The Gods Give My Donkey Wings, page 1
The Gods Give My Donkey Wings
James Barr
To
ELIZABETH, EVA, ROBERT ALLAN, RUSSELL, MARIEL GRACE MARGARET,
AWFUL LITTLE DONKEYS.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Notes
Chapter 1
Evening was upon the land when I made out the collection of thatched cottages for which I had been in search this many a day. Early in the forenoon I had stopped to allow my weary ass to drink from the brim of a pool at the foot of a fall, and myself to bathe feet in the cool waters. It proved a harsh climb before we reached the plateau across which the river wound its course, but the top once gained I knew myself to be on the verge of a discovery.
Ahead a great mountain pierced the clouds, its mutch of snow drawn tightly around its head and tied under its chin by two ribbon-like glaciers, which, as I guessed, fed the bustling little river along whose bank I now led my patient donkey. The mountain, it seemed to me, looked down upon the valley with considerable good humour, and as I plodded along I could see the deep shadows of evening playing on its gigantic shoulders like the battalions of a mighty army manœuvring for a favourable position. The sun had disappeared by the time I reached the Thorp, but a gentle breeze, blowing up from the plain, tempered the air of the mountain to sweetness with its fragrant balm. By the people I was kindly received. There appeared to be much disputing as to which of them should have the honours, as they were good enough to consider it, of entertaining me, there being no inn or other house of public hospitality in the place. However, the matter was soon settled, for the good people saw that my ass and I were weary, and I was taken in hand by a handsome, strapping, fairfaced young man who led me with many signs of goodwill to a house, wherein I found a woman, she might be some few years older than mine host, and three fairhaired, round-faced children. As I had feared, the good people could not understand me, although I addressed them in many tongues. This was like to prove of some inconvenience to me, a packman, with a healthy itch for gossip.
My pack safely indoors,—be it known a packman’s first thoughts are for his stock in trade, then for his ass, and lastly for himself—the grime of travel washed away, I sat me down to an abundant table which the good-wife had prepared for me. About me all was clean to a fault. The floors were polished until I grew suspicious of my red leather slippers, the platters of beaten copper were burnished to the reflective powers of a Christian’s mirror, and the table of white wood reflected the light of the taper which burned fitfully by my elbow. I could see that cleanliness was the good woman’s god, and as a packman must ever humour the whims of the people, I made a note to have my slippers handy and to remove my shoes at the door, like a heathen worshipper, before entering her house. I think this little thoughtfulness won me the woman’s good opinion.
When I had eaten my fill and drunk to my hostess in a good flagon of home brew, my host took me by the hand and led me out into the one street of the place. It was a narrow thoroughfare paved with cobblestones, with on either side a row of houses, each leaning comfortably against its neighbour, their great, overhanging, thatched eaves alive with twittering swallows, and their windows blinking blandly across the way. The people, too, appeared to be hugely sociable, for the men of them sat on wooden benches under the eaves in groups, gossiping and cracking jokes, and swigging great mugs of their brew; and the women stood together with weans of all sizes and ages romping about their knees, talking too and enjoying the cool of the evening. Mine host, with every manifestation of civility, led me down the street, introducing me as I took it, to group after group, who all stood up when I bowed to them, and took off their reed-braid bats to me. They were, as a body, splendid men, the copper of the open air on their cheeks; the clear light of mountain views in their eyes: broad-chested, loose jointed, and frank of face. Honest men there could be no doubt, frugal and sober in their habits, and in their souls a wholesome fear for the gods.
Now as all people well know, a packman is accustomed to take note of the little things that indicate to the thoughtful mind great things; for to him, people, be they merry, or be they sad, fain would present but one aspect of feeling. And if he is to view life with its varying lights and shadows, he must be on the alert to note the small, and reason thence in a logical way until he arrives at the great. And this evening as I walked between the groups of people, I quickly became aware of a sense of unrest pervading the Thorp. The impression soon became strong on my mind that something had disturbed, or threatened to disturb, the quiet of the place. The very goats that frequented the street seemed to have caught the fidgets and continued to lie down, chew their cud for a short time, and get up only to lie down and chew their cud again. That something untoward had happened, or was about to happen, I felt in my bones; but what this something might be was, of course, out of my power to divine. Whether the subdued excitement was of a pleasurable kind or no I could not quite make out from the faces of the people, for the different groups looked upon the matter in wholly different ways. The young men of mine host type seemed to treat whatever the question or matter might be with considerable contempt, as something unworthy of general discussion, and they drank their beer lustily. On the other hand, the old men sat with grave faces and smoked solemnly their long reed pipes, touching but little liquor, and occasionally shaking their hoary heads the one at the other. But it is to the women I turn for anything in the way of palaver. I found that they were discussing the situation with more vehemence than I could have credited, taking into account their cheery faces and buxom proportions. They stood in knots of eight or maybe ten, and all spoke at once at a tremendous rate and then fell into silence, looking at each other with looks which said that truly the strangest things imaginable happen in this world.
