vii. how eean and bird-of-gold were pursued by zabulun the enchanter and how they went to the cave of chiron the centaur

o king of the western island, our wanderings began on the day when the ferryman left us on the farther side of the river. we went to the country where my father dwelt. we found the old man still gathering brambles and thorns for his livelihood, and out of the treasure that had been given me i gave him riches, and he had not to go thorn-and-bramble gathering any more.

we had only been a little time in the hut that my father built when a new color came upon the ring i had taken off the magic mirror. its color had been sea green, but now a red line came across it. by that we knew that zabulun the enchanter had left the cave that was under the sea. and the red line began to grow over the sea green of the ring, and we knew by this sign that he had begun to follow on our traces. then said eean to me, “i will go from this place and seek a hiding,[pg 111] and it may be that i shall baffle zabulun who follows me.” i said to eean, “i shall go with you where you go.” “nay,” said eean, “it is not on your account that zabulun pursues us. he has no rage nor hatred against you, o bird-of-gold, and if i should go from this place by myself you would not be troubled by him.”

then i said to him, “o eean, i had no playmate nor companion until i met you in the king’s gardens. now i could not bear to see you go from me, and where you go i shall go too.”

afterward i asked him if there were in the world any enchanters who were as powerful as zabulun. he told me of chiron the centaur, and of hermes trismegistus, the wise egyptian, and of merlin whose home is on an island that is west of your western island. i thought that only from one of these enchanters might we get aid against zabulun.

the red grew over the sea green of the ring, and we knew that the farther the red grew the nearer did zabulun approach us. i wondered how we might get to one of the great enchanters. hermes[pg 112] trismegistus, being in egypt, was far, and merlin, on the island beyond the western island, was farther still. i thought of chiron the centaur, and it seemed to me that him we might be able to find.

now my father had lived a long time in the world, and he had heard many things, and he had thought over the things he had heard in the years when he had gathered brambles and thorns in the wilderness. i went to my father for word of chiron the centaur.

“chiron the centaur dwells all alone in a cave that is in the side of a mountain. the mountain is covered all over with a deep and an ancient forest,” my father told me. and again he said, “once i knew the direction in which that mountain is, and to-morrow i shall go into the wilderness, and as i walk about it may be that the memory of it will come back to me.”

he came back from the wilderness in the evening and he said, “away toward where the morning star shines there is a great waste. if one skirts this waste one comes to a river the waters of which[pg 113] are as cold as snow. the river flows down from the mountain on the side of which is the cave of chiron the centaur. all this i heard in the days of my youth.”

over more and more of the sea green of the ring the red had grown. by this sign we knew that zabulun was coming close to us. i spoke to eean and i said that we both should make ready to go to the cave of chiron the centaur. then when the morning star shone very brightly we took leave of my father and we went toward where it shone.

we came to the great waste, and we skirted it as we had been told. on we went, and we came to the river, the waters of which were cold as snow. we turned our faces toward the place from which the river flowed until we saw a mountain that was all covered with forest.

deep and ancient and silent was that upward-growing forest. so frightened of its silence were we that we never let go of each other’s hands. for days we went seeking the cave, and at last we heard cries—they might have been from[pg 114] birds, they might have been from the winds—that said, “who comes to trouble the rest of chiron the ancient centaur?”

we went toward where the cries came from and we saw the mouth of the cave. we mounted the track that led to it, and in fear we went within.

and there was chiron the ancient centaur. his head and his breast, his shoulders and his arms were a man’s, and his body and his feet and his tail were a horse’s. his great beard was white, and his horse’s body was shrunken, but his eyes were like pools in which there are living fires. the power of all the kings in the world was in his eyes.

chiron lay beside a fire in which fragrant woods burned. he turned his eyes upon it, and we heard cries as if the winds in the cave made them, “who comes to trouble the rest of chiron the ancient centaur?”

i went down on my knees and i prayed him, “o chiron, wisest of all who deal in enchantments,” i said, “there is one named zabulun, an evil enchanter, who pursues us. we have come to beg you to tell us how we may escape him.”

[pg 115]

“not to me should you have come,” the voice of chiron boomed out. “what have i to do with men who are as far from wisdom as zabulun? only one who is like him may strive with him. go to another, go to another.”

“to whom shall we go, o centaur?” i prayed.

“hermes trismegistus in egypt is nearer to zabulun than i am. go to him and he may tell you how to baffle zabulun. tell him that you have seen the ph?nix in the cave of chiron the centaur.”

as he said this there flew into the cave the great bird that is called the ph?nix. i may not describe her to you, o king. she flew to the fire of fragrant-smelling woods and she held herself above it. she fanned the flame with her wings, and the fire rose up and caught her breast. then the bird sank down on the fire, and we saw her burn under the eyes of chiron the centaur. the flame died out, and what we saw of the bird that burned, and the wood that made the fire, was a heap of ashes.

then out of that heap of ashes came a bird. it was smaller than the bird that burned, but more[pg 116] radiant. as the bird stayed with the ashes beneath her feet she grew by some great thing that was within her, and then she rose over the ashes and fanned them with her wings. again i looked upon the ph?nix.

“go to hermes trismegistus in egypt, and tell him that you saw the long-lived ph?nix burn herself in the cave of chiron the centaur, and come again out of the burning. and when you tell this to hermes in egypt he will tell you what you may do to make yourself free of zabulun.”

the ph?nix flew from the cave. then chiron turned his eyes upon us and he spoke to us of the way we should go to find hermes trismegistus in egypt. when he had told us all we went backward out of his cave, and then turned and went through the depths of the silent forest, taking the way the centaur bade us take.