Yermah the Dorado: The story of a lost raceWait, Frona Eunice
Science
Yermah the Dorado: The story of a lost race
Wait, Frona Eunice
Fantasy fiction; Geographical myths -- Fiction
Northeast from the center of Tlamco was the Temple of Venus, set apart
for marriage and all domestic affairs. It was here that the vestal
virgins lived, and taught the young children. It was an oval-shaped
structure, with rows of pillars inside, supporting a convex-domed roof
of colored glass. The pillars were ornamented elaborately with stucco,
rainbow-tinted, each one showing a solid color. The interstices between
had mirrors with beaten copper frames placed over the glass itself. The
tessellated floor was of black marble, the vessels of exquisitely
hammered silver, while the altars were of onyx on copper bases.
Passion-flowers, gillyflowers and hollyhocks, emblems of fecundity, were
employed in the decorations of the temple for the wedding. Ivy, meaning
fidelity; grasses, showing submission; heliotrope, for devotion; syringa
and roses, for love, were freely intertwined about the pillars and
altars.
On Friday, the day of love and marriage, no blood was allowed to be shed
for food.
At the wedding, the vestments of Imos and his assistants were of azure,
their ornaments of polished copper, their head garlands of white and red
roses, and they carried myrtle and olive branches.
Apple-green and pale rose were the colors of the canopy placed in the
southern niche, under which the ceremony took place. It was an open,
flaring triangle with a lamp in the apex, having the pedestal of iron,
the joint of brass, the bowl of silver, and the center of gold. It had
two arms, composed of three metals interlaced in such a manner as to
leave a triple conduit for oil.
There were nine wicks; three in the middle, and three in each arm. The
lower rim of the pedestal represented a serpent, while the globe was
large and double, having compartments filled with colored waters and
perfumed so that the air was cool and fragrant.
The lamp was on a revolving standard of polished wood, and at its base
were three smoking incense-jars of burnished bronze.
Early on the morning of the wedding, a brilliant pageant formed in front
of Setos’s house and marched through the principal streets. It consisted
of beasts of burden, and tamanes, loaded with presents for the bride,
and also carrying her belongings to Iaqua.
First came the jewel bearers, armed to the teeth, escorted by
cavalrymen, brandishing broadswords and performing many feats of
horsemanship and skill.
This was followed by a cavalcade of burros, laden with scented jars and
baskets containing the trousseau, which had kept half of Tlamco
industriously occupied for three months.
The presents came from military, naval and civil guilds; from the
priesthood, from the vestals, and from the children and the aged.
Poets walked in front of them reciting odes, and the musicians performed
special compositions in honor of the occasion.
As soon as the procession turned into the beautifully decorated avenue
leading to Iaqua, the populace hastened to the Temple of Venus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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