Netta Syrett

“ SECOND WONDER
THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON
All the rest of that day Rachel went about feeling excited and happy. It was not till next morning when she woke that doubt crept into her mind. Could she really have been to Egypt and seen the great Pyramid of Cheops before it was quite finished? Surely, she couldn’t really have talked to Sheshà, the priest of that ancient king! It must, of course, have been a dream. Yet how had she managed to go to sleep in the British Museum? ”

“ All at once Dinocrates was filled with rage. Was it for this terrible creature he had built a temple that was one of the Wonders of the World? No, a thousand times no! The likeness of the goddess he worshipped was the lovely little statue hidden in the folds of his cloak.
“He longed to overthrow the hideous black figure which stood in her rightful place. Yet he knew that to be impossible. It would take the strength of many men to throw down an idol so huge and massive. Suddenly an idea came. He could not shatter, but he might burn the image! ”

“ How did it happen that she was standing upright, gazing about her, in what seemed a vast hall filled with moonlight and shadows and dim forms?
She heard a voice—Diana’s voice, surely!
“Where are we? I can’t understand anything. Can you?”
Rubbing her eyes, Rachel looked again. Yes! Diana was beside her. She too was in her nightgown, and they were both standing on the pavement of some huge room which stretched away right and left into darkness. It certainly ought to have been frightening to find oneself all at once in an unknown place surrounded by mysterious shapes, in the middle of the night. ”

“ Look!! We’re quite close to the land!” cried Rachel, pointing to where rocky mountains stood up against the sky. “Oh, Diana, isn’t it beautiful?”
By this time they were hovering above a white-roofed city, curving round a beautiful blue bay.
“Where are we?” begged Rachel, leaning forward to speak to their flying steed, who was now moving slowly.
“This land, O child, is Asia Minor, and the part of it you now see was called long ago, when I was young, Caria. The city just below us is Halicarnassus.”
“Then the sea is the Mediterranean, I suppose?” said Rachel. “And we are not so far from Rhodes?” ”

“ If she had not known this, the whole place would have seemed to Rachel as though blossoming by magic in the heart of a forest growing in mid-air. She could scarcely believe it was not the work of some magician.
By the time they reached the uppermost terrace, on a level with the city wall, she was not only breathless, but struck dumb by the beauty and wonder of everything round her.
Mighty cedar trees spread their layers of branches between her and the burning blue sky. The air was perfumed with the scent from groves of lemon trees. Fountains tossed their sparkling drops high into the sunshine. ”

“ After such a procession of camels and their drivers, would come perhaps a chariot with four horses abreast, driven by a fierce-looking man in a gorgeous fringed robe, whose dark eyes flashed like jewels in his bronzed face. Following one such chariot, she saw a group of girls in gauzy tunics, bracelets on their arms, tinkling anklets above their feet, dancing as they came, and singing a wild song as they tossed their arms above their heads.
“They are going to the Temple of Belus,” explained Salome, as Rachel stood still to look at them. ”

“ There great men have lived and died, and been forgotten, even as Sostratus, despite this inscription made in vanity, is forgotten. But Alexandria still lives, though the Pharos Tower, the Wonder of the World, is no more. And there, to-day, men who have fought in this last great war are planning to dig for buried treasures under modern houses and squares. Time goes on and men are forgotten, but the work of their brains lasts longer, and sometimes bears fruit centuries after they themselves have departed.... Here, for instance, we stand in this modern lighthouse.... ”

“ Sheshà shook his head. “Alexander is as yet unborn. The games you will behold to-day are full a hundred years before his time. Greece, though declining from the height of her glory, is still free.”
“Oh, look! There’s quite a little boy here,” cried Diana, who was carefully examining the statues. “Anyhow, he doesn’t look any older than Agis. But he must have won a prize, I suppose, or his statue wouldn’t be here?”
“It has sometimes happened that young children have been victors,” said Sheshà. “That child was one of them.”
Rachel and Diana gazed admiringly at the slim graceful figure of the boy. ”

“ Please read what that man has just finished carving,” begged Rachel, pointing to a youth who was working at the base of the Pyramid. “What do those signs mean?”
“They record,” said Sheshà, glancing at them, “that a hundred thousand men were always kept working upon this tomb. These slaves that you behold are the last hundred thousand, for as you see the Pyramid is nearly built. But for twenty years previous to this moment of Past time, every day, a hundred thousand men have been working in the same way as these poor slaves before your eyes.” ”

