Frona Eunice Wait

“ Yermah lingered a moment over his task, and looked up at Kerœcia for approval.
“This curiously wrought band contains a magnet, and is intended for the little finger, the throne of Mercury, the wise one, who stands as an outer sentinel to guard and strengthen love,” he continued.
“The seat of will-power is in the thumb. Let this serpent of iron with an emerald eye bring to thee the warrior spirit of the planet Mars, subdued and sweetened by the quality of Venus. May the All-Seeing Eye supply thy inner vision, and may every craving of thy heart be satisfied.” ”

“ Marriage to thee is forbidden. Only the commonplace mortal is content to vegetate, procreate and perish.” Then after a pause, he added: “Thine is not only race condition, Yermah, but before thou wert born, the Brotherhood decreed it for thee.”
“Thou—thou durst tell this to me, the future Servitor of Atlantis and all her dependencies! Out upon thee and thy Brotherhood! I will not submit to thy decrees! Thou—thou hast made me believe in thy love. Is this the language of consideration? The Brotherhood demands all that I value in life! Thou sayest that I have not failed so far. ”

“ Kerœcia blushed and looked confused. Alcyesta and Mineola asked in a breath:
“Who are they?”
“Use thine eyes and find out,” replied Ildiko. “We have only one marking of the sun-dial for beauty sleep. Then we must array ourselves becomingly for the sake of Orondo, Alcamayn, Hanabusa and Ben Hu Barabe who arrive at the dinner hour.”
The high-priestess had arisen in the meantime.
“Not a wink of sleep to put a little rose in thy cheeks and add diamond sparkles to thine eyes?” chattered Ildiko. ”

“ Yermah raised his head and gazed with streaming eyes at an apparition of Kerœcia, as he had last seen her in life, standing in the eastern entrance.
“She smiles and beckons me!” he said, in an awe-struck whisper. “Oh! my soul, why hast thou forsaken me? Why should death touch thee, if I must live?”
“Death claimed nothing but the physical body,” said Akaza, softly. “She feels not its loss. Look at her serene countenance. Wouldst thou spare her pain?” ”

“ Yermah dared not trust himself to look back, while Kerœcia groped her way into the house and hid in her own room, safe from human eye.
“Men kiss like women,” she murmured naïvely, and in a surprised tone. “Their lips are the same, but—” Then she buried her face in her hands while a hot blush burned its way to the roots of her hair. Her cheeks still tingled with the light sweep of mustache and beard, and she fell to wondering if she could see the kiss as plainly as she still felt it. Those dear arms! How strong and masterful their protecting enfoldment!... ”

“ The tired and thirsty party halted at the Guajara Springs near the spectral Lunar Rocks of the Cañadas, standing like white teeth newly cast from a granite mouth opened wide enough to admit a tongue of lava thousands of feet higher in air.
These grayish white spikes line the “Road of the Guanche Kings” where the crater of elevation sticks out its ragged and torn lips, eternal witnesses to one of nature’s most stupendous debauches.
Yermah groaned in spirit as he looked across the dreary waste, and he mourned unfeignedly for his lost people. ”

“ Then the bride would enter Iaqua in state, and the matrimonial coronation would take place.
“Impatience lends wings to my desire, Ildiko,” whispered Orondo. “I long for thee incessantly. Come quickly.”
“Only this poor body is absent from thy side, Orondo. Thy wish is but an echo of my thought.”
“From meridian to sunset is a lifetime in the history of love,” said Orondo, as he glanced at the unclouded sky overhead. “Oh, misery! that I must leave thee!”
“Thou art a flattering and indulgent husband,” responded Ildiko, smiling up into his face affectionately. ”

“ With girlish eagerness and gratified pride, Kerœcia sat down so intent upon a display of dexterity and skill that she was unconscious of the fact that her soft clinging skirts were tightly drawn over one leg the entire length, and high enough to reveal the ankle and instep to good advantage. With the other 250foot she set the treadle going, and soon her shapely arms were following the flying shuttle. The well-poised head, the long, slender throat, and the regular rise and fall of a perfect bosom helped to complete the poetry of her motions, and Yermah feasted his eyes while she worked. ”

