The Forerunner Khalil Gibran (children's ebooks online TXT) 📖

upon his lips. Then he turned and walked away into the heart of the forest.

And I returned to the city, and I sat at its gate to watch the passersby even as he had told me. And from that day to this numberless are the kings whose shadows have passed over me and few are the subjects over whom my shadow has passed.

The Lion’s Daughter

Four slaves stood fanning an old queen who was asleep upon her throne. And she was snoring. And upon the queen’s lap a cat lay purring and gazing lazily at the slaves.

The first slave spoke, and said, “How ugly this old woman is in her sleep. See her mouth droop; and she breathes as if the devil were choking her.”

Then the cat said, purring, “Not half so ugly in her sleep as you in your waking slavery.”

And the second slave said, “You would think sleep would smooth her wrinkles instead of deepening them. She must be dreaming of something evil.”

And the cat purred, “Would that you might sleep also and dream of your freedom.”

And the third slave said, “Perhaps she is seeing the procession of all those that she has slain.”

And the cat purred, “Aye, she sees the procession of your forefathers and your descendants.”

And the fourth slave said, “It is all very well to talk about her, but it does not make me less weary of standing and fanning.”

And the cat purred, “You shall be fanning to all eternity; for as it is on earth so it is in heaven.”

At this moment the old queen nodded in her sleep, and her crown fell to the floor.

And one of the slaves said, “That is a bad omen.”

And the cat purred, “The bad omen of one is the good omen of another.”

And the second slave said, “What if she should wake, and find her crown fallen! She would surely slay us.”

And the cat purred, “Daily from your birth she has slain you and you know it not.”

And the third slave said, “Yes, she would slay us and she would call it making sacrifice to the gods.”

And the cat purred, “Only the weak are sacrificed to the gods.”

And the fourth slave silenced the others, and softly he picked up the crown and replaced it, without waking her, on the old queen’s head.

And the cat purred, “Only a slave restores a crown that has fallen.”

And after a while the old queen woke, and she looked about her and yawned. Then she said, “Methought I dreamed, and I saw four caterpillars chased by a scorpion around the trunk of an ancient oaktree. I like not my dream.”

Then she closed her eyes and went to sleep again. And she snored. And the four slaves went on fanning her.

And the cat purred, “Fan on, fan on, stupids. You fan but the fire that consumes you.”

Tyranny

Thus sings the She-Dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea:

“My mate shall come riding on the waves. His thundering roar shall fill the earth with fear, and the flames of his nostrils shall set the sky afire. At the eclipse of the moon we shall be wedded, and at the eclipse of the sun I shall give birth to a Saint George, who shall slay me.”

Thus sings the She-Dragon that guards the seven caves by the sea.

The Saint

In my youth I once visited a saint in his silent grove beyond the hills; and as we were conversing upon the nature of virtue a brigand came limping wearily up the ridge. When he reached the grove he knelt down before the saint and said, “O saint, I would be comforted! My sins are heavy upon me.”

And the saint replied, “My sins, too, are heavy upon me.”

And the brigand said, “But I am a thief and a plunderer.”

And the saint replied, “I too am a thief and a plunderer.”

And the brigand said, “But I am a murderer, and the blood of many men cries in my ears.”

And the saint replied, “I too am a murderer, and in my ears cries the blood of many men.”

And the brigand said, “I have committed countless crimes.”

And the saint replied, “I too have committed crimes without number.”

Then the brigand stood up and gazed at the saint, and there was a strange look in his eyes. And when he left us he went skipping down the hill.

And I turned to the saint and said, “Wherefore did you accuse yourself of uncommitted crimes? See you not that this man went away no longer believing in you?”

And the saint answered, “It is true he no longer believes in me. But he went away much comforted.”

At that moment we heard the brigand singing in the distance, and the echo of his song filled the valley with gladness.

The Plutocrat

In my wanderings I once saw upon an island a man-headed, iron-hoofed monster who ate of the earth and drank of the sea incessantly. And for a long while I watched him. Then I approached him and said, “Have you never enough; is your hunger never satisfied and your thirst never quenched?”

And he answered saying, “Yes, I am satisfied, nay, I am weary of eating and drinking; but I am afraid that tomorrow there will be no more earth to eat and no more sea to drink.”

The Greater Self

This came to pass. After the coronation of Nufsibaäl, King of Byblus, he retired to his bed chamber⁠—the very room which the three hermit-magicians of the mountain had built for him. He took off his crown and his royal raiment, and stood in the centre of the room thinking of himself, now the all-powerful ruler of Byblus.

Suddenly he turned; and he saw stepping out of the silver mirror which his mother had given him, a naked man.

The king was startled, and he cried out to the man, “What would you?”

And the naked man answered, “Naught but