
garment of silk as white as snow, embroidered with threads of
silver and studded with glistening diamonds. But each sat silent
and motionless--each was a stone as white as alabaster.
Upon the couch in the centre of the apartment reclined a queen
with a crown of gold upon her head. She lay there motionless,
still. She was cold and dead--of stone as white as marble. The
young man approached and looked into her face, and when he looked
his breath became faint and his heart grew soft within him like
wax in a flame of fire.
He sighed; he melted; the tears burst from his eyes and ran down
his cheeks. "Zadok!" he cried--"Zadok! Zadok! What have you
done to show me this wonder of beauty and love! Alas! That I have
seen her; for the world is nothing to me now. O Zadok! That she
were flesh and blood, instead of cold stone! Tell me, Zadok, I
command you to tell me, was she once really alive as I am alive,
and did my father truly turn her to stone as she lies here?"
"She was really alive as thou art alive, and he did truly
transform her to this stone," said Zadok.
"And tell me," said the young man, "can she never become alive
again?"
"She can become alive, and it lies with you to make her alive,"
said the Demon. "Listen, O master. Thy father possessed a wand,
half of silver and half of gold. Whatsoever he touched with
silver became converted to stone, such as thou seest all around
thee here; but whatsoever, O master, he touched with the gold, it
became alive, even if it were a dead stone."
"Tell me, Zadok," cried the young man; "I command you to tell me,
where is that wand of silver and gold?"
"I have it with me," said Zadok.
"Then give it to me; I command you to give it to me."
"I hear and obey," said Zadok. He drew from his girdle a wand,
half of gold and half of silver, as he spoke, and gave it to the
young man.
"Thou mayst go now, Zadok," said the young man, trembling with
eagerness.
Zadok laughed and vanished. The young man stood for a while
looking down at the beautiful figure of alabaster. Then he
touched the lips with the golden tip of the wand. In an instant
there came a marvellous change. He saw the stone melt, and begin
to grow flexible and soft. He saw it become warm, and the cheeks
and lips grow red with life. Meantime a murmur had begun to rise
all through the palace. It grew louder and louder--it became a
shout. The figure of the queen that had been stone opened its
eyes.
"Who are you?" it said.
Aben Hassen the Fool fell upon his knees. "I am he who was sent
to bring you to life." he said. "My father turned you to cold
stone, and I--I have brought you back to warm life again."
The queen smiled--her teeth sparkled like pearls. "If you have
brought me to life, then I am yours," she said, and she kissed
him upon the lips.
He grew suddenly dizzy; the world swam before his eyes.
For seven days nothing was heard in the town but rejoicing and
joy. The young man lived in a golden cloud of delight. "And to
think," said he, "if I had listened to that accursed Talisman of
Solomon, called The Wise,' all this happiness, this ecstasy that
is now mine, would have been lost to me."
"Tell me, beloved," said the queen, upon the morning of the
seventh day--"thy father once possessed all the hidden treasure
of the ancient kings of Egypt--tell me, is it now thine as it
was once his?"
"Yes," said the young man, "it is now all mine as it was once all
his."
"And do you really love me as you say?"
"Yes," said the young man, "and ten thousand times more than I
say."
"Then, as you love me, I beg one boon on you. It is that you show
me this treasure of which I have heard so much, and which we are
to enjoy together."
The young man was drunk with happiness. "Thou shalt see it all,"
said he.
Then, for the first time, the Talisman spoke without being
questioned. "Fool!" it cried; "wilt thou not be advised?"
"Be silent," said the young man. "Six times, vile thing, you
would have betrayed me. Six times you would have deprived me of
joys that should have been mine, and each was greater than that
which went before. Shall I now listen the seventh time? Now,"
said he to the queen, "I will show you our treasure." He called
aloud, "Zadok, Zadok, Zadok!"
Instantly the ground shook beneath their feet, the dust rose in
clouds, and Zadok appeared, as black as ink, and with eyes that
shone like coals of fire.
"I command you," said the young man, "to carry the queen and
myself to the garden where my treasure lies hidden."
Zadok laughed aloud. "I hear thee and obey thee, master," said
he.
He seized the queen and the young man by the girdle, and in an
instant transported them to the garden and to the treasure-house.
"Thou art where thou commandest to be," said the Demon.
The young man immediately drew a circle upon the ground with his
finger-tip. He struck his heel upon the circle. The ground
opened, disclosing the steps leading downward. The young man
descended the steps with the queen behind him, and behind them
both came the Demon Zadok.
