SHORT STORY Mirage of God

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 155, 4 July 1938, Page 17

SHORT STORY Mirage of God

8y.... HANNEN SWAFFER

Part 1 T >AW him first in the Chapel of the | A*.<er.Mon. on the .Mount of Olives. I -*as ..'one. He was going round iritn a.= ii!.ill party. I noticed that when the jruide aceom]Mnyn.- him and hU small group of tnun*t< pointed to a rock, his face ,\prc-«ed cynicism, even contempt li 't "is why I noticed him. "!""".l maik > s the footprint of (..■l:-:. r-aid the <:iiide. One or two of the partv of them looked Hlmost with awe. ]:■,; \io upeulv sneered. ' i 'nought i did no more than just re Hi-' it. His opinion, more or iess, v,i< mine. I may have shown it. For T had come from Cairo, where, in one <*. the hi- mosque*, a Christian pni'le hoi pointed out to me a piece of bl.n-k rtk on which a very large footprint coihl he seen. "They say that is the footprint of Mahomet."' ] ie said. -Of course, we krow that it is not. I n Jerusalem there tile footprint of Christ. And we know that it is genuine. But this is not."' This ( hrirtian -;uide was almost enntenntuous when l le s;uv }l„ s ],, m W omen ri::«l.:ng theit children's faces against the Mahomet foot. I had ".one to Jerusalem on business. Eefrvre hcin- there, I went to see the eights. You do . . . Besides, you max ne\er be there »gain. That nicht. in the Kins David Hotel, the man came up to me.

.. .-,..» xuu MMUIII? TOCI.IV WlH'll J ■-iioimihl." he sni.l. "Tliis place i» ii joke. l*ve lieen laugliing for two ilnv> ll(l\V."' Tluti he told me quite a lot about lnnixlt. He nhjeeteil Localise there ua.i.o ja/.z baud in the town Teni salem wanted a night cluh. . . . Then

was nothing to do after dark. . . . His name was Mitchell. ... He was on the boards of several companies. - • . He wanted a holiday and his mother had suggested Palestine. . . . "She's a bit religious,'' he said. "1 didn't mind where I went. But I'm gettincr fed up with this place.'' We talked about Jerusalem for an hour. We had seen a good mam- of the same things, yes, andVith the same eyes. * • » • , When you stand on the wall of the t « ity of Jerusalem, and they point out three different Gardens of C?ethseniane,

each reverenced l.v a difTerent Church. ;iiid when, in the Church of the Holy Si'|.ulchie. y.iu see three different religions ipmiTelliiig as to which has certain rights over the Tomh of Christ, von an; apt to become cynical. It you go a- a member of an orthodox Church, people belonging to vour own

sect show you round, and you are guided aright in the strict way of convention. But when you fro, as I went, with the eyes of a man of the world, and you hear them all quarrelling, and you see them all selling you something, you get cynical. Well. Mitchell suggested that I should join him next day. And so, in the morning, we went together out to Bethlehem.

Although it wS» hard to realise, only a few years before, pilgrims had gone along .that road on foot, guarded by Turkish soldiers, to keep the robbers away, almost funny- to remember that there were then few places for them to sleep. Xow, motor oars dash everywhere, and there are motor omnibuses, and it was all as safe as walking along the Strand. I was to see a lot of Mitchell, and to hear a lot. All the way he talked to me of his businesses and the dividends paid that year. He blamed the rates o* exchange. He found fault with tariffs. Half the Governments of the world were wrong. He did not trade with the countries run by the others. '"Why are you going to Bethlehem to-day?'' 1 said. I thought he might be more profitably employed trying to sell something. It was a growing country. Indeed, it had a surplus Budget that year. There was no unemployment. You might laugh at the Jews. You did. Hut they seemed to be doing something. ''Surely there is something von can sell them?" I said, laughing. "The truth is. I am on a holiday," he replied. "And why not Bethlehem? At least we have heard of it." And he griniied. Then f want to tell you in the words lie used what happened some days later. On our way to Bethlehem we looked down on the' Valley the ShepherdIt was bathed in the golden glow of a wondrous evening. Tt looked just as it might have looked on the day when. centuries ago. they told us, some shepherds looked up and saw a star.

