Amada

“ So you gave the name of Amada to the Great King, did you? Well, you could have done nothing else if you wished to go on living, and therefore cannot be blamed. Yet before all is finished I think it will bring you into trouble, Shabaka, since among many gifts, the gods did not give that of reason to women. ”

“ Old Juan and his wife are fine old people, and any man who wronged Amada would have to answer for it to her father. He’d have to either kill the old man or be killed himself in mighty short order. Oh, yes, Amada’s a good girl, but she’s an awful little flirt.”
As soon as the cattle were secured in the pens at the railroad station, ready to be transferred to the cars, Emerson Mead put spurs to his horse and rode off alone to the northward without a word to his friends. Nick and Tom, perched on the high fence of a cattle-pen, watched him gallop away with amazement. ”

“ Had you been a man, Amada, and not a woman, I think you would have judged me differently but, learned priestess and prophetess as you are, a woman you remain. Perchance a time may come when once more you will turn to me in the hour of your need ”

“ But then I was not a priestess of Isis, so doubtless all is well. Only in twenty-seven days much may happen, as you said to Amada. Now I wonder why did she——? Well, no matter, since priestesses are not like other women who only think of the man they have won and of naught before or after. The blessing of the gods and mine be on you both, my son,” and she went away to attend to her household matters.
As we rode to Sekera to find the holy Tanofir I told Bes also, adding that I had forgotten to reveal that it was I who had spoken Amada’s name to the king, but that I intended to do so ere long. ”

“ Whereas if you gave them to the lady Amada and she took them, perchance it might only be to see them return to the East, whither you tell me she is summoned by one whose orders may not be disobeyed.”
Now I turned white with rage and answered,
“While I live, Mother, Amada shall never go to the East to be the woman of yonder King.”
“While you live, Son. But those who cross the will of a great king, are apt to die. Also this is a matter which her uncle, the Prince Peroa, must decide as policy dictates. Now as ever the woman is but a pawn in the game. ”

“ Go, Shabaka and Bes, you are brave men, both of you, and I am glad to have the one for nephew and the other for pupil. My greetings to your mother, Tiu. She is a good woman and a true, one to whom you will do well to hearken. To the lady Amada also, and bid her study her beauteous face in a mirror and not be holy overmuch, since too great holiness often thwarts itself and ends in trouble for the unholy flesh. Still she loves pearls like other women, does she not, and even the statue of Isis likes to be adorned. ”

“ Well, in this world nothing is given for nothing and the offer is a fair one. You are well born, too, as well as myself, and a brave and clever man. Further, Amada has not taken her final vows and therefore the high priests can absolve her from her marriage to the goddess, or to her son Horus, whichever it may be, for I do not understand these mysteries. But, Shabaka, if Fortune should chance to go with us and I should became the first Pharaoh of a new dynasty in Egypt, he who was married to the Royal Princess of the true blood might become a danger to my throne and family. ”

“ But her knees trembled and gave way, a cry of pain broke from her lips, and she fell upon the sidewalk. For woman’s greatest extremity was upon her and she could go no farther.
Marguerite Delarue stood upon the veranda steps smiling fondly upon little Paul as he came up the walk. She had noticed the strange young Mexican woman leaning against the fence, and when Amada [Pg 312] fell she ran down to the gate to see if the stranger were ill. The look of awful agony in Amada’s face and eyes frightened her, and quickly calling the maid, the two women took her into the house and put her to bed. ”

“ Peroa, your cousin, will be glad enough to make use of you, but he does not love you over much because he is jealous of you and fears lest you should become his rival in the future. Still he is an honest man and will keep a bargain which he once has made. Now it seems that above everything on earth you desire Amada on whom you have set your heart since boyhood, but who has always played with you and spoken to you with her arm stretched out. ”

“ So we went to the lesser banqueting-hall, I filled with joy because I should see Amada, and yet, much afraid because of that story which I must tell. Gathered there, waiting for the Prince, we found the Princess his wife, a large and kindly woman, also his two eldest daughters and his young son, a lad of about sixteen. Moreover, there were certain officers, while at the tables of the lower hall sat others of the household, men of smaller rank, and their wives, since Peroa still maintained some kind of a shadow of the Court of old Egypt. ”

“ Mead broke into a loud, hearty roar, Tuttle grinned broadly, and Ellhorn regarded the two of [Pg 102] them with an angry look. Mead leaned over and slapped his shoulder.
“Nick, you’re a devil of a fellow with the women, and I know it as well as you do. I guess Amada’s not very different from the rest of ’em, if she did stop your performance. She looked as if she saw a ghost, and maybe she thought she did. These Mexicans are a superstitious lot. ”

“ A brief summary of Sir Amadas,16 the last of the six variants, must now be given. Amadas finds himself financially embarrassed, and sets forth for seven years of errantry with only forty pounds in hand. This he pays to release and bury the body of a merchant who has died in debt. When thus reduced to absolute penury, Amadas meets a White Knight, who tells him that he will aid him on condition of receiving half the gains. The hero finds a rich wreck on the seacoast, and so with new apparel goes to the court, where he wins wealth in a tourney and the princess’s heart at a feast. ”

“ Therefore, although I was dear to her, as a brother would have been had she had one, and she swore that she had never even thought of another man, she refused so much as to think of marrying who dreamed only of the heavenly perfections of the lady Isis.”
“Ump!” said Bes. “We Ethiopians have Priestesses of the Grasshopper, or the Grasshopper’s wife, but they do not think of her like that. I hope that one day something stronger than herself will not cause the lady Amada to break her vows to the heavenly Isis. ”

“ But to Amadeo these things were as the beauty of sky and sea to a man that is blind. Love was a stranger to his heart; he spent the hours wherein the rest danced and courted in high and abstruse meditation, and the ladies of the Princess's train, although very handsome, amiable, and kind, yet could not lure him from his retreat, nor persuade him to exchange his gloomy musings for the brightness of their smiles. ”

“ It is here that Amida-ism falls short of the Highest Truth, and that in spite of the fact that, if it is true, as Christ said, that 'He that hath seen me hath seen the Father' it is also true that he that has caught but the glimpse of Christ that Amida-ism gives, has also caught a glimpse of the Father. When it has been demonstrated, as I hope it will be, that Amida is none other than that Person Whom we Christians worship as our Saviour-God, and for Whose reality we claim to have historical evidence, then Amida-ism will rise to the perfect Truth, and will gain in courage, in strength ”

“ For though Amida-ism speaks of a Saviour, whom it proclaims to be the Father of Mankind, nay, of all that live, Amida is not the Father, in the sense of being the Creator; and it is our glory as Christians to believe in God the "Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth," and to maintain that, in Creation, God was absolutely unfettered by any pre-existent Matter, or by any Law, but only by the limitations (if such they may be called) of His own Infinite Wisdom and Goodness. ”

“ Some think themselves about to enter Amida's paradise of light; some see in their visional hope the saki-no-yo only, the future rebirth, when beloved shall meet beloved again, in the all-joyous freshness of another youth; while the idea of many, indeed of the majority, is vaguer far—only a shadowy drifting together through vapoury silences, as in the faint bliss of dreams. ”

“ Your father, replied Amadis, hath a great heart, and though in secret he may feel otherwise, he appears well satisfied. You know he is to come hither with the Queen and your sister. Oriana answered, I cannot tell you the pleasure which my heart feels, and may it please God that all may be fulfilled as it has been agreed; for you may well believe, my Lord, that next to yourself there is no other person whom I love so well as him, notwithstanding his cruelty. But tell me, what think you of Esplandian? Esplandian, replied Amadis, in his manners and appearance is your son, and more cannot be said. ”

“ And a dream came to her, wherein she seemed to be in the outer room and no longer in the closet, but bound hand and foot and with a handkerchief tied across her mouth, so that she could utter no sound; while before her stood the crone with a hatchet in her hand and the young men each with a knife, and on the pallet in the corner lay the stranger; and in her dream the stranger had the face of Count Amadeo. ”

