When the gates of the Archer had completely closed,
Rex and Zendah
looked around for the next entrance but not a trace of
one could they see!
"How can you try to open a gate that does not seem to
be there?" said
Rex. "Perhaps Hermes will come and help us."
To pass the time they sat down on the ground and
began to look at the
scroll of passwords that Hermes had given them. While
they were unrolling
it, Zendah noticed some curious shining bits of stone
that seemed to move
themselves toward each other, as she shuffled her feet
about.
She sat still and looked — no, they did not move — it
must have been her
imagination. Just then Rex dropped his knife out of his
pocket; how it
happened to be there he never knew, and much to their
astonishment, the
queer bits of stone moved toward the knife and arranged
themselves around it.
"Why," she said, "they look like parts of a puzzle."
So they started picking up some of them. "Do you
think they might be a
puzzle, Rex?" queried Zendah. "Let's try and find enough
to make a word."
They collected a heap of the queer, dark, shining stones,
and soon found
they were able to make several words. At last they made
the word "Secret."
Just then a curious noise behind them made them look
round. It was a
sort of gurgling, swishing noise, and they saw what
looked like water
running swiftly over stones in a river bed, when there
had been much rain.
They then saw a movement, where before there had
seemed to be nothing.
At the bottom of the river bed was a number of twisting
lines like water,
gradually rising higher and higher, moving from side to
side, and swiftly up
and down, until it made a great funnel, a whirlpool of
water, nearly as high
as a house and about eight feet across the top.
At the bottom it was such a deep purple as to be
nearly black, but the
moving lines became lighter in color and more and more
reddish, until it
was a glorious crimson. Then a bubble formed at the
bottom of the funnel and
gradually rising to the top, burst without a sound.
Seven more bubbles rose, one by one and each larger
than the other, and
as the eighth and last broke, the whole of the water
disappeared and they
beheld the gate. It was made of beautiful shaped and
twisted iron, with a
figure of an enormous eagle right across the top.
No voice demanded entrance — the gates swung open
suddenly with a
clang — and as suddenly closed behind them, after they had
stepped inside.
The way before them was blocked with great rocks
towering in front of
them, and extending at the sides to where the gates had
been, but which were
again invisible.
There was no way forward, and no way back, and yet,
it seemed as if
there might be an entrance, for a stream of dark water
flowed under the rock
near their feet.
"Let's try the Password," said Zendah. "This might be
like the entrance
to Ali Baba's cave."
So they whispered "Power."
Eight times it echoed back from the rocks, sounding
like a chorus of
invisible people mocking them. Then suddenly there was an
opening just in
front of them and a boat lay on the water inside the
opening.
They stepped into the boat, and without any warning,
off it shot at a
great speed as if the stream were constantly running down
hill. Through
caverns almost pitch black, they went over little rapids
where the boat
rocked so much they thought they must be thrown out!
Sometimes it was icy
cold and they saw great blocks of ice, all shapes and
sizes, towering into
the air on each side of them, like pillars of a
cathedral. Further on they
passed a place that was just as hot as the place they had
left was cold.
Fountains of boiling water rushed up to the roof of the
cavern, and they
could hardly breathe.
They wanted badly to stop the boat in one place, for
all the walls of
the cavern were alive with specks of many colored lights
that looked like
the jewels which mother had in her necklace, but they
were unable to do so.
At last the boat rushed out into the open country,
and stopped beside a
bank on which elder and alder trees were growing. On the
bank stood a figure
they recognized and they jumped out and ran to him, for
it was Mars.
"It did not take you long to find the secret of the
entrance cave," he
said, "and I am very much pleased that the underground
journey did not
frighten you. In the Land of the Scorpion-Eagle you will
have to find out
most things for yourselves. Now choose, will you go east
or west?"
"West," said Zendah, speaking first, before Rex could
make up his mind.
As she spoke, a flying chariot drew up, drawn by four
eagles.
Off they flew, over ice fields, passing waterfalls,
miles and miles
high, until the air became warmer and there came to them
a perfume like that
of a garden.
