Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances Page 13

  XI

  Magic of the Apsarasas

  Now the tale tells how, to humor Alianora, Count Manuel applied himselfto the magic of the Apsarasas. He went with the Princess to a highsecret place, and Alianora, crying sweetly, in the famous old fashion,"Torolix, Ciccabau, Tio, Tio, Torolililix!" performed the properincantations, and forthwith birds came multitudinously from all quartersof the sky, in a descending flood of color and flapping and whistlingand screeching.

  The peacock screamed, "With what measure thou judgest others, thou shaltthyself be judged."

  Sang the nightingale, "Contentment is the greatest happiness."

  The turtle-dove called, "It were better for some created things thatthey had never been created."

  The peewit chirped, "He that hath no mercy for others, shall find nonefor himself."

  The stork said huskily, "The fashion of this world passeth away."

  And the wail of the eagle was, "Howsoever long life may be, yet itsinevitable term is death."

  "Now that is virtually what I said," declared the stork, "and you are abold-faced and bald-headed plagiarist."

  "And you," replied the eagle, clutching the stork's throat, "are a deadbird that will deliver no more babies."

  But Dom Manuel tugged at the eagle's wing, and asked him if he reallymeant that to hold good before this Court of the Birds. And when theinfuriated eagle opened his cruel beak, and held up one murderous claw,to make solemn oath that indeed he did mean it, and would show them too,the stork very intelligently flew away.

  "I shall not ever forget your kindness, Count Manuel," cried the stork,"and do you remember that the customary three wishes are always yoursfor the asking."

  "And I too am grateful," said the abashed eagle,--"yes, upon the whole,I am grateful, for if I had killed that long-legged pest it would havebeen in contempt of the court, and they would have set me to hatchingred cockatrices. Still, his reproach was not unfounded, and I must thinkup a new cry."

  So the eagle perched on a rock, and said tentatively, "There is such athing as being too proud to fight." He shook his bald head disgustedly,and tried, "The only enduring peace is a peace without victory," butthat did not seem to content him either. Afterward he cried out, "Allpersons who oppose me have pygmy minds," and "If everybody does not doexactly as I order, the heart of the world will be broken": and manyother foolish things he repeated, and shook his head over, for none ofthese axioms pleased the eagle, and he no longer admired the pedagoguewho had invented them.

  So in his worried quest for a saying sufficiently orotund andmeaningless to content his ethics, and to be hailed with convenience asa great moral principle, the eagle forgot all about Count Manuel: butthe stork did not forget, because in the eyes of the stork the life ofthe stork is valuable.

  The other birds uttered various such sentiments as have been recorded,and all these, they told Manuel, were accredited sorceries. The bigyellow-haired boy did not dispute it, he rarely disputed anything: butthe droop to that curious left eye of his was accentuated, and headmitted to Alianora that he wondered if such faint-hearted smug littletruths were indeed the height of wisdom, outside of religion and publicspeaking. Then he asked which was the wisest of the birds, and they toldhim the Zhar-Ptitza, whom others called the Fire-Bird.

  Manuel induced Alianora to summon the Zhar-Ptitza, who is the oldest andthe most learned of all living creatures, although he has thus farlearned nothing assuredly except that appearances have to be kept up.The Zhar-Ptitza came, crying wearily, "Fine feathers make fine birds."You heard him from afar.

  The Zhar-Ptitza himself had every reason to get comfort out of thisaxiom, for his plumage was everywhere the most brilliant purple, exceptthat his neck feathers were the color of new gold, and his tail was bluewith somewhat longer red feathers intermingled. His throat was wattledgorgeously, and his head was tufted, and he seemed a trifle larger thanthe eagle. The Fire-Bird brought with him his nest of cassia and sprigsof incense, and this he put down upon the lichened rocks, and he sat init while he talked with Manuel.

  The frivolous question that Manuel raised as to his clay figures, theZhar-Ptitza considered a very human bit of nonsense: and the wisecreature said he felt forced to point out that no intelligent bird wouldever dream of making images.

  HE WAS DRYING OUT IN THE SUN]

  "But, sir," said Manuel, "I do not wish to burden this world with anymore lifeless images. Instead, I wish to make in this world an animatedfigure, very much as, they say, a god did once upon a time--"

  "Come, you should not try to put too much responsibility upon Jahveh,"protested the Zhar-Ptitza, tolerantly, "for Jahveh made only one man,and did not ever do it again. I remember the making of that first manvery clearly, for I was created the morning before, with instructions tofly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven, so I saw the wholeaffair. Yes, Jahveh did create the first man on the sixth day. And Ivoiced no criticism. For of course after working continuously for nearlya whole week, and making so many really important things, no creativeartist should be blamed for not being in his happiest vein on the sixthday."