“ There was only the moonlight on the grass, and the shadows, and silence.
“‘The goddess herself takes possession of her temple,’ thought Dinocrates. ‘And mortals cannot see the gods and live.’
“He felt so happy, and yet so tired, that he sank down before the temple to rest, and the glade was all full of sunshine before the people who had come to look for him found him lying there, and saw that he was dead....”
“Oh,” whispered Diana after a moment, “that’s an awfully sad story.”
“No,” said Rachel’s voice on the other side of Mr. Sheston’s arm-chair. “Not really. Because he came back again. ”

“ Sheston can make them last—if they are dreams!” Rachel declared. “I have to call him ‘Mr. Sheston’ here,” she added. “But he’s really Sheshà and Cleon, and I expect ever so many other people as well. And yet all the same person, you understand. In this life he just happens to be Mr. Sheston, that’s all.”
“Oh, I do wish I could see him,” sighed Diana.
She had scarcely spoken before her wish was granted, for at the last word the door opened, and Mr. Sheston came in.
Rachel gave a shriek of delight, and seizing Diana’s hand, dragged her to meet him. ”

“ The long line of quays formed a white, glittering fringe on either side of the river. In the gardens and open courtyards between the houses the palms and cedar trees and masses of flowers shone like coloured fire, and the great temple of Belus towering towards the sky, with its seven storeys of seven colours, might have been the enchanted palace of a magician. Rachel gazed and gazed as though she wanted to fix the vision of so much loveliness upon her mind for ever. ”

“ Twice, three times as big,” cried Rachel, as she saw the clustering houses and let her eyes wander over the new domes and colonnades, courtyards and gardens visible on the other side of the harbour.
“A hundred years have passed between the opening and shutting of your eyes,” said the voice of Dinocrates. “The city founded by Alexander and built by me has had time to grow and to become one of the most famous homes of learning in the world. ”

“ There, towering upwards to the height of sixty feet, they caught a glimpse of a majestic figure. It gleamed with the white ivory and flashed with the gold which crowned it, and for a second they saw a grand calm face looking down upon the olive-wreathed victors who bowed low before the shrine.
“You behold the masterpiece of Phidias—the Seventh Wonder of the World,” murmured Sheshà. “Jupiter Olympius from his temple blesses the victors in the games he was the first to institute.” ”

“ The day his temple was finished was the happiest day of his life. There was a great festival, and from the city, crowds of people had come to worship Diana for the first time under a roof, and to gaze at the building itself. Small and simple, it was yet the most wonderful they had ever seen, with its columns of an entirely new shape, and its marble porch. And everyone was loud in the praise of its architect.
“That night, Dinocrates was too happy to sleep. He lay thinking of the temple which had been his life work, till suddenly a great desire to see it again swept over him. ”

“ On and on fled their magic steed, moving his limbs in the sea of air as a swimmer moves in water, his beautiful mane streaming like a white mist behind him.... Gradually the moonlight faded, and, for a time, only the stars shone in the dark blue sky.
[Pg 118]
“We’re flying over the sea now. I can hear it!” whispered Rachel presently, for they had dropped lower by this time, and a deep murmur and even every now and then the gentle splash of waves could be distinctly heard.
“It’s getting light,” answered Diana, in a sleepy voice. ”

“ Sheshà laughed. “Listen to the heralds,” he counselled. “The games are just about to begin.”
A silence all at once fell upon the vast swaying crowd, while several men with trumpets, advancing from the centre of the stadium and addressing the people, cried out the names of the competitors, and the cities from which they came.
Rachel and Diana exchanged delighted glances when the name of Agis of Athens was announced among the rest, and, after the last notes of the trumpets had died away, they saw the athletes being arranged for the first race. ”

“ The queen did not reply, and Rachel looked enquiringly at Salome, who was lying full length on a great tiger-skin stretched in front of her mistress’s chair.
“Sit near me,” said the little maid, making room for her. “No one else sees or hears you. What is it you would ask?”
“Tell me about the temple,” whispered Rachel. “That temple of Belus.”
She could see it very distinctly from where she sat, a wonderful building with a number of storeys piled up one above the other, each storey covered with glazed tiles of a colour different from that above and below. ”

“ At night on the topmost storey of the tower, the priests study the sky. They are great astronomers, and have learnt wonderful things about the heavenly bodies, all of which are written down so that their knowledge may not be lost to people who live after them.”
“Then I suppose that’s how we began to know about the stars,” thought Rachel. “Through these people who lived here in Babylon thousands of years ago.” It was very strange to think of this, and strange also, and sad, to remember that what Salome called “the new temple” was now nothing but a heap of half-buried ruins! ”

