Now the happenings just recorded befell on the eve of the Nativity
of St. John the Baptist: and thereafter Jurgen abode in Cocaigne,
and complied with the customs of that country.
In the palace of Queen Anaïtis, all manner of pastimes were
practised without any cessation. Jurgen, who considered himself to
be somewhat of an authority upon such contrivances, was soon
astounded by his own innocence. For Anaïtis showed him whatever was
being done in Cocaigne, to this side and to that side, under the
direction of Anaïtis, whom Jurgen found to be a nature myth of
doubtful origin connected with the Moon; and who, in consequence,
ruled not merely in Cocaigne but furtively swayed the tides of life
everywhere the Moon keeps any power over tides. It was the mission
of Anaïtis to divert and turn aside and deflect: in this the jealous
Moon abetted her because sunlight makes for straightforwardness. So
Anaïtis and the Moon were staunch allies. These mysteries of their
private relations, however, as revealed to Jurgen, are not very
nicely repeatable.
"But you dishonored the Moon, Prince Jurgen, denying praise to the
day of the Moon. Or so, at least, I have heard."
"I remember doing nothing of the sort. But I remember considering it
unjust to devote one paltry day to the Moon's majesty. For night is
sacred to the Moon, each night that ever was the friend of
lovers,--night, the renewer and begetter of all life."
"Why, indeed, there is something in that argument," says Anaïtis,
dubiously.
"'Something', do you say! why, but to my way of thinking it proves
the Moon is precisely seven times more honorable than any of the
Léshy. It is merely, my dear, a question of arithmetic."
"Was it for that reason you did not praise Pandelis and her Mondays
with the other Léshy?"
"Why, to be sure," said Jurgen, glibly. "I did not find it at all
praiseworthy that such an insignificant Léshy as Pandelis should
name her day after the Moon: to me it seemed blasphemy." Then Jurgen
coughed, and looked sidewise at his shadow. "Had it been Sereda,
now, the case would have been different, and the Moon might well
have appreciated the delicate compliment."
Anaïtis appeared relieved. "I shall report your explanation.
Candidly, there were ill things in store for you, Prince Jurgen,
because your language was misunderstood. But that which you now say
puts quite a different complexion upon matters."
Jurgen laughed, not understanding the mystery, but confident he
could always say whatever was required of him.
"Now let us see a little more of Cocaigne!" cries Jurgen.
For Jurgen was greatly interested by the pursuits of Cocaigne, and
for a week or ten days participated therein industriously. Anaïtis,
who reported the Moon's honor to be satisfied, now spared no effort
to divert him, and they investigated innumerable pastimes together.
"For all men that live have but a little while to live," said
Anaïtis, "and none knows his fate thereafter. So that a man
possesses nothing certainly save a brief loan of his body: and yet
the body of man is capable of much curious pleasure. As thus and
thus," says Anaïtis. And she revealed devices to her Prince Consort.
For Jurgen found that unknowingly he had in due and proper form
espoused Queen Anaïtis, by participating in the Breaking of the
Veil, which is the marriage ceremony of Cocaigne. His earlier
relations with Dame Lisa had, of course, no legal standing in
Cocaigne, where the Church is not Christian and the Law is, Do that
which seems good to you.
"Well, when in Rome," said Jurgen, "one must be romantic. But
certainly this proves that nobody ever knows when he is being
entrapped into respectability: and never did a fine young fellow
marry a high queen with less premeditation."
"Ah, my dear," says Anaïtis, "you were controlled by the finger of
Fate."
"I do not altogether like that figure of speech. It makes one seem
too trivial, to be controlled by a mere finger. No, it is not quite
complimentary to call what prompted me a finger."
"By the long arm of coincidence, then."
"Much more appropriate, my love," says Jurgen, complacently: "it
sounds more dignified, and does not wound my self esteem."
Now this Anaïtis who was Queen of Cocaigne was a delicious tall dark
woman, thinnish, and lovely, and very restless. From the first her
new Prince Consort was puzzled by her fervors, and presently was
fretted by them. He humbly failed to understand how anyone could be
so frantic over Jurgen. It seemed unreasonable. And in her more
affectionate moments this nature myth positively frightened him: for
transports such as these could not but rouse discomfortable
reminiscences of the female spider, who ends such recreations by
devouring her partner.
"Thus to be loved is very flattering," he would reflect, "and I
again am Jurgen, asking odds of none. But even so, I am mortal. She
ought to remember that, in common fairness."
Then the jealousy of Anaïtis, while equally flattering, was equally
out of reason. She suspected everybody, seemed assured that every
bosom cherished a mad passion for Jurgen, and that not for a moment
could he be trusted. Well, as Jurgen frankly conceded, his conduct
toward Stella, that ill-starred yogini of Indawadi, had in point of
fact displayed, when viewed from an especial and quite unconscionable
point of view, an aspect which, when isolated by persons judging
hastily, might, just possibly, appear to approach remotely, in one
or two respects, to temporary forgetfulness of Anaïtis, if indeed
there were people anywhere so mentally deficient as to find such
forgetfulness conceivable.
But the main thing, the really important feature, which Anaïtis
could not be made to understand, was that she had interrupted her
consort in what was, in effect, a philosophical experiment,
necessarily attempted in the dark. The muntrus requisite to the
sacti sodhana were always performed in darkness: everybody knew
that. For the rest, this Stella had asserted so-and-so; in simple
equity she was entitled to a chance to prove her allegations if she
could: so Jurgen had proceeded to deal fairly with her. Besides, why
keep talking about this Stella, after a vengeance so spectacular and
thorough as that to which Anaïtis had out of hand resorted? why keep
reverting to a topic which was repugnant to Jurgen and visibly upset
the dearest nature myth in all legend? Was it quite fair to anyone
concerned? That was the sensible way in which Jurgen put it.
Still, he became honestly fond of Anaïtis. Barring her
eccentricities when roused to passion, she was a generous and kindly
creature, although in Jurgen's opinion somewhat narrow-minded.
"My love," he would say to her, "you appear positively unable to
keep away from virtuous persons! You are always seeking out the
people who endeavor to be upright and straightforward, and you are
perpetually laying plans to divert these people. Ah, but why bother
about them? What need have you to wear yourself out, and to devote
your entire time to such proselitizing, when you might be so much
more agreeably employed? You should learn, in justice to yourself as
well as to others, to be tolerant of all things; and to acknowledge
that in a being of man's mingled nature a strain of respectability
is apt to develop every now and then, whatever you might prefer."
But Anaïtis had high notions as to her mission, and merely told him
that he ought not to speak with levity of such matters. "I would be
much happier staying at home with you and the children," she would
say, "but I feel that it is my duty--"
"And your duty to whom, in heaven's name?"
"Please do not employ such distasteful expressions, Jurgen. It is my
duty to the power I serve, my very manifest duty to my creator. But
you have no sense of religion, I am afraid; and the reflection is
often a considerable grief to me."
"Ah, but, my dear, you are quite certain as to who made you, and for
what purpose you were made. You nature myths were created in the
Mythopoeic age by the perversity of old heathen nations: and you
serve your creator religiously. That is quite as it should be. But I
have no such authentic information as to my origin and mission in
life, I appear at all events to have no natural talent for being
diverted, I do not take to it wholeheartedly, and these are facts we
have to face." Now Jurgen put his arm around her. "My dear Anaïtis,
you must not think it mere selfishness on my part. I was born with a
something lacking that is requisite for anyone who aspires to be as
thoroughly misled as most people: and you will have to love me in
spite of it."
"I almost wish I had never seen you as I saw you in that corridor,
Jurgen. For I felt drawn toward you then and there. I almost wish I
had never seen you at all. I cannot help being fond of you: and yet
you laugh at the things I know to be required of me, and sometimes
you make me laugh, too."
"But, darling, are you not just the least, littlest, tiniest, very
weest trifle bigoted? For instance, I can see that you think I ought
to evince more interest in your striking dances, and your strange
pleasures, and your surprising caresses, and all your other
elaborate diversions. And I do think they do you credit, great
credit, and I admire your inventiveness no less than your
industry--"
"You have no sense of reverence, Jurgen, you seem to have no sense
at all of what is due to one's creator. I suppose you cannot help
that: but you might at least remember it troubles me to hear you
talk so flippantly of my religion."
"But I do not talk flippantly--"
"Indeed you do, though. And it does not sound at all well, let me
tell you."
"--Instead, I but point out that your creed necessitates, upon the
whole, an ardor I lack. You, my pet, were created by perversity: and
everyone knows it is the part of piety to worship one's creator in
fashions acceptable to that creator. So, I do not criticize your
religious connections, dear, and nobody admires these ceremonials of
your faith more heartily than I do. I merely confess that to
celebrate these rites so frequently requires a sustention of
enthusiasm which is beyond me. In fine, I have not your fervent
temperament, I am more sceptical. You may be right; and certainly I
cannot go so far as to say you are wrong: but still, at the same
time--! That is how I feel about it, my precious, and that is why I
find, with constant repetition of these ceremonials, a certain lack
of firmness developing in my responses: and finally, darling, that
is all there is to it."
"I never in my whole incarnation had such a Prince Consort!
Sometimes I think you do not care a bit about me one way or the
other, Jurgen."
"Ah, but I do care for you very much. And to prove it, come now let
us try some brand-new diversion, at sight of which the skies will be
blackened and the earth will shudder or something of that sort, and
then I will take the children fishing, as I promised."
"No, Jurgen, I do not feel like diverting you just now. You take all
the solemnity out of it with your jeering. Besides, you are always
with the children. Jurgen, I believe you are fonder of the children
than you are of me. And when you are not with them you are locked up
in the Library."
"Well, and was there ever such a treasury as the Library of
Cocaigne? All the diversions that you nature myths have practised I
find recorded there: and to read of your ingenious devices delights
and maddens me. For it is eminently interesting to meditate upon
strange pleasures, and to make verses about them is the most amiable
of avocations: it is merely the pursuit of them that I would
discourage, as disappointing and mussy. Besides, the Library is the
only spot I have to myself in the palace, what with your fellow
nature myths making the most of life all over the place."
"It is necessary, Jurgen, for one in my position to entertain more
or less. And certainly I cannot close the doors against my own
relatives."
"Such riffraff, though, my darling! Such odds and ends! I cannot
congratulate you upon your kindred, for I do not get on at all with
these patchwork combinations, that are one-third man and the other
two-thirds a vulgar fraction of bull or hawk or goat or serpent or
ape or jackal or what not. Priapos is the only male myth who comes
here in anything like the semblance of a complete human being: and I
had infinitely rather he stayed away, because even I who am Jurgen
cannot but be envious of him."
"And why, pray?"
"Well, where I go reasonably equipped with Caliburn, Priapos carries
a lance I envy--"
"Like all the Bacchic myths he usually carries a thyrsos, and it is
a showy weapon, certainly; but it is not of much use in actual
conflict."
"My darling! and how do you know?"
"Why, Jurgen, how do women always know these things?--by intuition,
I suppose."
"You mean that you judge all affairs by feeling rather than reason?
Indeed, I dare say that is true of most women, and men are daily
chafed and delighted, about equally, by your illogical method of
putting things together. But to get back to the congenial task of
criticizing your kindred, your cousin Apis, for example, may be a
very good sort of fellow: but, say what you will, it is ill-advised
of him to be going about in public with a bull's head. It makes him
needlessly conspicuous, if not actually ridiculous: and it puts me
out when I try to talk to him."
"Now, Jurgen, pray remember that you speak of a very generally
respected myth, and that you are being irreverent--"
"--And moreover, I take the liberty of repeating, my darling, that
even though this Ba of Mendes is your cousin, it honestly does
embarrass me to have to meet three-quarters of a goat socially--"
"But, Jurgen, I must as a master of course invite prolific Ba to my
feasts of the Sacæ--"
"Even so, my dear, in issuing invitations a hostess may fairly presuppose
that her guests will not make beasts of themselves. I often wish that
this mere bit of ordinary civility were more rigorously observed by Ba
and Hortanes and Fricco and Vul and Baal-Peor, and by all your other
cousins who come to visit you in such a zoologically muddled condition.
It shows a certain lack of respect for you, my darling."
"Oh, but it is all in the family, Jurgen--"
"Besides, they have no conversation. They merely bellow--or twitter
or bleat or low or gibber or purr, according to their respective
incarnations,--about unspeakable mysteries and monstrous pleasures
until I am driven to the verge of virtue by their imbecility."
"If you were more practical, Jurgen, you would realize that it
speaks splendidly for anyone to be really interested in his
vocation--"
"And your female relatives are just as annoying, with their eternal
whispered enigmas, and their crescent moons, and their mystic roses
that change color and require continual gardening, and their
pathetic belief that I have time to fool with them. And the entire
pack practises symbolism until the house is positively littered with
asherahs and combs and phalloses and linghams and yonis and arghas
and pulleiars and talys, and I do not know what other idiotic toys
that I am continually stepping on!"
"Which of those minxes has been making up to you?" says Anaïtis, her
eyes snapping.
"Ah, ah! now many of your female cousins are enticing enough--"
"I knew it! Oh, but you need not think you deluded me--!"
"My darling, pray consider! be reasonable about it! Your feminine
guests at present are Sekhmet in the form of a lioness, Io
incarnated as a cow, Hekt as a frog, Derceto as a sturgeon, and--ah,
yes!--Thoueris as a hippopotamus. I leave it to your sense of
justice, dear Anaïtis, if of ladies with such tastes in dress a
lovely myth like you can reasonably be jealous."
"And I know perfectly well who it is! It is that Ephesian hussy, and
I had several times noticed her behavior. Very well, oh, very well,
indeed! nevertheless, I shall have a plain word or two with her at
once, and the sooner she gets out of my house the better, as I shall
tell her quite frankly. And as for you, Jurgen--!"
