Ancient Manners; Also Known As Aphrodite Part 21

She sat up and seemed as if waiting. But Demetrios remained impa.s.sive, and did not move a muscle, as if he had not heard her. She resumed angrily:

"You have not understood?"

He leaned carelessly upon his elbow and said quietly and unmovedly:

"I have thought of a tale.

"Long ago, long before the conquest of Thrace by your father's ancestors, it was inhabited by wild beasts and a few timorous men.

"The animals were very beautiful: there were lions tawny as the sun, tigers striped like the evening, and bears black as night.

"The men were little and flat-nosed, covered with old, worn skins, armed with rude lances and bows without beauty. They shut themselves up in mountain holes, behind huge stones which they moved with difficulty.

They pa.s.sed their lives at the chase. There was blood in the forests.

"The country was so forlorn that the G.o.ds had deserted it. When Artemis left Olympus in the whiteness of the morning, she never took the path which would have led her to the North. The wars which were waged there did not disturb Ares. The absence of pipes and flutes repelled Apollo.

The triple Hecate alone shone in solitude, like the face of a Medusa upon a petrified land.

"Now, there came to live in that country a man of more favoured race, one who did not dress in skin like the mountain savages.

"He wore a long white robe which trailed behind him a little. He loved to wander at night in the calm forest-glades by the light of the moon, holding in his hand a little tortoise-sh.e.l.l in which were fixed two auroch-horns. Between these horns were stretched three silver strings.

"When his fingers touched the strings, delicious music pa.s.sed over them, much sweeter than the sound of fountains, or the murmur of the wind in the trees, or the swaying of the barley. The first time he played, three sleepy tigers awoke, so prodigiously charmed that they did him no harm, but approached as near as they could and retired when he ceased. On the morrow there were many more, and wolves also, and hyenas, and snakes poised upright on their tails.

"After a very short time the animals came of their own accord, and begged him to play to them. A bear would often come quite alone to him and go away enchanted on hearing three marvellous chords. In return for his favours, the wild beasts provided him with food and protected him against the men.

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"But he tired of this tedious life. He became so certain of his genius, and of the pleasure he afforded to the beasts, that he ceased to care to play well. The animals were always satisfied, so long as it was he who played. Soon he refused even to give them this satisfaction, and stopped playing altogether, from indifference. The whole forest mourned, but for all that the musician's threshold did not lack savoury meats and fruits.

They continued to nourish him, and loved him all the more. The hearts of beasts are so constructed.

"Now one day, he was leaning against his open door, looking at the sunset behind the motionless trees, when a lioness happened to pa.s.s by.

He took a step inside as if he feared tiresome solicitations. The lioness did not trouble about him, and simply pa.s.sed by.

"Then he asked her in astonishment; 'Why do you not beg me to play?' She answered that she cared nothing about it. He said to her: 'Do you not know me?' She answered: 'You are Orpheus.' He answered: 'And you don't want to hear Me?' She repeated, 'No.' 'Oh!' he cried, 'oh! how I am to be pitied! It is just for you that I should have liked to play. You are much more beautiful than the others, and you must understand so much better. If you will listen to me one little hour, I will give you everything you can dream of.' She answered: 'Steal the fresh meats that belong to the men of the plain. a.s.sa.s.sinate the first person you meet.

Take the victims they have offered to your G.o.ds, and lay all at my feet.' He thanked her for the moderation of her demands, and did what she required.

"For one hour he played before her: but afterwards he broke his lyre and lived as if he were dead."

The queen sighed:

"I never understand allegories. Explain it to me, Well-beloved. What does it mean?"

He rose.

"I do not tell you this in order that you may understand. I have told you a tale to calm you a little. It is late. Good-bye, Berenice."

She began to weep.

"I was sure of it! I was sure of it!"

He laid her like a child upon her soft bed of luxurious stuffs, imprinted a smiling kiss upon her unhappy eyes, and tranquilly descended from the great litter without stopping it.

Book III

I

THE ARRIVAL

Bacchis had been a courtesan for more than twenty-five years. That is equivalent to saying that she was nearly forty, and that her beauty had changed its character several times.

Her mother, who had long been the directress of the house and her general adviser, had given her principles of conduct and economy which had enabled her gradually to acquire a great fortune, which she was in a position to spend freely, at an age when the magnificence of the bed supplies the place of physical splendour.

Thus it was that instead of buying adult slaves at the market at a high rate, an expense which so many others considered necessary, and which ruined the young courtesans, she had been content for ten years with a single negress, and had provided for the future by making her beget a child every year, in order to create for herself, for nothing, a numerous staff of domestics who should be a source of riches later on.

As she had chosen the father with care, seven very beautiful mulatto girls had been born of her slave, and also three boys whom she had killed, because male slaves give useless suspicions to jealous lovers.

She had named the seven daughters after the seven planets, and had chosen them diverse functions, in harmony, as far as possible, with the names they bore. Heliope was the slave for the day-time, Selene for the night, Aretias guarded the door, Aphrodisia tended the bed, Hermione did the buying, and Cronomagira, the cooking. Finally, Diomeda, the housekeeper, kept the books and superintended the staff.

Aphrodisia was the favourite slave, the prettiest and best-loved. She often shared her mistress's bed at the request of lovers who took a fancy to her. Consequently, she was dispensed from all servile work in order that her arms might be kept delicate and her hands soft. By an exceptional favour, her hair was not covered, so that she was often taken for a free woman, and that very night she was to be freed in reality at the enormous price of thirty-five minae.

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Bacchis's seven slaves, all tall and admirably trained, were such a source of pride to her that she never went out without having them in her train, at the risk of leaving her house empty. Thanks to this imprudence, Demetrios had been able to enter her house without difficulty; but when she gave the festival to which Chrysis was invited she was still in ignorance of the calamity.

That evening Chrysis was the first arrival.

She was dressed in a green robe worked with enormous rose-branches which flowered over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Aretias opened the door for her without her having to knock, and, according to the Greek custom, took her aside into a little room, untied her red shoes, and gently washed her naked feet. Then, raising the robe, or parting it, according to the place, she perfumed wherever there was necessity for it: for the guests were spared every kind of trouble, even that of making their toilette before going in to dinner. Then she offered a comb and pins to restore the lines of her head-dress, together with cosmetics, both dry and moist, for her lips and cheeks.

At last, when Chrysis was ready:

"Where are the _shades_?" she said to the slave.

This was the term applied to all the diners, except to one alone, the guest par excellence. The guest in honour of whom the dinner was given brought whomsoever he pleased with him, and the "shades" had nothing to do but to bring their bed-cushions and prove themselves people of breeding.

Aretias answered: