Angels and Women (1924)

CHANGE 65heads, beardless, giants 1 in stature, and ofgreat strength. I instinctively recognizedthem as the Darvands, the sons of the Devas.They bore upon their backs large bundleswrapped in oilskins. Carefully unrollingthese, they knelt and placed at my mother’sfeet baskets of fruit, meats, unlike any wehad hitherto known. Some of the packagescontained beautiful fabrics, shawls and girdlesrich with embroidery, and most ravishingto my unaccustomed eyes--jewels ofcrystal and gold.But curious admiration was checked whenI discovered upon every package a uniformmark, in shape of a winged serpent. I lookedat the bearers of the treasures. Upon thebreast of the tunics they wore, and upon theband which crossed their foreheads, was thesame emblem. I knew the deadly meaningof the seal. It was the form in which theTempter appeared to our mother Eve, and Ifled to my own apartment in great alarm.1 See Appendix, Note 9.