Joseph Shield Nicholson

“ Tell me, apart from these women, what thinkest thou of our people?"
"They are truly a wonderful race, and surpass dreams in their knowledge of arts and sciences."
"And, apart from the women, what sayest thou of the government?"
"The people seem happy and contented, and they appear to live in the utmost obedience to their rulers through mere love and respect—except these women."
"That," replied Thoth, "is the plain truth. There is no city under the sun in which the people are so happy, contented, and so easily governed—except these women. ”

“ Now thou canst understand why it was my fellows—who were also of the rulers, though inferior to me—treated thee and thy companions with such contempt, and also thou canst to some extent explain the mystery of the women whom I showed to thee. Thou seest only the will of the first Thoth manifested through his descendants. Two principles he has planted in all his people—perfect obedience to his vice-regent, for we say that our king is not dead but asleep, and love of knowledge and of toil. Thus in all and in us of the ruling race, our strongest passion is hatred and contempt for women. ”

“ Many Athenian youths had loved her, and some men of good standing, but none had touched her fancy. Like Aspasia, she had been carefully trained in poetry, rhetoric, and music, and she could converse with much acuteness and in a pleasing manner.
Now, when the plague had carried off her natural protectors and desolated the city, Daphne not only despaired in her heart of carrying out her idea in practice, but was afraid for her life, and at the least dreaded that her beauty would be marred or the sharpness of her mind blunted. ”

“ Why, if I love thee, should we not live here, and happily rule this city, regardless of the rest of the world? Why not leave thy dread ancestors to their sleep?"
She Spoke to him with a soft enticing voice, and looked up to him as to a superior.
"Daphne," replied Thoth, "I have already yielded to thee the utmost that my nature will permit. It is useless to ask more. For two thousand years my race have toiled incessantly to create a new world. They await their reward. If I raise them from their sleep, they will never consent to forego their plans. ”

“ Earth and air seemed full of life, and death seemed terrible. She recalled the wretched fate of the heroines of her native tragic poets. Before she had often wondered why they had not put a term to their sufferings by a moment's pain. She knew now.
It seemed to her a thing impossible in nature—deliberately to take one's life, even to avoid misery. She repented that she had not already done the deed when passion had given her courage. The point of the dagger seemed very cold and hard,—life seemed very sweet, and in the glaring sun the gloom of death seemed most black and dismal. ”

“ Then Thoth replied, "Hear me, oh king, with attention, and know that in one thing thy policy has utterly failed. The rest of thy people have become, from age, more vigorous and skilful, because their women have been treated with affection and honour. But thy royal race has dwindled. I am the son of a stranger woman, though my father was deceived and knew it not. That miserable being trembling there is thy true successor, according to thy laws of descent. Know that the degradation of women has failed, and thou must choose between love and death. ”

“ Thou hast seen for thyself how repugnant are women to our ruling class, and that it is their nature now to treat them with cruelty and contempt. Still, with us the task is not hopeless, and, indeed, is quite possible. For, in the first place, obedience to the vice-regent is by far the most powerful motive of conduct, and also, in every respect our higher ranks are slaves, not of any passion, but of pure reason. Therefore I could say to my fellows of royal blood—such and such are the reasons, and such is my will; and the obedience must follow as surely as day follows the rising sun. ”

“ Has thy hideous descent left in thee no trace of manly feeling, and no knowledge of the heart of a woman? I would rather see the whole world desolate than mingle my blood with thine!"
Thoth listened to her with undisguised astonishment, and replied to her quite calmly—
"But what more couldst thou desire? Thou shalt be treated by every one, from myself downwards, with the most obsequious honour, thou shalt be queen of the world, and the founder of the greatest race the earth has ever borne. ”

“ Must love such as ours await some ceremonial for its fulfilment? This is to me the beginning of life. Choose thou for us what form the marriage-rites shall take, for I, alas I know nothing."
At once the spell was broken, for Daphne remembered the horrible unions which the haters of women had hitherto made. She shrank from Thoth, and cried—
"Leave me! leave me! How can I forget that the women of thy race have been wooed with torture, and that thou thyself in all likelihood hast gone through rites of ingenious cruelty. I cannot believe in a future that rests on such a past." ”

