American, "and we have seen it in a week, according to the directions
of the great traveller" (and here he mentions the name of one of his
contemporaries) "in his celebrated work, 'How to See all Europe in a
Week.'"
THE BOND OF FRIENDSHIP.
We have just taken a little journey, and already we want to take a
longer one. Whither? To Sparta, to Mycene, to Delphi? There are a
hundred places at whose names the heart beats with the desire of
travel. On horseback we go up the mountain paths, through brake and
through brier. A single traveller makes an appearance like a whole
caravan. He rides forward with his guide, a pack-horse carries trunks,
a tent, and provisions, and a few armed soldiers follow as a guard. No
inn with warm beds awaits him at the end of his tiring day's journey:
the tent is often his dwelling-place. In the great wild region the
guide cooks him a pillan of rice, fowls, and curry for his supper. A
thousand gnats swarm round the tent. It is a boisterous night, and
to-morrow the way will lead across swollen streams; take care you are
not washed away!
What is your reward for undergoing these hardships? The fullest,
richest reward. Nature manifests herself here in all her greatness;
every spot is historical, and the eye and the thoughts are alike
delighted. The poet may sing it, the painter portray it in rich
pictures; but the air of reality which sinks deep into the soul of the
spectator, and remains there, neither painter nor poet can produce.
In many little sketches I have endeavoured to give an idea of a small
part of Athens and its environs; but how colourless the picture seems!
How little does it exhibit Greece, the mourning genius of beauty,
whose greatness and whose sorrow the stranger never forgets!
The lonely herdsman yonder on the hills would, perhaps, by a simple
recital of an event in his life, better enlighten the stranger who
wishes in a few features to behold the land of the Hellenes, than any
picture could do.
"Then," says my Muse, "let him speak." A custom, a good, peculiar
custom, shall be the subject of the mountain shepherd's tale. It is
called
THE BOND OF FRIENDSHIP.
Our rude house was put together of clay; but the door-posts were
columns of fluted marble found near the spot where the house was
erected. The roof reached almost down to the ground. It was now dark
brown and ugly, but it had originally consisted of blooming olive and
fresh laurel branches brought from beyond the mountain. Around our
dwelling was a narrow gorge, whose walls of rock rose steeply upwards,
and showed naked and black, and round their summits often hung clouds,
like white living figures. Never did I hear a singing bird there,
never did the men there dance to the sound of the bagpipe; but the
spot was sacred from the old times: even its name reminded of this,
for it was called Delphi! The dark solemn mountains were all covered
with snow; the highest, which gleamed the longest in the red light of
evening, was Parnassus; the brook which rolled from it near our house
was once sacred also. Now the ass sullies it with its feet, but the
stream rolls on and on, and becomes clear again. How I can remember
every spot in the deep holy solitude! In the midst of the hut a fire
was kindled, and when the hot ashes lay there red and glowing, the
bread was baked in them. When the snow was piled so high around our
hut as almost to hide it, my mother appeared most cheerful: then she
would hold my head between her hands, and sing the songs she never
sang at other times, for the Turks our masters would not allow it. She
sang:
"On the summit of Olympus, in the forest of dwarf firs, lay an old
stag. His eyes were heavy with tears; he wept blue and even red
tears; and there came a roebuck by, and said, 'What ails thee, that
thou weepest those blue and red tears?' And the stag answered, 'The
Turk has come to our city: he has wild dogs for the chase, a goodly
pack.' 'I will drive them away across the islands,' cried the young
roebuck, 'I will drive them away across the islands into the deep
sea!' But before evening sank down the roebuck was slain, and before
night the stag was hunted and dead."
And when my mother sang thus, her eyes became moist, and on the long
eyelashes hung a tear; but she hid it, and baked our black bread in
the ashes. Then I would clench my fist and cry, "We will kill the
Turks!" but she repeated from the song the words, "I will drive them
across the islands into the deep sea. But before evening sank down the
roebuck was slain, and before the night came the stag was hunted and
dead."
