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The Lost Continent-Part33_C.J.Cutcliffe Hyne(1865-1944)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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covering of skin as the days went on. But the lack of salads and

gruels I could never overcome. All the green meat was tainted so



powerfully with the taste of tars that never could I force my

palate to accept it. And of course, too, there remained the peril



of the greater lizards and the other dangers native to the place.

But as the months began to mount into years, and the brute



part of my nature became more satisfied, there came other longings

which it was less easy to provide for. From the ivory of a river



horse's tooth I had endeavoured to carve me a representative of

Nais as last I had seen her. But, though my fingers might be



loving, and my will good, my art was of the dullest, and the

result--though I tried time and time again--was always clumsy and



pitiful. Still, in my eyes it carried some suggestion of the

original--a curve here, an outline there, and it made my old love



glow anew within me as I sat and ate it with my eyes. Yet it did

little to satisfy my longings for the woman I had lost; rather



it whetted my cravings to be with her again, or at least to have

some knowledge of her fate.



Other men of the Priests' Clan have come out and made an abode

in these Dangerous Lands, and by mortifying the flesh, have gained



an intimacy with the Higher Mysteries which has carried them far

past what mere human learning and repetition could teach. Indeed,



here and there one, who from some cause and another has returned to

the abodes of men, has carried with him a knowledge that has



brought him the reputationamongst the vulgar for the workings of

magic and miracles, which--since all arts must be allowed which aid



so holy a cause--have added very materially to the ardour with

which these common people pursue the cult of the Gods. But for



myself I could not free my mind to the necessary clearness for

following these abstruse studies. During that voyage home from



Yucatan I had communed with them with growing insight; but now my

mind was not my own. Nais had a lien upon it, and refused to be



ousted; and, in truth, her sweet trespass was my chief solace.

But at last my longing could no further be denied. Through



one of the arrow-slit windows of my tree-house I could see far away

a great mountain top whitened with perpetual snow, which our Lord



the Sun dyed with blood every night of His setting. Night after

night I used to watch that ruddy light with wide straining eyes.



Night after night I used to remember that in days agone when I was

entering upon the priesthood, it had been my duty to adore our



great Lord as He rose for His day behind the snows of that very

mountain. And always the thought followed on these musings, that



from that distant crest I could see across the continent to the

Sacred Mount, which had the city below it where I had buried my



love alive.

So at last I gave way and set out, and a perilous journey I



made of it. In the heavy mists, which hung always on the lower

ground, my way lay blind before me, and I was constantly losing it.



Indeed, to say that I traversed three times the direct distance is

setting a low estimate. Throughout all those swamps the great



lizards hunted, and as the country was new to me I did not know

places of harbour, and a hundred times was within an ace of being



spied and devoured at a mouthful. But the High Gods still desired

me for Their own purposes, and blinded the great beasts' eyes when



I slunk to cover as they passed. Twice rivers of scalding water

roared boiling across my path, and I had to delay till I could



collect enough black timber from the forests to build rafts that

would give me dry ferriage.



It will be seen then that my journey was in a way infinitely

tedious, but to me, after all those years of waiting, the time



passed on winged feet. I had been separated from my love till I

could bear the strain no longer; let me but see from a distance the



place where she lay, and feast my eyes upon it for a while, and

then I could go back to my abode in the tree and there remain



patiently awaiting the will of the Gods.

The air grew more chilly as I began to come out above the



region of trees, on to that higher ground which glares down on the

rest of the world, and I made buskins and a coat of woven grasses



to protect my body from the cold, which began to blow upon me

keenly. And later on, where the snow lay eternally, and was blown






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