Day had dawned fully three hours ere I arose. The great ruins, revealed
by the brilliant morning sun, were much more extensive than I had at
first believed. For fully half a mile mighty columns rose, here and
there, like gigantic, moveless giants; many had fallen, and their walls
of enormous blocks and their prostrate pillars looked up piteously to
the day. Time alone had worn down their rigid strength, and swept the
capstones from the towers. Time, too, had clad some of them in a
disintegrating mantle of green.
There was not one of the hundred columns and monoliths in which did not
lurk some tale, or many tales, of loyalty, or treason, or despair.
There was not one of the five great gates I could distinguish whose
portal had not swung open wide for processions of triumphal pageantry,
of exalted grief, of pagan pomp, or military expedition. Thick as the
leaves of the climbing plants, festooning crevice, niche and broken
parapet, must be the legends, traditions and true tales that enwrapped
those walls if man still inhabited that land. Upon the stones, chipped
with surprising neatness and regularity, were many uneffaced
inscriptions; the pompous eulogies therein contained being the only
epitaphs the long-dead founders of the Kingdom of Ea possessed. This
prodigious pile, useless centuries ago, torn by earthquakes and half
levelled by time, was indeed a fitting monument to the great Semiramis,
the self-indulgent Queen, the conqueror of all lands from the Indus to
the Mediterranean, and builder of Babylon, the most extensive and
wonderful capital in the world.
At last, turning my back upon the desolate scene, I went forward and
commenced to ascend the steep hillside. It was a stiff ascent, but, on
gaining the summit, I looked down upon a panorama of beauty impossible
to adequately describe. Streams, forests and verdant valleys stretched
out below, bounded far away by a range of fantastic mountains rising in
finger points in all directions. Proceeding in search of the
mysterious, unknown city, which, according to the inscription, lay in
the direction of prayer, I descended the steep hill, passed through vast
entanglements of jungle in the valleys, suddenly coming across a
delightful stream watering a narrow valley with precipitous walls of
rock on either side, and densely filled with all kinds of tropical
vegetation. I ate some bananas, revelled in the luxury of a bath, and
then continued my journey towards the sunrise by plunging into a forest
of quol-quol trees, some of which reached to the height of sixty feet,
stretching out their weird arms in every direction. The quol-quol is an
uncanny-looking tree, exuding a poisonous, milky gum, which is
exceedingly dangerous. The Dervishes, in making their roads around
Khartoum and Omdurman, had much difficulty with this tree, for the milk
from it, if it squirts into the eyes when the tree is cut, produces
blindness. Beneath the trees were flowering, rich-coloured gladioli,
long, hanging orchids, sugar plants, and many thorny trees of a species
I had never before seen.
Lonely, and half convinced that I had entered a land uninhabited and
forgotten, I threaded the mazes of this veritable poison forest, at
length emerging into a clump of gigantic baobabs, and thence into a
slightly undulating district, sparsely clothed with thorns and
euphorbia, and teeming with game. At last I found myself crossing a
beautiful, park-like track where herds of buffalo grazed undisturbed,
and at sundown came to a rich, fertile country, dotted with clumps of
pine-trees and large patches of forest, abounding in pretty glades and
glens of mimosa brush full of beautiful blue birds and monkeys.
That night I sought sleep under a huge sycamore, and next day continued
my tramp towards the distant range of mountains, over the crests of
which showed the first rosy tint of dawn. Compelled sometimes to wade
streams, and often climbing and descending precipitous rocks, passing
through narrow, romantic gorges, and coming now and then upon beautiful
and unexpected cascades, I toiled onward through that day, and although
I passed some ruins, apparently of a house, half hidden by wild
vegetation, yet I discovered no trace of the existence of living man.
Never before had I experienced such a sense of utter loneliness. I had
the bright sun and cloudless sky above. I was free to wander hither and
thither, and around me grew fruits that were the necessaries of life;
but I was alive in a region which, as far as I could observe, had
remained untrodden for many centuries. Again I spent the night beneath
a tree, my head pillowed on a fallen branch; and again I set forth to
reach my goal, as recorded on the rock-tablet of Semiramis. Forward,
ever in the direction of the Holy Ca'aba across grass plains, through
rocky ravines and shady woods bright with flowers, and as
sweetly-scented as the harem of a sultan, I trudged onward, in my hand a
long, stout staff which I had broken from a tree, in my heart a feeling
that I alone was monarch of this smiling, unknown Land of the No Return
that I had discovered.