“ Rachel asked.
“To crown the victors. They are the only prizes, and are more eagerly coveted than gold or precious stones. To win those simple crowns the youths of Greece train strenuously for years. You have already in Athens seen a gymnasium. That to which Agis belongs, is only one of hundreds, as such training schools exist all over Greece, for the teaching of these physical exercises which have made the Greek nation the most beautiful in the world.... Here come some of the competitors—the athletes, to give them the right name. ”

“ No one sees, no one hears you but I alone.”
Wondering greatly, but feeling much relieved, Rachel watched the slaves as very carefully they set down the litter close to a throne-like seat, covered with silken pillows. The arms of the chair she noticed, were two-winged bulls in stone, and the back of it shone with enamelled tiles and plates of gold. The maidens now surrounded their mistress, helping her to rise from the litter, and, as she sank into the great chair, Rachel gazed at her wonderful robe, made of stuff like gossamer, clasped with a great jewel at the waist. ”

“ Chares glanced back at it, and put his hand on my shoulder.
“‘Cleon,’ he said, ‘if the statue I have in mind ever rises to the honour of the god, it will be through you.’
“I was startled and impressed by his words which I did not understand. How could I, still a child, and not even allowed to fight, have anything to do with victory—if victory ever came? For we knew that Demetrius had but retired to bring fresh forces against us. I began to say something like this, but Chares paid no heed to my words. ”

“ The dead people like that are called mummies, aren’t they? I was just going to ask Miss Moore to take me to see them when I met you!” Rachel interrupted.
“There are many such embalmed bodies in your great museum. When you see them, little maid, remember that you are looking upon the very features of men and women who lived under this blue sky, and enjoyed this sunshine, thousands of years before their bodies were taken to your grey city beside the Thames. They were people who worshipped indeed, but gods very different from the God worshipped in your churches and cathedrals of to-day.” ”

“ By the time he was a man, he was the most famous architect in Ephesus, and many new buildings in the city began to rise, designed by him. But the dream of his life was to build a dwelling-place for his special goddess on the very spot where as a child, with other children, he had worshipped her out of doors under the sacred tree.
“It must be a real temple, and a temple different from, and better in every way than any of the attempts yet made by other men to fashion dwelling-places for the gods. ”

“ Rachel knew what it was to be homesick!
Salome glanced at them carelessly. “They are Hebrews who call themselves the Children of Israel. Our king, the great Nebuchadnezzar—may he live for ever—conquered their country and took their treasures from Jerusalem, their chief city, and brought many of them here to Babylon to live. They hate us, and we despise them.” ”

“ Their gauzy robes were dyed with crimson light, the jewels on the queen’s head-dress and on the brown hands touching the harp-strings gleamed dazzlingly, and the voices of the singers mingled with the deep hum of voices floating upwards from the swarming multitudes below.
[Pg 53]
“Is not our Babylon well called ‘the lady of kingdoms’?” whispered Salome. “It shall endure for ever, and in ages to come men will travel hither to see its glories, and to gaze upon this our Hanging Garden—one of the Wonders of the World.” ”

“ But Rachel, who had seen a twinkle in Mr. Sheston’s eyes, laughed happily.
“It’s just what Diana wants more than anything. Oh, do let’s put on our things at once.”
She was running to the door when the old gentleman stopped her.
“Plenty of time. Plenty of time,” he said quietly. “Haven’t you yet learnt that ‘time’ is as ‘magic’ as most other things? What have you two been talking about?”
The children glanced at one another.
“I was telling her all about it,” said Rachel. “About the Pyramid, you know, and Babylon, and the statue at Rhodes. ”

“ The whole, including three sides of the island, was enclosed by a mighty wall with turrets at intervals upon it, and the water space between the island and the city was now a harbour in which ships rode at anchor.
“There stands Alexandria as I built it over two thousand years ago,” said Dinocrates, quietly. “And there, bearing the same name, the name of Alexander the Great, it stands to-day. English sailors anchor their ships in its port, many English people live there, and it has heard the guns of the Great War that is just over.”
“Not like Babylon, or Ephesus—all in ruins,” murmured Rachel. ”

“ Each one of these, the wrestling, boxing, quoit throwing, and especially the chariot racing, had its separate thrill, and was followed with breathless interest by the crowd. But it was the great horse-race to which both the children looked forward with the most intense longing—the race in which Phidolas and his beautiful mare, Aura, were to compete. At last it came. There were many competitors, all of them splendid youths, mounted upon splendid horses. But, while preparations for the start were being made, Rachel and Diana’s eyes strayed oftenest to Phidolas and Aura. ”