“ He and his brethren also, at the appointed age, were clothed with the appearance of death, and a new vice-regent appointed. For one day in every generation our great father is roused from his sleep, to invest his vice-regent with authority. I myself was so invested; I myself have spoken face to face with this most ancient one. Never on this earth was any solemnity practised by man so calculated to ensure reverence and obedience. From the middle of the throng of death-like sleepers this man rises up, and in a short time feels again the full tide of life in his veins. ”

“ He proved to Daphne that life is not truly in the individual but in the race; his race was a giant whose nature had been distorted for a long period, and then suddenly had asserted its strength. The loveless lives of his predecessors had, by a necessary reaction, made him capable of an infinite depth of passion. Love, instead of being stamped out and crushed, as the first Thoth had supposed, had only been stored up from generation to generation. It was a transcendent passion, which did not obey the ordinary laws of life and descent. ”

“ Thou shalt be queen of the whole world, and the lives of the races of men shall be fashioned by thee. No goddess was ever fated to have such might as my love shall give thee for a dower."
Thoth seemed completely transformed, and his whole being was tremulous with passion. Daphne felt her power of resistance failing, as the strength of a mortal fails before the desire of some deity. Thoth became to her the perfect embodiment of manhood and of love. ”

“ Daphne asked.
"And then," he replied, "his vengeance will begin."
"Dost thou not think he will be convinced as thou wert?"
"I have made an irreparable error," said Thoth. "My ancestor is swayed by all the natural passions of man. He has slept unaffected by time. His first thought will be to give us over to the most cruel destruction. If thou still desirest to live a little longer, we must flee at once." ”

“ Scarcely had they passed through the gate when Daphne heard cries of alarm, apparently from women, and saw some figures vanish through the trees in a hurried, fearful manner. For the first time since she had come to the city she noticed signs of distrust and fear. Here, at any rate, Thoth's rule seemed to rest not on love but on tyranny.
Such was Daphne's first impression, for the women, if women they were, were plainly terror-stricken. ”

“ For a moment Daphne shuddered, but by an effort she recovered her composure, and said: "To avoid death by the pestilence, willingly, with my eyes open, I surrendered myself to thee, although I did not know even thy name. I look on myself as already in the under-world. Nothing now will terrify me, for thy vaunted oath I believe no longer."
The Egyptian replied, "The oath cannot be broken, and whatever I say to thee shall be free from deceit. ”

“ Then Thoth knew that the moment of trial had come, and he said with courage and simplicity, and speaking as if to an equal—
"These, oh king, are the best of thy race of my generation, and all are born of unions such as thou didst ordain. Know, also, that their children, are still more weak and feeble, and that thy royal race appears to be threatened with destruction."
The monarch grew pale with anger, and said—
"My rules have not been followed. Some traitor has been a victim to the guile of woman." ”

“ My city, with all its people and wealth and power, is buried in the sands of the desert—not a trace is left. There, in the depth of the sea, lies the last remnant of our skill. I stand before thee a nameless, powerless. ”

“ What is her trouble? I will run and send a message to our lord. Thoth is very wise and good,—he can put an end to any trouble."
"Alas!" said Daphne, "it is Thoth who is the cause of my distress."
"Ah!" said the pigmy, laughing, "that is what we sometimes think; but it is never right—our lord is very wise and good."
"But," said Daphne, "your troubles, little one, must be as small as your bodies, and this is a very different case."
"Nay," rejoined the girl, still laughing; "we, too, think our troubles very great and very new. But Thoth makes everything right. ”

“ The answer reminded Daphne of the speech of Thoth to the people of Athens, in which he told them that their indifference to the plague arose from familiarity.
The reminiscence of the untruth was vivid and unpleasant, and she said to Thoth: "Which word of thine am I to believe? This agrees not with thy saying in Athens."
He simply replied, "That was before my promise; but in reality both statements are true. We have had particular cases of diseases like the plague, but never throughout the whole population. Our wise men are great physicians—in time thou shalt know all." ”

