Angels and Women (1924)

i10 ANGELS AND WOMENthe shelving rock where again the dust ofyears will gather, other seeds germinate andshoot upwards, and again a leafy veil shimmeringin the wind will shut out from humaneyes the mysterious Daleth of old Syria.The relic thus obtained (doubly preciousnow that further spoliation was forbidden)proved to be a cylinder of purple amethystabout a foot in length and three inches indiameter. Upon one side, engraved withextraordinary delicacy, was the representationof a terrible flood, and upon the othera tree, under whose widespread brancheswere sitting a noble-looking man and womanwith young persons grouped around them.Beneath each figure were detached inscriptions.In removing the dust from the crystal aspring was touched, and the cylinder opened,disclosing a linen roll like those of Egypt(though incomparably finer), covered withminute characters which, under the rays ofthe sun, became intensely blue.