[_Holds crucifix toward him._

_Sanko._ By the eight million G.o.ds, he mocks me!

[_Dashes it to floor._

And shall perish Or go from this village!

_The Priest._ Aye ... but only When goes this maiden Whom you would hold Still to her idols.

She must follow The Cross of Heaven.

_Sanko._ She shall follow O priest, but me.

_The Priest._ Murderer, pause!...

There is a h.e.l.l Where the lost burn Even as say your sutras.

[_Sanko lifts his sword._

Pause! and strike not!

The smitten Christ No longer holds My hands from strife.

[_Towers over him._

O-Ume, I bid you Now cast away The gilded G.o.ds you have worshipped.

_Sanko._ And I forbid O-Ume _to move_.

_O-Ume_ (_heedless of either_). And I, O-Ume, O'er whom you quarrel, And whom you tear Twixt Christ and Buddha, I, O-Ume, will end it.

[_Lifts the BUDDHA from the floor, and the crucifix, over her head._

Be all the G.o.ds forsaken-- Even as these!

[_Goes to river and casts them in. Then meets their horror with ever increasing pa.s.sion._

Be all!

And be you gone Forevermore!

For if again I see your faces, If again They grieve my hours, If again While Fuji stands there-- The river shall gulf me, too.

I swear it by the dead.

[_They look at her awed, then go slowly, silently out. She sinks on her heels, hands folded, and stares before her. The lights on the river drift on._

CURTAIN

THE IMMORTAL LURE

CHARACTERS

VISHWAMYA _A Renowned Ascetic_ RISHYAS _His Son, a Young Saint_ SUNANDI _An Old Woman of the Court of the Rajah of Anga_ KOL _A Young Girl of the Court_

THE IMMORTAL LURE

TIME: _The antiquity of India._

SCENE: _Before the hermitage of VISHWAMYA and RISHYAS, in a forest near the Ganges. It is an open s.p.a.ce spread with kusa-gra.s.s and over-hung with trees--the hermitage itself being a cell constructed of earth and of hanging roots of the banyan, and having by it an altar before which lies a deer-skin. Glimmering lights and running water penetrate the shades, whose sacredness is soon disturbed by the appearance of SUNANDI, wantonly compelling KOL, with alternate harshness and wheedling, to enter with her._

_Sunandi_ (_peering about_). The place, my jewel-bird! the place for it!

Under these boughs of peepul and asoka The young saint dwells With his restraining sire, Singing the Vedas morning, eve and noon, And they are gone somewhither now in the wood To gather fruit for sacrifice, and flowers.

[_With a leer._

But he, the boy, will soon return, my pretty.

_Kol_ (_whom she has released_).

And you have drawn me from the city here To break into his holy breast with pa.s.sion?

To dance and sing and seize him?

I you have taught the wiles of winning men, As the cobra-charmer teaches, Must lure him from his saintly innocence, And with the beauty I was born unto Must tangle him?...

You, O Sunandi, are an evil woman, To lead me to it!

_Sunandi._ And you talk as flies talk!

Who know not that the G.o.ds sow food or famine.

[_Harshly._

I tell you that great Indra of the skies Is wroth with us And will not send us rain, So wisest Brahmins vow-- Until this boy, This saintly one, is brought unto the Raja!

Are we to die because not otherwise Than with alluring now we can appease them?

[_Leering again._

And why are women fair, my cunning Kol, But to tempt men then, when they seek to take us----

_Kol._ Sunandi!

_Sunandi._ It is so, unwitted girl!

Be silent then And do what I command.

[_Wheedling again._

But it will be sweet doing, beamy Kol, For the young saint Is fairer than the G.o.d-born, His body like warm gold and lotos-lithe-- Made for the wants that tremble in your heart.

And when your eyes rest on him they will kindle Like pa.s.sion-stars.

_Kol._ And burn away his peace-- Which is the pearl Of sainthood thro all worlds!