The Wanderings of Cain

       &nbsp'A little further, O my father, yet a little further, and

we shall come into the open moonlight.' Their road was

through a forest of fir-trees; at its entrance the trees stood

at distances from each other, and the path was broad, and

the moonlight and the moonlight shadows reposed upon it,

and appeared quietly to inhabit that solitude. But soon the

path winded and became narrow; the sun at high noon

sometimes speckled, but never illumined it, and now it was

dark as a cavern.



       &nbsp'It is dark, O my father!' said Enos, 'but the path under

our feet is smooth and soft, and we shall soon come out into

the open moonlight.'



       &nbsp'Lead on, my child!' said Cain; 'guide me, little child!'

And the innocent little child clasped a finger of the hand

which had murdered the righteous Abel, and he guided his

father. 'The fir branches drip upon thee, my son.' 'Yea,

pleasantly, father, for I ran fast and eagerly to bring thee

the pitcher and the cake, and my body is not yet cool. How

happy the squirrels are that feed on these fir-trees! they leap

from bough to bough, and the old squirrels play round their

young ones in the nest. I clomb a tree yesterday at noon,

O my father, that I might play with them, but they leaped

away from the branches, even to the slender twigs did they

leap, and in a moment I beheld them on another tree. Why,

O my father, would they not play with me? I would be good

to them as thou art good to me: and I groaned to them

even as thou groanest when thou givest me to eat, and when

thou coverest me at evening, and as often as I stand at thy

knee and thine eyes look at me?' Then Cain stopped, and

stifling his groans he sank to the earth, and the child Enos

stood in the darkness beside him.



       &nbspAnd Cain lifted up his voice and cried bitterly, and said,

'The Mighty One that persecuteth me is on this side and on

that; he pursueth my soul like the wind, like the sand-blast

he passeth through me; he is around me even as the air!

O that I might be utterly no more! I desire to die—yea,

the things that never had life, neither move they upon the

earth—behold! they seem precious to mine eyes. O that

a man might live without the breath of his nostrils. So

I might abide in darkness, and blackness, and an empty

space! Yea, I would lie down, I would not rise, neither

would I stir my limbs till I became as the rock in the den

of the lion, on which the young lion resteth his head whilst he

sleepeth. For the torrent that roareth far off hath a voice:

and the clouds in heaven look terribly on me; the Mighty One

who is against me speaketh in the wind of the cedar grove;

and in silence am I dried up.' Then Enos spake to his father,

'Arise, my father, arise, we are but a little way from the place

where I found the cake and the pitcher.' And Cain said,

'How knowest thou!' and the child answered:—'Behold the

bare rocks are a few of thy strides distant from the forest;

and while even now thou wert lifting up thy voice, I heard

the echo.' Then the child took hold of his father, as if he

would raise him: and Cain being faint and feeble rose slowly

on his knees and pressed himself against the trunk of a fir,

and stood upright and followed the child.



       &nbspThe path was dark till within three strides' length of its

termination, when it turned suddenly; the thick black trees

formed a low arch, and the moonlight appeared for a moment

like a dazzling portal. Enos ran before and stood in the open

air; and when Cain, his father, emerged from the darkness,

the child was affrighted. For the mighty limbs of Cain were

wasted as by fire; his hair was as the matted curls on the

bison's forehead, and so glared his fierce and sullen eye

beneath: and the black abundant locks on either side, a rank

and tangled mass, were stained and scorched, as though the

grasp of a burning iron hand had striven to rend them; and his

countenance told in a strange and terrible language of agonies

that had been, and were, and were still to continue to be.



       &nbspThe scene around was desolate; as far as the eye could

reach it was desolate: the bare rocks faced each other, and

left a long and wide interval of thin white sand. You might

wander on and look round and round, and peep into the

crevices of the rocks and discover nothing that acknowledged

the influence of the seasons. There was no spring, no summer,

no autumn: and the winter's snow, that would have been

lovely, fell not on these hot rocks and scorching sands. Never

morning lark had poised himself over this desert; but the huge

serpent often hissed there beneath the talons of the vulture, and

the vulture screamed, his wings imprisoned within the coils of

the serpent. The pointed and shattered summits of the ridges

of the rocks made a rude mimicry of human concerns, and

seemed to prophecy mutely of things that then were not;

steeples, and battlements, and ships with naked masts. As far

from the wood as a boy might sling a pebble of the brook, there

was one rock by itself at a small distance from the main ridge.