Getting out of the chariot, they found themselves in
a stretch of flat
country, all arranged with beds of herbs; some they knew
because they grew
them in their garden at home, but a great many they had
never seen before.
"How sweet they smell," said Rex, running from bed to
bed and picking a
leaf here and there, as they wandered up and down the
paths. "But why are
they all needed?"
"They have many uses, as you shall see," replied
Mars, leading them
further on. In the middle of the herb garden was a long,
low building, and
passing inside they saw many women putting the herbs on
trays to dry, then
rubbing them through sieves, and lastly putting them into
bottles. They saw
the herbs, in another part of the building, being boiled
in great vats to
make medicines for the doctors to use when curing sick
people.
"There is an herb for every illness, if people would
only take the
trouble to find it out," said Mars.
In the center of the building was a room with glass
windows through
which the children looked at eight old men gathered round
a table on which
was a glass vase with a stopper at the top. To their
astonishment they saw that
this was full of a beautiful liquid which moved and
leaped by itself, as if
it were trying to escape. It was a glorious crimson, like
wine, with
hundreds of golden bubbles in it.
It was so beautiful that they begged to take some
home, but were told it
was not quite finished yet, though when perfected it
would cure all illness.
"It is the Elixir of Life, that the wise old
alchemists were always
trying to make, and they come to this land from Earth to
find out how to
make it," said Mars.
The next interesting thing they saw was a number of
people making
spectacles. The queer thing was that no two pairs were
alike in shape and
every one had a different colored glass.
They begged to look through a pair. Everyone started
laughing and
chorused, "Why you have a pair of your own." Where these
spectacles suddenly
came from they had no idea, but Rex had pink glasses and
Zendah's were blue.
What wonders they saw through them! They could see
right down into the
ground, just as if it were transparent; trace where the
oil wells lay and
see hidden streams of water underground. The rivers, as
they looked, were
now full of water nymphs, playing games with each other,
up and down the
waterfalls.
In the air were thousands of tiny figures not visible
to them before,
and they noticed some of these buzzing round the flowers
with brushes and
paint pots, placing the colors on the opening buds and
on the fruit. These
are magical glasses — everyone has a pair, so Mars told
them, but very few
people know how to use them, or are even aware that they
have them.
Leaving the spectacle factory, in a courtyard nearby,
they looked down a
deep well covered with a great stone slab. Mars moved
this, and they saw the
well was dry. In the sand at the bottom of the well were
crawling some scaly
objects that looked rather like small lobsters, only they
had nasty spikes
in their tails that they carried curved over their backs.
"These ought not to be here," said Mars. "They were
all beautiful eagles
once, but every time a child belonging to this land says
a sharp, unkind
word, one of our eagles turns into a scorpion."
"Don't they ever turn back into eagles?" asked
Zendah, feeling very
sorry for the poor eagles condemned to crawl instead of
being able to fly.
"Oh yes, but the children have to perform three good
deeds before they
can become eagles again."
Many and curious things they saw; all were hidden,
and the magic word
had to be spoken before they became visible. At last they
came to the palace
of the King.
The entrance to the grounds was through great fields
of poppies of all
colours, and their scent made Zendah yawn so much and
feel so tired, that to
avoid going to sleep on the way, they hurried her on to
the steps of the palace.
This palace stood on eight pillars with a moat all
round it, so every
part was reflected in the water; the bridge to it seemed
made of clouds, and
every step Rex and Zendah took was like walking on cotton
wool. Women
wearing dark red cloaks, and with veils on their heads
that were kept in
place with a snake ornament, stood in the passages and
halls to welcome
them, and saluted Mars with a raised hand. Page boys with
black piercing
eyes and shocks of dark curly hair, flung back the
curtains to the central hall.
The upper part of the hall was made of black and
white marble and the
throne itself of a green stone flecked with little red
marks. On each side
were huge iron vases, in which were growing white poppy
plants as large as
small trees. A lamp with a red light hung from the roof
in front of the
throne and braziers on each side sent forth clouds of
scented smoke. A
figure was seated on a throne, wearing a robe,
crimson-rose in color,
bordered with embroidery of many colors and richly set
with jewels. They
could not see the face, for it was veiled with eight
veils, but they could
see a crown set with sparkling jewels.