For several days and nights we had been lonely in our hut, when my
father came home. I knew he would bring me shells from the Gulf of
Lepanto, or perhaps even a bright gleaming knife. This time he brought
us a child, a little half-naked girl, that he brought under his
sheepskin cloak. It was wrapped in a fur, and all that the little
creature possessed when this was taken off, and she lay in my mother's
lap, were three silver coins, fastened in her dark hair. My father
told us that the Turks had killed the child's parents; and he told so
much about them, that I dreamed of the Turks all night. He himself had
been wounded, and my mother bound up his arm. The wound was deep, and
the thick sheepskin was stiff with frozen blood. The little maiden was
to be my sister. How radiantly beautiful she looked! Even my mother's
eyes were not more gentle than hers. Anastasia, as she was called, was
to be my sister, because her father had been united to mine by the old
custom which we still keep. They had sworn brotherhood in their youth,
and chosen the most beautiful and virtuous girl in the neighbourhood
to consecrate their bond of friendship. I often heard of the strange
good custom.
So now the little girl was my sister. She sat in my lap, and I brought
her flowers and the feathers of the mountain birds: we drank together
of the waters of Parnassus, and dwelt together for many a year under
the laurel roof of the hut, while my mother sang winter after winter
of the stag who wept red tears. But as yet I did not understand that
it was my own countrymen whose many sorrows were mirrored in those
tears.
One day there came three Frankish men. Their dress was different from
ours. They had tents and beds with them on their horses, and more
than twenty Turks, all armed with swords and muskets, accompanied
them; for they were friends of the pacha, and had letters from him
commanding an escort for them. They only came to see our mountains, to
ascend Parnassus amid the snow and the clouds, and to look at the
strange black steep rock near our hut. They could not find room in it,
nor could they endure the smoke that rolled along the ceiling and
found its way out at the low door; therefore they pitched their tents
on the small space outside our dwelling, roasted lambs and birds, and
poured out strong sweet wine, of which the Turks were not allowed to
partake.
[Illustration: THE GREEK MOTHER'S SONG.]
When they departed, I accompanied them for some distance, carrying my
little sister Anastasia, wrapped in a goatskin, on my back. One of the
Frankish gentlemen made me stand in front of a rock, and drew me, and
her too, as we stood there, so that we looked like one creature. I
never thought of it; but Anastasia and I were really one. She was
always sitting in my lap or riding in the goatskin at my back; and
when I dreamed, she appeared in my dreams.
Two nights afterwards, other men, armed with knives and muskets, came
into our tent. They were Albanians, brave men, my mother told me. They
only stayed a short time. My sister Anastasia sat on the knee of one
of them, and when they were gone she had not three, but only two
silver coins in her hair. They wrapped tobacco in strips of paper and
smoked it. I remember they were undecided as to the road they were to
take.
But they had to make a choice. They went, and my father went with
them. Soon afterwards we heard the sound of firing. The noise was
renewed, and soldiers rushed into our hut, and took my mother, and
myself, and my sister Anastasia prisoners. They declared that the
robbers had been entertained by us, and that my father had acted as
the robbers' guide, and therefore we must go with them. Presently I
saw the corpses of the robbers brought in; I saw my father's corpse
too. I cried and cried till I fell asleep. When I awoke, we were in
prison, but the room was not worse than ours in our own house. They
gave me onions to eat, and musty wine poured from a tarry cask, but we
had no better fare at home.
How long we were kept prisoners I do not know; but many days and
nights went by. When we were set free it was the time of the holy
Easter feast. I carried Anastasia on my back, for my mother was ill,
and could only move slowly, and it was a long way till we came down to
the sea, to the Gulf of Lepanto. We went into a church that gleamed
with pictures painted on a golden ground. They were pictures of
angels, and very beautiful; but it seemed to me that our little
Anastasia was just as beautiful. In the middle of the floor stood a
coffin filled with roses. "The Lord Christ is pictured there in the
form of a beautiful rose," said my mother; and the priest announced,
"Christ is risen!" All the people kissed each other: each one had a
burning taper in his hand, and I received one myself, and so did
little Anastasia. The bagpipes sounded, men danced hand in hand from
the church, and outside the women were roasting the Easter lamb. We
were invited to partake, and I sat by the fire; a boy, older than
myself, put his arms round my neck, kissed me, and said, "Christ is
risen!" and thus it was that for the first time I met Aphtanides.
My mother could make fishermen's nets, for which there was a good
demand here in the bay, and we lived a long time by the side of the
sea, the beautiful sea, that tasted like tears, and in its colours
reminded me of the song of the stag that wept--for sometimes its
waters were red, and sometimes green or blue.