It had been precipitated there perhaps by the groan which the

Earth uttered when our first father fell. Before you approached,

it appeared to lie flat on the ground, but its base slanted from

its point, and between its point and the sands a tall man might

stand upright. It was here that Enos had found the pitcher

and cake, and to this place he led his father. But ere they

had reached the rock they beheld a human shape: his back was

towards them, and they were advancing unperceived, when they

heard him smite his breast and cry aloud, 'Woe is me! woe is

me! I must never die again, and yet I am perishing with

thirst and hunger.'



       &nbspPallid, as the reflection of the sheeted lightning on the

heavy-sailing night-cloud, became the face of Cain; but the

child Enos took hold of the shaggy skin, his father's robe, and

raised his eyes to his father, and listening whispered, 'Ere

yet I could speak, I am sure, O my father, that I heard that

voice. Have not I often said that I remembered a sweet voice?

O my father! this is it': and Cain trembled exceedingly.

The voice was sweet indeed, but it was thin and querulous,

like that of a feeble slave in misery, who despairs altogether,

yet can not refrain himself from weeping and lamentation.

And, behold! Enos glided forward, and creeping softly round

the base of the rock, stood before the stranger, and looked up

into his face. And the Shape shrieked, and turned round,

and Cain beheld him, that his limbs and his face were those

of his brother Abel whom he had killed! And Cain stood

like one who struggles in his sleep because of the exceeding

terribleness of a dream.



       &nbspThus as he stood in silence and darkness of soul, the

Shape fell at his feet, and embraced his knees, and cried

out with a bitter outcry, 'Thou eldest born of Adam, whom

Eve, my mother, brought forth, cease to torment me! I was

feeding my flocks in green pastures by the side of quiet rivers,

and thou killedst me; and now I am in misery.' Then Cain

closed his eyes, and hid them with his hands; and again he

opened his eyes, and looked around him, and said to Enos,

'What beholdest thou? Didst thou hear a voice, my son?'

'Yes, my father, I beheld a man in unclean garments, and

he uttered a sweet voice, full of lamentation.' Then Cain

raised up the Shape that was like Abel, and said:—'The

Creator of our father, who had respect unto thee, and unto

thy offering, wherefore hath he forsaken thee?' Then the

Shape shrieked a second time, and rent his garment, and

his naked skin was like the white sands beneath their feet;

and he shrieked yet a third time, and threw himself on his

face upon the sand that was black with the shadow of the

rock, and Cain and Enos sate beside him; the child by his

right hand, and Cain by his left. They were all three under

the rock, and within the shadow. The Shape that was like

Abel raised himself up, and spake to the child, 'I know where

the cold waters are, but I may not drink, wherefore didst

thou then take away my pitcher?' But Cain said, 'Didst

thou not find favour in the sight of the Lord thy God?'

The Shape answered, 'The Lord is God of the living only,

the dead have another God.' Then the child Enos lifted up

his eyes and prayed; but Cain rejoiced secretly in his heart.

'Wretched shall they be all the days of their mortal life,'

exclaimed the Shape, 'who sacrifice worthy and acceptable

sacrifices to the God of the dead; but after death their toil

ceaseth. Woe is me, for I was well beloved by the God of

the living, and cruel wert thou, O my brother, who didst

snatch me away from his power and his dominion.' Having

uttered these words, he rose suddenly, and fled over the sands:

and Cain said in his heart, 'The curse of the Lord is on me;

but who is the God of the dead?' and he ran after the Shape,

and the Shape fled shrieking over the sands, and the sands

rose like white mists behind the steps of Cain, but the feet

of him that was like Abel disturbed not the sands. He greatly

outrun Cain, and turning short, he wheeled round, and came

again to the rock where they had been sitting, and where Enos

still stood; and the child caught hold of his garment as he

passed by, and he fell upon the ground. And Cain stopped,

and beholding him not, said, 'he has passed into the dark

woods,' and he walked slowly back to the rocks; and when he

reached it the child told him that he had caught hold of his

garment as he passed by, and that the man had fallen upon

the ground: and Cain once more sate beside him, and said,

'Abel, my brother, I would lament for thee, but that the spirit

within me is withered, and burnt up with extreme agony.

Now, I pray thee, by thy flocks, and by thy pastures, and

by the quiet rivers which thou lovedst, that thou tell me all

that thou knowest. Who is the God of the dead? where doth

he make his dwelling? what sacrifices are acceptable unto him?

for I have offered, but have not been received; I have prayed,

and have not been heard; and how can I be afflicted more than

I already am?' The Shape arose and answered, 'O that thou

hadst had pity on me as I will have pity on thee. Follow me,

Son of Adam! and bring thy child with thee!'



       &nbspAnd they three passed over the white sands between the

rocks, silent as the shadows.