ON WITH THE DANCE
While Lazarus and Mary were searching the house with their long-handled
lamps that not a speck of leaven should remain to defile the Passover,
a different scene was being enacted in the Palace of Herod for Pilate
and his guests. Earlier in the evening the Procurator had entered his
luxurious apartment and casting aside his purple robe had exclaimed,
"The wrath of Jove on Jerusalem. Save for its size it is not better
than a tomb across Kedron!"
"A tomb?" one of his guests repeated questioningly. "Methinks it is a
mountain of bees swarming and buzzing. Never have I seen such crowds."
"People, yea, _people_. But what are people if they be Jews? The
tombs lack not a plentiful filling of bones and creeping things."
"When thy stomach hath become a tomb for a cup of red wine, then will
Jerusalem be more to thy liking," Claudia said, and turning to the
guest added, "My lord Pilate doth love Rome much when he is in
Jerusalem."
"Yet even Jerusalem doth seem to be getting Romanized, with her
hippodrome and her trophies of Augustan victories. Also, there is a
statue of Caligula, and the golden eagle hangs its wings over the
Temple gate itself, while Antonio commands all."
"Yea," assented Pilate, "there are a few images and theatres, but the
atmosphere is heavy with religion--barbarous superstition, as hath
Cicero said. And fools they are for they worship the unseen. Greeks,
Egyptians, Asiatics, Romans all have gods, but these dish-faced ones
with beards refuse to pay honor to Caesar and scorn the gods."
"True," the guest replied, "but if there were no Jew, the wit of the
theatre would suffer. Doth not the wag ever make merry concerning the
god of the Jew which refuseth to be a god unless an inch of skin be
taken where the eye misseth it not?"
Pilate joined his guests in hearty laughter. "And their ancestral
veneration of the swine, what meaneth it?"
"Perhaps they fear more than venerate the swine."
"Of that I know not, but much fasting doth make them lean enough to
thank the gods for the fat of a swine."
"They are loyal to their god--whatever it is," Claudia said.
"Yea, in dimly lighted synagogues they ever gather, muttering prayers.
Even do they close their shops one day that they may have more time for
more prayers."
"It hath come to my ears that they neither eat nor sleep with
strangers," one of the guests observed.
"In the valley of Gehenna where the stench of their funeral fires doth
ever ascend and the worm ceaseth not to wiggle in corruption, there
would the circumcized rather lie like a dog, than sup with one
uncircumcized. Aye, a dog is the Jew, and a thief."
"Yet have I heard that they contend to the death for their Law. Doth
it not deal with stealing?" Pilate was asked.
"Yea, it dealeth with stealing and for it they contend. Yet they are
thieves beginning with Annas the High Priest. Into the Temple offices
hath he put all his sons and nephews and kinsmen that through them his
itching fingers may possess all the wealth of the Temple. The Law of
the Jews is for others than those who make it, preach it, sell it or
trade in it. Yet for all their sins have these long-faced robbers a
scapegoat. Over his head do they mumble their sins and then frighten
him away to the wilderness. And when he is departed, lo, they are as
innocent as babes new-born. Jove, what fools!"
"Here now are thy spirits coming," Claudia laughed. "Drink thou and
see if thou gettest not out of the tomb."
Servants with viands and wines entered and placed them on tables near
the couches. Pilate poured for the guests and then took his own cup.
"Pilate takes a second cup," said Claudia. "He is moving out of the
tomb."
"Antipas hath not found his Tiberias a tomb yet," Pilate remarked
between cups.
"What hath he done?" a guest asked.
"To a maiden who pleased him with gay dancing gave he the head of a Jew
prophet in a silver platter. Good use for such head."
"In seven veils did she dance," Claudia added.
"On my soul I would have seen the show."
"My lord Pilate emerges from the tomb," and Claudia laughed as he
poured another cup.
"And for a purpose," Pilate answered her. "As Antipas hath taken the
pleasures of Rome to Tiberias, so will Pilate bring Rome to Jerusalem
this night for the pleasure of his guests. Where, Claudia, my love, is
thy maiden whose limbs are like the milky marble Greece boasts and
whose feet fly like the wings of a chased butterfly? Summon thou the
slave. Yet stay--not seven veils shall hide her marble loveliness.
Here," and snatching a wreath of flowers from a pedestal he flung them
to Claudia, "bid her robe her beauteous nakedness in this. Here's to
the dancer whose virgin charms unhidden by such dense and senseless
draperies as veils, shall set our blood racing as blood doth race at
Rome. Bid the slave come!"
"My maiden doth not choose to come clad only in a wreath," and Claudia
tossed the flowers aside.
"Slaves have no choice when masters do the bidding."
"Thy words sound large, yet hath Claudia a choice for her maiden.
Confusion will take the buoyancy from her supple limbs, and so drawn
will her arms be to her face to hide its shame, that the sensuous swing
thou dost desire will be stiff as the scabbard on thy wall. Lest she
be veiled my maiden can not dance to do Rome pleasure."
