The Temptation of St. Antony Part 28

_The Chimera_--"Do not address me, do not address me any more, since you remain forever silent!"

_The Sphinx_--"Cease casting your flames in my face and flinging your yells in my ears; you shall not melt my granite!"

_The Chimera_--"You will not get hold of me, terrible Sphinx!"

_The Sphinx_--"You are too foolish to live with me!"

_The Chimera_--"You are too clumsy to follow me!"

_The Sphinx_--"And where are you going that you run so quickly?"

_The Chimera_--"I gallop into the corridors of the labyrinth; I hover over the mountains; I skim along the waves; I yelp at the bottoms of precipices; I hang by my jaws on the skirts of the clouds. With my trailing tail I scratch the coasts, and the hills have taken their curb according to the form of my shoulders. But as for you, I find you perpetually motionless; or, rather, with the end of your claw tracing letters on the sand."

_The Sphinx_--"That is because I keep my secret! I reflect and I calculate. The sea returns to its bed; the blades of corn balance themselves in the wind; the caravans pa.s.s; the dust flies off; the cities crumble;--but my glance, which nothing can turn aside, remains concentrated on the objects which cover an inaccessible horizon."

_The Chimera_--"As for me, I am light and joyous! I discover in men dazzling perspectives, with Paradises in the clouds and distant felicities. I pour into their souls the eternal insanities, projects of happiness, plans for the future, dreams of glory, and oaths of love, as well as virtuous resolutions. I drive them on perilous voyages and on mighty enterprises. I have carved with my claws the marvels of architecture. It is I that hung the little bells on the tomb of Porsenna, and surrounded with a wall of Corinthian bra.s.s the quays of the Atlantides.

"I seek fresh perfumes, larger flowers, pleasures. .h.i.therto unknown. If anywhere I find a man whose soul reposes in wisdom, I fall upon him and strangle him."

_The Sphinx_--"All those whom the desire of G.o.d torments, I have devoured.

"The strongest, in order to climb to my royal forehead, mount upon the stripes of my fillets as on the steps of a staircase. Weariness takes possession of them, and they fall back of their own accord."

Antony begins to tremble. He is not before his cell, but in the desert, having at either side of him those two monstrous animals, whose jaws graze his shoulders.

_The Sphinx_--"O Fantasy, bear me on thy wings to enliven thy sadness!"

_The Chimera_--"O Unknown One, I am in love with thine eyes! I turn round thee, soliciting allayment of that which devours me!"

_The Sphinx_--"My feet cannot raise themselves. The lichen, like a ringworm, has grown over my mouth. By dint of thinking, I have no longer anything to say."

_The Chimera_--"You lie, hypocritical Sphinx! How is it that you are always addressing me and abjuring me?"

_The Sphinx_--"It is you, unmanageable caprice, who pa.s.s and whirl about."

_The Chimera_--"Is that my fault? Come, now, just let me be!"

It barks.

_The Sphinx_--"You move away; you avoid me!"

The Sphinx grumbles.

_The Chimera_--"Let us make the attempt! You crush me!"

_The Sphinx_--"No; impossible!"

And sinking, little by little, it disappears in the sand, while the Chimera, crawling, with its tongue out, departs with a winding movement.

The breath issuing from its mouth has produced a fog.

In this fog Antony traces ma.s.ses of clouds and imperfect curves.

Finally, he distinguishes what appear to be human bodies.

And first advances the group of Astomi, like air-b.a.l.l.s pa.s.sing across the sun.

"Don't puff too strongly! The drops of rain bruise us; the false sounds excoriate us; the darkness blinds us. Composed of breezes and of perfumes, we roll, we float--a little more than dreams, not entirely beings."

The Nisnas have but one eye, one cheek, one hand, one leg, half a body, and half a heart. And they say, in a very loud tone:

"We live quite at our ease in our halves of houses with our halves of wives and our halves of children."

_The Blemmyes_, absolutely bereft of heads--

"Our shoulders are the largest;--and there is not an ox, a rhinoceros, or an elephant that is capable of carrying what we carry.

"Arrows, and a sort of vague outline are imprinted on our b.r.e.a.s.t.s--that is all! We reduce digestion to thought; we subtilise secretions. For us G.o.d floats peacefully in the internal chyle.

"We proceed straight on our way, pa.s.sing through every mire, running along the verge of every abyss; and we are the most industrious, happy, and virtuous people."

_The Pygmies_--"Little good-fellows, we swarm over the world, like vermin on the hump of a dromedary.

"We are burnt, drowned, or run over; but we always reappear more full of life and more numerous--terrible from the mult.i.tude of us that exists!"

_The Sciapodes_--"Kept on the ground by our flowing locks, long as creeping plants, we vegetate under the shelter of our feet, which are as large as parasols; and the light reaches us through the s.p.a.ces between our wide heels. No disorder and no toil! To keep the head as low as possible--that is the secret of happiness!"

Their lifted thighs, resembling trunks of trees, increase in number. And now a forest appears in which huge apes rush along on four paws. They are men with dogs' heads.

_The Cynocephali_--"We leap from branch to branch to suck the eggs, and we pluck the little birds; then we put their nests upon our heads after the fashion of caps.

"We do not fail to s.n.a.t.c.h away the worst of the cows, and we destroy the lynxes' eyes. Tearing the flowers, crushing the fruits, agitating the springs, we are the masters--by the strength of our arms and the fierceness of our hearts.

"Be bold, comrades, and snap your jaws!"

Blood and milk flow from their lips. The rain streams over their hairy backs.

Antony inhales the freshness of green leaves which are agitated as the branches of the trees dash against each other. All at once appears a large black stag with a bull's head, carrying between his two ears a ma.s.s of white horns.

_The Sadhuzag_--"My seventy-four antlers are hollow like flutes. When I turn myself towards the south wind, sounds go forth from them that draw around me the ravished beasts. The serpents come winding to my feet; the wasps stick in my nostrils; and the parrots, the doves, and the ibises alight upon my branches. Listen!"

He bends back his horns, from which issues an unutterably sweet music.

Antony presses both his hands above his heart. It seems to him as if this melody were about to carry off his soul.

_The Sadhuzag_--"But, when I turn towards the north wind, my horns, more bushy than a battalion of spears, emit a howling noise. The forests thrill; the rivers swell; the husks of the fruit burst, and blades of gra.s.s stand erect like a coward's hair. Listen!"

He bows down his branches, from which now come forth discordant cries.

Antony feels as if he were torn asunder, and his horror is increased on seeing the Mantichor, a gigantic red lion with a human figure and three rows of teeth: