Visions of the Past She led us to the back of the statue and pointed to each of us where we should remain.Then she took her place at right angles to us, as a showman might do, and for a while stood immovable.
Watching her face, once more I saw it, and indeed all her body, informed with that strange air of power, and noted that her eyes flashed and that her hair grew even more brilliant than was common, as though some abnormal strength were flowing through it and her.Presently she spoke, saying:
"I shall show you first our people in the day of their glory.
Look in front of you."
We looked and by degrees the vast space of the apse before us became alive with forms.At first these were vague and shadowy, not to be separated or distinguished.Then they became so real that until he was reproved by a kick, Tommy growled at them and threatened to break out into one of his peals of barking.
A wonderful scene appeared.There was a palace of white marble and in front of it a great courtyard upon which the sun beat vividly.At the foot of the steps of the palace, beneath a silken awning, sat a king enthroned, a crown upon his head and wearing glorious robes.In his hand was a jewelled sceptre.He was a noble-looking man of middle age and about him were gathered the glittering officers of his court.Fair women fanned him and to right and left, but a little behind, sat other fair and jewelled women who, I suppose, were his wives or daughters.
"One of the Kings of the Children of Wisdom new-crowned, receives the homage of the world," said Yva.
As she spoke there appeared, walking in front of the throne one by one, other kings, for all were crowned and bore sceptres.At the foot of the throne each of them kneeled and kissed the foot of him who sat thereon, as he did so laying down his sceptre which at a sign he lifted again and passed away.Of these kings there must have been quite fifty, men of all colours and of various types, white men, black men, yellow men, red men.
Then came their ministers bearing gifts, apparently of gold and jewels, which were piled on trays in front of the throne.Iremember noting an incident.An old fellow with a lame leg stumbled and upset his tray, so that the contents rolled hither and thither.His attempts to recover them were ludicrous and caused the monarch on the throne to relax from his dignity and smile.I mention this to show that what we witnessed was no set scene but apparently a living piece of the past.Had it been so the absurdity of the bedizened old man tumbling down in the midst of the gorgeous pageant would certainly have been omitted.
No, it must be life, real life, something that had happened, and the same may be said of what followed.For instance, there was what we call a review.Infantry marched, some of them armed with swords and spears, though these I took to be an ornamental bodyguard, and others with tubes like savage blowpipes of which Icould not guess the use.There were no cannon, but carriages came by loaded with bags that had spouts to them.Probably these were charged with poisonous gases.There were some cavalry also, mounted on a different stamp of horse from ours, thicker set and nearer the ground, but with arched necks and fiery eyes and, Ishould say, very strong.These again, I take it, were ornamental.
Then came other men upon a long machine, slung in pairs in armoured sacks, out of which only their heads and arms projected.
This machine, which resembled an elongated bicycle, went by at a tremendous rate, though whence its motive power came did not appear.It carried twenty pairs of men, each of whom held in his hand some small but doubtless deadly weapon, that in appearance resembled an orange.Other similar machines which followed carried from forty to a hundred pairs of men.
The marvel of the piece, however, were the aircraft.These came by in great numbers.Sometimes they flew in flocks like wild geese, sometimes singly, sometimes in line and sometimes in ordered squadrons, with outpost and officer ships and an exact distance kept between craft and craft.None of them seemed to be very large or to carry more than four or five men, but they were extraordinarily swift and as agile as swallows.Moreover they flew as birds do by beating their wings, but again we could not guess whence came their motive power.
The review vanished, and next appeared a scene of festivity in a huge, illuminated hall.The Great King sat upon a dais and behind him was that statue of Fate, or one very similar to it, beneath which we stood.Below him in the hall were the feasters seated at long tables, clad in the various costumes of their countries.He rose and, turning, knelt before the statue of Fate.
Indeed he prostrated himself thrice in prayer.Then taking his seat again, he lifted a cup of wine and pledged that vast company.They drank back to him and prostrated themselves before him as he had done before the image of Fate.Only I noted that certain men clad in sacerdotal garments not at all unlike those which are worn in the Greek Church to-day, remained standing.
Now all this exhibition of terrestrial pomp faded.The next scene was ******, that of the death-bed of this same king--we knew him by his wizened features.There he lay, terribly old and dying.Physicians, women, courtiers, all were there watching the end.The tableau vanished and in place of it appeared that of the youthful successor amidst cheering crowds, with joy breaking through the clouds of simulated grief upon his face.It vanished also.
"Thus did great king succeed great king for ages upon ages,"said Yva."There were eighty of them and the average of their reigns was 700 years.They ruled the earth as it was in those days.They gathered up learning, they wielded power, their wealth was boundless.They nurtured the arts, they discovered secrets.