Something about Eve: A comedy of fig-leavesCabell, James Branch
Science
Something about Eve: A comedy of fig-leaves
Cabell, James Branch
Fantasy fiction; Historical fiction; Middle Ages -- Fiction
—It was only then that Gerald recollected something. He recollected
that Evadne of the Dusk, that feathery-legged Evadne, who, Horvendile
had said, was called Leucosia in the days of her sea-faring. But Gerald
said nothing about what, after all, was none of his affair....
30.
What Solomon Wanted
AND then the second traveler spoke. He spoke of that which had been
his in the days when all riches and all pleasures and all power had been
accorded to Solomon because of his sixfold wisdom. To no other being
that ever lived among mankind was given such mightiness as was granted
to King Solomon in the time that he reigned over Israel and ruled this
world.
For Solomon had sexanary wisdom. Solomon knew the six words which were
not known to any other men. He understood the speaking of these words.
The word of the beasts. It was spoken, and there assembled in the sight
of Solomon a pair of every creature that walks or creeps upon earth,
from the elephant to the smallest worm. Upon the neck of each was
pressed the seal of Solomon, so that the race of each must henceforth be
subject to him. They revealed to him the wisdom of the beasts that
perish and do not bother about it. He feasted them at a table of silver
and iron which covered four square miles; and at that banqueting Solomon
the King served as the pantler, bringing with his hands to every beast
and reptile its food according to its kind, from the elephant to the
smallest worm.
The word of Morskoï. It was spoken, and all manner of fishes rose to the
surface of the sea’s water near Ascalon. Upon the neck of each was
pressed the seal of Solomon. Then came a hundred thousand camels and a
hundred thousand mules laden with new corn, and all the creatures of the
water were fed, and after that they served King Solomon, and they
revealed to him the wisdom of the Sea Market.
The word of the fowls. It was spoken, and the sky was hidden by the
birds who came to render fealty and to instruct King Solomon in the
wisdom of the Apsarasas. The peewit alone did not come. But he came
afterward, crying, “He that hath no mercy for others, shall find none
for himself.” And it was the peewit who fetched to Solomon wise Balkis,
and who taught Solomon to look through the surface of this earth as a
man peers through a sheet of glass.
The word of the Adversary. It was spoken, and the entire citizenry of
hell kneeled before King Solomon, saving only Sachr and Eblis. The
female Djinns were shaped like dromedaries with the wings of a bat; the
male Djinns were like peacocks with the horns of a gazelle. The Mazikeen
and the Shedeem came also. To the neck of each was pressed the seal of
Solomon: and they revealed to him both the black and the gray wisdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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