The Virgin of the Sun

H >> H. R. Haggard >> The Virgin of the Sun


The ship's bow came round and, driven by the ever-increasing gale, she
rushed on her course towards the sea, bearing us with her, two weak and
lonely men.

"Kari," I said, "what shall we do? Try to run ashore, or sail on?"

He thought awhile then answered, pointing to those who galloped, now but
tiny figures on the distant bank:

"Master, yonder is death, sure death; and yonder," here he pointed to
the sea, "is death--perhaps. Master, you have a God, and I, Kari, have
another God, mayhap same God with different name. I say--Trust our Gods
and sail on, for Gods better than men. If we die in water, what matter?
Water softer than rope, but I think not die."

I nodded, for the reasoning seemed good. Rather would I be drowned than
fall into the hands of those who were galloping on the shore, to be
dragged back to London and a felon's doom.

So I pressed upon the tiller to bring the _Blanche_ more into
mid-channel, and headed for the sea. Wider and wider grew the estuary
and farther and farther away the shores as the _Blanche_ scudded on
beneath her small sails with the weight of the gale behind her, till at
last there was the open sea.

Within a few feet of the tiller was a deck-house, in which the crew ate,
built of solid oak and clamped with iron. Here was food in plenty, ale,
too, and with these we filled ourselves. Also, leaving Kari to hold the
tiller, I took off my armour and in place of it clothed myself in the
rough sea garments that lay about with tall greased boots, and then sent
him to do likewise.

Soon we lost sight of land and were climbing the great ocean billows,
whose foamy crests rolled and spurted wherever the eye fell. We could
set no course but must go where the gale drove us, away, away we knew
not whither. As I have said, the _Blanche_ was new and strong and the
best ship that ever I had sailed in upon a heavy sea. Moreover, her
hatches were closed down, for this the sailors had done after we
weighed, so she rode the waters like a duck, taking no harm. Oh! well
it was for me that from my childhood I had had to do with ships and the
sailing of them, and flying from the following waves thus was able to
steer and keep the _Blanche's_ poop right in the wind, which seemed to
blow first from one quarter and then from that.



Now over my memory of these events there comes a great confusion and
sense of amazement. All became fragmentary and disjointed, separated
also by what seemed to be considerable periods of time--days or weeks
perhaps. There was a sense of endless roaring seas before which the ship
fled on and on, driven by a screaming gale that I noted dimly seemed to
blow first from the northwest and then steadily from the east.

I see myself, very distinctly, lashing the tiller to iron rings that
were screwed in the deck beams, and know that I did this because I
was too weak to hold it any longer and desired to set it so that the
_Blanche_ should continue to drive straight before the gale. I see
myself lying in the deck-house of which I have spoken, while Kari fed me
with food and water and sometimes thrust into my mouth little pellets of
I knew not what, which he took from the leathern bag he wore about him.
I remembered that bag. It had been on his person when I rescued him at
the quay, for I had seen it first as he washed himself afterwards, half
full of something, and wondered what it contained. Later, I had seen it
in his hand again when we left my house after the death of Blanche. I
noted that whenever he gave me one of these pellets I seemed to grow
strong for a while, and then to fall into sleep, deep and prolonged.

After more days--or weeks, I began to behold marvels and to hear strange
voices. I thought that I was talking with my mother and with my patron,
St. Hubert; also that Blanche came to me and explained everything,
showing how little she had been to blame for all that had happened to me
and her. These things made me certain that I was dead and I was glad to
be dead, since now I knew there would be no more pain or strivings; that
the endeavours which make up life from hour to hour had ceased and
that rest was won. Only then appeared my uncle, John Grimmer, who kept
quoting his favourite text at me--"Vanity of vanities. All is vanity,"
he said, adding: "Did I not tell you that it was thus years ago? Now you
have learned it for yourself. Only, Nephew Hubert, don't think that you
have finished with vanities yet, as I have, for I say that there are
plenty more to come for you."

Thus he seemed to talk on about this and other matters, such as what
would happen to his wealth and whether the hospitals would be quick
to seize the lands to which he had given it the reversion, till I grew
quite tired of him and wished that he would go away.

Then at length there was a great crash that I think disturbed him,
for he did go, saying that it was only another "vanity," after which I
seemed to fall asleep for weeks and weeks.