[Illustration: THE FRIENDS AT LEPANTO.]
Aphtanides knew how to manage our boat, and I often sat in it, with my
little Anastasia, while it glided on through the water, swift as a
bird flying through the air. Then, when the sun sank down, the
mountains were tinted with a deeper and deeper blue, one range seemed
to rise behind the other, and behind them all stood Parnassus with its
snow-crowned summit. The mountain-top gleamed in the evening rays like
glowing iron, and it seemed as though the light came from within it;
for long after the sun had set, the mountain still shone through the
clear blue air. The white water birds touched the surface of the sea
with their wings, and all here was as calm and quiet as among the
black rocks at Delphi. I lay on my back in the boat, Anastasia leaned
against me, and the stars above us shone brighter than the lamps in
our church. They were the same stars, and they stood exactly in the
same positions above me, as when I had sat in front of our hut at
Delphi; and at last I almost fancied I was there. Suddenly there was a
splash in the water, and the boat rocked violently. I cried out in
horror, for Anastasia had fallen into the water: but in a moment
Aphtanides had sprung in after her, and was holding her up to me! We
dried her clothes as well as we could, remaining on the water till
they were dry; for no one was to know what a fright we had had for our
little adopted sister, in whose life Aphtanides now had a part.
The summer came. The sun burned so hot that the leaves turned yellow
on the trees. I thought of our cool mountains, and of the fresh water
they contained; my mother, too, longed for them; and one evening we
wandered home. What peace, what silence! We walked on through the
thick thyme, still fragrant though the sun had scorched its leaves.
Not a single herdsman did we meet, not one solitary hut did we pass.
Everything was quiet and deserted; but a shooting star announced that
in heaven there was yet life. I know not if the clear blue air gleamed
with light of its own, or if the radiance came from the stars; but we
could see the outlines of the mountains quite plainly. My mother
lighted a fire, roasted some roots she had brought with her, and I and
my little sister slept among the thyme, without fear of the ugly
Smidraki,[4] from whose throat fire spurts forth, or of the wolf and
jackal; for my mother sat beside us, and I considered her presence
protection enough for us.
We reached our old home; but the hut was a heap of ruins, and a new
one had to be built. A few women lent my mother their aid, and in a
few days walls were raised, and covered with a new roof of olive
branches. My mother made many bottle cases of bark and skins; I kept
the little flock of the priests,[5] and Anastasia and the little
tortoises were my playmates.
[Footnote 4: According to the Greek superstition, this is a monster
generated from the unopened entrails of slaughtered sheep, which are
thrown away in the fields.]
[Footnote 5: A peasant who can read often becomes a priest; he is then
called "very holy Sir," and the lower orders kiss the ground on which
he has stepped.]
Once we had a visit from our beloved Aphtanides, who said he had
greatly longed to see us, and who stayed with us two whole happy days.
A month afterwards he came again, and told us that he was going in a
ship to Corfu and Patras, but must bid us good-bye first; and he had
brought a large fish for our mother. He had a great deal to tell, not
only of the fishermen yonder in the Gulf of Lepanto, but also of
kings and heroes, who had once possessed Greece, just as the Turks
possess it now.
I have seen a bud on a rose-bush gradually unfold in days and weeks,
till it became a rose, and hung there in its beauty, before I was
aware how large and beautiful and red it had become; and the same
thing I now saw in Anastasia. She was now a beautiful grown girl, and
I had become a stout stripling. The wolf-skins that covered my
mother's and Anastasia's bed, I had myself taken from wolves that had
fallen beneath my shots.
Years had gone by, when one evening Aphtanides came in, slender as a
reed, strong and brown. He kissed us all, and had much to tell of the
fortifications of Malta, of the great ocean, and of the marvellous
sepulchres of Egypt. It sounded strange as a legend of the priests,
and I looked up to him with a kind of veneration.
"How much you know!" I exclaimed; "what wonders you can tell of!"
"But you have told me the finest thing, after all," he replied. "You
told me of a thing that has never been out of my thoughts--of the good
old custom of the bond of friendship, a custom I should like to
follow. Brother, let you and I go to church, as your father and
Anastasia's went before us: your sister Anastasia is the most
beautiful and most innocent of girls; she shall consecrate us! No
people has such grand old customs as we Greeks."
