Lilith
Lilith Lilith
made friends with them, laying hold of their arms, and stroking the bones of their long fingers; and it was plain the poor creatures took their attentions kindly. The two seemed on excellent terms with each other. Their common deprivation had drawn them together! the loss of everything had been the beginning of a new life to them! Perceiving that they had gathered handfuls of herbs, and were looking for more−−presumably to rub their bones with, for in what other way could nourishment reach their system so rudimentary?−−the Little Ones, having keenly examined those they held, gathered of the same sorts, and filled the hands the skeletons held out to receive them. Then they bid them goodbye, promising to come and see them again, and resumed their journey, saying to each other they had not known there were such nice people living in the same forest. When we came to the nest−village, I remained there a night with them, to see them resettled; for Lona still looked like one just dead, and there seemed no need of haste. The princess had eaten nothing, and her eyes remained shut: fearing she might die ere we reached the end of our journey, I went to her in the night, and laid my bare arm upon her lips. She bit into it so fiercely that I cried out. How I got away from her I do not know, but I came to myself lying beyond her reach. It was then morning, and immediately I set about our departure. Choosing twelve Little Ones, not of the biggest and strongest, but of the sweetest and merriest, I mounted them on six elephants, and took two more of the wise CLUMSIES, as the children called them, to bear the princess. I still rode Lona's horse, and carried her body wrapt in her cloak before me. As nearly as I could judge I took the direct way, across the left branch of the river−bed, to the House of Bitterness, where I hoped to learn how best to cross the broader and rougher branch, and how to avoid the basin of monsters: I dreaded the former for the elephants, the latter for the children. I had one terrible night on the way−−the third, passed in the desert between the two branches of the dead river. We had stopped the elephants in a sheltered place, and there let the princess slip down between them, to lie on the sand until the morning. She seemed quite dead, but I did not think she was. I laid myself a little way from her, with the body of Lona by my other side, thus to keep watch at once over the dead and the dangerous. The moon was half−way down the west, a pale, thoughtful moon, mottling the desert with shadows. Of a sudden she was eclipsed, remaining visible, but sending forth no light: a thick, diaphanous film covered her patient beauty, and she looked troubled. The film swept a little aside, and I saw the edge of it against her clearness−−the jagged outline of a bat−like wing, torn and hooked. Came a cold wind with a burning sting−−and Lilith was upon me. Her hands were still bound, but with her teeth she pulled from my shoulder the cloak Lona made for me, and fixed them in my flesh. I lay as one paralysed. Already the very life seemed flowing from me into her, when I remembered, and struck her on the hand. She raised her head with a gurgling shriek, and I felt her shiver. I flung her from me, and sprang to my feet. She was on her knees, and rocked herself to and fro. A second blast of hot−stinging cold enveloped us; the moon shone out clear, and I saw her face−−gaunt and ghastly, besmeared with red. "Down, devil!" I cried. "Where are you taking me?" she asked, with the voice of a dull echo from a sepulchre. "To your first husband," I answered. Lilith Lilith 120
"He will kill me!" she moaned. "At least he will take you off my hands!" "Give me my daughter," she suddenly screamed, grinding her teeth. "Never! Your doom is upon you at last!" "Loose my hands for pity's sake!" she groaned. "I am in torture. The cords are sunk in my flesh." "I dare not. Lie down!" I said. She threw herself on the ground like a log. The rest of the night passed in peace, and in the morning she again seemed dead. Before evening we came in sight of the House of Bitterness, and the next moment one of the elephants came alongside of my horse. "Please, king, you are not going to that place?" whispered the Little One who rode on his neck. "Indeed I am! We are going to stay the night there," I answered. "Oh, please, don't! That must be where the cat−woman lives!" "If you had ever seen her, you would not call her by that name!" "Nobody ever sees her: she has lost her face! Her head is back and side all round." "She hides her face from dull, discontented people!−−Who taught you to call her the cat−woman?" "I heard the bad giants call her so." "What did they say about her?" "That she had claws to her toes." "It is not true. I know the lady. I spent a night at her house." "But she MAY have claws to her toes! You might see her feet, and her claws be folded up inside their cushions!" "Then perhaps you think that I have claws to my toes?" "Oh, no; that can't be! you are good!" "The giants might have told you so!" I pursued. "We shouldn't believe them about you!" "Are the giants good?" Lilith Lilith 121
- Page 71 and 72: "Doubtless you pitied me!" "Never h
- Page 73 and 74: Despair restored my volition; the s
- Page 75 and 76: night. I ran the faster, though I c
- Page 77 and 78: Lilith CHAPTER XXII. BULIKA I had l
- Page 79 and 80: "Thank you!" she murmured. "Have yo
- Page 81 and 82: As I lay sleepless, I began to hear
- Page 83 and 84: "Take me to the princess," I said.
- Page 85 and 86: The princess stood waiting me, in a
- Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER XXVI. A BATTLE ROYAL I thre
- Page 89 and 90: I turned and followed the spotted l
- Page 91 and 92: in a stormy water, I was flung abou
- Page 93 and 94: "Indeed you almost taught the noble
- Page 95 and 96: "A song that had no sound into his
- Page 97 and 98: Then at last I understood that Mr.