I woke up again for a warmth and brightness on my face caused me to open
my eyes. I lifted my hand to shield them from the brightness and noted
with a kind of wonder that it was so thin that the light shone through
it as it does through parchment, and that the bones were visible beneath
the skin. I let it fall from weakness, and it dropped on to hair which I
knew must be that of a beard, which set me wondering, for it had been my
fashion to go clean-shaven. How, then, did I come by a beard? I looked
about me and saw that I was lying on the deck of a ship, yes, of the
_Blanche_ itself, for I knew the shape of her stern, also certain knots
in one of the uprights of the deck-house that formed a rude resemblance
to a human face. Nothing of this deck-house was left now, except the
corner posts between which I lay, and to the tops of these was lashed a
piece of canvas as though to keep off the sun and the weather.

With difficulty I lifted my head a little and looked about me. The
bulwarks of the ship had gone, but some of the uprights to which
the planks had been nailed remained, and between them I perceived
tall-stemmed trees with tufts of great leaves at the top of them, which
trees seemed to be within a few yards of me. Bright-winged birds flew
about them and in their crowns I saw apes such as the sailors used to
bring home from Barbary. It would seem, then, that I must be in a river
(in fact, it was a little bay or creek, on either side of which these
trees appeared).

Noting these and the creeping plants with beautiful flowers, such as I
had never seen, that climbed up them, and the sweet scents that floated
on the air, and the clear light, now I grew sure that I was dead and had
reached Paradise. Only then how came it that I still lay on the ship,
for never had I heard that such things also went to Paradise? Nay,
I must dream; it was nothing but a dream that I wished were true,
remembering as I did the terrors of that gale-tossed sea. Or, if I did
not dream, then I was in some new world.

While I mused thus I heard a sound of soft footsteps and presently saw
a figure bending over me. It was Kari, very thin and hollow-eyed, much,
indeed, as he had been when I found him on the quay in London, but still
Kari without doubt. He looked at me in his grave fashion, then said
softly:

"Master awake?"

"Yes, Kari," I said, "but tell me, where am I?"

He did not answer at once but went away and returned presently with
a bowl from which he bade me drink, holding it to my lips. I did
so, swallowing what seemed to be broth though I thought it strangely
flavoured, after which I felt much stronger, for whatever was in that
broth ran through my veins like wine. At last he spoke in his queer
English.

"Master," he said, "when we still in Thames River, you ask me whether we
should run ashore into the hands of the hunters who try to catch us,
or sail on. I answer, 'You have God and I have God and better fall into
hands of gods than into hands of men.' So we sail on into the big storm.
For long we sail, and though once it turn, always the great wind blew,
behind us. You grow weak and your mind leave you, but I keep you alive
with medicine that I have and for many days I stay awake and steer. Then
at last my mind leave me, too, and I know no more. Three days ago I wake
up and find the ship in this place. Then I eat more medicine and get
strength, also food from people on the shore who think us gods. That all
the story, except that you live, not die. Your God and my God bring us
here safe."

"Yes, Kari, but where are we?"

"Master, I think in that country from which I come; not in my own land
which is still far away, but still in that country. You remember," he
added with a flash of his dark eyes, "I always say that you and I go
there together one day."

"But what is the country, Kari?"

"Master, not know its name. It big and have many names, but you first
white man who ever come here, that why people think you God. Now you go
sleep again; to-morrow we talk."

I shut my eyes, being so very tired, and as I learned afterwards, slept
for twelve hours or more, to awake on the morning of the following day,
feeling wonderfully stronger and able to eat with appetite. Also Kari
brought me water and washed me, and clean clothes which he had found in
the ship that I put on.

Thus it went on for a long while and day by day I recovered strength
till at length I was almost as I had been when I married Blanche Aleys
in the church of St. Margaret at Westminster. Only now sorrow had
changed me within and without my face had grown more serious, while
to it hung a short yellow beard which, when I looked at my reflection,
seemed to become me well enough. That beard puzzled me much, since
such are not grown in a day, although it is true that as yet it was not
over-long. Weeks must have passed since it began to sprout upon my chin
and as we had been but three days in this place when I woke up, those
weeks without doubt were spent upon the sea.