Anastasia blushed like a young rose, and my mother kissed Aphtanides.
A couple of miles from our house there, where loose earth lies on the
hill, and a few scattered trees give a shelter, stood the little
church; a silver lamp hung in front of the altar.
I had put on my best clothes: the white fustanella fell in rich folds
around my hips, the red jacket fitted tight and close, the tassel on
my fez cap was silver, and in my girdle gleamed a knife and my
pistols. Aphtanides was clad in the blue garb worn by Greek sailors;
on his chest hung a silver plate with the figure of the Virgin Mary;
his scarf was as costly as those worn by rich lords. Every one could
see that we were about to go through a solemn ceremony. We stepped
into the little simple church, where the evening sunlight, streaming
through the door, gleamed on the burning lamp and the pictures on
golden ground. We knelt down on the altar steps, and Anastasia came
before us. A long white garment hung loose over her graceful form; on
her white neck and bosom hung a chain, covered with old and new coins,
forming a kind of collar. Her black hair was fastened in a knot, and
confined by a head-dress made of silver and gold coins that had been
found in an old temple. No Greek girl had more beautiful ornaments
than she. Her countenance glowed, and her eyes were like two stars.
We all three prayed silently; and then she said to us, "Will you be
friends in life and in death?" "Yes," we replied. "Will you, whatever
may happen, remember this--my brother is a part of myself. My secret
is his, my happiness is his. Self-sacrifice, patience--everything in
me belongs to him as to me?" And we again answered, "Yes."
Then she joined our hands and kissed us on the forehead, and we again
prayed silently. Then the priest came through the door near the altar,
and blessed us all three; and a song, sung by the other holy men,
sounded from behind the altar screen, and the bond of eternal
friendship was concluded. When we rose, I saw my mother standing by
the church door weeping heartily.
How cheerful it was now, in our little hut, and by the springs of
Delphi! On the evening before his departure, Aphtanides sat thoughtful
with me on the declivity of a mountain; his arm was flung round my
waist, and mine was round his neck: we spoke of the sorrows of Greece,
and of the men whom the country could trust. Every thought of our
souls lay clear before each of us, and I seized his hand.
"One thing thou must still know, one thing that till now has been a
secret between myself and Heaven. My whole soul is filled with love!
with a love stronger than the love I bear to my mother and to thee!"
"And whom do you love?" asked Aphtanides, and his face and neck grew
red as fire.
"I love Anastasia," I replied--and his hand trembled in mine, and he
became pale as a corpse. I saw it; I understood the cause; and I
believe _my_ hand trembled. I bent towards him, kissed his forehead,
and whispered, "I have never spoken of it to her, and perhaps she does
not love me. Brother, think of this: I have seen her daily; she has
grown up beside me, and has become a part of my soul!"
"And she shall be thine!" he exclaimed, "thine! I may not deceive
thee, nor will I do so. I also love her; but to-morrow I depart. In a
year we shall see each other once more, and then you will be married,
will you not? I have a little gold of my own: it shall be thine. Thou
must, thou shalt take it."
And we wandered home silently across the mountains. It was late in the
evening when we stood at my mother's door.
Anastasia held the lamp upwards as we entered; my mother was not
there. She gazed at Aphtanides with a beautifully mournful gaze.
"To-morrow you are going from us," she said: "I am very sorry for
it."
"Sorry!" he repeated, and in his voice there seemed a trouble as great
as the grief I myself felt. I could not speak, but he seized her hand
and said, "Our brother yonder loves you, and he is dear to you, is he
not? His very silence is a proof of his affection."
Anastasia trembled and burst into tears. Then I saw no one but her,
thought of none but her, and threw my arms round her, and said, "I
love thee!" She pressed her lips to mine, and flung her arms round my
neck; but the lamp had fallen to the ground, and all was dark around
us--dark as in the heart of poor Aphtanides.
Before daybreak he rose, kissed us all, said farewell, and went away.
He had given all his money to my mother for us. Anastasia was my
betrothed, and a few days afterwards she became my wife.
JACK THE DULLARD.
AN OLD STORY TOLD ANEW.
Far in the interior of the country lay an old baronial hall, and in it
lived an old proprietor, who had two sons, which two young men thought
themselves too clever by half. They wanted to go out and woo the
king's daughter; for the maiden in question had publicly announced
that she would choose for her husband that youth who could arrange his
words best.