We strolled down the street my host and I, and as we passed along he said a cheerful word here and made a kindly inquiry there; but as we walked I could see that, were it not for the promptings of hospitality, he would long ere this have seated himself to his pipe and mug, to add to the weight of argument his opinions on the question that was causing such a stir. So I took an early opportunity to make him understand that I would, with him, join a group of fellows towards whom he had been casting wistful glances. An expression of pleasure stole into his honest face, and seating me, he brought for me a pipe and a mug of reaming brew, and himself sat down happy. With my face to the mountain I could do nothing but gaze at the marvellous scene. Soft darkness had fallen upon the valley and plain below us, but the sun’s rays crawling up the side of the mountain struck the ice cap with a million javelins of candicant light until the ice and snow sparkled and dazzled like a crust of jagged diamonds. The great cap high in the blue dome bristled and scintillated and buzzed with brilliant fires.
At first the men around me spoke but little, as is the wont of Arcadians when a stranger comes into their midst; but seeing me wrapt in the grandeur of the scene spread out before me, they fell into passing jocular remarks and clinking their earthen mugs, and it was not long before the hum of pleasant conversation told me that they were at last feeling at home in my presence. I strained my ear to catch one word at all familiar to me, but recognize one I could not. So I settled myself down to enjoy a smoke and rest after my weary days of travel, and to accustom my ears to the strange tongue. That I would soon pick up the language of the people, I had no doubt. One skilled in many languages easily acquires an additional tongue.
I had been comfortably seated but a short while, and the strangeness of my company had only time in a degree to wear from the minds of my companions, when a woman, one of a cluster standing near to our table suddenly stretched out her red arm and pointed down the way. Instantly all eyes were turned in the direction, and the next moment a hum of excitement and mutterings ran along either side of the street. The women snatched their children into their arms, and the men discreetly put their huge beakers out of sight under the benches and straightened their backs into a stiffer and more respectful attitude. What in the world could be approaching! In foreign parts, more especially in remote niches among mountains, one never can guess what strange creatures are indigenous. I rapidly glanced in the direction towards which the woman pointed, more than half expecting, if the truth be told, to find some monster of the mountain, some ogre or giant-of-one-eye, with maybe a head or two of his own on his shoulders, a half dozen of other folk’s at his girdle, and a great bludgeon in his hand, come swinging down the street. But no! Instead of monster or giant or dragon, all I saw was a group of three marching towards us in the middle of the way; a man and two women, or, to put them in the order in which they traveled, a woman and a man and woman. Certainly nothing here to fear, and nothing to cause excitement. But excitement the pedestrians did cause. So far as I could judge every man, woman, and child watched the progress of the three with a degree of interest curious to note. As they approached, I saw group after group arise from the tables, and first making a deep reverence to the three, remain standing until they had well passed. Although in my soul I abhor bowings and scrapings, there is that in etiquette due to an host which disarms personal likes and dislikes. So I made ready to do as those with whom I found myself were doing.
But in my bowing I took good care not
To one side of her, but half a step behind, puffed along a stumpy, little man, a good ten years older than the She if I guessed the truth, a squat body of short legs and a sublime stomach, and a benign, if henpecked, expression; and as he stumped and puffed along, his eyes wandered wistfully to the tables by the way, and to the groups of jolly villagers, and I saw that he knew to a nicety where the flagons of brew were secreted, and I could well believe how he yearned to take his place at one of the tables and crack jokes with the best of his neighbours. But, poor soul! he had become entangled in the skirts of the determined shrew—for shrew I made up my mind she must be,—and was now being swept along at a greater rate than the gods had ever intended his short legs to carry him. To the left of the termagant, also half a step behind, strode a young woman, at a hazard I should say, eight-and-twenty. A glance sufficed to tell that she was the daughter of the termagant. She had the build and looks of her mother, with a certain jejuneness pervading her expression which instantly robbed one of the feelings of awe that instinctively came to the soul at the sight of the shrew. Her fulvous hair had in places broken loose, and her pale blue eyes were watery and indefinite, but her nose was in the air and she wibble-wabbled along, the personification of rigid propriety and paucity of brains. I paid but little heed to her, for I was fascinated by the great woman as she marched her band triumphantly down the street.