Whither, then, had we come? Driving all the while before a great gale,
that for most of our voyage had blown from the east, as, if Kari were
right, we had done, this country must be very far away from England.
That it was so, indeed there could be no doubt, since here everything
was different. For example, having been a mariner from my childhood, I
had been taught and observed something of the stars, and noted that the
constellations had changed their places in the heavens, also that
some with which I was familiar were missing, while other new ones had
appeared. Further, the heat was great and constant, even at night
being more than that of our hottest summer day, and the air was full of
stinging insects, which at first troubled me much, though afterwards
I grew hardened to them. In short, everything was changed, and I was
indeed in a new world that was not told of in Europe, but what world?
What world? At least the sea joined it to the old, for beneath me was
still the _Blanche_, which timber by timber I had seen built up upon the
shores of Thames from oaks cut in my own woods.

As soon as I was strong enough, I went over the ship, or what was left
of her. It was a marvel that she had floated for so long, since her hull
was shattered. Indeed, I do not think she could have done so, save for
the fine wool that was packed into the lower part of her, which wool
seemed to have swollen when it grew wet and to have kept the water out.
For the rest she was but a hulk, since both her masts were gone, and
much of the deck with them. Still she had kept afloat and driving into
this creek, had beached herself upon the mud as though it were the
harbour that she sought.

How had we lived through such a journey? The answer seemed to be, after
we were too weak to find or take food, by means of the drug that Kari
cherished in his skin bag, and water of which there was plenty left at
hand in barrels, since the _Blanche_ had been provisioned for a long
voyage to Italy and farther. At least we had lived for weeks, and weeks,
being still young and very strong, and not having been called upon
to suffer great cold, since it would appear that although the gale
continued after the first few days of our flight before it, the weather
had turned warm.

During this time of my recovery, every morning Kari would go ashore,
which he did by means of planks set upon the mud, since we were within
a few feet of the bank of the creek into which a streamlet ran. Later
he would return, bringing with him fish and wildfowl, and corn of a
sort that I did not know, for its grains were a dozen times the size of
wheat, flat-sided, and if ripe, of a yellow colour, which he said he
had purchased from those who dwelt upon the land. On this good food
I feasted, washing it down with ale and wine from the ship's stores;
indeed never before did I eat so much, not even when I was a boy.

At length, one morning Kari made me put on my armour, the same which I
had taken from the French knight, and fled in from London, that he had
burnished till it shone like silver, and seat myself in a chair upon
what remained of the poop of the ship. When I asked him why, he answered
in order that he might show me to the inhabitants of that land. In this
chair he bade me sit and wait, holding the shield upon my arm and the
bare sword in my right hand.

As I had come to know that Kari never did anything without a reason and
remembered that I was in a strange country where, lacking him, I should
not have lived or could continue to do so, I fell into his humour.
Moreover, I promised that I would remain still and neither speak,
nor smile, nor rise from my chair unless he bade me. So there I sat
glittering in the hot sunshine which burned me through the armour.

Then Kari went ashore and was absent for some time. At length among the
trees and undergrowth I heard the sound of people talking in a strange
tongue. Presently they appeared on the bank of the creek, a great number
of them, very curious people, brown-skinned with long, lank black hair
and large eyes, but not over-tall in stature; men, women and children
together.

Among them were some who wore white robes whom I took to be their
gentlefolk, but the most of them had only cloths or girdles about their
middles. Leading the throng was Kari, who, as it appeared from the
bushes, waved his hand and pointed me out seated in the shining armour
on the ship, the visor up to show my face and the long sword in my hand.
They stared, then, with a low, sighing exclamation, one and all fell
upon their faces and rubbed their brows upon the ground.

As they lay there Kari addressed them, waving his arms and pointing
towards me from time to time. Afterwards I learned that he was telling
them I was a god, for which lie may his soul be forgiven.

The end of it was that he bade them rise and led certain of them who
wore the white robes across the planks to the ship. Here, while they
hung back, he advanced towards me, bowing and kissing the air till
he drew near, then he went upon his knees and laid his hands upon my
steel-clad feet. More, from the bosom of his robe he drew out flowers
which he placed upon my knees as though in offering.

"Now, Master," he whispered to me, "rise and wave your sword and shout
aloud, to show that you are alive and not an image."

