them, in basins of porphyry, the women they loved float upon the
surfaces of black liquids. Their treasures are all arrayed in halls, in
lozenge-shaped designs, in little heaps, in pyramids;--and down below,
far below the tombs, and to be reached only after long travelling
through stifling darkness, there are rivers of gold bordered by forests
of diamonds, there are fields of carbuncles and lakes of mercury.
"Addossed against the subterranean gate I remain with claws uplifted;
and my flaming eyes spy out those who seek to approach. The vast and
naked plain that stretches away to the end of the horizon is whitened
with the bones of travellers. But for thee the gates of bronze shall
open; and thou shalt inhale the vapour of the mines, thou shalt descend
into the caverns.... Quick! quick!"
(_He burrows into the earth with his paws, and crows like a cock._
_A thousand voices answer him. The forest trembles._
_And all manner of frightful creatures arise:--The Tragelaphus, half
deer, half ox; the Myrmecoles, lion before-and ant behind, whose
genitals are set reversely; the python Askar, sixty cubits long, that
terrified Moses; the huge weasel Pastinaca, that kills the trees with
her odour; the Presteros, that makes those who touch it imbecile;
the Mirag, a horned hare, that dwells in the islands of the sea. The
leopard Phalmant bursts his belly by roaring; the triple-headed bear
Senad tears her young by licking them with her tongue; the dog Cepus
pours out the blue milk of her teats upon the rocks. Mosquitoes begin
to hum, toads commence to leap; serpents hiss. Lightnings flicker. Hail
falls._
_Then come gusts, bearing with them marvellous anatomies:--Heads of
alligators with hoofs of deer; owls with serpent tails; swine with
tiger-muzzles; goats with the crupper of an ass; frogs hairy as bears;
chameleons huge as hippopotami; calves with two heads, one bellowing,
the other weeping; winged bellies flitting hither and thither like
gnats._
_They rain from the sky, they rise from the earth, they pour from the
rocks; everywhere eyes flame, mouths roar, breasts bulge, claws are
extended, teeth gnash, flesh clacks against flesh. Some crouch; some
devour each other at a mouthful._
_Suffocating under their own numbers, multiplying by their own contact,
they climb over one another; and move about Anthony with a surging
motion as though the ground were the deck of a ship. He feels the trail
of snails upon the calves of his legs, the chilliness of vipers upon
his hands:--and spiders spinning about him enclose him within their
network._
_But the monstrous circle breaks, parts; the sky suddenly becomes blue;
and_)--
THE UNICORN (_appears_):
"Gallop! Gallop!
"I have hoofs of ivory, teeth of steel; my head is the colour of
purple, my body the colour of snow; and the horn of my forehead is
bestreaked with the tints of the rainbow.
"I travel from Chaldea to the Tartar desert,--upon the shores of the
Ganges and in Mesopotamia. I overtake the ostriches. I run so swiftly
that I draw the wind after me. I rub my back against the palm-trees. I
roll among the bamboos. I leap rivers with a single bound. Doves fly
above me. Only a virgin can bridle me.
"Gallop! Gallop!"
(_Anthony watches him depart._
_And as he gazes he beholds all the birds that nourish themselves
with wind: the Gouith, the Ahuti, the Alphalim, the Iukneth, of the
mountains of Kaf, the homai of the Arabs--which are the souls of
murdered men. He hears the parrots that utter human speech; and the
great Pelasgian palmipeds that sob like children or chuckle like old
women._
_A saline air strikes his nostrils. Now a vast beach stretches before
him._
_In the distance jets of water arise, spouted by whales; and from the
very end of the horizon come_)--
THE BEASTS OF THE SEA
(_round as wineskins, flat as blades, denticulated like saws, dragging
themselves over the sand as they approach_):
[Illustration: The beasts of the sea round as wineskins ...]
"Thou wilt accompany us to our immensities, whither as yet no one has
descended.
"Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean. Some dwell in the
sojourn of tempests; others swim freely amid the transparency of chill
waves;--or, like oxen, graze upon the coral plains, or suck in through
their trunks the reflux of the tides,--or bear upon their shoulders the
vast weight of the sources of the sea."
[Illustration: Divers peoples inhabit the countries of the Ocean.]