  "And did you happen to notice, sir," asks Manuel, hopefully, "by whatmethod animation was given to Adam?"

  "No, he was drying out in the sun when I first saw him, with Gabrielsitting at his feet, playing on a flageolet: and naturally I did not payany particular attention to such foolishness."

  "Well, well, I do not assert that the making of men is the highest formof art, yet, none the less, a geas is upon me to make myself a verysplendid and admirable young man."

  "But why should you be wasting your small portion of breath andstrength? To what permanent use could one put a human being even if thecreature were virtuous and handsome to look at? Ah, Manuel, you have notseen them pass, as I have seen them pass in swarms, with their wars andtheir reforms and their great causes, and leaving nothing but theirbones behind them."

  "Yes, yes, to you, at your age, who were old when Nineveh was planned,it must seem strange; and I do not know why my mother desired that Ishould make myself a splendid and admirable young man. But the geas isupon me."

  The Zhar-Ptitza sighed. "Certainly these feminine whims are not easilyexplained. Yet your people have some way of making brand-new men andwomen of all kinds. I am sure of this, for otherwise the race would havebeen extinct a great while since at the rate they kill one another. Andperhaps they do adhere to Jahveh's method, and make fresh human beingsout of earth, for, now I think of it, I have seen the small, recentlycompleted ones, who looked exactly like red clay."

  "It is undeniable that babies do have something of that look," assentedManuel. "So then, at least, you think I may be working in the propermedium?"

  "It seems plausible, because I am certain your people are notintelligent enough to lay eggs, nor could, of course, such an impatientrace succeed in getting eggs hatched. At all events, they haveundoubtedly contrived some method or other, and you might find out fromthe least foolish of them about that method."

  "Who, then, is the least foolish of mankind?"

  "Probably King Helmas of Albania, for it was prophesied by me a greatwhile ago that he would become the wisest of men if ever he could comeby one of my shining white feathers, and I hear it reported he has doneso."

  "Sir," said Manuel, dubiously, "I must tell you in confidence thatthe feather King Helmas has is not yours, but was plucked from the wingof an ordinary goose."

  "Does that matter?" asked the Zhar-Ptitza. "I never prophesied, ofcourse, that he actually would find one of my shining white feathers,because all my feathers are red and gold and purple."

  "But how can there be any magic in a goose-feather?"

  "There is this magic, that, possessing it, King Helmas has faith in, andhas stopped bothering about, himself."

  "Is not to bother about yourself the highest wisdom?"

  "Oh, no! Oh, dear me, no! I merely said it is the highest of which manis capable."

  "But the sages and philosophers, sir, that had such fame
in the oldtime, and made the maxims for you birds! Why, did King Solomon, forexample, rise no higher than that?"

  "Yes, yes, to be sure!" said the Zhar-Ptitza, sighing again, "now thatwas a sad error. The poor fellow was endowed with, just as anexperiment, considerable wisdom. And it caused him to perceive that aman attains to actual contentment only when he is drunk or when he isengaged in occupations not very decorously described. SoSulieman-ben-Daoud gave over all the rest of his time to riotous livingand to co-educational enterprises. It was logic, but it led to a mostexpensive seraglio and to a very unbecoming appearance, and virtuallywrecked the man's health. Yes, that was the upshot of one of you beingendowed with actual wisdom, just as an experiment, to see what wouldcome of it: so the experiment, of course, has never been repeated. Butof living persons, I dare assert that you will find King Helmasappreciably freed from a thousand general delusions by his one delusionabout himself."

  "Very well, then," says Manuel. "I suspect a wilful paradox and a forcedcynicism in much of what you have said, but I shall consult with KingHelmas about human life and about the figure I have to make in theworld."

  So they bid each other farewell, and the Zhar-Ptitza picked up his nestof cassia and sprigs of incense, and flew away with it: and as he rosein the air the Zhar-Ptitza cried, "Fine feathers make fine birds."

  "But that is not the true proverb, sir," Manuel called up toward theresplendent creature, "and such perversions too, they tell me, are amark of would-be cleverness."

  "So it may seem to you now, my lad, but time is a very transformingfairy. Therefore do you wait until you are older," the bird replied,from on high, "and then you will know better than to doubt my cry or torepeat it."