a deep abyss, and we remained thus a while, seeing death embodied

before us — until at last we were permitted to enroll in the ranks of his secret society? Do you not remember all this, and the sciences he taught us, until at last he unveiled to us the guarded secret — the wisdom of the days and the centuries — concerning the human soul: how it falls from the height of its glory and its home amid the heavenly lights, and takes the body as a bond upon itself, that it may be purified and cleansed of the stains of the past; and if it fails to do so, it returns time after time in different bodies, until at last, after many trials lasting thousands of years, it is granted to return to its original home? Those ages you count in thousands of years, but in the eyes of the free, unfettered soul they are a few numbered moments!

We lived together, O Adonai, and behold, we have now come back to the earth; my eyes have been opened and I have seen what I have seen, while yours are still shut, and you do not see what I see!

I remember how we returned from the school of the great sage to our homeland, all longing to see my splendid gazelle in the thickets of Lebanon — Quds, the heart's desire and the soul's beloved — after an absence of three years, until we arrived together... Ah, and oh, the horror of what I saw!!

I asked my mother then, where is Quds, and she said, care mounting to her face:

— She will come.

But I knew she would not come... My anger flared and I said:

— Tell me, what has happened to her? Where is my beloved?

My mother wept, and I felt the heavy weight of the calamity, and I asked her:

— Is she dead?

She answered me:

— No.

— Then where is she?...

Thereupon my father came in to me and told me the ill-omened news, saying:

— Bear up, my son... bear up, O Eshmun! Quds is no longer yours. The gods have claimed her!

I answered, raging with the rage of nature in the days of winter:

— The gods? What business have they with my beloved?

— Do not blaspheme, my son! She went some days ago to the temple of Afqa, to offer her body as a religious pleasure, according to the inspiration of the gods!

— Her body a religious pleasure?! Ah... that soft, tender body that I so often touched and doted upon; that bewitching figure, those fresh arms whose caress I so often promised myself — to become a religious pleasure for the frequenters of the temple of Afqa! She is mine — mine — and not the property of the gods or of anyone else!

And you remember, no doubt, how I rose at once and walked to the mouth of the Adonis River (the Ibrahim River), heading for the mountaintops, my goal the temple of Afqa, that I might perhaps save my beloved's body from being toyed with by the hands of pilgrims and visitors! For that was a religious

obligation upon every girl who repaired to the temple! And you followed me, and we walked together until we arrived after three days and knocked at the temple's door!

Remember, remember, O Adonai; try to overcome the bonds of the body and return in imagination to that beautiful temple! How we entered its precincts, shaded by lofty trees of cedar and pine; how we wandered, the breeze caressing us, amid its magical, bewitching scenes, until we came to a courtyard in whose midst grew green grasses and flowers of many colors, water rippling and flowing among the folds of its floor; and behold, at the rear of the place we saw a hut of tree branches, beautiful and shady, and around it the virgin priestesses reclining on the grass, half naked! Wheat-hued, tender bodies gleaming under the rays of the sun that pierced through the branches, wreaths of crimson pomegranate blossom plaited about their heads, the fragrance of musk and incense wafting from their hut, while they sang beautiful hymns to Adonis, god of beauty and youth and vigor, to the measure of the pipe — a sight to rouse the latent feel-ing and the faint stir of the senses! And how, when we drew near, they rose languidly, swaying, coquetry and allure showing in their motions and their stillnesses! And they began to dance the famous religious dance, now lifting their hands to the heavens in supplication, now prostrating themselves, bewildered, melted with passion and longing, the lines of their bodies showing and standing forth, stirring what is latent and rousing what is still! Then they lay down together upon the grass and the flowers, as though each of them clasped a lover of her own, singing:

Who is this crouching like a lion by the watercourses?

The mighty one glorying in his strength,

Charmer of virgins and idol of maidens,

Firm as the cedar of Lebanon and fragrant as its deathless, bewitching perfume.

He is my beloved, O virgins! He is my charmer and the possessor of my soul.

Would that he pressed me to him, that I might graze in his sweet nearness;

Then would he taste the savor of the bewitching kiss;

Then would he know the secret of vigor and youth.

That sight I shall never forget so long as I live! But you do not remember it? Then we entered and went deep among the trees, searching and seeking — and behold, I saw her! Ah, and oh, the horror of what I saw! I saw her — my beloved Quds — as you too saw her, in the hands of one of the pilgrims in the temple, toying with her hair which my hands had toyed with, tasting her kisses which I had so often tasted, trifling with that slender, beautiful body. My rage flared and I hurled myself upon him — and behold, she slipped from between his claws, violating thereby the unjust religious laws, exposing herself to the terrible vengeance of the temple's high priestess, and threw herself at my feet, kissing them and murmuring:

— My beloved, my beloved, they forced me — I was compelled.

But I — I, the base coward — showed no mercy and no pity to the victim of unjust laws;

rather I followed the fury of the soul, and a fit of anger possessed me, and I kicked her and went on kicking