ed before a fire, scraping
flints as they solemnly circled their dead one. Stannum, fascinated at
this revelation of primeval music, watched until the tone penetrated his
being and haled him to it, as is haled the ship to the whirlpool. It was
night. The strong fair sky of the south was sown with dartings of silver
and starry dust. He walked under the great wind-bowl with its few
balancing clouds and listened to the whirrings of the infinite. A
dreamer ever, he knew that he was near the core of existence; and while
light was more vibratile than sound, sound touched Earth, embraced it
and was content with its eld and homely face. Light, a mischievous Loge:
Sound, the All-Mother Erda. He walked on. His way seemed clearer....

Reaching a mighty and fabulous plain, half buried in sand he came upon a
great Sphinx, looming in the starlight. He watched her face and knew
that the tone enveloped him no longer. Why it had ceased set him to
wondering not unmixed with fear. The dawn filtered over the head of the
Sphinx, and there were stirrings in the sky. From afar a fluttering of
thin tones sounded; as the sun shone rosy on the vast stone the tone
came back like a clear-colored wind from the sea. And in the
music-filled air he fell down and worshipped the Sphinx; for music is a
window that looks upon eternity....

Then followed a strange musical rout of the nations. Stannum saw defile
before him Silence, "eldest of all things"; Brahma's consort Saraswati
fingered her Vina; and following, Siva and his hideous mate Devi, who is
sometimes called Durga; and the brazen heavens turned to a typhoon that
showered appalling evils upon mankind. All the gods of Egypt and
Assyria, dog-faced, moon-breasted and menacing, passed, playing upon
dreams, making choric music black and fuliginous. The sacred Ibis
stalked to the silvery steps of the Houris; the Graces held hands.
Phoebus Apollo appeared; his face was as a silver shield, so shining
was it. He improvised upon a many-stringed lyre made of tortoise shell,
and his music was shimmering and symphonious. Hermes and his Syrinx
wooed the shy Euterpe; the maidens went in woven paces: a medley of
masques flamed by; and the great god Pan breathed into his pipes.
Stannum saw Bacchus pursued by the ravening Maenads; saw Lamia and her
ophidian flute; and sorrowfully sped Orpheus searching for his Eurydice.
Neptune blew his wreathed horn, the Tritons gambolled in the waves,
Cybele clanged her cymbals