(_Phosphorences gleam in the moustaches of the seals, shift in the
scales of fish. Echini whirl like wheels; ammonites uncoil like cables;
oysters make their shell hinges squeak; polypi unfold their tentacles;
medusæ quiver like balls of crystal suspended; sponges float hither and
thither, anemones ejaculate water; wrack and sea-mosses have grown all
about._
_And all sorts of plants extend themselves into branches, twist
themselves into screws, lengthen into points, round themselves out like
fans. Gourds take the appearance of breasts; lianas interlace like
serpents._
_The Dedaims of Babylon, which are trees, bear human heads for fruit;
Mandragoras sing;--the root Baaras runs through the grass._
_And now the vegetables are no longer distinguishable from the animals.
Polyparies that seem like trees, have arms upon their branches. Anthony
thinks he sees a caterpillar between two leaves: it is a butterfly that
takes flight. He is about to step on a pebble: a grey locust leaps
away. One shrub is bedecked with insects that look like petals of
roses; fragments of ephemerides form a snowy layer upon the soil._
_And then the plants become confounded with the stones._
_Flints assume the likeness of brains; stalactites of breasts; the
flower of iron resembles a figured tapestry._[2]
_He sees efflorescences in fragments of ice, imprints of shrubs and
shells--yet so that one cannot detect whether they be imprints only, or
the things themselves. Diamonds gleam like eyes; metals palpitate._
_And all fear has departed from him! He throws himself down upon the
ground, and leaning upon his elbows, watches breathlessly._
_Insects that have no stomachs persistently eat; withered ferns bloom
again and reflower; absent members grow again._
_At last he perceives tiny globular masses, no larger than pinheads,
with cilia all round them. They are agitated with a vibratile motion_):
ANTHONY (_deliriously_):
"O joy! O bliss! I have beheld the birth of life! I have seen the
beginning of motion! My pulses throb even to the point of bursting!
I long to fly, to swim, to bark, to bellow, to howl! Would that I
had wings, a carapace, a shell,--that I could breathe out smoke,
wield a trunk,--make my body writhe,--divide myself everywhere,--be
in everything,--emanate with odours,--develop myself like the
plants,--flow like water,--vibrate like sound--shine like light,
squatting upon all forms--penetrate each atom--descend to the very
bottom of matter,--be matter itself!"
(_Day at last appears;--and, like tabernacle curtains uplifted, clouds
of gold uprolling in broad volutes unveil the sky._
_Even in the midst thereof, and in the very disk of the sun, beams the
face of Jesus Christ._
[Illustration: Day at last appears ... in the midst thereof and
in the very disk of the sun, beams the face of Jesus Christ.]
_Anthony makes the sign of the cross, and resumes his devotions._)
FINIS
[1] Winkelmann claims to have been the first to discover that the
Egyptian sphinxes were bisexual--females before--males otherwise. (See
Book II, chap. I, § 25.) Flaubert speaks of the Sphinx in the masculine
like Philemon. (See also Signor Carlo Fea's note upon the paragraph in
Winkelmann, old French edition. An II, R. F.)--Trans.
[2] Fleurs de fer, "flowers of iron." In mineralogy _flos ferri_, a
form of Aragonite.--Trans.
[NOTE
Those who compare this translation with the original will observe the
omission of some few paragraphs on pages 77, 96 and 211. They are
speeches put in the mouths of certain Heresiarchs, or complaints of
certain of the minor Roman household gods. The translator relegated
these to an addenda, which the publishers have omitted as being
unnecessary. Those who are familiar with the original will be able to
supply them, and will realize that while they might be offensive to
some persons, they are in no respect an integral or important part of
the great drama.]
ADDENDA (added by transcribers)
A. Observation of Manes, pages 82-3, original text; page 89 of
translation.
MANES
_Ou plutôt, faites si bien qu'elle ne soit pas fécondes. Mieux vaut
pour l'ame tomber sur la terre que de languir dans des entraves
charnelles._
Probably a calumny against Manes; for the Eastern philosophy,
especially that of Zoroaster, which is said to have inspired the tenets
of Manichæism, advocated no such abominations.
