The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter

me. Often Zabulun, my master, went to the palace of the King, bringing me with him. And the King would now receive us in his cool chamber, and he would permit my master to seat himself on a p

s he had seen or heard of-of the aurochs with its mighty horns, of the uni[Pg 55]corn that was so white and so swift, of the satyr that is so marvelous that no one knew whether it was a wonde

mattocks made on the ground around the Tower of Babylon. And the King no longer had the look of a ruler on his face, but had the look of a watcher and a waiter. There had come a change over my master also. Zabulun the Enchanter had eyes like yellow lamps, and they had become

shaken by my thought. I looked along the great avenue of palms, and I saw down to the lake where the King's blue herons flew. And from the lake coming toward us I saw a young girl. She had laid the long blue feathers of the heron across her breast, and I saw her white forehead and her white knees, for her dr

f's head hung down where he stood, and he muttered. The King's voice was low when he spoke, but Zabulun spoke loudl

es, for no command had been given to have the beasts stirred up. The King rose from where he sat and went to the doorway. I, too, saw what he saw. The doorkeepers, and even the soldiers who

ed, and there, O King Manus, as I declare[Pg 58] to you, I saw Harut and Marut, the giant gu

s, but their heads and their hands were swaying about like the heads and hands of men suddenly

er, and he arose from the cushions where he sat, and he looked upon the two who came nearer. Along t

en hands had forced him down. His eyes did not lose their look of scorn, but he knelt even as the King knelt. The King and the Enchanter were both Princ

rone on the ground as though the life had left him. They came to where Zabulun the Enchanter knelt. But not on Zabulun's head did they lay their hands. They took him by the arms and

nd the doorkeepers did not show themselves any more. I ran from the chamber, and out through one of the great doors, and into a place where branches of trees se

lay with their backs against the crimson wall of the palace. I saw the zebras stamp between the yellow wall and the blue wall, and ostriches run between the black and the white walls. And when I looked back from where I was in the gardens

clear ground, and being pitched I fell into a deep pit. I lay there, and I looked to the sky, and I[Pg 61] saw that the pit narrowed to the top, and

saw into what place I had fallen-into the Pit of the Serpent. In the shadow of the pit there was a

there was no escape without help, and at that moment there was no help. The snake raised itself higher, and its eyes fastened my eyes. Judge, t

a girl, and she had in her hands a little drum. She began to beat on the drum, and the snake's head that was swaying toward me began to sway sideways. The girl beat again on the dr

e the pit, and I looked upon the girl, and I saw the blue heron's feathers laid across her breast. The