We were all so busily engaged in watching the interesting three, that no one of us seemed to have noticed the approach of a fourth person from the opposite direction. Indeed, I believe it must have been the termagant herself who discovered to the spectators the presence of another, for it was plain to us all that a look of hatred and contempt overspread her face, and that she unwittingly paused in her stride at the first sight of the new-comer. And when we followed the direction of her glance, we found a young man moving towards us. He carried over one shoulder a sack half filled with some substance of a dripping nature, and which must have been uncommonly heavy in proportion to its bulk, for the burden gave him a perceptible list to one side as he walked. The thrill of sensation which had run through the people at the appearance of the three was now intensified to an audible murmur, which continued until the three and the young man were about to meet at a point nearly opposite where I stood. Then the murmur ceased, and a startling silence fell upon the people. The young man came swinging along, indifference depicted on his face and in his very gait, no devil-may-care air about him, but the bland unconcern that tells of a spirit careless of the censure or praise of on-lookers, whether it be as to his character, dress, or manner. When he came opposite the three, he pulled off his straw plait headgear to them, out of mechanical politeness I could see, for he did not so much as raise his eyes to one of them. As for the termagant and her brood, they none of them returned his salutation by look, word or action; but after the momentary pause, swept on down the street, the great woman’s face more fiery than ever, and the man, poor soul! although that were indeed difficult, looking uneasier than before.
Now a packman knows when he has seen anything of more than ordinary importance, and that this meeting seemed in the eyes of the people an episode of exceptional moment, there could be no room for doubt. I saw that the people were quite unable to take their attention off the pedestrians until the three disappeared in a door at one end of the Thorp, and the one in a door at the other end of it. When this happened, the people gazed in open-mouthed wonderment the one at the other for a space of time, and presently, as if a signal had been given, fell to talking, hammer and tongs. The women rapidly dropped their children to the ground, and while with one hand retaining control of them by the scruff of the neck, they gesticulated frantically with the other; while the men, more phlegmatical by right of sex, lighted their pipes, groped under the seats for their mugs, and took a swig before turning to the discussion of the incident, tragic or comic, whichever it may have been. Certainly the affair aroused my curiosity to a pitch that I there and then made up my mind to bide in the Thorp (given reasonable success in driving my trade) until such time as I had discovered what it was all about. Even a packman has his foibles and my greatest, I fear, is a lively curiosity regarding the affairs of my neighbours, a failing—if it be a failing at all—which prevails in many parts of the globe. I went to bed that night with a feeling that something of interest was in store for me.
Chapter 2
The next morning I arose before the sun, for the air of the morning is the breath of life, and taking my ass, I led her gently along the brink of the stream that flowed by the Thorp, allowing the patient beast to crop the rich grasses that grew by the way, while I speculated on the strange scene of which I had been a witness the evening before, and tried to satisfy myself as to whether the people among whom I so unexpectedly found myself were likely to be shrewd at a bargain, and well informed touching the quality and cost of my wares. It gave promise of a glorious day. A few fleecy clouds swung around the base of the mountain and dragged slowly from point to point, catching at the jagged shoulders of rock as though, like young birds, afraid to launch themselves upon the air, and trailing reluctantly up, and up, and up, increasing in size as they progressed until a number of them, joining their ragged edges, at last adventured against the blue sky of morning. Birds sang cheerily, and the bleating of goats was on the air.
I slowly made my way along a goat-track that followed the winding of the stream, and had reached a point as near as might be to half a Christian mile from the Thorp, when I became aware of a movement in the waters behind me. Quickly glancing over my shoulder—not that I feared, to be sure, but it is as well to be on one’s guard in a strange land—I beheld the nose of a canoe coming round the bend not so very far behind me. I wondered who he could be that came abroad thus early, for few but philosophers, who should know better, stir abroad a moment sooner than necessity compels. Choosing a comfortable seat by the side of a huge boulder that hung over the brink of the stream, I resolved to wait the coming of the canoe, and to speculate on the cause of so early a journey. As the craft came nearer, lo! I beheld, flourishing the paddle with enthusiastic vigour, the young man of the previous evening’s episode. His head was bare, showing a great clump of tangled hair, his jacket loose, and his chest and arms exposed to the cool morning air, were knotted with muscles that writhed and doubled to the sweep of his paddle as he shot the canoe against the stream, which here flowed rapidly. As he approached me, I took occasion to examine his face with a more minute scrutiny than had been my privilege when first I saw him. It was an open face, shaven, bright and frank, with eyes of piercing clearness, features sharply defined, straight nose, and decided chin. He did not sight me until his craft was almost abreast of the point where I sat; but when at last his eyes fell upon me, he gave no start nor any look of surprise, but called to me in a pleasant, manly voice some words which I took to be a morning greeting. I returned the salute speaking in my own tongue. At this he turned his face quickly towards me, at the same time checking the course of his canoe, and for a moment he ran his eye curiously over me. Gently dipping his paddle into the water to keep the canoe abreast of me, he seemed to hesitate as one searching the dictionary of his mind for a word, and at last replied in the language I myself had used, but with the stilted precision of one unaccustomed to the tongue.