“ In their wake are the forerunners of the men and women who will make California [29] a great center of occult knowledge—the alchemical gold, corresponding to her mineral wealth.
“The land! The land! O my beloved country! How art thou humbled by misfortune! I know not thy desolate bosom!” cried Yermah, springing ashore upon the island of Teneriffe, the mountain peak of Poseidon’s kingdom, his lost Atlantis.
“I kiss thy blackened and charred face! Thou mother of the white race! Thou source of all learning! Grant that thy dependencies may not forget and deny thee!” ”

“ The gnomes, salamanders, sylphs, and undines of fairyland, peeping out from each leaf and fragrant bloom, never beheld a lovelier vision than that of Kerœcia and Ildiko, as they stood facing each other.
Kerœcia’s long, wavy bronze-red hair was confined by a jeweled band, with three white ostrich tips in the center. She was gowned in simple white, long and flowing. Around her neck were seven strands of pearls fastened to a medallion composed of ruby, topaz, emerald, sapphire, amber, amethyst and turquoise. Encircling her slender waist was an enameled and jeweled girdle. ”

“ In quick and ready sympathy; in alertness to see; in watchfulness to note the needs of the hour; in the constant, instinctive attitude of mind which spontaneously saw and felt every opportunity to give—whether it were service or sympathy, silence or speech, presence or absence—in short every attribute of character defining utter selflessness, rounded and molded the strong individuality of YERMAH, THE DORADO.
When the recluse began to mingle freely with the Brotherhood, he was quickly made aware of all that was transpiring, not only in the pueblo of Cholula, but also among outside colonies. ”

“ He escaped into the tower of refuge—a low semi-circle in front of the pavilion—taking his captive with him.
When Yermah rode out to receive the yew wreath and red ribbon of valor, there was not an arrow in his armor nor a dent in his shield. He had escaped without a single scratch.
While his name was on every one’s lips, he modestly sought Kerœcia. There were tears in her eyes, which welled over on the two bright red spots on either cheek, as she turned to greet him. Her lips trembled, but she smiled while giving him her hand. He sat down beside her almost equally overcome. ”

“ The diamond blazes like the sun in a 263clear sky,” answered Suravia, pointing to the blue square.
“I have only eyes for this beautiful hyacinth in the opposite clasp. It looks as if smoke were rising from it. Now it glows like a burning coal,” cried Mineola.
“Cut deep in its smooth surface is a woman with her arms asunder, like a cross, and having a triangle on her head,” commented Kerœcia.
“The stone is in the house of the Lamb, the beginning and renewal time of Nature. Therefore, art thou given refreshing sleep and quick recovery from fatigue,” returned Mineola. ”

“ At their feet lay the Pyramid of Cholula, reposing in denuded gardens in the once fairest portion of the plateau of Puebla.
“Thou seest but a remnant of former glory,” said Gautama. “We, too, have bowed to the chastening rod. Only such as climbed the long flight of steps to the top of the pillar escaped destruction. Thou, too, art able to bear witness?”
It was like probing an old wound, but Yermah answered bravely:
“The lash found my tender parts, but I am learning to be content.” ”

“ Yermah, too, had passed a sleepless night. He spent the day on the water, floating and drifting with the ebb and flow of the tide, struggling to reconcile himself with the conditions confronting him. At night he came back to Iaqua, but purposely avoided meeting Orondo. Love made him humble, and he did not for a moment doubt the result of Orondo’s wooing. He knew that his countryman was a lovable man, and he could not find it in his heart to blame Kerœcia for accepting him. No—Orondo had asked his consent and blessing; he must be willing to give it with all his heart. ”

“ Yermah flushed with pleasure and answered readily:
“Love, as the negative, or feminine, ray of Biune Deity is content and ever seeks to enfold. Wisdom, as the positive, or masculine, ray, is restless, and always in pursuit. The feminine forces in nature strive to encircle the atom, while the masculine attempt to propel it in a straight line. From this dual action of spiritual potentialities is born the spiral—the symbol of eternal progression. Man’s will is electric, penetrating and disruptive. The will of woman is magnetic, attractive and formative. ”

