Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay
their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more
leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers'
shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of
their mothers' robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he staggered
struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon the
balustrades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered to the
wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but sleep
overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.
Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it reached
the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from step to
step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin white smoke
rose up from it.
I was silent; I could not breathe; but God called me to come further.
And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay the
ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one which I
had seen standing.
I said to God, "What did the men who built it here?"
God said, "They feasted."
I said, "On what?"
God said, "On wine."
And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a large
circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press had stood.
I said to God, "How came it that this large house fell?"
God said, "Because the earth was sodden.
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