So up I sprang, circling Wave-Flame about my head and roaring like any
bull of Bashan, for my voice was always loud and carried far. When
they saw the bright sword whirling through the air and heard these
bellowings, uttering cries of fear, those poor folk fled. Indeed most of
them fell from the plank into the mud, where one stuck fast and was like
to drown, had not Kari rescued him, which his brethren were in too great
haste to do.

After they had gone Kari came and said that everything went well and
that henceforward I was not a man but the Spirit of the Sea come to
earth, such a spirit as had never been dreamed of even by the wizards.



Thus then did Hubert of Hastings become a god among those simple people,
who had never before so much as heard of a white man, or seen armour or
a sword of steel.



CHAPTER II

THE ROCKY ISLE

For another week or more I remained upon the _Blanche_ waiting till
my full strength returned, also because Kari said I must do so. When
I asked him why, he replied for the reason that he wished news of my
coming to spread far and wide throughout the land from one tribe to
another, which it would do with great swiftness, flying, as he put it,
like a bird. Meanwhile, every day I sat upon the poop in the armour for
an hour or more, and both these people and others from afar came to look
at me, bringing me presents in such quantity that we knew not what to do
with them. Indeed, they built an altar and sacrificed wild creatures to
me, and birds, burning them with fire. Both those that I had seen and
the other folk from a long way off made this offering.

At last one night, when, having eaten, Kari and I were seated together
in the moonshine before we slept, I turned on him suddenly, hoping thus
to surprise the truth out of his secret heart, and said:

"What is your plan, Kari? For, know, I weary of this life."

"I was waiting for the Master to ask that question," he replied with
his gentle smile. (Again, I give not the very words he spoke in his bad
English, but the substance of them.) "Now will the Master be pleased to
listen? As I have told the Master, I believe that the gods, his God and
my God, have brought me back to that part of the world which is unknown
to the Master, where I was born. I believed this from the first hour
that my eyes opened on it after our swoon, for I knew the trees and
the flowers and the smell of the earth, and saw that the stars in the
heavens stood where I used to see them. When I went ashore and mingled
with the natives, I discovered that this belief was right, since I could
understand something of their talk and they could understand something
of mine. Moreover, among them was a man who came from far away, who said
that he had seen me in past years, wandering like one mad, only that
this man whom he had seen wore the image of a certain god about his
neck, whose name was too high for him to mention. Then I opened my robe
and showed him that which I wear about my neck, and he fell down and
worshipped it, crying out that I was the very man."

"If so, it is marvellous," I said. "But what shall we do?"

"The Master can do one of two things. He can stop here, where these
simple people will make him their king and give him wives and all that
he desires, and so live out his life, since of return to the land whence
he came there is no hope."

"And if there were I would not go," I interrupted.

"Or," went on Kari, "he can try to travel to my country. But that is
very far away. Something of the journey which I made when I was mad
comes back and tells me that it is very, very far away. First, yonder
mountains must be crossed till another sea is reached, which is no
great journey, though rough. Then the coast of that sea must be followed
southward, for I know not how far, but, as I think, for months or years
of journeying, till at length the country of my people is reached.
Moreover, that journeying is hard and terrible, since the road runs
through forests and deserts where dwell savage tribes and huge snakes
and wild beasts, like those planted on the flag of your country, and
where famine and sicknesses are common. Therefore my counsel to the
Master is that he should leave it unattempted."

Now I thought awhile, and asked what he meant to do if I took this
counsel of his. To which he replied:

"I shall wait here awhile till I see the Master made a king among these
people and established in his rule. Then I shall start on that journey
alone, hoping that what I could do when I was mad I shall be able to do
again when I am not mad."

"I thought it," I said. "But tell me, Kari, if we were to make this
journey and perchance live to reach your people, how would they welcome
us?"

"I do not know, Master; but I think that of the master they would make
a god, as will all the other people of this country. Perhaps, too, they
will sacrifice this god that his strength and beauty may enter into
them. As for me, some of them will try to kill me and others will cling
to me. Who will conquer I do not know, and to me it matters little. I
go to take my own and to be avenged, and if in seeking vengeance I
die--well, I die in honour."

