Double Tongue, The by Golding William

Author:Golding, William [Golding, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Modern Classics
ISBN: 9780571267422
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 1995-01-04T02:00:00+00:00

They sounded the shawms outside the palace of the Pythias. I went, shrouded, to the vehicle which by tradition I never saw. I was helped into it and supported. It moved on brazen wheels and I knew, though I did not see them, that it was hauled over the noisy cobbles by young men who were honoured by the task. There was a noise almost as loud as the shawms from the wheels and when it stopped a third noise was a kind of sea roar from the people. Their voices beat in on my ears so that I was hard put to it not to cover them with my hands as well as the material of my scarf. But the Pythia must remain in public a shrouded figure, even her hands folded under the maiden garments with which she approaches her celestial bridegroom. I never saw the famous Athenian procession which anyway had stopped at the entry to Delphi since there was no room for them inside. But I heard the roar dwindle into near silence, which was filled with the breathing of people and the stamp and wicker of horses far off. Then into that breathing silence the shawms sounded four times. As the sound of the last note died away I felt a hand search for mine and take it and the voice of the High Priest of Apollo murmur in my ear, ‘Come’.

I was lifted down from whatever vehicle it was, and I heard the sound of the chosen goat being sacrificed.

‘Hold my hand. The steps begin just in front of you.’

I felt for the step like the blinded creature I was, leaning into his arm for support and reassurance. One step. Two.

‘Slowly.’

Another step. More. It seemed to me that the breathing of living creatures was bearing in on me. I found my own breath coming quick. My heart was thudding.

‘Stay.’

I stood and his hand left me. Even inside my headscarf I kept my ears shut in desire of ignorance and safety. Down here was the dark. Behind there the noise of the crowd was as it might be waves turning over on the beach of the very gulf itself. But the gulf was far away. Here was nothing but other. I felt round with my hands, stretched out my arms, knew I must not move or I should be lost. In sudden terror I clutched at the scarf and wrestled with it till it came away from my face. But there was still nothing to see. Suddenly my whole body began to shudder, not the skin with its surface movements but the deep flesh and bone, a repeated convulsion that turned me sideways, then round. My knees struck the solid earth and I felt cloth and flesh tear.

‘Evooee!’

It was the god. He had come. What was this? A yell, my chest pumping out air, the muscles convulsed again.

‘Evooee-ee, Bacche!’

What was this? The drumming died in my ears and I heard from that sun-drenched crowd before the portico a stricken and sudden silence.

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