“ And when she looked in his eyes, her courage was restored, and she said, "Tell me whither we are going, and how it is that the vessel moves without sail or oars. To me it seems like wicked magic."
"We are going," he replied, "to a country in which, if thou wilt, thou shalt be a great queen; and there is no magic, but simply human skill which moves the ship, though it would be tedious to explain the matter more fully."
Then Daphne mused for a time on the strangeness of her situation, and at length, after gazing fixedly at the Egyptian, she said, "Grant me one more promise." ”

“ Without exception they shuddered on the entry of the masks, and showed their terror in the most undisguised manner. Apparently Thoth tried to take away their fears, and to inform them that for the future they would live happily; but they listened with dull incredulity, and seemed quite hopeless.
In the whole of this vast building there was not a single creature who could have kindled a spark of love in the heart of the most impassioned of men.
Daphne was sickened by the spectacle, and oppressed with a heavy weight of sadness. ”

“ They looked back already with longing to the city, and with fear they saw the long shadows cast by the declining sun.
But Daphne was determined to complete the venture, and she prepared to give them the drug.
"This," said she, "is a charm against the plague."
"Perchance," whispered one of the maidens, "it is poisonous."
But Daphne replied, "Nay, that thought of thine is altogether foolish. Why should the men entice us away from the city simply to put us to death? Fear not,—I will begin." ”

“ In every case beautiful women were being treated in a degraded manner, and men of the same race as Thoth were depicted as treating them with absolute loathing and disgust.
Then in Daphne's breast fear gave way to anger and offended pride, and she said to Thoth—
"How dost thou dare to show such things to me? Is this thy respect and honour? Dost thou not know that man is raised above the beasts only by the reverence paid to women? I loathe thy city, thy race, and thee! Of what avail is all the miserable skill and cunning of thy slaves? ”

“ Daphne was, without question, by far the most beautiful woman of her time, and excited a most violent and extreme passion in some of the wisest and most celebrated Athenians, before the events occurred which I am about to record. And I do not think it at all incredible that a man, driven by the madness of his love for her, should be induced to sacrifice everything he held most dear. ”

“ Know that I have penetrated deeper than my ancestor into the mysteries of life and death, and thou and I can live in all the fulness of life for hundreds of years. Thus thou shalt be as a goddess ruling over the earth. ”

“ Even in this glaring sun the air seems laden with foreboding. If thou wouldst gain my love and confidence, clear away all these mysteries; for they seem to me in many respects contrary to nature, and certain in the end to bring down the wrath of the immortal gods. ”

“ Even in momentary repose they displayed a wonderful and mysterious depth of intelligence, but the rapid restless motion with which they generally absorbed every detail in the range of sight, revealed a marvellous power of observation and quickness of decision. Their glances seemed to penetrate the inmost recesses of the mind; and the Greek maiden knew at once that she had never seen such power in any countenance, and she felt at first sight the influence of a mighty will.
Daphne was in most respects in striking contrast to the Egyptian leader. ”

“ And often the daughters of our race have been chosen as queens, and till a little time ago everything went well with us. Then certain Greeks appeared, who aroused the envy of our king and his princes by telling of the glories of Athens, and praising, most of all, the beauty and the wit of the Athenian women, and they have sent us, not only to bring back a faithful report of the grandeur of your city, but they have ordered us to bring a number of your most beautiful and best educated maidens, to become wives of the king and his nobles. ”

“ We have long since learned that safety and power are not in multitudes, but in wisdom and skill. Our archers, few as they are, are equal almost to Apollo. Thou hast seen that we can ride through the air, and thou shalt learn that we can perform other wonders unknown to the rest of the world. ”

“ They passed into the building, at the gate of which a huge giantess of hideous aspect presented Thoth with a scroll, which seemed to be a carefully kept record.
They entered a large hall, and again Daphne saw the same horrible designs as before.
Thoth said to her, "These, too, shall be destroyed, but first we must look to the living."
At intervals along the hall Daphne served curtains, and stopping before one of them, Thoth drew it aside and revealed a small cell.
Crouching at the back, like a terrified animal, lay a woman, scantily clad in a tattered garment made of coarse hair. ”