A deep voice bade them welcome, and ordered the
attendants to fill the
goblet and give the children the drink of remembrance,
"For without this you
will not be able to recall what you have seen in the Land
of the Scorpion-Eagle."
A tall woman handed them a goblet, beautifully
carved, full of a red
liquid, while at the same time she passed her hand across
the children's eyes.
It was a strange drink, very sweet as they drank it,
but leaving a
bitter taste in their mouths afterwards.
Handing back the goblet they looked up, and saw a
crimson winged figure
behind the throne — a Great Being that reached almost to
the roof of the
hall, and who wore a blazing star on his head.
This was one of the four Guardians of the Winds, they
were told, and one
quarter of the world was given to his charge. The green
guardian lived in
the Land of the Water Carrier, but until they had drunk
of the waters of
remembrance they could not see any of the four Guardians.
They stood and gazed at the Angel's wonderful crimson
wings and blazing
star, until the voice of the king recalled them.
"Bring the Helmet of Invisibility," he cried.
A page entered with a crimson satin cushion but they
could see nothing
on it. This nothing was put on Zendah's head. It felt
just like putting on a
hat, only you could not see what it was, and when she had
it on, Rex could
not see her at all.
Round Rex's neck was hung a red cord with a pendant
made of a topaz in
the shape of an eagle.
"The Invisible Helmet will help you to see hidden
things, and also some
day to become invisible on Earth as you are here. Now you
have stayed long
enough in this land, for you still have much to see,"
said the King, "and I
will send you swiftly to the next land."
He stood up, and raising his hands above his head, he
spoke a strange
word that they could never remember.
The floor seemed to heave; all went dark, and the
next thing they knew
they were outside the gate, and as before they entered,
now again they could
see no sign of it.
The moment the children turned and saw the next gate,
they both
exclaimed, "How beautiful!"
It certainly was the most beautiful gate they had
seen up to the present.
The pillars on each side were formed like peach
trees, with bunches of
fruit hanging in clusters from every branch. The gate
itself was of polished
copper and at the top, a copper sun sinking halfway below
a copper sea, each
ray of the sun having a little hand at its tip.
A narrow pillar ran up the center of the gate, and
poised on the top of
this, just under the setting sun, was a pair of scales.
One pan swung right
up in the air and the other was weighed down with a ball,
gleaming with many
colours.
"This is the Land of the Balance," said Rex, "so I
wonder if before we
may go inside we have to find what fills the other pan to
make it swing evenly?"
"We had better look and see if we have anything to
put in," said Zendah
searching in her pocket. But she had nothing except a
handkerchief, while
Rex found only the knife that he had nearly lost outside
the other gate.
Standing on tiptoe, they tried to put these things in
the pan; nothing
happened. But then they hardly thought that these would
be enough. Looking
round, they noticed just under the central pillar of the
gate, a casket,
with the words engraved on it, "Choose well, choose
wisely."
Opening it they found inside a collection of small
bags of gold, several
golden hearts, many little daggers, and numbers of small
books.
Rex seized the little bags of gold, and reaching up,
piled them into the
scale, but yet they did not move. Then he collected a
handful of the daggers
and put them in. still the pan remained up in the air.
They tried all the
little books, but with no results.
"Well, there is only one thing left now," said
Zendah, "so that must be
right," and into the pan they piled the little gold
hearts. Immediately the
scales began to swing up and down, up and down, until
they came to rest at
last — level.
The moment they did so, music sounded, and voices
sang to the chord.
"Give the Password of the just balance."
"Harmony," replied the children.
The gate glided open, so quietly and gently, that
they wondered how it
opened so noiselessly.
