virginal, and prematurely burdened with the monotonies of life. In the valley which is her home fear has been her daily bread until she has sickened of it, and passed beyond, into a lethargy that makes of living a negation. She wears a torn white robe, dirtied with the refuse of the highways. Her arms and feet are bare, the arms glowing with pale beauty in the uncertain light. Her lips are full and serious; the face, wan and tear-stained, and the dark, wide eyes are filled with simplicity and weariness, with childishness and pain. Her black hair hangs, knotted and dishevelled, to her waist. Her name is KEDDRA.] (Slowly) KEDDRA we have seen ... in the valley seen, and therefore I have come. [MELNAK looks at her with the sharpness of some hideous thing.] MELNAK None may enter here, except the priests. How did you pass by the guard? KEDDRA (Disregarding the question, timidly) Is it true that the gods are coming? We have seen a great blackness in the north, as if their thrones were vacant and they had gone. MELNAK Answer me. Did you come alone? KEDDRA (Frightened, and backing to the other side of the brazier) O, do not hurt me! Do not hurt me! MELNAK (Advancing to gaze evilly into her averted face, and more harshly) Did you come alone? (Terrified) KEDDRA No. . . . my mother brought me. . . . . in the outer court. MELNAK She is praying Ah! (He claps his hands twice) Why did she bring you? [Before KEDDRA can answer THE YOUNG PRIEST has entered at the door to the left in response to MELNAK'S summons. He is clad in a yellow robe, like the others, and is tall and thin, with extraordinary ears and an enormous mouth.] THE YOUNG PRIEST (On the platform) Lord? (Without turning) MELNAK There is a woman in the outer court. Bring her to me. THE YOUNG PRIEST My lord has said. (He takes a step or two forward, and hesitates.) There is—a certain thing— (Looking at him) Well? MELNAK THE YOUNG PRIEST It is not I that have said it, lord, but—the guards have fled-they were afraid, and in the north the stars are all blotted out, and a cold wind is blowing such as we have never had before. MELNAK It is well. The woman! Yes, lord. THE YOUNG PRIEST [He looks curiously at KEDDRA, crosses the stage behind the little platform, bows to MELNAK, and goes out at the right.] MELNAK You have not answered me. (Dreamily) Is it not curious? KEDDRA The little flowers are underneath the night. I . . . . I have picked the little face to hide it for a moment.) Now I shall not pick them again. (Impatiently) MELNAK Listen to me. I am the chief priest, the ruler here. Either you will answer me, or I will have you thrown to the snakes. . . . . And the snakes will bite into your smooth flesh with their slimy jaws, and wind their long green bodies around your throat and breasts. Do you hear? (KEDDRA gazes at him with fascinated horror.) (Coming closer) MELNAK Answer me. Why did you come to the temple of the blue gods? Why did you come tonight? (Almost inaudibly) KEDDRA I am Keddra. Keddra, the beggar girl. . . . . All summer long I sit by the roadside with my wooden bowl. . . . . Sometimes they give me money, and sometimes food, melons, and broken pieces of bread. ... Melons-they are good. .. (She looks at him obliquely.) MELNAK (In exasperation, advancing and trying to catch her) Will you answer me? KEDDRA [Turns and flees to the little platform, where MELNAK catches her by the arm.] MELNAK I will send you to the snakes! KEDDRA No! No! (He twists her arm) I am coming to it! . [MELNAK stops twisting her arm, but he does not let go of it.] KEDDRA In the summer, it was nice. I lay in the sun and counted the flights of the pigeons. But my mother-in the autumn she was afraid. And then she beat me. And now for three days in the valley we have been afraid. The priests have not left their basket by the shrine to be filled, and at night—I have heard a thing that the others have not heard. Well? MELNAK KEDDRA I saw a soothsayer in the road, wandering up and down, and chanting that the stars were uneasy upon their marble seats. . . . . Moreover, for three nights there has been a great darkness in the north. And each night it has come nearer. And it is whispered-it is whispered that the time of the coming of the gods is at hand. Because the gods will demand a sacrifice, I-I have been made to come. MELNAK Come here. Let me look at you. [He forces her to follow him into the circle of light from the standard. Then he lifts her chin with one of his great fingers. As he sees her face, young, fresh, and beautiful despite her tears, he gives a sharp exclamation of surprise and drops his hand.] MELNAK How old are you? KEDDRA (With vague languor) I do not remember. [AS MELNAK is about to lay hands on her again, THE YOUNG PRIEST enters from the door at the right, dragging with him an old woman, wrinkled, twisted, and inhuman. This creature is NAWDIA, the mother of KEDDRA. She is clad in a single coarse garment of a gray color, and wears sandals. Her hands are like claws, her eyes, fierce, her hair (what there is of it) drawn tightly back over her head. She would look like a witch in a fairy tale, were there not in her look something more ominous than diablerie, something superstitious and fanatic. Her whole life has been concentrated on one thought: how best to avoid the jealous and unreasoning anger of the gods, and even now she is muttering some dark propitiatory prayer. When she sees KEDDRA and the priest, she breaks from her captor, sidles swiftly around him, seizes KEDDRA, whom she contrives to push even closer to MELNAK, and herself falls on her knees before him.] (Almost shrieking) NAWDIA Take her! Take her! I give willingly! The gods demand sacrifice. The gods like sweet flesh. I am old— I do not want to have to die! [THE YOUNG PRIEST tries in vain to capture her, but she lets go of KEDDRA only to cling about the knees of MELNAK.] NAWDIA I give willingly! And she is mine to give the lamb of my body. [MELNAK pushes her off, whereupon from her kneeling position she begins to stroke the body of KEDDRA, who stands with her arms rigid at her sides.] NAWDIA She is a virgin! I give willingly. The gods demand it. KEDDRA [The ice suddenly melts and she carries her hands to her face in a characteristic gesture, with a quavering cry.] Mother! . . . . I—I am too young. . . [She breaks from the group and throws herself upon the central platform, her body shaken by great, noiseless sobs.] |