"I understand," I said. "And now, Kari, let us start as soon as possible
before I become as mad from staring at those trees and flowers and those
big-eyed natives, that you say would make me a king, as you tell me you
were when you left your country. Whether we shall ever find that country
I cannot say. But at least we shall have done our best and, if we fail,
shall perish seeking, as in this way or in that it is the lot of all
brave men to do."

"The Master has spoken," said Kari, even more quietly than usual, though
as he spoke I saw his dark eyes flash and a trembling as of joy run down
his body. "Knowing all, he has made his choice, and whatever happens,
being what it is, he will not blame me. Yet because the Master has thus
chosen, I say this--that if we reach my country, and if, perchance,
I become a king there, even more than before I shall be the Master's
servant."

"That is easy to promise now, Kari, but it will be time to talk of it
when we do reach your land," I said, laughing, and asked him when we
were to start.

He replied not yet awhile, as he must make plans, and that in the
meantime I must walk upon the shore so that my legs might grow strong
again. So there every day I walked in the cool of the morning and in the
evening, not going out of sight of the wreck. I went armed and carrying
my big bow, but saw no one, since the natives had been warned that I
should walk and must not be looked upon while I did so. Therefore, even
when I passed through one of their villages of huts built of mud and
thatched with leaves, it seemed to be deserted.

Still, in the end the bow did not come amiss, for one evening, hearing a
little noise in a big tree under which I was about to pass that reminded
me of the purring of a cat, I looked up and saw a great beast of the
tiger sort lying on the bough of the tree and watching me. Then I drew
the bow and sent an arrow through that beast, piercing it from side to
side, and down it came roaring and writhing, and biting at the arrow
till it died.

After this I returned to the ship and told Kari what had happened. He
said it was fortunate I had killed the beast, which was of a very fierce
kind, and if I had not seen it, would have leapt on me as I passed under
the tree. Also he sent natives to skin it who when they saw that it was
pierced through and through by the arrow, were amazed and thought me an
even greater god than before, their own bows being but feeble and their
arrows tipped with bone.



Three days after the killing of this beast we started on our journey
into a land unknown. For a long while before Kari and I had been engaged
in collecting all the knives we could find in the ship, also arrows,
nails, axes, tools of carpentering, clothes, and I know not what else
besides, which goods we tied up in bundles wrapped in sailcloth, each
bundle weighing from thirty to forty pounds, to serve as presents to
natives or to trade away with them. When I asked who would carry them,
Kari answered that I should see. This I did at dawn on the following
morning when there arrived upon the shore a great number of men, quite
a hundred indeed, who brought with them two litters made of light wood
jointed like reeds, only harder, in which Kari said he and I were to be
carried. Among these men he parcelled out the loads which they were to
bear upon their heads, and then said that it was time for us to start in
the litters.

So we started, but first I went down into a cabin and kneeling on my
knees, thanked God for having brought me safe so far, and prayed Him
and St. Hubert to protect me on my further wanderings, and if I died, to
receive my soul. This done I left the ship and while the natives bowed
themselves about me, entered my litter, which was comfortable enough,
having grass mats to lie on and other mats for curtains, very finely
woven, so that they would turn even the heaviest rain.

Then away we went, eight men bearing the pole to which each litter was
slung on their shoulders, while others carried the bundles upon their
heads. Our road ran through forest uphill, and on the crest of the first
hill I descended from the litter and looked back.

There in the creek below lay the wreck of the _Blanche_, now but a small
black blot showing against the water, and beyond it the great sea over
which we had travelled. Yonder broken hulk was the last link which bound
me to my distant home thousands of miles across the ocean, that home,
which my heart told me I should never see again, for how could I win
back from a land that no white foot had ever trod?

On the deck of this ship Blanche herself had stood and smiled and
talked, for once we visited it together shortly before our marriage, and
I remembered how I had kissed her in its cabin. Now Blanche was dead
by her own hand and I, the great London merchant, was an outcast among
savages in a country of which I did not even know the name, where
everything was new and different. And there the ship with her rich
cargo, after bearing us so bravely through weeks of tempest, must lie
until she rotted in the sun and rain and never again would my eyes
behold her. Oh! then it was that a sense of all my misery and loneliness
gripped my heart as it had not done before since I rode away after
killing Deleroy with the sword Wave-Flame, and I wondered why I had been
born, and almost hoped that soon I might die and go to seek the reason.