Just inside stood Father Time. They stared with open
eyes for he looked
so different. Gone was his dark cloak of the Land of the
Sea-Goat; instead
he now wore a dress of silvery white, covered all along
the edge with sparkling
stones and green embroidery. He reminded the children of
one of those
beautiful sunny days in winter when the snow hangs like
diamonds on the fir
trees. He smiled when he saw their astonishment and said:
"I can only wear this dress when I come to visit
Queen Venus. People
always expect me to look sad in the other lands, but I am
not really so
severe when you get to know me. Learn all you can here
and consider — Queen
Venus will tell you how."
Taking his dark cloak and hourglass from a niche by
the gate he went
out, after which it closed behind him.
"Consider — consider what?" inquired Rex.
"I am sure I don't know," said Zendah, "but I expect
we shall soon find
out."
They began to look around. It was very lovely; the
sky was alight with
the most beautiful sunset they had ever seen. The perfume
of many flowers
met them on every side, but it was difficult to say what
they were because the
fragrance was so different from anything they knew at
home.
Seven roads lay in front of them and along one of
these, coming in their
direction, were a man and a woman with their arms linked
together. They were
very charming to look at, but the surprising thing was,
that they were not
walking on the road, nor on the grass, but floating in
the air, just above
the ground. They were both dressed in robes of the same
colour as the deep
blue sea when a hot summer Sun is shining on it, and wore
copper belts, set
with rows of opals.
They hardly seemed solid, for sometimes the children
thought they could
see through them.
Coming to rest on the road near Rex and Zendah, they
were joined by
another man and woman, and together the four sang the
chord like that heard
at the entrance.
Immediately hundreds of tiny fairies floated up,
holding a many colored
carpet that looked rather like a sunset cloud. With
smiles and waving arms,
the fairies invited the children to sit down on this
carpet, when gently it
rose from the ground and they were started on their
voyage in the air.
So smoothly they traveled, they hardly knew that they
had left the
ground. It was quite easy for them to see everything as
they passed and they
thought it was much nicer than any other method of
transportation they had
ever tried.
One very curious thing they did notice was that every
house was
suspended in the air; not one was built on the ground,
and they wondered
where the foundations were laid.
Whichever way they gazed, there were beautiful
gardens, and many
flowers, lilies and violets and roses, all in bloom, and
over them hovered
hundreds of bees.
Hearing very faint music, they looked around and
found that it was the
fairies singing the flowers to sleep, so that they could
place the honey
inside the flowers' storehouses for the bees to find the
next day. A burst
of glorious music above their heads made them look up,
and high above them,
they saw the palace.
It was made of sunset clouds, its towers and
pinnacles were of all
colours — ruby, orange, green and purple, and that
beautiful blue you see
only in the sky at sunset, on a clear day. Up and up they
floated to the
entrance, fairies flying to greet them with garlands of
roses, which they
threw round their necks. Leaving the carpet, they
ascended the magic steps
and entered the hall, and everywhere found there were
flowers and fairies.
Soon they came to a series of rooms, seven of them, all
of the same size,
but of a different
colour — red, orange, green, yellow, blue, violet, and
indigo.
Each room seemed more beautiful than the preceding
and as they crossed
the threshold, a note of music sounded.
The rooms affected them differently. Going through
the red room they
felt lively and energetic; nothing troubled them, and
they stepped along as
to a marching tune; in fact the note of music in that
room sounded like a
march to
them.
In the orange room, they felt as if they were in the
sunshine and wanted
to sit down and just enjoy it and make plans for what
they wished to do.
The yellow room made them feel clever, and Rex
thought of the sums that
he could not do at school and found he knew all the
answers and Zendah
remembered all the dates in her history that had always
seemed so hard.
In the green room Zendah recalled she had forgotten
to feed her rabbits
the night before, and had never helped mother in the
garden as she had
promised, while Rex remembered the boy with the broken
leg, who lived in the
cottage down the road and who had asked him to go and
read to him.
The blue room felt like a church and they stepped on
tiptoe and talked
in whispers. They fancied they saw angels all round the
walls, and heard an
organ playing music, such as they heard on Sundays.