B. Page 105 of original; page 108 translation. The realistic
phraseology of the original passage is rather brutal. The French text
reads: "_Il souffrait de la maladie Bellerephontienne; et sa mère, la
parfumeuse, s'est livrée à Pantherus, un soldat Romain, sur des gerbes
de mais, un soir de moisson._" C. Descriptive text, page 237 original,
partly suppressed on page 223 translation: "_Et il lui montre dans un
bosquet d'aliziers Une Femme toute nue, à quatre pattes comme une bête,
et saillie par un homme noir, tenant dans chaque main un flambeau._"
D. Curious text of Crepitus, on page 228, pages 241-3 of original:
CREPITUS
(----se fait entendre):
_Moi aussi l'on m'honora jadis. On me faisait des libations. Je fus un
Dieu!_
_L'Athénien me saluait comme un presage de fortune, tandis que le
Romain dévot me maudissait les poings levés et que le pontife d'Egypte,
s'abstinant des fèves, tremblait à ma voix et pâlissait à mon odeur._
_Quand le vinaigre militaire coulait sur les barbes non rasées, qu'on
se régalait de glands, de pois, et d'oignons crus, et que le bouc en
morceau cuissait dans le beurre rance des pasteurs, sans souci du
voisin, personne alors ne se gênait. Les nourritures solides faisaient
digestions retentissantes. Au soleil de la campagne les hommes se
soulageaient avec lenteur._
_Ainsi, je passais sans scandale, comme les autres besoins de la vie,
comme Mena, tourment des vierges, et la douce Rumina qui protège le
sein de la nourrice, gonflé, des veines bleuâtres. J'étais joyeux. Je
faisais rire. Et se dilatant d'aise à cause de moi, le convive exhalait
toute sa gaieté par les ouvertures de son corps._
_J'ai eu mes jours d'orgeuil. Le bon Aristophane me promena sur la
scène, et l'empereur Claudius Drusus[1] me fit asseoir à sa table. Dans
les laticlaves des patriciens j'ai circulé majestueusement! Les vases
d'or, comme des tympanons, resonnaient sous moi; et, quand plein de
murènes, de truffles, et de pâtés, l'intestin du maître se dégageait
avec fracas, l'univers attentif apprenait que César avait diné!_
_Mais à présent, je suis confiné dans la populace_[2] _et l'on se
récrie, même à mon nom!_
_Et Crepitus s'éloigne, en poussant un gémissement...._
E. For descriptions of the Martichoras and other monsters, appearing
page 287 in the original and 263 in the translation, see also Rabelais'
Pantagruel, Book V, Chap. XXX.
[1] Needless to refer to the comedies of Aristophanes, with which
English readers have been familiarized through the Bohn translations.
The reference to Claudius ius Drusus seems based upon the following
lines in Suetonius: "_Dicitur etiam meditatus edictum, quo veniam daret
flatum crepitumque ventris in convivio emittendi: cum periclitatum
quemdam prae pudore ex continentia reperisset._" (_Suetonius-Tiberius
Claudius Drusus_: 32.)
[2] The so-called divinities, _Deus Crepitus, Dea Pertunda, Deus
Stercutius, Dea Rumina_ (or _Rumilia_), _Dea Mena_, concerning whose
curious attributes the reader may consult English or French classical
encyclopedists, were doubtless regarded by the intelligent classes
of antiquity much as certain religious superstitions are regarded by
educated moderns. It is true that they furnished grotesque themes
to artists; but many existing superstitions regarding elves and
goblins have inspired modern sculptors, painters and designers.
Certainly, seriously worshipped as deities, Priapus might seem equally
contemptible as a divinity; but his worship, degenerate as it became
in later years, was primitively symbolical. The obscene image merely
typified the procreative Spirit of Nature. The eccentric gods and
goddesses above referred to had no such excuse for being. As previously
observed, however, Flaubert artistically represents these divinities
not as they were really considered in the antique world, but rather as
they would have appeared to the eyes of zealous Christians in the third
century--infamous and loathsome.--Translator.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
This translation of the "Tentation" by Lafcadio Hearn, still regarded
by many as the best up until now in English, still misses some small
fragments (of a couple of words) not deemed fit for the Anglo-Saxon
temperament of that time. There is a contemporary version (2002) of
this translation available, with introduction by Michel Foucault and
the inclusion of some missing expressions. The original French by
Gustave Flaubert is also available at Project Gutenberg--see
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10982