"But, my dear Lisa--!"
"What do you call me? Lisa was never an epithet of mine. Why do you
call me Lisa?"
"It was a slip of the tongue, my pet, an involuntary but not
unnatural association of ideas. As for the Ephesian Diana, she
reminds me of an animated pine-cone, with that eruption of breasts
all over her, and I can assure you of your having no particular
reason to be jealous of her. It was merely of the female myths in
general I spoke. Of course they all make eyes at me: I cannot well
help that, and you should have anticipated as much when you selected
such an attractive Prince Consort. What do these poor enamored
creatures matter when to you my heart is ever faithful?"
"It is not your heart I am worrying over, Jurgen, for I believe you
have none. Yes, you have quite succeeded in worrying me to
distraction, if that is any comfort to you. However, let us not talk
about it. For it is now necessary, absolutely imperative, that I go
into Armenia to take part in the mourning for Tammouz: people would
not understand it at all if I stayed away from such important
orgies. And I shall get no benefit whatever from the trip, much as I
need the change, because, without speaking of that famous heart of
yours, you are always up to some double-dealing, and I shall not
know into what mischief you may be thrusting yourself."
Jurgen laughed, and kissed her. "Be off, and attend to your
religious duties, dear, by all means. And I promise you I will stay
safe locked in the Library till you come back."
Thus Jurgen abode among the offspring of heathen perversity, and
conformed to their customs. Death ends all things for all, they
contended, and life is brief: for how few years do men endure, and
how quickly is the most subtle and appalling nature myth explained
away by the Philologists! So the wise person, and equally the
foreseeing nature myth, will take his glut of pleasure while there
is yet time to take anything, and will waste none of his short lien
upon desire and vigor by asking questions.
"Oh, but by all means!" said Jurgen, and he docilely crowned himself
with a rose garland, and drank his wine, and kissed his Anaïtis.
Then, when the feast of the Sacæ was at full-tide, he would whisper
to Anaïtis, "I will be back in a moment, darling," and she would
frown fondly at him as he very quietly slipped from his ivory dining
couch, and went, with the merest suspicion of a reel, into the
Library. She knew that Jurgen had no intention of coming back: and
she despaired of his ever taking the position in the social life of
Cocaigne to which he was entitled no less by his rank as Prince
Consort than by his personal abilities. For Anaïtis did not really
think that, as went natural endowments, her Jurgen had much reason
to envy even such a general favorite as Priapos, say, from what she
knew of both.
So it was that Jurgen honored custom. "Because these beastly nature
myths may be right," said Jurgen; "and certainly I cannot go so far
as to say they are wrong: but still, at the same time--!"
For Jurgen was content to dismiss no riddle with a mere "I do not
know." Jurgen was no more able to give up questioning the meaning of
life than could a trout relinquish swimming: indeed, he lived
submerged in a flood of curiosity and doubt, as his native element.
That death ended all things might very well be the case: yet if the
outcome proved otherwise, how much more pleasant it would be, for
everyone concerned, to have aforetime established amicable relations
with the overlords of his second life, by having done whatever it
was they expected of him here.
"Yes, I feel that something is expected of me," says Jurgen: "and
without knowing what it is, I am tolerably sure, somehow, that it is
not an indulgence in endless pleasure. Besides, I do not think death
is going to end all for me. If only I could be quite certain my
encounter with King Smoit, and with that charming little Sylvia
Tereu, was not a dream! As it is, plain reasoning assures me I am
not indispensable to the universe: but with this reasoning, somehow,
does not travel my belief. No, it is only fair to my own interests
to go graveward a little more openmindedly than do these nature
myths, since I lack the requisite credulity to become a free-thinking
materialist. To believe that we know nothing assuredly, and cannot
ever know anything assuredly, is to take too much on faith."
And Jurgen paused to shake his sleek black head two or three times,
very sagely.
"No, I cannot believe in nothingness being the destined end of all:
that would be too futile a climax to content a dramatist clever
enough to have invented Jurgen. No, it is just as I said to the
brown man: I cannot believe in the annihilation of Jurgen by any
really thrifty overlords; so I shall see to it that Jurgen does
nothing which he cannot more or less plausibly excuse, in case of
supernal inquiries. That is far safer."
Now Jurgen was shaking his head again: and he sighed.
"For the pleasures of Cocaigne do not satisfy me. They are all well
enough in their way; and I admit the truism that in seeking bed and
board two heads are better than one. Yes, Anaïtis makes me an
excellent wife. Nevertheless, her diversions do not satisfy me, and
gallantly to make the most of life is not enough. No, it is
something else that I desire: and Anaïtis does not quite understand
me."
24.