Yet I remembered that, after all, I had not yet elucidated the mystery
of which I was in search--the reason of the Mark of the Asps; and
although I had discovered it in the hand of the Assyrian goddess, yet
such discovery only increased its mystery. So I kept on my toilsome
path, stage by stage, still pious, still hopeful, still believing that
the secret of the linked reptiles would eventually be explained.
Never swerving from the direction of the sunrise, and each day at the
_maghrib_ making a mark upon my staff with the sharp stone I carried, I
continued in search of the city of Semiramis. Up the almost
inaccessible face of one of the great mountains of the range I had seen
afar I toiled many hours, until, stepping from sunshine into mist and
drizzle, my feet were upon the snow that covered their summits, and the
intense cold chilled me to the bone. Higher yet was I compelled to
climb, until, as if by magic, I passed through the belt of mist into
brilliant sunshine again. The effect was one of the most curious I had
ever witnessed. Below was a sea of crumpled clouds, extending as far as
the eye could reach, out of which peered high mountain peaks like
islands in a sea of fleecy wool. During two whole days I clambered,
half-starved and chilled, across this vast, towering range. The air was
health-giving and invigorating. In the early morning everything was
clear and bright; as the day advanced the clouds would gather from the
plains and gradually roll up the mountain side, enveloping the lowlands
and valleys in a dense mist; occasionally, towards sundown, this mist
would roll over the edge and envelop a little of the high plateau in its
clammy folds, but it quickly dispersed as the sun went down, and the
morning would again break bright, with hoar frost sparkling everywhere.
At the foot of the mountains the ground was swampy and enveloped
perpetually in a white mist, so dense that, for a further period of two
days, I wandered over the marshes, not knowing the direction in which I
was travelling, but trusting to the keen natural instinct with which men
of my race are endowed. So dense was this mist hanging over the
trackless, pestilential bog that I could distinguish nothing a leopard's
leap distant, and my gandoura was as soaked with moisture as if I had
waded a river. Judge my surprise, however, when suddenly I found that
the vapours had veiled from my eager eyes another more inaccessible and
still higher belt of mountain than the first.
Darkness was already creeping on when I made this discovery, therefore I
resolved to rest and sleep before attempting to climb the rugged heights
before me. It was necessary, in order to discover the direction of the
mysterious city, that I should climb above the belt of impenetrable mist
and take bearings in the clear atmosphere. Fortunately I had found a
banana-tree a few hours previously and carried some of its fruit with
me, therefore I ate my fill, and afterwards threw myself down to snatch
a few hours' slumber.
How long I lay I know not, but I was startled by feeling a soft, clammy
object steal slowly across my breast. It was as icy cold as the hand of
a corpse. Opening my eyes quickly, I was dazzled by a brilliant light
shining into them, but in an instant the bright flash disappeared and an
unearthly and demoniac yell sounded about me. In the impenetrable
darkness, caused by night and the dense mist combined, I could
distinguish nothing, but, starting up, held my breath in alarm,
listening to the echoing yells receding in the distance. They sounded
like three loud shouts in the same strain, followed by a long, plaintive
wail.
At first I endeavoured to reassure myself that my breast had not been
touched by the clammy snout of some wandering animal which had been
startled by my sudden movement, but try how I would I could not convince
myself that those yells proceeded from any but a human being. Again, as
I felt my gandoura, I discovered that it had been unloosened with care,
evidently for the purpose of closely examining the mark I bore upon my
breast! The bright light, too, was an undeniable fact which pointed
conclusively to the presence of human inhabitants of this mist-enveloped
ravine.
Sleep came no more to my eyes, for through the long, dreary night I kept
a watchful vigil. Strange noises, as if of some one moving cautiously
in my vicinity, sounded about me, but in which direction I could never
detect with certainty, for both shadows and sounds became distorted by
the thick vapours by which I was surrounded. Several times I heard the
same mysterious, mournful cry, now close to me, and again sounding afar,
as if in answer to the plaintive call. Scarcely daring to move, I
patiently awaited the light of day, which came at last, spreading
gradually at first, but soon causing the darkness around me to fall, and
the white, choking vapours to become more dense and bewildering. There
was the same strange, sulphurous odour that I had experienced when
swimming the Lake of the Accursed, and I began to fear that the
poisonous gases exuded from the swamps would cause asphyxiation. As
soon, therefore, as the light grew strong enough to enable me to see
where I placed my feet, I started forward to face the huge mountain. I
had not taken three paces before my eyes, keeping careful watch upon the
ground, detected something which caused me to involuntarily utter a cry
of surprise.
