20. ON THE BOSOM OF THE DEEP
The Ark was rudderless, oarless, and machineless, and could travel onlywhere the High Gods chose. The inside was dark, and full of an ancientsmell, and crowded with groanings and noise. I could not find thefire-box to relight the fallen lamp, and so we had to endure blindlywhat was dealt out to us. The waves tossed us in merciless sport, and Iclung on by the side of Nais, holding her to the bed. We did not speakmuch, but there was full companionship in our bereavement and oursilence.
When Atlantis sank to form new ocean bed, she left great whirlpools andspoutings from her drowned fires as a fleeting legacy to the Gods of theSea. And then, I think (though in the black belly of the Ark we couldnot see these things), a vast hurricane of wind must have come on nextso as to leave no piece of the desolation incomplete. For seven nightsand seven days did this dreadful turmoil continue, as counted for usafterwards by the reckoner of hours which hung within the Ark, and thenthe howling of the wind departed, and only the roll of a long stillswell remained. It was regular and it was oily, as I could tell by thedifference of the motion, and then for the first time I dared to go upthe stair, and open the door which stood in the roof of the Ark.
The sweet air came gushing down to freshen the foulness within, and asthe Ark rode dryly over the seas, I went below and brought up Nais togain refreshment from the curing rays of our Lord the Sun. Duly the pairof us adored Him, and gave thanks for His great mercy in coming to lightanother day, and then we laid ourselves down where we were to doze, andtake that easy rest which we so urgently needed.
Yet, though I was tired beyond words, for long enough sleep would notvisit me. Wearily I stared out over the oily sunlit waters. No blurof land met the eye. The ring of ocean was unbroken on every side, andoverhead the vault of heaven remained unchanged. The bosom of the deepwas littered with the poor wreckage of Atlantis, to remind one, if therehad been a need, that what had come about was fact, and not some horriddream. Trees, squared timber, a smashed and upturned boat of hides, andhere and there the rounded corpse of a man or beast shouldered over theswells, and kept convoy with our Ark as she drifted on in charge of theGods and the current.
But sleep came to me at last, and I dropped off into unconsciousness,holding the hand of Nais in mine, and when next I woke, I found heropen-eyed also and watching me tenderly. We were finely rested, both ofus, and rest and strength bring one complacency. We were more readynow to accept the station which the High Gods had made for us withoutrepining, and so we went below again into the belly of the Ark to eatand drink and maintain strength for the new life which lay before us.
A wonderful vessel was this Ark, now we were able to see it at leisureand intimately. Although for the first time now in all its centuriesof life it swam upon the waters, it showed no leak or suncrack. Inside,even its floor was bone dry. That it was built from some wood, one couldsee by the grainings, but nowhere could one find suture or joint. Theliving timbers had been put in place and then grown together by anart which we have lost to-day, but which the Ancients knew with muchperfection; and afterwards some treatment, which is also a secretof those forgotten builders, had made the wood as hard as metal andimpervious to all attacks of the weather.
In the gloomy cave of its belly were stored many matters. At one end, ingreat tanks on either side of central alley, was a prodigious store ofgrain. Sweet water was in other tanks at the other end. In another placewere drugs and samples, and essences of the life of beasts; all thesethings being for use whilst the Ark roamed under the guidance of theGods on the bosom of the deep. On all the walls of the Ark, and on allthe partitions of the tanks and the other woodwork, there were carvedin the rude art of bygone time representations of all the beasts whichlived in Atlantis; and on these I looked with a hunter's interest, assome of them were strange to me, and had died out with the men who hadperpetuated them in these sculptures. There was a good store of weaponstoo and the tools for handicrafts.
Now, for many weeks, our life endured in this Ark as the Gods drove itabout here and there across the face of the waters. We had no governmentover direction; we could not by so much as a hair's breadth a dayincrease her speed. The High Gods that had chosen the two of us to bethe only ones saved out of all Atlantis, had sole control of our fate,and into Their hands we cheerfully resigned our future direction.
Of that land which we reached in due time, and where we made our abidingplace, and where our children were born, I shall tell of in its place;but since this chronicle has proceeded so far in an exact order of theevents as they came to pass, it is necessary first to narrate how wecame by the sheets on which it is written.
In a great coffer, in the centre of the Ark's floor, the whole of theMysteries learned during the study of ages were set down in accuratewriting. I read through some of them during the days which passed, andthe awfulness of the Powers over which they gave control appalled me. Ihad seen some of these Powers set loose in Atlantis, and was a witnessof her destruction. But here were Powers far higher than those; here wasthe great Secret of Life and Death which Phorenice also had found, andfor which she had been destroyed; and there were other things also ofwhich I cannot even bring my stylo to scribe.
The thought of being custodian of these writings was more than I couldendure, and the more the matter rested in my mind, the more intolerablebecame the burden. And at last I took hot irons, and with them searedthe wax on the sheets till every letter of the old writings wasobliterated. If I did wrong, the High Gods in Their infinite justicewill give me punishment; if it is well that these great secrets shouldendure on earth, They in their infinite power will dictate them afreshto some fitting scribes; but I destroyed them there as the Ark swayedwith us over the waves; and later, when we came to land, I rewrote uponthe sheets the matters which led to great Atlantis being dragged to herdeath-throes.
Nais, that I love so tenderly--
[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: The remaining sheets are too broken to be legible.]
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends