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JEWEL SOWERS
A Novel
LONDON
GREENING & CO., LTD.
20, CECIL COURT, CHARING CROSS ROAD, W.C.
1903
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. AN INTRODUCTION TO LUCIFRAM 9
II. FRIEND AND EXECUTOR 13
III. ROSALIE 21
IV. THE GOLDEN SERPENT 28
V. THE MASTER 42
VI. NEW EXPERIENCES 52
VII. A DEBT OF GRATITUDE 57
VIII. A BOOK OF INSPIRATION 64
IX. MARIANA 77
X. A CONVERSATION IN SHADOWS 85
XI. GARDEN AND HOUSE OF SHADOWS 92
XII. AN ACT OF DISOBEDIENCE 101
XIII. THE FOLLY OF SIMPLICITY 119
XIV. BROKEN SPIRITS 131
XV. A WAYSIDE HOUSE AND GLOOMY CELL 139
XVI. THE GOVERNOR 154
XVII. A PLANTATION 166
XVIII. SEEDS GROWING CONTRARIWISE 174
XIX. A HUMBLE CRUCIFIXION 190
XX. A SIMPLE CONVERSATION 202
XXI. A MAN WHO STOOD ON HIS HEAD, ACCORDING TO LUCIFRAM 209
XXII. A LEASE OF LIFE 216
XXIII. THE SCANDAL OF THE TEMPLE 222
XXIV. AT THE SEBBERENS’ 232
XXV. THE GOLDEN PRIEST 245
XXVI. CONVERSATION AND A LITTLE PIG-STUFF 254
XXVII. AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES 264
XXVIII. REVENGE IS SWEET 277
XXIX. A CONFESSION 286
XXX. FESTIVAL 293
XXXI. MYSTERIES IN MARBLE HOUSE 303
XXXII. DIPLOMACY 313
XXXIII. THE WORTH OF A JEWEL 319
XXXIV. “A GIFT, A FRIEND, A FOE, A BEAU, A JOURNEY TO GO” 326
XXXV. THE SUN RISES ON THE YEAR 334
JEWEL SOWERS
CHAPTER I
AN INTRODUCTION TO LUCIFRAM
In the little planet Lucifram, that spun a brilliant and solitary course
among the stars, exchanging annual salutations with them as the waxing
and waning of the solar laws brought them out of the void and within
hail, the people each and all walked upside down. The trees were upside
down, the houses, the churches with their steeples, the palaces, the
oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains, animals, and fishes, each and all,
reversed our own conception of mundane propriety. Cultivate a patience
with the seeming strangeness of this extraordinary planet, even to the
reading of this simple book, and let that virtue lead you nearer to
another sphere, more to your liking.
There were a few, indeed, upon this sphere who did their best to stand
upon their feet. Sometimes they succeeded; but others were bowled down
in the struggle and ended by standing once again upon their heads, or
lying crushed, paying the debt they owed to Outraged Custom.
The circumference of this sphere was something like two thousand miles.
It bulged out towards the north and south, with giant hollows to the
east and west. And because _everything_ that existed was contrary to our
idea of things, all things looked normal.
When Nature and architecture combine to alter things, making them
contrariwise, as people call it, what wonder if morality and all ethics
blend with the custom?
To begin with governments and kingships. Unlike those upon a two-legged
basis, a king was never chosen for his worth, but for his frailties. He
was chosen to strew the path of his subjects with flowers which all
might pick like little children out at play, and then would quarrel
over.
Alas! To be a king in the planet Lucifram! That little planet
topsy-turvy. Here, though a ruler might have the will of a Hercules to
turn a somersalt and land upon his feet, some diviner instinct calling
him to that, the pigmies around him pinned him with millions of tiny
threads, an anchorage whereby to hold his head safe to the ground.
Threads worked in gold! Held for the wonder of the multitude.
So for the kings. The Gods of all the stars looked down on them. They
heard those faint sighs of weakness—those breathings after higher
things—and pitied some, and smiled at others. And though in the
topsy-turvy synagogues and churches the people prayed for them, no
prayers reached heaven except those simple few the kings themselves
breathed in solitude. Prayers that must travel very, very far, as all
prayers must, and which needed the giant strength of great simplicity to
bring them to the end of their weary journey.
So for the kings and princes. An arduous task is theirs—bound thus with
chains—God only knows how hard! As each insidious little link might
whisper, telling its own small share in the universal tale.
In our world we always speak of “Church and State”—a correct and steady
way of speaking—but in Lucifram ’tis always “State and Church,” and that
is why the palaces and kings claimed our attention first.
The Church, composed of temples, synagogues, and priests, jumbled
together in luxurious profusion, was dressed and bedecked so finely that
the God the people worshipped fell almost out of sight. In their chief
temple, in the greatest city, was a three-tailed golden Serpent, coiled
around a golden pole above a table decked in red, and set with incense
vessels. Dim and mysterious was that holy place, where priests, all
flowing and bedecked in golden garments, came each day to bow before the
Snake. Its three tails, the gold of them burnished like fire, spread out
like fans on high, against a background of mosaic. Below, resting on the
altar, was the great head, lying quite still; the genius of ages worked
in its cruel fangs and awful eyes. Eyes never closing, jewel-glinting,
green and fiery, all-surveying, all-watching. Those terrible eyes lit up
the gloom, and compelled men to stand upon their heads as it itself was
forced to do. For by the grim and dreadful fascination of those
never-closing eyes, unconsciously the worshippers changed to position
like to it, tails up, heads down, blinded by their religion.
In this temple the people sat in the big gloomy aisles, each on a little
chair with a ledge in front for kneeling, and heard the priest from the
pulpit, and the reader from his desk. Awed by the grandeur and the
solemn dimness, they bowed and salaamed before the triune tails, hidden
from the vulgar gaze by a red silk curtain blazoned in gold. And when
the mighty organ rolled and rumbled, and the angel voices of the choir
boys rang through the gold-washed rafters, their senses were stirred by
some far hidden mystery, and their eyes would dim or kindle as they felt
it; only the gleaming eyes within the veil remained unchanged.
Now it was customary for the priests who waited on the Serpent to fast a
day each month and marry only once. A layman in Lucifram might wed
twice. No priests could marry under forty. For laymen, the age was
twenty-five for the first attempt, and forty for the second; that is,
for the few who preferred company in their latter years to peace. But
though the women, by Act of Parliament, enjoyed the privilege of
marrying twice, just as the men did, there were certain things clearly
beyond them, they being in Lucifram, as here, the weaker vessels. On
those great days whereon the priest drew back the silken curtain and
displayed the Serpent, all women were debarred from entering the temple.
And so enough for an explanation and a prologue. Take my hand, descend,
and tread on Lucifram!