I did not believ* it. But millions of people did. And it was at least interesting to look down on a valley to which, every Christmas Eve, the "eyes of all Christendom turn, and to think of the hymn which I remembered sinking at school, "While Shepherds Watched." Any place associated with history or legend or romance is of interest. I take them as they come. . . . Then, as we turned a corner of the road. I noticed that he started. I may have started, too. I do not know. But we talked of it later. * • • • He seemed silent for a time. Then he soon began talking business again, cursing politicians, finding fault with the olvstinacy of working men. blaming trade unions, discussing things, just as. all over the world, business men do most days, in clubs and restaurants, and when they meet on trains. He laughed again in the Church of the Holy Nativity. In one part of it Catholics were bedding a service. In another part there were the Creeks or the Uussians. And. downstairs, where the guide told us Christ was born, we laughed when wo saw the silver star which marked the place. I had heard how two difIcrent Churches had quarrelled about that star, how someone had stolen a silver nail, and how, for weeks, two great Churches argued as to which had the right to buy a new one—how, one morning, both went in disgusted to find that, overnight, the Sultan had scut a so'dicr to knock (me in, to stop the quarrelling.

Two nuns were kneeling, counting heads, as we looked on. A Creek priot with a lmig black beard was going round, bowing and kneeling and then. We looked curiously, and we went upstairs again. * • » • There, outside, shopkeepers chased us. We were almost the only people there that day. And so onr party of two was enticed inside by the keepers of all the shops that were open. They sold Stars of Bethlehem made of mother-of-pearl. They sold inkstands made from stones found in the Dead Son. They sold pictures of the Virgin.

"Things are very bad this year," said one. "All our prices are reduced. Now is the time to buy." And then he brought out a book bound in olive-wood. "You can have this for five shillings." lie said. "It co.-t more than that. It is a red-lettered Testament." "What's that?" asked .Mitchell. "The words of Christ are all in red," said the man. He was a Jew-. "It'll do to give away when we get home," said Mitchell. Ami he bought one. "I've never read the New Testament," he said. "It ought t<> be cheap at five shillings, especially if bought in Bethlehem!'' I was looking up the narrow lane just then. I wondered if he saw me start. And then I noticed that something strange came into his eyes. We did not sjH'ak, though.

He paid the few shillings that lie owed, and we drove back to Jerusalem. -Mitchell was quieter on the way back. 1 noticed, in the next few days, thc.-c periods of quietness became mole frequent. He seemed to change. We drove, dav after dav, to various partof Palestine. "After all, there is nothing else to do." lie said, almost apologising. So we went out one day to the Jordan, and ate our lunch on the bare tables of an outdoor restaurant. And afterwards, when we stood on the spot where tiie Greeks said Christ was baptised although the Catholic* said it was somewhere else, he threw some water over mv face. "f don't know whether you've been christened before," he -aid'; "but I've baptised you. auway." He was laughing. But then I noticed that he seemed to start again . . . ami for a long time he was quiet. We drove afterwards to the TVad Sea. across the salty plain in which 'here are hills with strange shapes, all covered with a salty crust. We stood on the beach facing the mountain from which Moses is said to have looked on the Promised Land. "This sea is full of phosphates," he said. "Some lucky guy got the concession. I should have'like<t it. I'm told they're coining monev."

Mitchell then went on with a Inn; story of how he had dealt in [<lio~j.ii.tt>■ once. di.scus.-ed the value ~t' miner.l manure to lire, a 11.1 added: "W'.d! tlioe .le\vi-h ytlys at lca-t can lea, ik t-'Uiiet hini: about t'aimiiiL'." For w,. had 1 II to one ot the -ett ie ment-s. where, alter .-'eepin;: on tin, bar soil for months. .Jewish coloni-I- ha, built shack", and then fa imlnni-i ~. am applied to the soil the late-t ~, i.-m i'i methods of agriculture. le\ o'.ul i..ni-i ■ the land, in fact. "Moses .-poke about a land tlonin with milk and honey."' said Mii-dici "It tnay be milk and ney before the- • Icws are through." (To lie Coiududed.)