The violet room! They could never quite explain how
they felt there. It
reminded them somehow of the Land of the Fishes and the
Temple of the Holy Cup.
Lastly, they entered the deep-sea blue room, the
great hall. There, at
the far end, they saw Queen Venus smiling at them from a
carved ivory throne.
The throne curved right above her head, so she seemed
to be sitting in a
ball of ivory.
It had a wonderful blue cushion and behind it, on the
wall, were blue
silk hangings, covered with pictures worked in many
colors.
Vases of flowers stood everywhere, and all the
attendants had wreaths on
their heads. Queen Venus herself was dressed in pure
white silk, bordered
with blue and opals.
The children ran toward her and caught hold of her
hands.
"Sit down on the cushions at my feet," she said, "and
consider."
They looked at each other and whispered, "Consider
again? What does it
mean?" Sitting down on the cushions pointed out to them,
they watched. Many
people came into the hall with sad, gloomy, or angry
faces. Queen Venus bent
toward them and whispered a few words in their ears, and
sent them away with
one of the attendants.
In a short time they came back, looking quite
different, and kissing the
Queen's hand, left the hall.
"Do you wonder what is the matter with all these
people?" she said,
turning to the children. Rex nodded.
"They are all discontented or unhappy, and they come
to learn to be
peace-makers instead of trouble-makers in the world. They
do not understand
that everyone has his own note of music and also his own
colour, and if he
does not use his own note he sings out of tune. So I send
these people into
the halls through which you passed, to find their own
note and to learn to
sing it properly.
Then they go back to Earth and sing in tune, and they
will never grumble
any more. Everything has its own note; listen to the
waterfall and the wind
in the trees and you will hear theirs. Even the stars
sing. Listen!" She
held up her hand and everyone in the hall was silent.
She stood up and sang a few notes of a song.
Above them in the air appeared a harp with seven
strings. First one note
murmured and swelled and sang, then another and another
until all the seven
were singing together, and a star flashed out over the
harp and then
disappeared.
They had never heard anything like it, and it was so
grand that they
almost felt a little awed, and crept up close to Queen
Venus.
Smiling at their amazement she said: "That is the
music of the seven
planets; only poets and great musicians ever hear it on
Earth, and it is
because they find it so difficult to write down and for
other people to play
that they are usually so dissatisfied with their work. If
you always think
of beautiful things and endeavor to make happiness
wherever you go, then
you will be able to come back to this land and hear the
music of the planets
again, for this land is harmony.
"That is what Father Time meant when he told you to
consider; consider
before you speak, that you may not say unkind words which
hurt and upset the
harmony of the world; consider before you act whether the
thing you do helps
other people or is not just for yourself.
"To remind you of this land, take this five-pointed
opal star, Zendah,
and you, Rex, take this small seven-stringed harp, that
you may try to make
real music for the world."
Both children kissed her hand when they said goodbye,
and told her they
were very sorry to leave her, but she smiled and said
they would see her
again before they went home.
Outside the palace they took their places once more
on the magic carpet
and sailed away toward the gate. Instead of getting off,
they found
themselves floating through it.
The carpet and the fairies disappeared, and they sank
slowly down, until
they stood outside.
The balance was again empty on one side; the setting
Sun at the top of
the gate disappeared below its copper sea and slowly
everything went dark.
The entrance to the next land was through an archway,
the pillars of
which were almost entirely covered with sheaves of corn,
held in place by
twisted bands of leaves, among which were twined branches
of fruit and
flowers.
It reminded them of the harvest festival.
At the base of each of the pillars was a bowl of
water, and round each
of these were engraved words.
On one: "Only with clean hands and feet can ye enter
this land." On the
other: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness."
The space between the pillars had no gate, but seemed
to be filled with
corn, growing higher than the children's heads.
There was no path to be seen, and when they touched
the corn with their
hands, it was stiff and unbending, and there was no way
through.
Zendah looked at the scroll of Hermes and pointed out
to Rex what it
said. "When you arrive at the Land of the Virgin, wash in
the water of the
basins and empty it in front of the growing corn; then
pronounce the Password."
