2.
Assumption of a Noted Garment
The tale tells that all was dark there, and Jurgen could see no one.But the cave stretched straight forward, and downward, and at thefar end was a glow of light. Jurgen went on and on, and so camepresently to a centaur: and this surprised him not a little, becauseJurgen knew that centaurs were imaginary creatures.
Certainly they were curious to look at: for here was the body of afine bay horse, and rising from its shoulders, the sun-burnt body ofa young fellow who regarded Jurgen with grave and not unfriendlyeyes. The Centaur was lying beside a fire of cedar and juniper wood:near him was a platter containing a liquid with which he wasanointing his hoofs. This stuff, as the Centaur rubbed it in withhis fingers, turned the appearance of his hoofs to gold.
"Hail, friend," says Jurgen, "if you be the work of God."
"Your protasis is not good Greek," observed the Centaur, "because inHellas we did not make such reservations. Besides, it is not so muchmy origin as my destination which concerns you."
"Well, friend, and whither are you going?"
"To the garden between dawn and sunrise, Jurgen."
"Surely, now, but that is a fine name for a garden! and it is aplace I would take joy to be seeing."
"Up upon my back, Jurgen, and I will take you thither," says theCentaur, and heaved to his feet. Then said the Centaur, when thepawnbroker hesitated: "Because, as you must understand, there is noother way. For this garden does not exist, and never did exist, inwhat men humorously called real life; so that of course onlyimaginary creatures such as I can enter it."
"That sounds very reasonable," Jurgen estimated: "but as it happens,I am looking for my wife, whom I suspect to have been carried off bya devil, poor fellow!"
And Jurgen began to explain to the Centaur what had befallen.
The Centaur laughed. "It may be for that reason I am here. There is,in any event, only one remedy in this matter. Above all devils--andabove all gods, they tell me, but certainly above all centaurs--isthe power of Koshchei the Deathless, who made things as they are."
"It is not always wholesome," Jurgen submitted, "to speak ofKoshchei. It seems especially undesirable in a dark place likethis."
"None the less, I suspect it is to him you must go for justice."
"I would prefer not doing that," said Jurgen, with unaffectedcandor.
"You have my sympathy: but there is no question of preference whereKoshchei is concerned. Do you think, for example, that I am frowzingin this underground place by my own choice? and knew your name byaccident?"
Jurgen was frightened, a little. "Well, well! but it is usually thedeuce and all, this doing of the manly thing. How, then, can I cometo Koshchei?"
"Roundabout," says the Centaur. "There is never any other way."
"And is the road to this garden roundabout?"
"Oh, very much so, inasmuch as it circumvents both destiny andcommon-sense."
"Needs must, then," says Jurgen: "at all events, I am willing totaste any drink once."
"You will be chilled, though, traveling as you are. For you and Iare going a queer way, in search of justice, over the grave of adream and through the malice of time. So you had best put on thisshirt above your other clothing."
"Indeed it is a fine snug shining garment, with curious figures onit. I accept such raiment gladly. And whom shall I be thanking forhis kindness, now?"
"My name," said the Centaur, "is Nessus."
"Well, then, friend Nessus, I am at your service."
And in a trice Jurgen was on the Centaur's back, and the two of themhad somehow come out of the cave, and were crossing Amneran Heath.So they passed into a wooded place, where the light of sunset yetlingered, rather unaccountably. Now the Centaur went westward. Andnow about the pawnbroker's shoulders and upon his breast and overhis lean arms glittered like a rainbow the many-colored shirt ofNessus.
For a while they went through the woods, which were composed of bigtrees standing a goodish distance from one another, with theCentaur's gilded hoofs rustling and sinking in a thick carpet ofdead leaves, all gray and brown, in level stretches that wereunbroken by any undergrowth. And then they came to a white roadwaythat extended due west, and so were done with the woods. Nowhappened an incredible thing in which Jurgen would never havebelieved had he not seen it with his own eyes: for now the Centaurwent so fast that he gained a little by a little upon the sun, thuscausing it to rise in the west a little by a little; and these twosped westward in the glory of a departed sunset. The sun fell fullin Jurgen's face as he rode straight toward the west, so that heblinked and closed his eyes, and looked first toward this side, thenthe other. Thus it was that the country about him, and the personsthey were passing, were seen by him in quick bright flashes, likepictures suddenly transmuted into other pictures; and all hismemories of this shining highway were, in consequence, alwaysconfused and incoherent.
He wondered that there seemed to be so many young women along theroad to the garden. Here was a slim girl in white teasing a greatbrown and yellow dog that leaped about her clumsily; here a girl satin the branches of a twisted and gnarled tree, and back of her was abroad muddied river, copper-colored in the sun; and here shone thefair head of a tall girl on horseback, who seemed to wait forsomeone: in fine, the girls along the way were numberless, andJurgen thought he recollected one or two of them.
But the Centaur went so swiftly that Jurgen could not be sure.