THE SPHINX. "All those tormented by the desire of God, I have devoured.
"In order to climb up to my royal brow, the strongest ascend upon the flutings of my bandelets as upon the steps of a stairway. Then a great lassitude comes upon them, and they fall backward."
_He is no longer before his cabin, but in the desert itself, with those two monsters beside him, whose breath is hot upon his shoulders._)
THE SPHINX. "O thou Fantasy, bear me away upon thy wings that my sadness may be lightened!"
THE CHIMERA. "O thou Unknown, I am enamoured of thine eyes! Like a hyena in heat I turn about thee, soliciting those fecundations whereof the desires devour me!
"Ope thy mouth, lift thy feet--mount upon my back!"
THE SPHINX. "My feet, since they have been outstretched, can move no more. The lichen, like an eruption, has formed upon my jaws. By dint of long dreaming I have no longer aught to say."
THE CHIMERA. "Thou liest, hypocrite Sphinx! Wherefore dost thou always call me and always disown me!"
THE SPHINX. "It is thou, indomitable caprice, that dost forever pass and repass, whirling in thy course!"
THE CHIMERA. "Is the fault mine? What? Let me be!"
THE SPHINX. "Thou movest away! thou dost escape me!"
(_And gradually sinking down he disappears in the sand; while the Chimera, ramping with tongue protruding, departs, describing circles on her way._
_The breath of her mouth has produced a fog._
_Through this mist Anthony perceives wreathings of clouds, undecided curves._
_At last he can distinguish something like the appearance of human bodies._
THE ASTOMI--_approach, like bubbles of air traversed by sunlight. They cry_):
"Do not breathe too hard! The drops of rain bruise us, false notes excoriate us, darknesses blind us! Composed wholly of breezes and of perfumes, we float along, we roll along:--a little more than Dreams, yet not quite beings...."
(_have only one eye, one cheek, one hand, one leg, half a body, half a heart. They say_):
"We live quite in our halves of houses, with our halves of wives and our halves of children!"
"Our shoulders are all the broader;--and there is no ox, rhinoceros, or elephant able to carry what we carry.
"Something dimly resembling features--as it were a vague face--imprinted upon our breasts: that is all! We think digestions; we subtleize secretions. God, in our belief, floats peacefully within the interior chyles.