So these two geniuses prepared themselves a full week for the
wooing--this was the longest time that could be granted them; but it
was enough, for they had had much preparatory information, and
everybody knows how useful that is. One of them knew the whole Latin
dictionary by heart, and three whole years of the daily paper of the
little town into the bargain; and so well, indeed, that he could
repeat it all either backwards or forwards, just as he chose. The
other was deeply read in the corporation laws, and knew by heart what
every corporation ought to know; and accordingly he thought he could
talk of affairs of state, and put his spoke in the wheel in the
council. And he knew one thing more: he could embroider braces with
roses and other flowers, and with arabesques, for he was a tasty,
light-fingered fellow.
"I shall win the princess!" So cried both of them. Therefore their old
papa gave to each a handsome horse. The youth who knew the dictionary
and newspaper by heart had a black horse, and he who knew all about
the corporation laws received a milk-white steed. Then they rubbed the
corners of their mouths with fish-oil, so that they might become very
smooth and glib. All the servants stood below in the courtyard, and
looked on while they mounted their horses; and just by chance the
third son came up. For the proprietor had really three sons, though
nobody counted the third with his brothers, because he was not so
learned as they, and indeed he was generally known as "Jack the
Dullard."
"Hallo!" said Jack the Dullard, "where are you going? I declare you
have put on your Sunday clothes!"
"We're going to the king's court, as suitors to the king's daughter.
Don't you know the announcement that has been made all through the
country?" And they told him all about it.
"My word! I'll be in it too!" cried Jack the Dullard; and his two
brothers burst out laughing at him, and rode away.
"Father dear," said Jack, "I must have a horse too. I do feel so
desperately inclined to marry! If she accepts me, she accepts me; and
if she won't have me, I'll have her; but she _shall_ be mine!"
"Don't talk nonsense," replied the old gentleman. "You shall have no
horse from me. You don't know how to speak--you can't arrange your
words. Your brothers are very different fellows from you."
"Well," quoth Jack the Dullard, "if I can't have a horse, I'll take
the billy-goat, who belongs to me, and he can carry me very well!"
And so said, so done. He mounted the billy-goat, pressed his heels
into its sides, and gallopped down the high street like a hurricane.
"Hei, houp! that was a ride! Here I come!" shouted Jack the Dullard,
and he sang till his voice echoed far and wide.
But his brothers rode slowly on in advance of him. They spoke not a
word, for they were thinking about all the fine extempore speeches
they would have to bring out, and all these had to be cleverly
prepared beforehand.
"Hallo!" shouted Jack the Dullard. "Here am I! Look what I have found
on the high-road." And he showed them what it was, and it was a dead
crow.
"Dullard!" exclaimed the brothers, "what are you going to do with
that?"
"With the crow? why, I am going to give it to the princess."
"Yes, do so," said they; and they laughed, and rode on.
"Hallo, here I am again! Just see what I have found now: you don't
find that on the high-road every day!"
And the brothers turned round to see what he could have found now.
[Illustration: JACK'S INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCESS.]
"Dullard!" they cried, "that is only an old wooden shoe, and the upper
part is missing into the bargain; are you going to give that also to
the princess?"
"Most certainly I shall," replied Jack the Dullard; and again the
brothers laughed and rode on, and thus they got far in advance of him;
but----
"Hallo--hop rara!" and there was Jack the Dullard again. "It is
getting better and better," he cried. "Hurrah! it is quite famous."
"Why, what have you found this time?" inquired the brothers.
"Oh," said Jack the Dullard, "I can hardly tell you. How glad the
princess will be!"
"Bah!" said the brothers; "that is nothing but clay out of the ditch."
"Yes, certainly it is," said Jack the Dullard; "and clay of the finest
sort. See, it is so wet, it runs through one's fingers." And he filled
his pocket with the clay.
But his brothers gallopped on till the sparks flew, and consequently
they arrived a full hour earlier at the town-gate than could Jack. Now
at the gate each suitor was provided with a number, and all were
placed in rows immediately on their arrival, six in each row, and so
closely packed together that they could not move their arms; and that
was a prudent arrangement, for they would certainly have come to
blows, had they been able, merely because one of them stood before the
other.