“ When you have disposed of me go straightways and kiss the Infanta's hand, and give her this sleeve of my shirt, whereon I have written seven letters with my blood, for I had no strength to write more. I trust that that pity which she would not show me living she will feel for my death, considering that it befell me in her service, seeking through such perils the brother whom she loves so dearly. Dear friend Don Bruneo, quoth the Knight, I am Amadis for whom you have undergone such peril! fear not, I will help you with such a master as shall save you if the soul have not left the body. ”

“ Ask what you will, quoth Amadis.—Tell me your name, and promise me each a boon hereafter, when I shall demand it. They in their earnestness promised. When she heard the name of Amadis, she exclaimed, God be praised, for I was seeking you!—And wherefore?—You shall know when it is time; but tell me, have you forgot your promise to the daughter of the King of Sobradisa, who let loose the lions to save you? I am now going, replied Amadis, to perform the battle. ”

“ For I protest to thee, there is no such gentle and divine being in all the world beside. I make thee my confidant, hermano mio, because I shall have much need of thy friendship and counsel; for though I come not, like Cid Ramon, with 'a thousand score' to rescue her pagan father, sure am I, I cannot love the princess, and yet be blind to the miseries of the king."
"Assuredly," said Don Amador, "I will aid thee, and, for thy sake, both the fair princess and her unconverted sire, wherever, in so doing, I may not oppose my allegiance and religion." ”

“ Every family has a tutelary deity or idol, which is placed at the top of the house, and instructed to keep off all sickness, misfortunes, or accidents: And when any such happen, the idol is taken down and whipt, for not doing its duty. Amida is the name of their favourite god, his residence in heaven is at a prodigious distance, insomuch that it requires three years journey of a departed soul to reach paradise, which is only the outskirts or suburbs of heaven ”

“ Norandel. Do you know any thing of this Knight, said Oriana, for he came with you, and you have asked him to be your companion in arms; for one of your prowess, this should not be done unless you knew something of his worth, for all who know you say there is no one equal to you, except only your brother Amadis. My Lady, replied Galaor, so equal is my prowess to that of Amadis as earth is to heaven; and fool would he be who thought to equal his! for God has gifted him above all others in the world in hardihood, and in all good customs that beseem a Knight. ”

“ This was in allusion to the vow made by Amida, that he would not accept Buddhaship except under the condition that salvation be made attainable for all who should sincerely desire to be born into his kingdom, and signify their desire by invoking his name ten times.11 It is upon the passage in the sutra where this vow is recorded, that the doctrine of the sect is based. Its central idea is that man is to be saved by faith in the mercy of the boundlessly compassionate Amida, and not by works or vain repetitions. ”

“ I was so gained upon by the beauty and excellent worth of this maiden, (for I swear to thee, her superior lives not in the world!) that I forgot even that she was the daughter of an idolater, and loved her."
"A Moorish infidel!" said the confessor. "It is not possible thou couldst pledge thy faith to an unbeliever?"
"Holy father," said Don Amador, "this sin was at least spared me. The maiden was a Christian, tenderly nurtured in all the doctrines of our faith, and almost ignorant that the race from which she drew her blood, knew any other ”

“ So soon as day dawned, Jacinta was on her feet flying from a spot full of terrors; and although she longed greatly to know how Count Amadeo had sped, yet for fear of the dead crone's grandsons, and of the dead crone herself, and more than all of the black he-goat (for what that goat was God alone knew) she dared not return to the hovel, but set forward at her best speed straight away from the river; and having walked the greater part of the day, she came to a little grey town that nestled in the lap of great blue- grey hills. ”

“ From this sort of emulation, the work becomes a succession of absurd and frigid impossibilities. Many of the characters of the Amadis are preserved in it, like Lisuarte, who is rescued out of a mysterious imprisonment by Esplandian as his first adventure; Urganda, who, from a graceful fairy, becomes a savage enchantress; and “the great master Elisabad,” a man of learning and a priest, whom we first knew as the leech of Amadis, and who is now the pretended biographer of his son, writing, as he says, in Greek. ”