SIN OF THE MOON

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1930, Page 13 (Supplement)

SIN OF THE MOON

A TALE OF CHALDEA

(By

"Scriblerus.”)

Darkness had fallen swiftly and a hot wind came from the hills on the edge of the Arabian Desert. It was stifling in the terif where the three archaeologists sat listlessly around a battered table. From outside the sound of two hundred Arab and Kurd diggers clustered around their camp-fires drifted into the tent like a barabaric medley, now rising in intensity, now falling and ever .slashed into discord by gun shots. “They're very excited out there tonight, but its their last night in camp and the poor beggars must ‘be celebrating.” .It was a yoijng man, lean and sun-tanned who spoke. He was Baker, the lieutenant of the expedition. Of his two companions, Boy Duncan was very young and the other, Professor Lloyd, an olfl grey man, with dreamy eyes that peered from a clean cut face. .‘lt was the last night, in the field for tlje Ur expedition, and when it dawned tile archaeologists would break camp and return ,to London. The night marked the culmination of a long series of researches in the dead capital of the' Chaldeans. S > " ■ '

“I’m just going out to take a final look round. I won’t be long.” As he spoke Lloyd rose. • “Don’t go far, sir; don't attempt to climb the ziggurat.’ Remember how it affected your heart last time.” The youngster looked concernedly towards Lloyd. “That’s: all right Roy. Be back soon.” The tent flap closed decisively and the two young men were left alone. « «V # *

The new moon was westering fast apd stars shone brightly in the desert air as Lloyd tramped among the excavations. “Curious,” he mused. “First new melon after the spring equinox. Curious that I should leave at the beginning of the moon-gods’ festival. Long ago, there .would have been mourning and the wail of flutes and. voices as all Kaida bowed to Sin.” He looked across The serried ruins to the great ziggurat, ■The temple of Sin', tho moon-god. ,vlt seemed- like a black hill rising in four tiers above .the desert sands. Slowly he made his way among the tumbled, masses of 'masonry tow'ards the' ziggurat?'":

There sa's no set’ purpose in his mind; nothing but a vague longing to reach tho summit of the tower. He started to climb. The stairways on the north-east side were long and the old man stopped frequently .to: look across the wastelands. They seemed weirdly beautiful in the faint rays of the crescent moon. ' The sounds of the encampment had fallen away and there. was only the soft sighing of the desert wind. Little/eddies of dust came out of the worn crevices, twisted and fell. The ascent was difficult and Lloyd found himself stumbling occasionally. One more: tier ... . . His breath came in long;gasps and the throbbing of his heart pounded in his' ears. Nothing but thq .' ftiiii t, out/liuM of step after step waS yisible td'firiti. * He swayed as he climbed,-,Ages seemed to pass, but at last there were no more steps. Strange though, the summit should be paved with blue glazed brick. He looked around curiously. An illusion no doubt, for there could be nothing but dusty red brick beneath his feet.

A tall figure approached. It was an old man clad in long, robes with a thick white beard! But what attracted Lloyd’s attention’was the piercing scrutiny of the wide brown eyes set deep beneath black brows. They seemed to transfix him with a cold, unhuman gaze. “You*do/riot know" /me”;-Johu Lloyd. But then lipw.should yoti■?.”•’■ ’ . “Were I not dreaming/you- should be •none, other that the ‘lord of wisdom,’ ■Sin of the moon. But a man' cannot go back four thousand years, unless, perhaps, he i be no longer of this earth.” “Where lies the difference between the dreaming and the dead? And to a god, many things are possible.” The two men stared at each other. Again the robed Sin spoke. “You do not know why I brought you here—l will tell you. In thirty centuries my followers have numbered two. Not long ago, the first went back to his land beyond the ‘sea of the sunset’ and now you would go too. You, who know , the secrets of Ur as did only those who lived three thousand- years ago. But I, Sin, know this, that there is nothing you treasure better than your memories of Ur. You have discovered much, there are yet many things hidden in the destroying sands. Tell me now, man of an older world, will you barter with me?”

“What have you Sin, that is not of the sands? Your realm is of the past. True an exchange would be of little moment for I have not long in this world. I have stood often on the roof of your temple tower, like an astrologer in old Chaldea, and I have read the stars. They always speak true and they i tell me the end draws near —Still what have you ?” The bearded god turned towards the moon riding in the western sky and his eyes glittered with the. cold lustre of the stars. “Until my moon falls behind the mountains; I will let you gaze on .Ur. Not the Ur of the drifting sands, John Lloyd, but Ur in all its glory. And then—all I ask of you in life is the few. short days left to you and afterwards, in death your covenant to stay in Ur, for ever.”

“You speak fair, Sin.” Lloyd advanced towards the robed figure. “I should not live long if I went back. Here in Ur I have done everything possible and yet my work, I know, is not complete. -And now you offer me satisfaction. I accept.” Very slowly the crescent moon drifted into the west. There was silence on the tall ziggurat and the hot wind blew from the desert hills. A restless spirit was in the tumbled ruins. They dreamed of days when the plumed horses rattled the gilded ■chariots through the streets to the ■battlements of the temple walls—days when high Chaldean lords in long embroidered robes and girdles of black-and gold passed bravely through the carved gates of the enclosure to the ziggurat of ■Sin ....

The moon’s' tip was resting on the ■hill tops. There was magic in the ■night. Lloyd heard the crooning of flutes, and "on the terraces of red and white and. black he saw Jong rows of priests and priestesses in mourning. The wailing of the kishub songs drifted to him on the sky blue tier, and. it seemed ■he was the high priest in Ur at the great spring festival. The crescent moon slipped behind the hills. Lloyd's figure, a silhouette against the stars, ' swayed and crumpled. A little cloud of red dust arose where he fell; 'but-the hot-wind from the desert •blew very softly and carried it away.