Konx Om Pax

8 KONX OM PAX Via W v. Dens Via D v. Caput Domus VIII v. Splendor and it was like a green universe full of flowers, and little children playing among them. So I said: “ Shall we be married in this House?” and he said: “ N 0, this is only the House where the business is carried on. All the Palace rests upon this House; but you are called Lola because you are the Key of Delights. Many people stay here all their lives though.” I made him kiss me, and we went on to another passage which opened out of the Servants’ Hall. This passage was all fire and flame and full of coffins. There was an Angel blowing ever so hard on a trumpet, and people getting up out of the coffins. My Fairy Prince said: “ Most people never wake up for anything less.” So we went (at the same time it was; you see in dreams people can only be in one place at a time; that’s the best of being awake) through another passage, which was lighted by the Sun. Yet there were fairies dancing in a great green ring, just as if it was night. And there were two children playing by the wall, and my Fairy Prince and I played as we went; and he said: “ The difference is that we are going through. Most people play without a purpose; if you are travelling it is all right, and play makes the journey seem short.“ Then we came out into the Third (or Eighth, it depends which way you count them, because there are ten) House, and that was so splendid you can’t imagine. In the first place it was a bright, bright, bright, orange colour, and then it had flashes of light all over it, going so fast we couldn’t see them, and then there was the sound of the sea and one could look through into the deep, and there was the ocean raging beneath one’s feet, and strong dolphins riding on it and crying aloud, “ Holy! Holy! Holy! ” in such an ecstasy you can‘t think, and rolling and playing for sheer joy. It was all lighted by a tiny, weeny, shy little planet, sparkling and silvery, and now and then a wave of fiery chariots filled with eager spearmen blazed through the sky, and my Fairy Prince said: “ Isn’t it all fine?” But I knew he didn’t really mean it, so I said “ Kiss me I " and he kissed me, and we went on. He said: “Good little girl of mine, there’s many a one stays there all his life." I forgot to say that the whole place was just one mass of books, and