And suddenly I cried to God, "If one should rise among them, even of
themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and
cry, 'My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?'--and
with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the
fragments, cry, 'Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not
wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!' and he should overturn the--"
God said, "Be still!--, see there."
I looked: before the banquet-house, among the grass, I saw a row of
mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads. I
asked God what they were.
He answered, "They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and
cried."
And I asked God how they came there.
He said, "The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards."
I said, "Who buried them?"
God said, "The men who cast them down."
I said, "How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over
them?"
God said, "Because the bones cried out, they covered them."
And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God
why it was.
God said, "Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while,
when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also,
and plant flowers over it."
And still the feast went on.
Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw
their arms about each other, and danced and sang.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69