Complete Works of Rudyard Kipling (Illustrated) (701 page)

After yet another hundred years Eblis, whose doom is assured, came to worship Adam as was his custom and said: ‘O my Lord and my Advancer and my Preceptor in Good and Evil, whom hast thou ever beheld in all thy world, wiser and more excellent than thyself?’ Adam said: ‘I have never seen such an one.’ Eblis asked: ‘Hast thou ever conceived of such an one?’ Adam answered: ‘Except in dreams I have never conceived of such an one.’ Eblis then answered: ‘Disregard dreams. They proceed from superfluity of meat. Stretch out thy hand upon the world which thou hast made and take possession.’ So Adam took possession of the mountains which he had levelled and of the rivers which he had diverted and of the upper and lower Fires which he had made to speak and to work for him, and he named them as possessions for himself and his children for ever. After this, Eblis asked: ‘O, my Upholder and Crown of my Belief, who has given thee these profitable things?’ Adam said: ‘By my Hand and my Head, I alone have given myself these things.’ Eblis said: ‘Praise we the Giver!’ So, then, Adam praised himself in a loud voice, and built an Altar and a Mirror behind the Altar; and he ceased not to adore himself in the Mirror, and to extol himself daily before the Altar, by the name and under the attributes of the Almighty.

The historians assert that on such occasions it was the custom of the Peacock to expand his tail and stand beside our First Substitute and to minister to him with flatteries and adorations.

After yet another hundred years, the Omnipotent, Whose Name be exalted, put a bitter remorse into the bosom of the Peacock, and that bird closed his tail and wept upon the mountains of Serendib. Then said the Excellent and Faithful Archangel Jibrail: ‘How has the Vengeance overtaken thee, O thou least desirable of fowl?’ The Peacock said: ‘Though I myself would by no means consent to convey Eblis into the Garden of the Tree, yet as is known to thee and to the All-Seeing, I referred him to the Serpent for a subtle device, by whose malice and beneath whose tongue did Eblis secretly enter that Garden. Wherefore did Allah change my attuned voice to a harsh cry and my beauteous legs to unseemly legs, and hurled me into the district of Kabul the Stony. Now I fear that He will also deprive me of my tail, which is the ornament of my days and the delight of my eye. For that cause and in that fear I am penitent, O Servant of God.’ Jibrail then said: ‘Penitence lies not in confession, but in restitution and visible amendment.’ The Peacock said: ‘Enlighten me in that path and prove my sincerity.’ Jibrail said: ‘I am troubled on account of Adam who, through the impure magic of Eblis, has departed from humility, and worships himself daily at an Altar and before a Mirror, in such and such a manner.’ The Peacock said: ‘O Courier of the Thrones, hast thou taken counsel of the Lady Eve?’ Jibrail asked: ‘For what reason?’ The Peacock said: ‘For the reason that when the Decree of Expulsion was issued against those two, it was said: “Get ye down, the one of you an enemy unto the other,” and this is a sure word.’ Jibrail answered: ‘What will that profit?’ The Peacock said: ‘Let us exchange our shapes for a time and I will show thee that profit.’

Jibrail then exacted an oath from the Peacock that he would return him his shape at the expiration of a certain time without dishonour or fraud, and the exchange was effected, and Jibrail retired himself into the shape of the Peacock, and the Peacock lifted himself into the illustrious similitude of Jibrail and came to our Lady Eve and said: ‘Who is God?’ The Lady Eve answered him: ‘His name is Adam.’ The Peacock said: ‘How is he God?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘For that he knows both Good and Evil.’ The Peacock asked: ‘By what means attained he to that knowledge?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘Of a truth it was I who brought it to him between my hands from off a Tree in the Garden.’ The Peacock said: ‘The greater then thy modesty and thy meekness, O my Lady Eve,’ and he removed himself from her presence, and came again to Jibrail a little before the time of the evening prayer. He said to that excellent and trusty one: ‘Continue, I pray, to serve in my shape at the time of the Worship at the Altar.’ So Jibrail consented and preened himself and spread his tail and pecked between his claws, after the manner of created Peacocks, before the Altar until the entrance of our pure Forefather and his august consort. Then he perceived by observation that when Adam kneeled at the Mirror to adore himself the Lady Eve abode unwillingly, and in time she asked: ‘Have I then no part in this worship?’ Adam answered: ‘A great and a redoubtable part bast thou, O my Lady, which is to praise and worship me constantly.’ The Lady Eve said: ‘But I weary of this worship. Except thou build me an Altar and make a Mirror to me also I will in no wise be present at this worship, nor in thy bed.’ And she withdrew her presence. Adam then said to Jibrail whom he esteemed to be the Peacock: ‘What shall we do? If I build not an Altar, the Woman who walks by my side will be a reproach to me by day and a penance by night, and peace will depart from the earth.’ Jibrail answered, in the voice of the Peacock: ‘For the sake of Peace on earth build her also an Altar.’ So they built an Altar with a Mirror in all respects conformable to the Altar which Adam had made, and Adam made proclamation from the ends of the earth to the ends of the earth that there were now two Gods upon earth-the one Man, and the other Woman.

