The Relic by Eca De Queiroz

Author:Eca De Queiroz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907650918
Publisher: Dedalus
Published: 2012-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

Lost in the tumult of my own thoughts, I followed Topsius for what seemed a long time as we rushed breathlessly through the old part of Jerusalem. We passed a rose garden, splendid and silent, dating back to the days of the prophets and guarded by two Levites bearing golden spears. Then we hurried along a cool street scented by all the perfumeries there, adorned with signs representing flowers or pestles and mortars. Awnings of fine cloth shaded the doorways, the ground was damp and scattered with aniseed and anemones. Languid young men sat idly in the shade, their curly hair hanging in ringlets, dark circles under their eyes, their hands so heavy with rings, they could barely lift the rustling silks of their tunics, cherry-red and gold. This indolent street opened out onto a square, scorched by the sun, covered with a thick white dust into which our feet plunged. In the middle stood an ancient palm tree, bowed beneath its plume of leaves, as motionless as if it were made out of bronze and in the background the granite columns of Herod’s old palace glittered black in the sunlight. There lay the Praetorium.

By the archway at the entrance, where two Syrian legionaries were patrolling, black feathers in their gleaming helmets, a group of girls, each with a rose tucked behind one ear and baskets in their laps made out of esparto grass, were selling unleavened bread. Beneath a huge feather sunshade fixed in the ground, men in felt mitres were changing money, sitting before low tables with scales on them. From time to time the water sellers, with their rough leather bottles, would utter their tremulous cry. We went in and I was awestruck.

It was a bright courtyard open to the blue sky and paved with marble with an arcade along each side, raised up to form a balustraded terrace, as cool and resonant as the cloister of a monastery. The arches at the far side of the square, topped by the austere palace façade, were hung with a velarium made out of scarlet cloth fringed with gold that cast a harsh, square shadow. It was supported on two thick poles made out of sycamore, each pole crowned with a lotus flower.

A mass of people were gathered there, blue-edged Pharisee tunics jostling with ordinary workers’ rough woollen smocks gathered at the waist with a leather belt, with the long grey-and-white striped burnous worn by the men of Galilee and the hooded, crimson cloaks worn by merchants from Tiberias. A few women had left the shade of the velarium and stood on tiptoe in their yellow slippers, one corner of their light cloaks pulled over their faces to protect them from the sun. The multitude gave off a warm smell of sweat and myrrh. Beyond and above the crowd of white turbans gleamed the points of spears. And right at the back, on a throne, sat a man, a magistrate, wrapped in the noble folds of a Praetorian toga, still as a statue, resting his dense, grey beard on one strong hand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.