“ During the eloquent silence each had knowledge that the other had set up a shrine in the holy of holies of their being which none of the trials of after-life would desecrate, nor would either ever be capable of violating its sanctity.
In this expression of love was that perfect blending of ideality and desire which is the very essence of marriage. It is the molding and cementing influences which, in fortunate cases, so dominates such intimate and close association that in old age they look, speak and act alike. Nor does death finally take one and leave the other. ”

“ Pennants of the priesthood, of the civic federation, and of the innumerable clans, were everywhere afloat on the breeze, while Iaqua was a mass of Monbas streamers, banners and flags. All of the balsas flew the colors of the high-priestess, and there was a splendid escort pageant along the canal.
When Kerœcia approached the landing, long lines of citizens extended from Iaqua to the water’s edge. As Yermah led the way in a state chariot, a deafening shout arose. The wheels fairly flew over the causeway as the thoroughbred horses galloped in even step under Yermah’s steady hand. ”

“ Fidelity in every engagement—”
“Where seest thou this?” asked Suravia, looking intently, but unable to distinguish so much.
“I know not,” answered Kerœcia. “The divine gift of song is also here, with a low sweet voice and love of home for my portion.”
“Seest thou this flying eagle with an arrow in its claws?” asked Mineola, pointing to the green jade intaglio, on a square at the top.
“His thought is always of me,” murmured Kerœcia. “See how perfect the polish and how exquisite the cutting.” ”

“ The trees giving shelter to Yermah defied the Ice Age and escaped destruction in the flood. There are giants in Mariposa Grove to-day contemporaneous with the Star of Bethlehem and the departing grandeur of Egypt. The green spires of this living forest, three hundred feet high, filter the air through innumerable branches, making one shiver at their mysterious whistle, like the rustling silk robes of an unseen company.
The mystic and appalling are there as well. How often in active life the specter stands among men and trees! ”

“ By a nod he beckoned to the warrior-priests waiting, to bring forward a palanquin, which they had gone into the temple to procure. Gently as a woman could have done, he seated the Dorado and motioned the attendants to go on.
Yermah’s look of gratitude made his strong chin tremble, and brought the old haunted expression back to his face. A cold, clammy perspiration stood out on Yermah’s lips and brow as he sank back utterly exhausted. When he closed his eyes, Orondo said to himself: “He will never be paler in death. Poor heart-broken soul!” ”

“ She had solved the mystery and knew the truth.
For such love there is neither time nor death nor space.
Akaza stole away in the dim light, murmuring softly:
“Although a separate entity, she personates the feminine principle dormant in himself. This is what the ideal always does. Through this he will learn to harmonize desire and knowledge, and in time he will see that the grinding out of animal propensities, represented by the ringed planet, has come to him in a form more beautiful than a poet’s dream. Kerœcia is the disillusionizer, the dweller on the threshold, the chastening rod. ”

“ Saturn will exterminate him, as the desire for sensuous beauty is destroyed by initiation. Over the generative organs is the sign Mercury and a figure nine, with Rahula’s name, as thou seest. She is my antipode,” said Akaza. “She is knowledge inverted, and what she bequeaths to men will prove fatal to them.”
“Atlantis is under the feet, marked number ten, with our beloved trident, and the cross and circle of love,” exclaimed the younger man with enthusiasm. ”

“ Our priestesses may marry if someone asks them, but they cannot help themselves. Oh, that I were a Monbas high-priestess!”
“What wouldst thou do?” asked Kerœcia, with a smile, while Alcyesta did not seem to breathe.
“I would propose to thy Chancellor, Ben Hu Barabe,” she averred.
“Ben Hu Barabe is already betrothed,” replied Kerœcia. “He will espouse my beloved Alcyesta, when we return home.”
“How fortunate thou art!” said Ildiko to Alcyesta, but slightly abashed. “I can always marry Alcamayn. I should be puzzled to know what to do in thy case,” she continued, addressing Kerœcia. ”

“ From his breast Yermah drew the locket containing Kerœcia’s ring. Taking Alcyesta’s hand, he silently slipped it on her finger, while unchecked tears coursed down her cheeks.
Turning to Ildiko, he handed her the locket. Facing them all, he said:
“Be of good cheer! A long era of peace and prosperity is for thee and thine. Thou art saved from the floods for a divine purpose. Let this knowledge be thy secret refuge, lest thou be tempted to depart from the way.” ”