Then came the Peacock in the likeness of Jibrail to the Lady Eve and said: ‘O Lady of Light, why is thy Altar upon the left hand and the Altar of my Lord upon the right?’ The Lady Eve said: ‘It is a remediable error,’ and she remedied it with her own hands, and our pure Forefather fell into a great anger. Then entered Jibrail in the likeness of the Peacock and said to Adam: ‘O my Lord and Very Interpreter, what has vexed thee?’ Adam said: ‘What shall we do? The Woman who sleeps in my bosom has changed the honourable places of the Altars, and if I suffer not the change she will weary me by night and day, and there will be no refreshment upon earth.’ Jibrail said, speaking in the voice of the Peacock: ‘For the sake of refreshment suffer the change.’ So they worshipped at the changed Altars, the Altar to the Woman upon the right, and to the Man upon the left.

Then came the Peacock, in the similitude of Jibrail the Trusty One, to our Lady Eve and said: ‘O Incomparable and All-Creating, art thou by chance the mother of Quabil and Habil (Cain and Abel)?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘By no chance but by the immutable ordinance of Nature am I their Mother.’ The Peacock said, in the voice of Jibrail: ‘Will they become such as Adam?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘Of a surety, and many more also.’ The Peacock, as Jibrail, said: ‘O Lady of Abundance, enlighten me now which is the greater, the mother or the child?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘Of a surety, the mother.’ The disguised Peacock then said: ‘O my Lady, seeing that from thee alone proceed all the generations of Man who calls himself God, what need of any Altar to Man?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘It is an error. Doubt not it shall be rectified,’ and at the time of the Worship she smote down the left- hand Altar. Adam said: ‘Why is this, O my Lady and my Co-equal?’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘Because it has been revealed that in Me is all excellence and increase, splendour, terror, and power. Bow down and worship.’ Adam answered: ‘O my Lady, but thou art Eve my mate and no sort of goddess whatever. This have I known from the beginning. Only for Peace’ sake I suffered thee to build an Altar to thyself.’ The Lady Eve answered: ‘O my Lord, but thou art Adam my mate, and by many universes removed from any sort of Godhead, and this have I known from the first. Nor for the sake of any peace whatever will I cease to proclaim it.’ She then proclaimed it aloud, and they reproached each other and disputed and betrayed their thoughts and their inmost knowledges until the Peacock lifted himself in haste from their presence and came to Jibrail and said: ‘Let us return each to his own shape; for Enlightenment is at hand.’

So restitution was made without fraud or dishonour and they returned to the temple each in his proper shape with his attributes, and listened to the end of that conversation between the First Substitute and his august Consort who ceased not to reprehend each other upon all matters within their observation and their experience and their imagination.

When the steeds of recrimination had ceased to career across the plains of memory, and when the drum of evidence was no longer beaten by the drumstick of malevolence, and the bird of argument had taken refuge in the rocks of silence, the Excellent and Trustworthy Archangel Jibrail bowed himself before our pure Forefather and said: ‘O my Lord and Fount of all Power and Wisdom, is it permitted to worship the Visible God?’

Then by the operation of the Mercy of Allah, the string was loosed in the throat of our First Substitute and the oppression was lifted from his lungs and he laughed without cessation and said: ‘By Allah, I am no God but the mate of this most detestable Woman whom I love, and who is necessary to me beyond all the necessities.’ But he ceased not to entertain Jibrail with tales of the follies and the unreasonableness of our Lady Eve till the night time.

