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a mustard seed placed in the desert”. Under Bahamut is
water, and under the water darkness, “and beyond this
men’s knowledge does not reach”. The uncanniness of
cosmology is brought to us with a quiet aplomb, as it
is with the “Fauna of Mirrors” where we learn that the
people of Canton believed another hostile world was
behind every reflective surface, the people of whom are
enslaved into copying our actions for now, but whose
turn to rise will come, and whose uprising will be
heralded by … a rogue yellow fish you may see in the
mirror that shouldn’t be there. That such a potentially
risible, laughable notion instead haunts the memory is
further testimony to Borges’ mastery.
Occasionally the book has guest spots from other
authors – mainly Kafka and C.S. Lewis – which, good
as they are, simply serve as contrast to the particular visions
of the grand editor. Elsewhere in the bestiary we
meet Haniel, Kafziel, Azriel and Aniel, a four headed
creature surrounded by rings full of eyes, as envisioned
by the prophet Ezekiel. One of its heads is that of an
ox, one of man, one of lion, and one of eagle, “each
one went in the direction of its face, so imaginable as
to be uncanny.” Borges is adept at describing things,
which, in terms of physical human description, cannot
be described. When H.P. Lovecraft does this, he horrifies.
When Borges does it, he simply entrances.
With all this talk of mystique and wonder, you
could be forgiven for thinking this book a po-faced
BUY Jorge Luis Borges books online from and
thing. Not at all. Borges is always aware the things
he describes are as ridiculous as they are sublime,
and a wryness sometimes peers through. Of the
strange visionary Swedenbourg, who wrote with incredible
vividness of the celestial beings he claimed
to know – “as the English are not very talkative,
he fell into the habit of conversing with angels and
Devils.” When the allegorical nature of some of the
creatures is a little too heavy handed for his tastes, he
is not above mocking it. (The hippogriff is the combination
of a griffin and a horse which denotes the
impossible – Luis notes the Greek scholar Servius
somewhat milked this by inventing the ‘fact’ that
griffins must hate horses). Sillier creatures like the
Squonk, (of Aboriginal folklore, which cries to itself
until its body disintegrates) appear with a mordant
dryness. The entire ‘Fauna of the United States’ are
of a somewhat facetious nature, such as the axehandle
hound – shaped like an axe, and which eats only
axes. But what Borges never does is pour contempt
on the fantastical – he knows its importance too well.
Borges knew that while the religions may be wrong
in their claim to give us morality, they and their myths
have more far more valid claim in giving us a sense
of wonder, helping the impossible peer in, making
life, rather than existence, possible. It is in no way a
betrayal of rationalism to find a sense of transcendent
mystery and awe in the Moslem Jinn (people
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