At my feet was lying a short, straight sword, in a scabbard of
beautifully-chased gold, with a magnificently jewelled cross hilt. It
was attached to a leather girdle, the buckle of which was thickly set
with fine emeralds, and the bright condition of the scabbard, and the
keen, unrusted appearance of the blued-steel blade told me that it had
not remained there many hours. Then it occurred to me that the weapon
was similar in design to the ancient one I had found in the Cavern of
the Devourer, and that it must have been dropped by my mysterious
visitant. It was plain that, after all, I was not the only human being
in that mysterious Land of the No Return; equally certain, also, that my
intrusion had been discovered.
Was this the Land of the Myriad Mysteries, that region dreaded by my
clansmen of the deserts from the Atlas to the Niger? Was this weird,
misty gorge, devoid of herbage, and exuding a death-dealing breath, the
actual entrance of the territory of all-consuming terror?
I paused, examining the weapon curiously, wondering who might be its
owner. Fearing, however, to remain there longer, I buckled the girdle
about my waist, and aided by my staff, commenced the steep and toilsome
ascent.
An hour's hard climbing took me above the heavy vapours into the
brilliant light of day, and I then discovered that the mountain I was
negotiating was of greater altitude than any of the peaks of my native
Atlas. At first the slopes were grass-covered, and mimosa bushes grew
plentifully, but as I went higher there were only patches of stunted
herbage, and higher still no herbage grew. As hour by hour I toiled
upward, in places so steep that I had to use both hands and knees, I
gradually neared the region of eternal snow. Soon after noon I halted,
seating myself upon a rock to rest. Gloomy thoughts oppressed me.
Below was nothing but a sea of vapour; above a sky brilliant, without a
cloud.
Being compelled to pass through that curious gorge of grey, eternal
mist, I had lost my bearings entirely, and knew not in what direction I
was now journeying. For the past two days I had been travelling through
a shadowy and inhospitable region, wherein I had seen not a beast of the
field nor fowl of the air. The action of the mysterious visitant
puzzled me. If it were a man, as I supposed, why should the mark upon
my breast have such attraction for him? In his hurried flight he had
lost his sword, and apparently feared to return to seek it. The enigma
puzzled me, occupying my thoughts during the whole of that fatiguing and
perilous climb.
Having rested for nearly an hour, my eye suddenly caught the notches
upon my staff. I picked it up and carefully counted them.
They were already fourteen. On this, the fifteenth day, I ought, if
credence were to be placed in the rock tablet of Semiramis, to reach the
mystic city of Ea.
Eager to gain the summit and gaze upon the land beyond, I rose and once
more plodded onward with dogged pertinacity. Upwards I strode, until
the perspiration rolled in great beads from my brow, and my matted,
unkempt hair became wet from the same cause. As I gained a kind of
small plateau, covered deeply by untrodden snow, an icy blast chilled me
to the marrow, causing me to wrap my rags closer about me; but heeding
not fatigue, I sped rapidly over the small plain and commenced the final
ascent to the lowest crest over which I could pass. This occupied me
fully two hours, for the ascent was the most difficult I had yet
encountered; but presently I found myself upon a stretch of
comparatively level ground, with snow lying thickly everywhere, and the
surface frozen so hard that my feet left no imprints. Beyond this plain
was only the sky, therefore I knew that I had at last reached the
highest point.
In order to regain breath I was compelled to halt for a few seconds, but
those moments were full of intense eagerness. What lay beyond I feared
to ascertain. Whether I had travelled in the right direction I was
unaware; but if I had, then it was time that I should reach the goal for
which I had so long and so arduously striven.
The iron of despair was entering my soul, but next second, shaking if
off, I dashed forward at full speed to the edge of the lofty plateau,
and gazed with wondering, wide-open eyes into the land beyond.
The panorama below held me speechless in wonderment. Dumbfounded, I
stood open-mouthed, rigid, rooted to the spot.