ut here and there among the revellers
were those who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there
were men who sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their
eyes; they looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And
when one touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise
and dance and sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there
watching the wine in the cup, but they did not move.

And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang
and fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though
she listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see
them; she was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.

The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and
lay their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance
no more leaned back on the benches with their heads against their
lovers' shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the
edges of their mothers' robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he
staggered struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon
the balustrades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered
to the wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but
sleep overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.

Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it
reached the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from
step to step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin
white smoke rose up from it.

I was silent; I could not breathe; but God called me to come further.

And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay
the ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one
which I had seen standing.

I said to God, "What did the men who built it here?"

God said, "They feasted."

I said, "On what?"

God said, "On wine."

And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a
large circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press
had stood.

I said to God, "How came it that this large house fell?"

God said, "Because the earth was sodden."

He called me to come further.

And at last we came upon a hill where blue waters played, and white
marble lay upon the earth. I said to God, "What was here once?"

God said, "A pleasure house."

I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried alou