Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 49

RHEOU. Never. The crowd is not a woman to be won by loud wooing, but one who must be taken by force, whom you must dominate before you can persuade.

SATNI. Say no more, Rheou, I refuse.

RHEOU. Blind! Fool! Coward!

_Mieris enters, led by Yaouma. A moment later some men--Bitiou, Sokiti, Nourm._

MIERIS. Rheou!--where are you? where are you? [_Yaouma leads her toward him_] It is true, this that I hear?--Exile--Misery?

RHEOU. It is true.

MIERIS. Courage--As for me, a palace or a cottage--I know not the one from the other.

RHEOU. [_to Satni_] Satni, can you still refuse?

SATNI. You torture me! No, I will not be credited with power that is not mine; to stir men up against their fellows--I would not kill, I tell you.

MIERIS. I understand you, Satni--it is wrong to kill!--But look once more upon me--I am poor now, I am going away, will you not consent to heal me?

SATNI [_anguished_] Mieris--Could I have healed you, would it not be done already?

MIERIS. You can do it! I know you can do it! Work a miracle.

YAOUMA. A miracle! Show that your G.o.d is more powerful than our G.o.ds.

A MAN [_who has just entered_] Heal us!

SATNI. I am not able.

ANOTHER. Work a miracle.

SATNI. There are no miracles!

A MAN. Then your G.o.ds are less mighty than ours.

SATNI. Yours do not exist.

THE PEOPLE [_terrified at the blasphemy_] Oh!

A MAN. Why do you lead us away from our G.o.ds, if you have no others to give us?

ANOTHER. You shall not insult our G.o.ds!

ANOTHER. We will hand you over to the priests lest the G.o.ds smite us for hearing you!

ANOTHER. Ammon will chastise us!

SATNI. No.

A MAN. Isis will abandon us!

SATNI. It will not make you more wretched.

ANOTHER. Then show us you are stronger than our G.o.ds.

MIERIS. A miracle!

RHEOU. He is stronger than our G.o.ds! } [_Together_]

YAOUMA. A miracle or I die! }

SATNI. You demand it! You demand a miracle. Well, then, you shall have one, I will do this, but in the presence of all! Go! go! go throughout the domains--bring hither those you find bowed on the earth, or hung to poles for drawing water. Go you others, summon the slaves, the piteous workers--call hither the drawers of stones, bid them drop the ropes that flay their shoulders, bid them come.

MIERIS. What would you do?

SATNI. Convince them.

MIERIS. Now of a sudden, brutally?

SATNI. Brutally.

RHEOU. Do you believe them ready?

SATNI. You are afraid.

RHEOU. Day comes not suddenly on night, between them is the dawn.

_Delethi leads Mieris right under the peristyle._

SATNI. I would have day, broad daylight--Now, at once, for all! 'Tis a crime to _promise_ them reward for their suffering. How do we know that they will ever be paid?

RHEOU. They are so miserable--

SATNI. The truth--is the truth good only for the rich? Will you add that injustice to all the others? Behold them! [_Gradually the slaves and workers of all kinds have entered till they fill the stage. Amongst them Pakh, Sokiti, Bitiou the Dwarf_] Yes, behold them, the victims, behold the wretched! I know you all. You, you are shepherd, you are worse nourished than your flocks, and your beasts, at least, are not given blows. They do not beat the cows nor the sheep. You, you sow and you reap; beneath the sun, tortured by flies, you gather abundant crops. You sleep in a hole. Others eat the corn you made grow, and sleep on precious stuffs. You, you are forever drawing water from the Nile; betwixt you and the ox they harness to another machine, there is no difference, and yet you are a man. You, you are one of those who drag great stones, to build the monuments of pride. You are a digger in the tombs, you live a month or more without sight of day. To glorify the death of others, you give your life. You are a trainer of lions for war; your father was eaten--they would have wept had the lion died--How can it be that you accept all this, when you see beside you happiness without work, and abundance without effort? I will tell you. 'Tis because, in the name of the G.o.d Ammon-Ra, they have said to you: "Have patience, this injustice will last but a life-time." Fools! nothing but that! All the time you are on earth, suffer, produce for others. Content ye with hunger, you who produce food. Content ye with worse usage than the swine, you who have guard of them. Content ye to sleep in the open, you who build palaces and temples. Content ye with all miseries, you carvers of gold, and setters of precious stones. Look without envy, without anger, on the welfare of those who do nothing, all this will last only the whole of your lives! After, in another world, you shall have the fulness of all the crops, and the joy of all the pleasures.

Well, they lied to you: there is no island of souls, there are no happy fields, there is no life of atonement after this. [_Loud murmurs_] They have set up these G.o.ds for your servile adoration; they have counselled you: "Bow down, these G.o.ds will avenge you." They have said: "Prostrate yourselves, these G.o.ds are just." They have said: "Throw yourselves to earth, these G.o.ds are good." They have declared them all powerful; shut them in sanctuaries of awful gloom, whence you are shown them once a year, to keep alive your terror of the G.o.ds; and last, they have made you believe no man may touch these images and live. I tell you they lied--I will show you they lied to you. Behold the most mighty Ammon--the father of the G.o.ds--I spit my hate at him! Thou art but an idol; I curse thee for evil men have done in thy name! I curse thee in the name of all the enslaved, in the name of all those they have cheated with hopes of an avenging life; in the name of all who for thousands of years have groaned and wept; suffered insult, outrage, blows, death, without thought of revolt, because promises made in thy name had soothed their rage to sleep! And I curse thee for the sorrow that now fills me, and for the ills that must come even of thy going! Die! [_He throws a stool in the face of the statue_] You others do as I. Go, climb their pedestals! Lay hold of their hands, they are lifeless! Strike, 'tis but an image! Spit in their faces, they are senseless! Strike!

Ruin! All this is nothing but hardened mud!

_The crowd which had punctuated the words of Satni with cries and murmurs has approached the statues behind him and followed his example, blaspheming, and howling with fury.

The more courageous begin, being hoisted to the pedestals, the rest follow suit. The G.o.ds are overthrown._

RHEOU. Now, let them open my granaries, that each may help himself; and take from my flocks to sate you all.

_Cries of joy, they go out slowly. Bitiou in the meantime approaches an overthrown statue and still half-afraid, kicks it. He tries to run, falls, picks himself up, then seeing that decidedly there is no danger, seats himself on the stomach of the G.o.ddess Thoueris and bursts into a peal of triumphant b.e.s.t.i.a.l laughter._

BITIOU. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

_Then he perceives the little statue of Isis which Mieris s.h.i.+elds with her arms, points it out to a couple of men who advance to it._

DELETHI. Mistress, they would take Isis!