The Peacock also bowed before the Lady Eve and said: ‘Is it permitted to adore the Source and the Excellence?’ and the string was loosened in the Lady Eve’s throat and she laughed aloud and merrily and said: ‘By Allah I am no goddess in any sort, but the mate of this mere Man whom, in spite of all, I love beyond and above my soul.’ But she detained the Peacock with tales of the stupidity and the childishness of our pure Forefather till the Sun rose.

Then Adam entered, and the two looked upon each other laughing. Then said Adam: ‘O my Lady and Crown of my Torments, is it peace between us?’ And our Lady Eve answered: ‘O my Lord and sole Cause of my Unreason, it is peace till the next time and the next occasion.’ And Adam said: ‘I accept, and I abide the chance.’ Our Lady Eve said: ‘O Man, wouldst thou have it otherwise upon any composition?’ Adam said: ‘O Woman, upon no composition would I have it otherwise-not even for the return to the Garden of the Tree; and this I swear on thy head and the heads of all who shall proceed from thee.’ And Eve said: ‘I also.’ So they removed both Altars and laughed and built a new one between.

Then Jibrail and the Peacock departed and prostrated themselves before the Throne and told what had been said. It was answered: ‘How left ye them?’ They said: ‘Before one Altar.’ It was answered: ‘What was written upon the Altar?’ They said: ‘The Decree of Expulsion as it was spoken-”Get ye down, the one of you an enemy unto the other.”‘

And it was answered: ‘Enough! It shall stand in the place of both Our Curse and Our Blessing.’

(R.N.V.R.)

The Changelings

OR EVER the battered liners sank

  With their passengers to the dark.

I was head of a Walworth Bank.

  And you were a grocer’s clerk.

I was a dealer in stocks and shares.

  And you in butters and teas.

And we both abandoned our own affairs

  And took to the dreadful seas.

Wet and worry about our ways-

  Panic, onset, and flight-

Had us in charge for a thousand days

  And a thousand-year-long night.

We saw more than the nights could hide-

  More than the waves could keep —

And — certain faces over the side

  Which do not go from our sleep.

We were more tired than words can tell

  While the pied craft fled by.

And the swinging mounds of the Western swell

  Hoisted us heavens-high...

Now there is nothing-not even our rank-

  To witness what we have been;

And I am returned to my Walworth Bank;

  And you to your margarine

Sea Constables

A Tale of ‘15

THE head-waiter of the Carvoitz almost ran to meet Portson and his guests as they came up the steps from the palmcourt where the string band plays.

‘Not seen you since-oh, ever so long,’ he began. ‘So glad to get your wire. Quite well-eh?’

‘Fair to middling, Henri.’ Portson shook hands with him. ‘You’re looking all right, too. Have you got us our table?’

Henri nodded toward a pink alcove, kept for mixed doubles, which discreetly commanded the main dining-room’s glitter and blaze.

‘Good man!’ said Portson. ‘Now, this is serious, Henri. We put ourselves unreservedly in your hands. We’re weather-beaten mariners- though we don’t look it, and we haven’t eaten a Chrihristian meal in months. Have you thought of all that, Henri, mon ami?’

‘The menu, I have compose it myself,’ Henri answered with the gravity of a high priest.

It was more than a year since Portson-of Portson, Peake and Ensell, Stock and Share Brokers-had drawn Henri’s attention to an apparently extinct Oil Company which, a little later, erupted profitably; and it may be that Henri prided himself on paying all debts in full.

The most recent foreign millionaire and the even more recent foreign actress at a table near the entrance clamoured for his attention while he convoyed the party to the pink alcove. With his own hands he turned out some befrilled electrics and lit four pale rose-candles.

‘Bridal!’ some one murmured. ‘Quite bridal!’

‘So glad you like. There is nothing too good.’ Henri slid away, and the four men sat down. They had the coarse-grained complexions of men who habitually did themselves well, and an air, too, of recent, red- eyed dissipation. Maddingham, the eldest, was a thick-set middle-aged presence, with crisped grizzled hair, of the type that one associates with Board Meetings. He limped slightly. Tegg, who followed him, blinking, was neat, small, and sandy, of unmistakable Navy cut, but sheepish aspect. Winchmore, the youngest, was more on the lines of the conventional pre-war ‘nut,’ but his eyes were sunk in his head and his hands black-nailed and roughened. Portson, their host, with Vandyke beard and a comfortable little stomach, beamed upon them as they settled to their oysters.