- Page 99 and 100: "But," I returned, hard to persuade
- Page 101 and 102: do. The librarian walked on in sile
- Page 103 and 104: "Mr. Vane," croaked the raven, "thi
- Page 105 and 106: All day I worked hard. When the dar
- Page 107 and 108: Lilith I lay down by a tree, and on
- Page 109 and 110: Now arose in the mind of the woman
- Page 111 and 112: Little Ones, from a crowd of childr
- Page 113 and 114: them as for those other animals, bu
- Page 115 and 116: Lilith myself learned to obey! Untr
- Page 117 and 118: For she must think! Now what she ca
- Page 119 and 120: CHAPTER XXXVII. THE SHADOW A murmur
- Page 121: In the morning we set out, and made
- Page 125 and 126: "Will the cat−woman−−I mean t
- Page 127 and 128: terrible, something they were not t
- Page 129 and 130: "Such a compulsion would be without
- Page 131 and 132: embrace of a friend whom her soul h
- Page 133 and 134: een timelessly, spacelessly, absolu
- Page 135 and 136: "It is the biggest room in all this
- Page 137 and 138: Almost under our feet, shot up the
- Page 139 and 140: "This food will help thee to die,"
- Page 141 and 142: "You will soon begin to find comfor
- Page 143 and 144: She gave the candle to her husband,
- Page 145 and 146: With measured tread along the path,
- Page 147 and 148: And as I sat, there grew in me such
- Page 149 and 150: and I thought I had heard the song
- Page 151 and 152: me, as to him that made me, all in
- Page 153 and 154: "Then remember, and recall. Trials
- Page 155 and 156: He embraced Lona his child, put an
- Page 157 and 158: "The black bat is flown!" said Mara
- Page 159 and 160: tumid bulges, glaring orbs of sepia
- Page 161 and 162: I had seen the lightning, but heard
- Page 163: "But whence first into thy dark sel
made friends with them, laying hold of their arms, and stroking the bones of their long fingers; and it was<br />
plain the poor creatures took their attentions kindly. The two seemed on excellent terms with each other.<br />
Their common deprivation had drawn them together! the loss of everything had been the beginning of a new<br />
life to them!<br />
Perceiving that they had gathered handfuls of herbs, and were looking for more−−presumably to rub their<br />
bones with, for in what other way could nourishment reach their system so rudimentary?−−the Little Ones,<br />
having keenly examined those they held, gathered of the same sorts, and filled the hands the skeletons held<br />
out to receive them. Then they bid them goodbye, promising to come and see them again, and resumed their<br />
journey, saying to each other they had not known there were such nice people living in the same forest.<br />
When we came to the nest−village, I remained there a night with them, to see them resettled; for Lona still<br />
looked like one just dead, and there seemed no need of haste.<br />
The princess had eaten nothing, and her eyes remained shut: fearing she might die ere we reached the end of<br />
our journey, I went to her in the night, and laid my bare arm upon her lips. She bit into it so fiercely that I<br />
cried out. How I got away from her I do not know, but I came to myself lying beyond her reach. It was then<br />
morning, and immediately I set about our departure.<br />
Choosing twelve Little Ones, not of the biggest and strongest, but of the sweetest and merriest, I mounted<br />
them on six elephants, and took two more of the wise CLUMSIES, as the children called them, to bear the<br />
princess. I still rode Lona's horse, and carried her body wrapt in her cloak before me. As nearly as I could<br />
judge I took the direct way, across the left branch of the river−bed, to the House of Bitterness, where I hoped<br />
to learn how best to cross the broader and rougher branch, and how to avoid the basin of monsters: I dreaded<br />
the former for the elephants, the latter for the children.<br />
I had one terrible night on the way−−the third, passed in the desert between the two branches of the dead<br />
river.<br />
We had stopped the elephants in a sheltered place, and there let the princess slip down between them, to lie<br />
on the sand until the morning. She seemed quite dead, but I did not think she was. I laid myself a little way<br />
from her, with the body of Lona by my other side, thus to keep watch at once over the dead and the<br />
dangerous. The moon was half−way down the west, a pale, thoughtful moon, mottling the desert with<br />
shadows. Of a sudden she was eclipsed, remaining visible, but sending forth no light: a thick, diaphanous<br />
film covered her patient beauty, and she looked troubled. The film swept a little aside, and I saw the edge of<br />
it against her clearness−−the jagged outline of a bat−like wing, torn and hooked. Came a cold wind with a<br />
burning sting−−and <strong>Lilith</strong> was upon me. Her hands were still bound, but with her teeth she pulled from my<br />
shoulder the cloak Lona made for me, and fixed them in my flesh. I lay as one paralysed.<br />
Already the very life seemed flowing from me into her, when I remembered, and struck her on the hand. She<br />
raised her head with a gurgling shriek, and I felt her shiver. I flung her from me, and sprang to my feet.<br />
She was on her knees, and rocked herself to and fro. A second blast of hot−stinging cold enveloped us; the<br />
moon shone out clear, and I saw her face−−gaunt and ghastly, besmeared with red.<br />
"Down, devil!" I cried.<br />
"Where are you taking me?" she asked, with the voice of a dull echo from a sepulchre.<br />
"To your first husband," I answered.<br />
<strong>Lilith</strong><br />
<strong>Lilith</strong> 120