"A veil! A veil!" shouted Pilate, laughing.
"Give the maiden a veil," the guests added.
"A veil! One veil--_one_ but not _two_, Claudia. One veil!" and again
Pilate laughed loudly.
"A veil. _One_ veil," Claudia repeated, bowing as she left the room.
When she had gone Pilate summoned servants. "Set the palms to make a
garden," he commanded. "Call the torch-bearers and make of them a
flaming pathway. Summon the musicians. Let there be haste!"
In a very short time the palm grove was in order and a blast of music
sounded. Claudia returned smiling, and all eyes turned to the
curtained entrance at the far end of the aisle of palms. The first
glimpse of the little Greek slave was that of a fairy dancing into the
shadowy background. Her white and shapely body sparkled as if powdered
with diamond dust and the veil that floated about her was woven of fine
and shining threads in rainbow tints. For a time she flitted up and
down between the palms and rows of torch-light bearers standing like
purple statues, while Pilate and the guests drank to her grace and
beauty and cheered her skill. At a signal from the Procurator the
dancing stopped. "Thus doth Greece show her grace," he said to his
guests. "Now wouldst thou see Rome dance?"
"Yea--but Rome is not Greece in the art."
"Bid thy eunuch to come," Pilate said, addressing Claudia.
Without asking questions, for Pilate was growing too merry with wine to
answer them, Claudia summoned her slave.
"Come hither, thou scar-ridden eunuch!" Pilate shouted as he entered
the place. "Wrap thy broad back in this wolf hide and take thou a
helmet and spear--so! Now, musicians, pipe thee a tune that will be
wild like the wrath of the gods. No music now to make a butterfly
flit, but thunder for the beast that maketh the earth tremble. Ready!
On with the dance!"
The big slave cast a glance of appeal at his mistress, but she motioned
him to obey. Then the eunuch, wrapped in the great wolf robe, danced,
heavy and without grace.
"Stay!" Pilate called. "Ye gods! Rome was not built to dance. Thy
legs are like tree trunks, thy back like a ship. To gain possession of
Greece, this is Rome's glory. Rome, pursue thou Greece. Tantalize her
as doth a cat torment a mouse. Aye, now, slave girl, take to yonder
forest of palms and elude him who follows, for the wolf of Rome is on
thy track. And thou, oh, Rome, dog thy fair prey, as the sword of
Caesar doth dog that which it would possess. Away to the woods! Fly,
Greece, fly! On with the dance!"
To weird music the girl began an elusive dance in and out among the
palms but ever under the moving glare of a flaming torch. The eunuch,
like some shaggy monster, doggedly followed her. After some minutes of
this dancing-chase, Pilate cried, "This is but play! Rome by the
strength in his arms can pick Greece away from the earth. Come thou,
Rome and Greece, dance _close_! Greece--evade the powerful arm that
seeks to draw thee beneath the wolf's tawny hide! Dance! Dance!
Dance away from Rome! Harder! Faster! Fiercer! He comes nearer!
His hand doth touch thee. Aye--watch! He comes closer. Hear his
heart thump with eagerness to seize thee? Feel his hot breath? He is
about to seize thee! He taketh thee, Greece! Thou art disappearing
under the hide of the wolf!"
As the wild dance neared its end, Pilate became so aroused he rushed
back and forth across the room in imitation of first one dancer then
the other, while his guests roared with laughter. And when the eunuch
seized the slave girl and gathered her under the thick fur, her screams
were those of honest fear for she knew not what might be in store for
her. "Scream--scream again!" shouted Pilate. "I like it. Aye, to the
heart of Rome stifled by the pious air of Jerusalem, screaming is like
new wine! Scream once again!" Again the slave girl's cry was heard
from under the wolf hide. "Thou doest well. Come forth and from the
golden cup of Pontius Pilate, held in his own hand, shalt thou drink.
Aye, thou doest well," he repeated as she came toward him. "To the
heart of Rome screams are dear. Here's to thy screaming, and here's to
Rome forever!" and he lifted the cup.
"Stay thy hand a moment," and Claudia touched the sleeve of Pilate
lightly as she spoke.
"What meanest thou?"
"Drink thou to Rome, my lord--but _not_ Rome _forever_."
"What meanest thou?" he repeated.
"In days long gone before Romulus had found the lair of the she-wolf,
there lived seers who foretold a king whose kingdom would be greater
than that of Caesar."
"Claudia hath been filching cups, methinks," Pilate said, joining in
the laughter of the Senators. "Another king than Caesar? As the
mighty Tiberius would do to a worm that should raise its head from the
dust to sting his heel, so will the mighty Caesar do to him whose voice
be lifted against the empire. My fair Claudia, thy brain is addled.
Here's to thee, my love, here's to our guests, the Senators, and here's
to Rome--_Rome forever_! On with the dance!"