Chapter 50
1447 Words
Yillah In Ardair
In the verdant glen of Ardair, far in the silent interior of Amma,
shut in by hoar old cliffs, Yillah the maiden abode.
So small and so deep was this glen, so surrounded on all sides by
steep acclivities, and so vividly green its verdure, and deceptive
the shadows that played there; that, from above, it seemed more like
a lake of cool, balmy air, than a glen: its woodlands and grasses
gleaming shadowy all, like sea groves and mosses beneath the calm sea.
Here, none came but Aleema the priest, who at times was absent for
days together. But at certain seasons, an unseen multitude with loud
chants stood upon the verge of the neighboring precipices, and
traversing those shaded wilds, slowly retreated; their voices
lessening and lessening, as they wended their way through the more
distant groves.
At other times, Yillah being immured in the temple of Apo, a band of
men entering the vale, surrounded her retreat, dancing there till
evening came. Meanwhile, heaps of fruit, garlands of flowers, and
baskets of fish, were laid upon an altar without, where stood Aleema,
arrayed in white tappa, and muttering to himself, as the offerings
were laid at his feet.
When Aleema was gone, Yillah went forth into the glen, and wandered
among the trees, and reposed by the banks of the stream. And ever as
she strolled, looked down upon her the grim old cliffs, bearded with
trailing moss.
Toward the lower end of the vale, its lofty walls advancing
and overhanging their base, almost met in mid air. And a great rock,
hurled from an adjacent height, and falling into the space
intercepted, there remained fixed. Aerial trees shot up from its
surface; birds nested in its clefts; and strange vines roved abroad,
overrunning the tops of the trees, lying thereon in coils and
undulations, like anacondas basking in the light. Beneath this rock,
was a lofty wall of ponderous stones. Between its crevices, peeps
were had of a long and leafy arcade, quivering far away to where the
sea rolled in the sun. Lower down, these crevices gave an outlet to
the waters of the brook, which, in a long cascade, poured over
sloping green ledges near the foot of the wall, into a deep shady
pool; whose rocky sides, by the perpetual eddying of the water, had
been worn into a grotesque resemblance to a group of giants, with
heads submerged, indolently reclining about the basin.
In this pool, Yillah would bathe. And once, emerging, she heard the
echoes of a voice, and called aloud. But the only reply, was the
rustling of branches, as some one, invisible, fled down the valley
beyond. Soon after, a stone rolled inward, and Aleema the priest
stood before her; saying that the voice she had heard was his. But it
was not.
At last the weary days grew, longer and longer, and the maiden pined
for companionship. When the breeze blew not, but slept in the caves
of the mountains, and all the leaves of the trees stood motionless as
tears in the eye, Yillah would sadden, and call upon the spirits in
her soul to awaken. She sang low airs, she thought she had heard in
Oroolia; but started affrighted, as from dingles and dells, came back
to her strains more wild than hers. And ever, when sad, Aleema would
seek to cheer her soil, by calling to mind the bright scenes of
Oroolia the Blest, to which place, he averred, she was shortly to
return, never more to depart.
Now, at the head of the vale of Ardair, rose a tall, dark peak,
presenting at the top the grim profile of a human face; whose
shadow, every afternoon, crept down the verdant side of the mountain:
a silent phantom, stealing all over the bosom of the glen.
At times, when the phantom drew near, Aleema would take Yillah forth,
and waiting its approach, lay her down by the shadow, disposing her
arms in a caress; saying, "Oh, Apo! dost accept thy bride?" And at
last, when it crept beyond the place where he stood, and buried the
whole valley in gloom; Aleema would say, "Arise Yillah; Apo hath
stretched himself to sleep in Ardair. Go, slumber where thou wilt;
for thou wilt slumber in his arms."
And so, every night, slept the maiden in the arms of grim Apo.
One day when Yillah had come to love the wild shadow, as something
that every day moved before her eyes, where all was so deathfully
still; she went forth alone to watch it, as softly it slid down from
the peak. Of a sudden, when its face was just edging a chasm, that
made it to look as if parting its lips, she heard a loud voice, and
thought it was Apo calling "Yillah! Yillah!" But now it seemed like
the voice she had heard while bathing in the pool. Glancing upward,
she beheld a beautiful open-armed youth, gazing down upon her from an
inaccessible crag. But presently, there was a rustling in the groves
behind, and swift as thought, something darted through the air. The
youth bounded forward. Yillah opened her arms to receive him; but he
fell upon the cliff, and was seen no more. As alarmed, and in tears,
she fled from the scene, some one out of sight ran before her through
the wood.
Upon recounting this adventure to Aleema, he said, that the being she
had seen, must have been a bad spirit come to molest her; and that
Apo had slain him.
The sight of this youth, filled Yillah with wild yearnings to escape
from her lonely retreat; for a glimpse of some one beside the priest
and the phantom, suggested vague thoughts of worlds of fair beings,
in regions beyond Ardair. But Aleema sought to put away these
conceits; saying, that ere long she would be journeying to Oroolia,
there to rejoin the spirits she dimly remembered.
Soon after, he came to her with a shell--one of those ever moaning of
ocean--and placing it to her ear, bade her list to the being within,
which in that little shell had voyaged from Oroolia to bear her
company in Amma.
Now, the maiden oft held it to her ear, and closing her eyes,
listened and listened to its soft inner breathings, till visions were
born of the sound, and her soul lay for hours in a trance of delight.
And again the priest came, and brought her a milk-white bird, with a
bill jet-black, and eyes like stars. "In this, lurks the soul of a
maiden; it hath flown from Oroolia to greet you." The soft stranger
willingly nestled in her bosom; turning its bright eyes upon hers,
and softly warbling.
Many days passed; and Yillah, the bird, and the shell were
inseparable. The bird grew familiar; pecked seeds from her mouth;
perched upon her shoulder, and sang in her ear; and at night, folded
its wings in her bosom, and, like a sea-fowl, went softly to sleep:
rising and falling upon the maiden's heart. And every morning it flew
from its nest, and fluttered and chirped; and sailed to and fro; and
blithely sang; and brushed Yillah's cheek till she woke. Then came to
her hand: and Yillah, looking earnestly in its eyes, saw strange
faces there; and said to herself as she gazed--"These are two souls,
not one."
But at last, going forth into the groves with the bird, it suddenly
flew from her side, and perched in a bough; and throwing back its
white downy throat, there gushed from its bill a clear warbling jet,
like a little fountain in air. Now the song ceased; when up and away
toward the head of the vale, flew the bird. "Lil! Lil! come back,
leave me not, blest souls of the maidens." But on flew the bird, far
up a defile, winging its way till a speck.
It was shortly after this, and upon the evening of a day which had
been tumultuous with sounds of warfare beyond the lower wall of the
glen; that Aleema came to Yillah in alarm; saying--"Yillah, the time
has come to follow thy bird; come, return to thy home in Oroolia."
And he told her the way she would voyage there: by the vortex on the
coast of Tedaidee. That night, being veiled and placed in the tent,
the maiden was borne to the sea-side, where the canoe was in waiting.
And setting sail quickly, by next morning the island of Amma was no
longer in sight.
And this was the voyage, whose sequel has already been recounted.
- Writer