They went to the basins and began to wash their
hands, Rex taking one
and Zendah the other.
"Do you think we must both wash in each of them?"
asked Rex.
"Of course, silly," said Zendah, "I expect they are
different kinds of
water; I am sure they felt different to me, when I put my
hands in." Then
sitting down on the ground she put her feet into the
waters of both bowls.
"I don't see any need to do that," grumbled Rex, who
thought they were
wasting time by so much washing, but when Zendah pointed
out that the motto
on one of the bowls did say something about feet, he
thought it was better
to do the same. Having finished, they threw out the water
as directed, when
these words formed in the sand at their feet:
"Purity is service."
The words slowly formed and disappeared. A voice
startled them. "Welcome
children, at last."
They looked up, and there, parting with both hands
what had seemed to be
stiff, unbending corn, was Hermes.
"You have managed very well without me up to now," he
said, "but I have
never been very far away, though you did not notice me.
It was I who
whispered in your ears when you did not know quite what
to do."
He beckoned them to him, and parting the corn with
one hand, he pointed
with the other to a path leading through it. On they
went, through miles and
miles of corn fields, oats and barley, wheat and maize,
and many other kinds
of grain. They were all ripe and waiting to be gathered.
At the far end of
the path they came out into open and pleasant country,
and there they were
met by several women dressed in yellow robes, somewhat
resembling the color
of the corn.
These women did not seem to see Hermes, but spoke to
the children at once.
"Have you washed your feet?" asked one.
"Are your hands clean?" demanded another.
"I hope you have not brought the least speck of dirt
into the Land of
the Virgin," said a third.
Rex and Zendah were puzzled and looked at Hermes to
know what to say.
"Ladies," he said, "there is no need for your
questions, which are quite
right for most people, but these children are using their
star bodies, and
as you know those are always clean, yet they could not
have entered this land
unless they had used the water in the bowls at the gate."
The women solemnly
bowed to the children who went on with Hermes, walking
through the sunlit
country. Everywhere were little houses standing in their
own neat little
gardens, every one just a little different from the
others.
One thing these gardens had in common — there was not
a weed to be seen
anywhere, and in each one there were formal beds of
flowers and tidy paths
with not a stone out of place. It was all so spick and
span that they were
almost afraid to walk along the roads.
Passing at last away from these country places, they
came to the capital
of the country which Hermes told them was called the Town
of Perfection.
Here were fine clean buildings that seemed to be
mostly offices for
doing different kinds of business. Inside they found
clerks, busily writing
in enormous ledgers, adding up sums with rows and rows of
figures.
Every wall was covered with shelves divided into
hundreds of pigeon
holes, filled with papers, and all labeled with different
names. People were
running to and from these holes either putting some
papers away, or fetching
some out. They were very busy, too busy to explain
anything to the children,
who did not feel very much interested until Hermes told
them that the
writing which was done there was very useful to the other
lands, because this
recorded and kept safe the important things that happened.
Then they went down to a large room below the offices
where they became
greatly interested. It was the largest laboratory that
they had ever seen.
Men and women in long white coats, helped by a number of
quite small boys
about the age of Rex, were grouped round small, blue gas
flames watching
queer-shaped glass tubes.
Some were pounding things with pestles in mortars.
Every now and then
there would be an explosion in one of the tubes, and all
would gather round
and make notes in their own little notebooks.
One man was squeezing juice out of various fruits,
filling glass tubes
with it, and trying the effect of drops of different
coloured liquids on the
juice. This result too was noted in a book.
"What are they doing?" asked Rex.
"They are trying to find out which things are the
most valuable foods
for people to eat." Rex pulled a face. "I think the best
foods are those
that taste the best." Hermes laughed. "I am afraid they
do not all think so
in this land."
From there they passed through a doorway into a
greenhouse filled with
plants and flowers in full bloom, many of which were
quite strange to them.
"Why!" said Zendah, after she had run first from one
queer plant to
another, "they are not a bit like our flowers at home."
