Angels and Women (1924)

CHANGE 65
heads, beardless, giants 1 in stature, and of
great strength. I instinctively recognized
them as the Darvands, the sons of the Devas.
They bore upon their backs large bundles
wrapped in oilskins. Carefully unrolling
these, they knelt and placed at my mother’s
feet baskets of fruit, meats, unlike any we
had hitherto known. Some of the packages
contained beautiful fabrics, shawls and girdles
rich with embroidery, and most ravishing
to my unaccustomed eyes--jewels of
crystal and gold.
But curious admiration was checked when
I discovered upon every package a uniform
mark, in shape of a winged serpent. I looked
at the bearers of the treasures. Upon the
breast of the tunics they wore, and upon the
band which crossed their foreheads, was the
same emblem. I knew the deadly meaning
of the seal. It was the form in which the
Tempter appeared to our mother Eve, and I
fled to my own apartment in great alarm.
1 See Appendix, Note 9.