Mór Jókai

“ The people fly in terror to Triton, the chief of all their idols.
All around lay the rubbish of the eight walls of the temple; the silver effigy of the god had been cast down and lay with its face to the earth. But the living idol sat on its throne as immovable as ever, only the large, cruel eyes seemed to roll in their sockets as if wondering why the light of day had been withheld from them so long.
The people threw themselves at the feet of the monster, and, folding their hands over their heads, cried and howled: "Help us, O Triton!" ”

“ Let every one sing who can. If the sun will not shine, the torches shall burn all the brighter. If clouds float along the streets, the wine bowl within will be all the more comforting. If life is to be short, let us make the most of it; if death be at hand, may he find every cup of joy and pleasure already drained to the dregs."
These thoughts were rampant in every breast, and no one came to the five men beneath the olive tree to beg for God's mercy.
Sadly Bar Noemi watched the frenzy of the devoted people, till, in the bitterness of his heart, he uttered another and still more grievous curse. ”

“ With tearful eyes, the old man replied: "What thou, O youth, hast just told me, convinces me that the time is at hand when the Lord will separate the righteous from the wicked, and judge this evil world; when millions will vanish from the face of the earth, and the earth herself will open her mouth and swallow them up because she can endure no longer the sins of mankind."
And the old man bitterly bewailed the doomed continent.
Bar Noemi dried the old man's tears and raised him from the ground.
"Weep not!" said he, "the Lord is not a man that His wrath should not be appeased. ”

“ This is surely the spot whither God brought Adam out of Paradise, blessed him, and said: "Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy countenance!" The wise men of old were in error when they called this a curse, for labour is a blessing, and the sweat-drops on the brow are the noblest jewels of him who was created after God's own image.
Rock succeeded rock. Bar Noemi and Byssenia mounted higher and higher, and the exhilaration with which they breathed the invigorating air made them feel as if they were nearer heaven already. ”

“ The old young man looked at him with consternation.
"Oh, stranger, guard thy lips, and speak not so, for that which thou callest a beast is a god!"
"What!" cried Bar Noemi, wrathfully, "that bellowing monster, with divided hoofs, blotched and cracked hide and loathsome body, a god!"
[Pg 177] "Yea, in very truth," answered the man, in a tone of awe and reverence. "Every city here has a living god whom all the people serve in turn—I to-day, another to-morrow. Each one of them has as many priests as there are days in the year. ”

“ In society I am alone with the servants. At table I sit beside a big dog. I am the sport of the court fool. If they think of me at all it is only to laugh at me. They promise me the daughter of a Samoyede chief to wife. Pretty girls put out their tongues at me when I ask them for a dance. And why? Because my name is Heinrich Klausner, and by profession I am only a doctor. Casimir every one kisses and embraces and exalts. Casimir's health is drunk. Casimir carries the national standard. The dignity of Starosta will one day be Casimir's. Casimir opens the ball. Casimir may do anything. ”

“ Amazed and anxious, the bewildered crew looked up into the unknown heaven which thus disturbed all their calculations, and turning to Bar Noemi, inquired timidly—
"Sir! where are we?"
Bar Noemi himself, not without secret horror, examined these stars of another world, and answered with a sigh—
"We are in God's hand!"
"We are beyond the limits of the world!" cried a despairing voice; "we are gliding into Nothingness!" Another maintained that they were approaching the land of the great Rok-rok, the home of serpents and amphibians, where beasts hunt men as men hunt beasts elsewhere. ”

“ Shame and wrath made white the features of all who heard him. Everywhere else, red is the colour of shame and wrath, but here, in Triton's City, it was white. For Bar Noemi had spoken the truth, in the whole of that great city, in the city of delight, not a man was to be found who dared to raise his hand against the stranger! And there he stood on the daïs, with a terrible countenance, and his naked sword in his hand, like an avenging angel who had come not to fight with men, but to chastise them. ”

“ The morning twilight suffuses heaven and ocean with gold and purple, and, lo! where the gilded sky touches the water, a lofty rock stands out against the [Pg 169] horizon, its bepurpled summits shimmering through the azure morning mists.
"The Lord He is God alone!" exclaims Bar Noemi, and raised thankful hands to heaven, while Byssenia sank down before the Ark of the Covenant, and covered its silver-studded corners and angles with her kisses.
A new world? No! It is an old world already hastening to the end of its history, just as the history of the known world has begun to take notice of it. ”

“ The lofty pointed windows perpetuated, in masterpieces of coloured glass, all manner of ancient Polish legends. The long table was crowded with artistic plate and drinking vessels of chased gold and silver, with confect-holders mimicing the figures of giraffes and elephants. In the midst was a large fountain, at the foot of which enamelled dolphins cast lavender-water high up in the air; and the enchanting spectacle was but enhanced by the costumes of a whole army of guests and the splendour of their weapons. Heinrich hardly recognized his dear friend Casimir. ”

