And the feast went on.

And suddenly I cried to G.o.d, "If one should rise among them, even of themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and cry, 'My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?'--and with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the fragments, cry, 'Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!' and he should overturn the--"

G.o.d said, "Be still!--, see there."

I looked: before the banquet-house, among the gra.s.s, I saw a row of mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads. I asked G.o.d what they were.

He answered, "They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and cried."

And I asked G.o.d how they came there.

He said, "The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards."

I said, "Who buried them?"

G.o.d said, "The men who cast them down."

I said, "How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over them?"

G.o.d said, "Because the bones cried out, they covered them."

And among the gra.s.s and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked G.o.d why it was.

G.o.d said, "Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while, when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also, and plant flowers over it."

And still the feast went on.

Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw their arms about each other, and danced and sang. They pledged each other in the wine, and kissed each other's blood-red lips.

Higher and higher grew the revels.

Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in their gla.s.ses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades. Women dyed their children's garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny mouths were red. Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a vessel, and their garments were bespattered. Children sat upon the floor with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats. They put their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.

And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder and louder the singing. But here and there among the revellers were those who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there were men who sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And when one touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine in the cup, but they did not move.

And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.

The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers' shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of their mothers' robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he staggered struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon the bal.u.s.trades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered to the wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but sleep overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.

Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it reached the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from step to step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin white smoke rose up from it.

I was silent; I could not breathe; but G.o.d called me to come further.

And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay the ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one which I had seen standing.

I said to G.o.d, "What did the men who built it here?"

G.o.d said, "They feasted."

I said, "On what?"

G.o.d said, "On wine."

And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a large circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press had stood.

I said to G.o.d, "How came it that this large house fell?"

G.o.d said, "Because the earth was sodden."

He called me to come further.

And at last we came upon a hill where blue waters played, and white marble lay upon the earth. I said to G.o.d, "What was here once?"

G.o.d said, "A pleasure house."

I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried aloud for joy to G.o.d, "The marble blossoms!"

G.o.d said, "Ay, 'twas a fairy house. There has not been one like to it, nor ever shall be. The pillars and the porticoes blossomed; and the wine cups were as gathered flowers: on this side all the curtain was broidered with fair designs, the st.i.tching was of gold."

I said to G.o.d, "How came it that it fell?"

G.o.d said, "On the side of the wine-press it was dark."

And as we travelled, we came where lay a mighty ridge of sand, and a dark river ran there; and there rose two vast mounds.

I said to G.o.d, "They are very mighty."

G.o.d said, "Ay, exceeding great."

And I listened.

G.o.d asked me what I was listening to.

And I said, "A sound of weeping, and I hear the sound of strokes, but I cannot tell whence it comes."

G.o.d said, "It is the echo of the wine-press lingering still among the coping-stones upon the mounds. A banquet-house stood here."

And he called me to come further.

Upon a barren hill-side, where the soil was arid, G.o.d called me to stand still. And I looked around.

G.o.d said, "There was a feasting-house here once upon a time."

I said to G.o.d, "I see no mark of any!"

G.o.d said, "There was not left one stone upon another that has not been thrown down." And I looked round; and on the hill-side was a lonely grave.

I said to G.o.d, "What lies there?"