He shows me how… I execute them… I bend forward as he does.. twice.. three times..
He continues.
"You command our column!. Naturally!.. You pick me up on the way!. I’m purified!. Rawpidor accompanies us awhile.. Three stages!.. maybe two… He introduces us to his brigands… to the Chu bandits, to their chief executioner, so that they’ll let us pass.. Contributions, bows, gifts.. there we are! twelve more days of climbing!.. we’re on the site!.. We leave the level of moss.. and then the heaths! ”…
"We’re coming to the mystic slope… to the steeps of the great Masvanpur!. Our trails are starting!. At the Lazuli Rocks!. Be careful!.. The eyries of the Great Route.. We hear the Winds of the World!.. Our Convent’s not very far off! We’re on the very roof of the world!.. Very careful now!
.. You leave me for three weeks!.. maybe two. You go off discreetly.. very discreetly! absolutely alone!. absolutely without provisions!.. The spirits sustain you!.. feed you!.. The Spirits of the Snows!.. The heart of our trials.. where blow the winds of the world! The gusts sweep you up! cast you forth! plague you! tear you from the crests of the rocks! hurl you away! You cling! to the edge of the abyss!.. You creep along on all fours!. You hang on to the slopes. It’s Strength!.. Let the hurricanes crush you! don’t complain! all for the Faith! all for Strength.. More strength! in the heart of the Hurricanes of the World! You palpitate with the world! You have to get to the Grand Convent of the Great Shroud! The Supreme Lamasery.. Do you understand me? Dead or alive!”
Ah! that was all right with me.. "All for the Faith! ” I repeated. I was talking like him.. Dead or alive!
He’s promising me more and still more!
"The Tara-Tohe! verse 42! you see it! At last! It’s in front of you!.. What more can I say? There it is beneath your eyes!.. beneath your fingers!.. You contemplate it!.. You’ve undergone all the trials!.. Terrifying, to be sure! inexorable! no doubt about it!.. perhaps mortal!.. But what joy!. You enter the sanctuary!.. there!.. no farther!. No further doubt!.. You contemplate the Great Nest!.. the goal itself.. ‘Nest of Truth beneath the Roof of the World! beneath the Roof of the Snows!’. I’m translating literally.. Woupagu Sanskut! 'On the Beams of the Roof of the World’! Nest of the Snow-swallows!.. ‘Wiwopolgi’!.. and in this nest?”
Ah! he’s changing his mind! pulling back! Ah! what else was he going to tell me? imprudent!
"Don’t think I can’t hold my tongue!”
He looks me up and down, mistrustful, distrustful.
I wasn’t asking anything!
But immediately he’s off again! A haze! even more eagerly! sure about everything!
“The Tara-Tohe, flower of Dreams!.. Seven colors!.. The rainbow!.. Seven petals!.. Seven colors!.. exactly seven! The figure in Vega 72.. Remember that!.. the magical Tara-Tohe! The flower opens out in your hand! All the petals! with your heat! your faith! what a proof! Is that enough, do you think?”
It was more than I’d asked for.
“The secret?.. Seven petals!.. Seven colors!.. Be careful! The seven sins! What’s the color of your soul?”
He had me there!.. I had no idea…
Immediately he gets sore.
"Ah! You don’t know?.. Well, what then?.. Which petal are you going to choose?.. The green? the yellow? Blue? Indigo?”
Ah! what a jam! He’s hustling me, jostling me, plaguing me, like the winds of the world!
"That’s not all! Tara-Tohe! Charm of Being!.. The weight escapes from your body!.. You’ve seized the Flower!.. The Waves seize you, sweep you up in turn! They carry you off!.. they transpose you!.. wherever you wish!”
Well! well!
"You evolve!. you travel about in the atmosphere as you please for months.. months.. Weight no longer exists for you! You have entered…”
Ah! he doesn’t dare finish. he’s seized with terror.. it’s too serious! I reassure him… so he whispers it to me, murmurs it.. just for me alone.. but I can’t hear him!.. I can’t hear anything. on account of the player piano! He’s forced to yell it to me..
"… into the fourth dimension! ”
Ah! that was swell!
"Nobody can touch you any more!.. Reach you!. Put you into prison!.. You’re free! the Free Man of the Waves!
.. the darling of the strains of the world! You are, in a word, all music!. Harmony!”
Ah! that’s superb!.. Ah! I’m getting along fine!
"Ah! I can’t ask for anything better!. But say, we’re not in Tibet! ” I point out.. Maybe he’s being carried away?
"Not yet, young man!.. not yet.. ”
He looks at me angrily! what’s wrong with me that I should doubt?… I’m with him! I get enthusiastic again!
"Ah! I’m ready to leave!”
I reassure him again! Nothing holds me back! All for the Faith!.. I was thinking meanwhile of Matthew who was bound to be in a hurry. who wouldn’t hesitate a second about throwing us into the jug! Ah! I wanted anything so long as we went far away and right away!.. very far!.. as far as possible!. without a day’s delay!. So that we wouldn’t run into Matthew!.. for me that was the main thing!. with the magic Flower or not. to China!. to the devil!. wherever he liked!. But by God let’s get the hell away!
"Well, are we going?” I ask again.. I’m pretty patient, but all the same he’s beginning to irritate me.
"Sh! Sh!”
He pats me on the back of my neck. he calms me like a dog.
"Easy does it!.. Easy does it!.. you impetuous youngster!
.. Don’t get delirious! you’re getting worked up!”
He wasn’t ready yet! More delay! more hitches! he found me impulsive… he was busy with his tie. he was tangling up his bow… he had to think about it some more… ah, listen, an idea for me!
"Here’s something for you! Learn it for tomorrow!. I’m going to give you a lesson.. Don’t waste a minute. Prepare for your trials.. We’ll be seeing each other.. Now learn it by heart. repeat five or six times inhaling as little as possible!.. Tara-Tohe!. Madrapore!.. Armantala!.. Horpo-li!.. Horpoli!.. the most common one!.. And then evoke with all your might!.. ah! with all your might! Evoke in green! in jade green! As hard as you can!.. That’s a good beginning. Do it again especially at night!. These are the rudiments!. If you see any form appearing in your dreams, don’t hasten! no brusqueness… Concentrate!.. That’s all! Sniff at your first petal! as you close your eyes!.. Armantala
Horpoli!.. murmur this way.. Horpoli! Horpoli! that’s all.. murmur the name first! later on you’ll shout it! Concentrate!”
Ah! he slaps his forehead! Ah! he’d forgotten!
"Ah! I’ve got to leave you! Ah! my visits! Ah! what a scatterbrain! don’t follow me! I’m disappearing! remain here for a few minutes! let me go! I’m disappearing! Please be discreet!”
He smiles at me affectionately.
"Sh!”
Two fingers to his mouth!.. Big mystery!..
I was about to ask him whether it was really worth while, whether the whole thing was serious.
He cuts in!.. He hands me his card, his address.. everything. no discussion!
He leaves on tiptoe.. Near the door, ah! he changes his mind! about face! he comes back and whispers..
"Above all, don’t talk about Achille!.. to anyone!.. Achille Norbert! You hear me? Ah! to no one! the cult of the Dead!.. Oh! utterly secret!.. Absolutely between us… What jealousy!”
I reassure him.
"But tell me! where’ll I see you again?”.. Ah! I’m asking questions, "What day? What time?”