“ In the days of Sultan Soliman the Magnificent there lived at Stambul a rich merchant whose name was Muhzin, who traded in jewels and precious stones. This man had a dear consort—Eminha—whom he loved better than all his precious stones, whose red lips he prized beyond the brightness of his rubies, the sparkle of whose eyes excelled the brilliance of his diamonds, and the speech of whose lips was like a silver bell. He would not have bartered those eyes and those lips for all the treasures of the world. ”

“ They protected themselves against the cold with fur pelisses; they built them transparent palaces of ice, made monuments of the snow, and laughed at the wrath of heaven.
At a sign from Bar Noemi the third plague also came to an end. The sun again appeared in his strength; ice and snow melted away; the earth grew green once more.
And even this third plague did not make the people amend. They laughed already at the five youths, and Bar Noemi was challenged to do fresh wonders in order to break the dull monotony, the sluggish slowness of existence. ”

“ On the summit of the temple is a huge idol of massive silver. The head is round, like a man's, and its hands and feet have each five digits; but the long, squirrel-like tail behind seems [Pg 181] to deny its human origin. Diamonds as large as eggs supply the place of eyes. This is the giant Triton, the supremest idol of that ancient continent, exalted above all the other monsters whom men adore—a millennial monster whose living original sits within the walls of that temple, and utters a roar when it is hungry, and then the whole city—the whole land—trembles before its wrath. ”

“ Yet the gods of Tyre and Sidon were ever so much more agreeable. They suffered the altar of Love to stand in their temples. Anybody was free to offer thereon doves or goats, according as his love was chaste or unchaste. No one was taken to task for the sins of love; on the contrary, mortals were initiated into mysteries which taught them how to approach, through insensible gradations of delight, the heaven of bliss—or hopeless damnation.
Bar Noemi neither visited Astarte's temple, nor allowed himself to be initiated into her magical mysteries. ”

“ The exertion of feeding the monster gradually drove the fumes of the liquor out of the man's head. After a while, the megatherium stretched itself in the grass and went to sleep, whereupon the man, now sober, came back, showing the same pale and trembling countenance as before—in fact, his labour had so exhausted him that he was almost in a state of collapse, and in a faint voice he begged Bar Noemi to lend him his arm and help him on his way to the city where he would entertain them as his guests. ”

“ And with that, amidst the scorn and derision of the daughters of Triton's city, they cast the perverse wretch out of that gate which leads to the snowy mountains, and curse him that he may never return again. Generally, however, some one human being is found to accompany the exile; some one girl, more gentle and modest than the rest, who would fain hide with her luxuriant tresses the charms which her gossamer garments so ill-conceal, who, laying her hands on the shoulders of the vagabond, follows him out of the city of bliss into the cold and mysterious world beyond. ”

“ This roar brought the islander back to his senses. He quickly shut up his drinking-flask and tottered back to the monster, which opened wide its jaws while he was still a long way off, showed its large black fangs, and patiently awaited the great cocoanuts which the man, collecting from the earth, hurled into its jaws.
Byssenia would have fled from the uncanny sight, but Bar Noemi encouraged her to await the end of the scene. "The fellow is disgusting when drunk," said he, "but there is no cause for alarm; perhaps he will listen to reason when he is sober." ”

“ Bar Noemi felt compassion for the desolated land, and turning the palm of his hand heavenwards, he softly breathed thereon, and at the same instant a strong west wind arose, which swept the countless millions of the locusts into the sea, where they perished miserably, while a mighty frost slew the caterpillars so that not one remained alive. Trees and shrubs sprouted forth anew, and, after the first plague had been turned away, the first terror disappeared from the hearts of men. ”

“ At the opposite end of the world, in the warm south-west, where the gaze of the dreamer loses itself in the endless blue mirror of ocean, the poet pictured to himself that happier world which sprang from the rapturous embrace of heaven and earth; a world where the air is balmier, where love is sweeter, where man is more valiant and woman more faithful; where the light knows no shadow, joy no grief, and the flower no fading; where everything—herbs, trees, and the hearts of men—rejoices in an eternal youth. ”

“ On the becalmed ocean lies the forsaken ship, without sails, without helm, drawn to one side by its own weight, not a single black point of land, not a single white sail anywhere visible along the vast horizon. And in the midst of this desolation stands Bar Noemi and his doomed crew. But Bar Noemi has said that even in this desolation dwells the Lord God, who rules over the heavens and the waters. ”