The head gardener
came up just then, and replied:
"No, of course not, this is where the fairies help us
to grow new kinds
of fruit and flowers. See, this is how we do it — but
first I must see if the
stars say it is the right time." And he went to a book
that was hanging in a
corner of the greenhouse, and ran his finger down a page.
"Yes, in five
minutes we may begin." So from a box he took a small
brush, and going to a
white lily-like plant that was growing near them, he took
some of the yellow
pollen from its stamens, and then passing to a gorgeous
red flower, he
placed the pollen on the long green rod that grew in the
center of the flower.
"Now," he said, "we must tie it up in a muslin bag so
that nothing else
can touch it, and when the seeds ripen, we shall be able
to grow a beautiful
lily, red with white spots, or it may be white with red
spots, I cannot say
which, for that all depends on the fairies."
Then he gave them a peach with a pineapple flavour
and an apple with no
core nor seeds, that had a musk flavor.
He showed them a blue rose and a bright yellow sweet
pea. "All these
flowers and fruits are discovered here first before you
can grow them down
on Earth," he said. Zendah caught hold of his arm, "When
shall we be able to
grow a blue rose?" she said. He shook his head
mysteriously: "When the Head
Gardener comes to live with you," he replied.
They could hardly drag themselves away, but at last
Hermes said they
must hurry on, and took them into a garden enclosed by
high stone walls.
Each wall was covered with fruit trees, and in the middle
was a six-sided
bed filled
with white Madonna lilies. In the center was a most
unusual fruit tree; the
leaves shone, silver-like, and the fruit sparkled like
jewels with different
colors. Right on the topmost branch was a golden apple
that shone as the Sun.
"That is the most valuable thing in this land," said
Hermes, "the Golden
Apple of Knowledge and Healing. There is only one at
present in the whole
universe. Some of those people you just saw are trying to
make other fruit
trees grow one like it. They have succeeded in growing a
silver one that
will do a great deal of good, but they have not found out
how to grow the
real apple yet."
From this courtyard, they entered the palace. Here,
as everywhere else,
everything was exactly where it should be — nor could you
find a fault with
anything, but still, it was not as beautiful nor as
comforting as the Palace
of Venus.
All the walls were covered with white and yellow
linen hangings with
little streams of water running in channels down every
passage, so that you
had to step through water to enter any room. This
prevented your taking dust
into any of the rooms.
In the largest hall, at the far end, there was a dais
upon which were
seated five wise looking young men at a round table.
The chair at the head of the table was vacant; the
only real difference
between it and the others being that it was more
beautifully carved. Hermes
told them that was his chair, but he was so busy as the
messenger of the
gods, that these five men governed for him when he had to
be away.
"Then too, my brother Vulcan helps, but he is so
occupied at his forge
making beautiful works of art that he has not much time
for ruling either,
and many people do not know when he is here."
They just peeped into a workshop at the side of the
hall and saw Vulcan
hammering out sheets of metal. Numbers of young people
were making all kinds
of useful things; from vases and bowls to tiny buckets.
The most noticeable
thing was the fineness of the details, and the polish
they imparted to each
article. Back once again in the large hall, Hermes took a
beautifully
colored apple from a plate and gave it to Zendah.
Looking at it with
surprise, she found it was made of metal, though it
looked so real.
"This is only a copy of the real apple of health," he
said, "but even
this will take away headaches when you smell it, and cure
quite a number of
other things too."
Into Rex's hand he dropped a lily-shaped pin, with
the head made of
jasper, telling him to keep this as a remembrance of the
Land of the Virgin.
From another dish he took a large flat cake, and
breaking it in half he
gave them each a piece. "Nowhere will you find such
satisfying bread as that
from the Land of Purity," he said.
Indeed, after they had tasted it Rex and Zendah
thought they had never
had such delicious bread before.
Returning from the hall toward the entrance gate,
they passed all the
neat little houses; and once more came to the corn fields.
Hermes showed them the path and waved his hand; they
walked through and
soon found themselves outside the Land of the Virgin, and
close to the next
gate.
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