The young man opened the door of adamant and entered the first of
the vaulted rooms.
When the queen saw the huge basin full of silver treasure, her
cheeks and her forehead flushed as red as fire.
They went into the next room, and when the queen saw the basin of
gold her face turned as white as ashes.
They went into the third room, and when the queen saw the basin
of jewels and the six golden statues her face turned as blue as
lead, and her eyes shone green like a snake's.
"Are you content?" asked the young man.
The queen looked about her. "No!" cried she, hoarsely, pointing
to the closed door that had never been opened, and whereon were
engraved these words:
"Behold! Beyond this door is that alone which shall satisfy all
thy desires."
"No!" cried she. "What is it that lies behind yon door?"
"I do not know," said the young man.
"Then open the door, and let me see what lies within."
"I cannot open the door," said he. "How can I open the door,
seeing that there is no lock nor key to it?"
"If thou dost not open the door," said the queen, " all is over
between thee and me. So do as I bid thee, or leave me forever."
They had both forgotten that the Demon Zadok was there. Then the
young man bethought himself of the Talisman of Solomon. "Tell me,
O Talisman," said he, "how shall I open yonder door?"
"Oh, wretched one!" cried the Talisman, "oh, wretched one! Fly
while there is yet time--fly, for thy doom is near! Do not push
the door open, for it is not locked!"
The young man struck his head with his clinched fist. "What a
fool am I!" he cried. "Will I never learn wisdom" Here have I
been coming to this place seven months, and have never yet
thought to try whether yonder door was locked or not!"
"Open the door!" cried the queen.
They went forward together. The young man pushed the door with
his hand. It opened swiftly and silently, and they entered.
Within was a narrow room as red as blood. A flaming lamp hung
from the ceiling above. The young man stood as though turned to
stone, for there stood a gigantic Black Demon with a napkin
wrapped around his loins and a scimitar in his right hand, the
blade of which gleamed like lightning in the flame of the lamp.
Before him lay a basket filled with sawdust.
When the queen saw what she saw she screamed in a loud voice,
"Thou hast found it! Thou hast found it! Thou hast found what
alone can satisfy all thy desires! Strike, O slave!"
The young man heard the Demon Zadok give a yell of laughter. He
saw a whirl and a flash, and then he knew nothing.
The Black had struck--the blade had fallen, and the head of
Aben Hassen the Fool rolled into the basket of sawdust that stood
waiting for it.
"Aye, aye," said St. George, "and so it should end. For what was
your Aben Hassen the Fool but a heathen Paniem? Thus should the
heads of all the like be chopped off from their shoulders. Is
there not some one here to tell us a fair story about a saint?"
"For the matter of that," said the Lad who fiddled when the Jew
was in the bramble-bush--"for the matter of that I know a very
good story that begins about a saint and a hazel-nut.
"Say you so?" said St. George. "Well, let us have it. But stay,
friend, thou hast no ale in thy pot. Wilt thou not let me pay for
having it filled?"
"That," said the Lad who fiddled when the Jew was in the
bramble-bush, "may be as you please, Sir Knight; and, to tell the
truth, I will be mightily glad for a drop to moisten my throat
withal."
"But," said Fortunatus, "you have not told us what the story is
to be about."
"It is," said the Lad who fiddled for the Jew in the
bramble-bush, "about--
Ill-Luck and the Fiddler
Once upon a time St. Nicholas came down into the world to take a
peep at the old place and see how things looked in the
spring-time. On he stepped along the road to the town where he
used to live, for he had a notion to find out whether things were
going on nowadays as they one time did. By-and-by he came to a
cross-road, and who should he see sitting there but Ill-Luck
himself. Ill-Luck's face was as gray as ashes, and his hair as
white as snow--for he is as old as Grandfather Adam--and two
great wings grew out of his shoulders--for he flies fast and
comes quickly to those whom he visits, does Ill-Luck.
Now, St. Nicholas had a pocketful of hazel-nuts, which he kept
cracking and eating as he trudged along the road, and just then
he came upon one with a worm-hole in it. When he saw Ill-Luck it
came into his head to do a good turn to poor sorrowful man.
"Good-morning, Ill-Luck," says he.
"Good-morning, St. Nicholas," says Ill-Luck.
"You look as hale and strong as ever," says St. Nicholas.
