But it was already the hour of the _maghrib_, and the fast dying day
showed that the time I had spent in the wonderful dwelling of the Great
Devourer, was longer than I had imagined. Remembering that at that hour
Azala had opened her lattice and breathed to me her silent message of
love, I sank upon my knees, and turning in the direction of prayer, went
through my sunset devotions with an earnest fervency which I fear was
unusual, thanking Allah in a loud and thrice-repeated Fatiha. Rising,
and lifting my hands to heaven, I uttered the words that pilgrims repeat
before the Black Stone in the Holy Ca'aba: "There is no God but Allah
alone, Whose Covenant is Truth, and Whose Servant is Victorious. There
is no God but Allah without Sharer; His is the Kingdom, to him be
Praise, and He over all Things is potent."
Then, having kissed my fingers, I made a meal from bananas I plucked
from a neighbouring tree, and having slacked my thirst at a tiny stream,
the water of which was as cool as that of the well Zem Zem, I skirted
the forest for a considerable distance, but finding my further progress
barred by a wide river, that, emerging from the wood, ran in serpentine
wanderings around the base of the high, inaccessible mountains, I was
compelled to plunge into the forest. Upon the tablets of Semiramis, it
was stated that the unknown city of Ea had been built at a spot fifteen
marches towards the sunrise, therefore in that direction I proceeded.
At first, the forest was rendered dark and gloomy by the entangled
bushes, but the trees soon grew thinner, yet more luxurious. Many of
them were in blossom; many bore strange fruits that I had never before
beheld; while the ground was carpeted with moss and an abundance of
bright-hued flowers. Everywhere was an air of peaceful repose. Birds
were chattering before roosting in the branches above, the rays of the
sinking sun gilded the leaves and fell in golden shafts across my path,
a bubbling brook ran with rippling music over the pebbles, and the air
was heavily laden with the subtle scent of a myriad perfumes.
Presently, when I had penetrated the belt of forest and emerged into the
open grassland, I stood in amazement, gazing upon one of the fairest and
most picturesque landscapes that my wondering eyes had ever beheld.
The country I had entered was the dreaded kingdom of the Myriad
Mysteries; yet, judging from its fertility and natural beauties, it
appeared to me more like the paradise our Koran promises for our
enjoyment than a land of dread. Indeed, as I stood there in the cool
sunset hour, amid the fruitful trees, sweet flowers and smiling plains,
bounded far away by ranges of purple mountains, I doubt whether it would
have surprised me to have met in that veritable garden of delights the
black-eyed houris which the Book of Everlasting Will describes as
dwelling in pavilions, among trees of mauz and lote-trees free from
thorns. Such, indeed, I thought, must be the dwelling-place prepared
for the Companions of the Right Hand, for are they not promised couches
adorned with gold and precious stones, under an extended shade, near a
flowing water, and amidst fruits of abundance which shall not fail nor
shall be forbidden to be gathered?
Slowly turning, I gazed back upon the Rock of Sin, the Moon-god, the
name of which in the centuries that had passed had been so strangely
corrupted by Arabs and pagans alike, and noticed that although from
where I stood its summit looked similar in form to its aspect from the
other side of the Lake of the Accursed, yet it was not so lofty here,
and evidently this hitherto undiscovered region was considerably higher
than the countries surrounding it, although even here the mountains
forming its boundary were of great altitude, many of their summits being
tipped with snow. Dark, frowning and mysterious, the rock rose high
among the many peaks of the unknown range, while behind the giant crests
to the left the western sky was literally ablaze, and the sun, having
already disappeared, caused them to loom darkly in the shadows.
Out upon the plain I passed, keeping still to eastward, but soon the
light blue veil of the mountains before me became tinted with violet and
indigo, and finally settled into leaden death. Then night crept on, and
the stars shone bright as diamonds in a sultan's aigrette. During
several silent hours I could discover no sign of man, but at length,
when I had crossed the plain, with the moon lighting my footsteps like a
lamp, I approached, at the foot of a hill, a wonderful colonnade of
colossal stone columns, some of which had broken off half way up and
fallen, while across the quaintly-sculptured capitals of others there
still remained great square blocks that had once supported a roof. Here
and there in the vicinity were other columns, singly, and in twos and
threes, while the intervening ground was covered with _debris_, over
which crept a growth of tangled vegetation, as if striving to hide the
ravages of time.
The great ruin, apparently of an ancient palace or temple, stood in
desolate grandeur, ghostly in the white moonlight, while behind rose
verdant hills, steep and difficult of ascent. Approaching close to the
columns, through a mass of fallen masonry and wildly-luxuriant verdure,
I examined them, and was struck by the enormous size of the blocks of
stone from which they had been fashioned, and the curious and grotesque
manner in which they had been sculptured with figures. The art was of
the same character on these monoliths as upon the tablet of Semiramis,
the beautiful and brilliant queen who was worshipped as a goddess.
There were many representations of the Assyrian deity, and in places
lines of cuneiform writing, but the suns and rains of ages had almost
obliterated them, and had also caused much damage to the sculptured
figures.
In the silence of the brilliant night I stood beneath those amazing
relics of a forgotten civilisation and pictured the departed
magnificence of the wonderful structure. There remained portions of an
enormous gateway, with giant winged human figures carved out of huge
blocks of stone; and on examining one of these I found a portion of an
inscription, in long, thin lines of arrowheads, easily decipherable in
the full light of the moon. After a little difficulty I succeeded in
reading it as follows:--
"_In the beginning of my everlasting reign there was revealed to me a
dream. Merodach, the Great Lord, and Sin, the Illuminator of Heaven and
Earth, stood round about me. Merodach spake to me, `O Semiramis, Queen
of Babylon, with the horses of thy chariot come, the bricks of the House
of Light make, and the Moon, the Great Lord within it caused to be
raised his dwelling.' Reverently I spake to the lord of the gods,
Merodach, `This house, of which thou speakest, I will build, and the
temple shall be the dwelling of the Moon-god in Ea_'."
What a magnificent pile it must have been in those long-forgotten days
when the legions of Semiramis marched, in glittering array, through the
long colonnade to worship the Moon-god, Sin, beneath the statues of
illustrious Babylonians! or when their luxurious ruler, enthroned a
queen in the hearts of her people, and dowered with charms that inspired
to heroism, flashed through those great corridors in her gilded chariot,
surrounded by her crowd of martial courtiers and fair slaves! or when,
with bare arms and golden helmet on her head, with all the pomp of war,
she sallied forth on her fleet steed, caparisoned in crimson and gold,
to review and harangue her warriors on the plain.
Allah had destroyed it because it was ungodly.
No trace of the presence of living man had I discovered, and I began to
wonder whether, after all, this Land of the No Return was uninhabited;
for was it not likely that in the ages that had passed since its
discovery by Babylon's queen, the colony, like the once-powerful race
beside the Euphrates, had dwindled away and become entirely extinct!
There were no signs of these ruins having been visited, no trace of any
recent encampment, or the dead ashes of the fires of recent travellers.
Upon the stretch of bare, stony ground, before the half-ruined gateway
which would have served as a good camping-ground, I searched diligently,
but discovered nothing that proved the existence of inhabitants;
therefore, wearied and footsore, I at length threw myself down at the
base of one of the giant monoliths, and with part of my gandoura over my
face to shield it from the evil influence of the moonbeams, sank into
heavy, dreamless slumber.