"Ah, yes," says Ill-Luck, "I find plenty to do in this world of
woe."
"They tell me," says St. Nicholas, "that you can go wherever you
choose, even if it be through a key-hole; now, is that so?"
"Yes," says Ill-Luck, "it is."
"Well, look now, friend," says St. Nicholas, "could you go into
this hazel-nut if you chose to?"
"Yes," says Ill-Luck, "I could indeed."
"I should like to see you," says St. Nicholas; "for then I should
be of a mind to believe what people say of you."
"Well," says Ill-Luck, "I have not much time to be pottering and
playing upon Jack's fiddle; but to oblige an old
friend"--thereupon he made himself small and smaller, and--phst!
he was in the nut before you could wink.
Then what do you think St. Nicholas did? In his hand he held a
little plug of wood, and no sooner had Ill-Luck entered the nut
than he stuck the plug in the hole, and there was man's enemy as
tight as fly in a bottle.
"So!" says St. Nicholas, "that's a piece of work well done." Then
he tossed the hazel-nut under the roots of an oak-tree near by,
and went his way.
And that is how this story begins.
Well, the hazel-nut lay and lay and lay, and all the time that it
lay there nobody met with ill-luck; but, one day, who should come
travelling that way but a rogue of a Fiddler, with his fiddle
under his arm. The day was warm, and he was tired; so down he sat
under the shade of the oak-tree to rest his legs. By-and-by he
heard a little shrill voice piping and crying, "Let me out! let
me out! let me out!"
The Fiddler looked up and down, but he could see nobody. "Who are
you?" says he.
"I am Ill-Luck! Let me out! let me out!"
"Let you out?" says the Fiddler. "Not I; if you are bottled up
here it is the better for all of us;" and, so saying, he tucked
his fiddle under his arm and off he marched.
But before he had gone six steps he stopped. He was one of your
peering, prying sort, and liked more than a little to know all
that was to be known about this or that or the other thing that
he chanced to see or hear. "I wonder where Ill-Luck can be, to be
in such a tight place as he seems to be caught in," says he to
himself; and back he came again. "Where are you, Ill-Luck?" says
he.
"Here I am," says Ill-Luck--"here in this hazel-nut, under the
roots of the oak-tree."
Thereupon the Fiddler laid aside his fiddle and bow, and fell to
poking and prying under the roots until he found the nut. Then he
began twisting and turning it in his fingers, looking first on
one side and then on the other, and all the while Ill-Luck kept
crying, "Let me out! let me out!"
It was not long before the Fiddler found the little wooden plug,
and then nothing would do but he must take a peep inside the nut
to see if Ill-Luck was really there. So he picked and pulled at
the wooden plug, until at last out it came; and--phst! pop! out
came Ill-Luck along with it.
Plague take the Fiddler! say I.
"Listen," says Ill-Luck. "It has been many a long day that I have
been in that hazel-nut, and you are the man that has let me out;
for once in a way I will do a good turn to a poor human body."
Therewith, and without giving the Fiddler time to speak a word,
Ill-Luck caught him up by the belt, and--whiz! away he flew like
a bullet, over hill and over valley; over moor and over mountain,
so fast that not enough wind was left in the Fiddler's stomach to
say "Bo!"
By-and-by he came to a garden, and there he let the Fiddler drop
on the soft grass below. Then away he flew to attend to other
matters of greater need.
When the Fiddler had gathered his wits together, and himself to
his feet, he saw that he lay in a beautiful garden of flowers and
fruit-trees and marble walks and what not, and that at the end of
it stood a great, splendid house, all built of white marble, with
a fountain in front, and peacocks strutting about on the lawn.
Well, the Fiddler smoothed down his hair and brushed his clothes
a bit, and off he went to see what was to be seen at the grand
house at the end of the garden.
He entered the door, and nobody said no to him. Then he passed
through one room after another, and each was finer than the one
he left behind. Many servants stood around; but they only bowed,
and never asked whence he came. At last he came to a room where a
little old man sat at a table. The table was spread with a feast
that smelled so good that it brought tears to the Fiddler's eyes
and water to his mouth, and all the plates were of pure gold. The
little old man sat alone, but another place was spread, as though
he were expecting some one. As the Fiddler came in the little old
man nodded and smiled. "Welcome!" he cried; "and have you come at
last?"
"Yes," said the Fiddler, "I have. It was Ill-Luck that brought
me."
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