The Moonstone
On the second day, the number of Hindoos travelling in my direction had
increased to fifties and hundreds. On the third day, the throng had
swollen to thousands; all slowly converging to one point—the city of
Somnauth.
A trifling service which I was able to render to one of my
fellow-pilgrims, during the third day’s journey, proved the means of
introducing me to certain Hindoos of the higher caste. From these men I
learnt that the multitude was on its way to a great religious ceremony,
which was to take place on a hill at a little distance from Somnauth.
The ceremony was in honour of the god of the Moon; and it was to be
held at night.
The crowd detained us as we drew near to the place of celebration. By
the time we reached the hill the moon was high in the heaven. My Hindoo
friends possessed some special privileges which enabled them to gain
access to the shrine. They kindly allowed me to accompany them. When we
arrived at the place, we found the shrine hidden from our view by a
curtain hung between two magnificent trees. Beneath the trees a flat
projection of rock jutted out, and formed a species of natural
platform. Below this, I stood, in company with my Hindoo friends.
Looking back down the hill, the view presented the grandest spectacle
of Nature and Man, in combination, that I have ever seen. The lower
slopes of the eminence melted imperceptibly into a grassy plain, the
place of the meeting of three rivers. On one side, the graceful winding
of the waters stretched away, now visible, now hidden by trees, as far
as the eye could see. On the other, the waveless ocean slept in the
calm of the night. People this lovely scene with tens of thousands of
human creatures, all dressed in white, stretching down the sides of the
hill, overflowing into the plain, and fringing the nearer banks of the
winding rivers. Light this halt of the pilgrims by the wild red flames
of cressets and torches, streaming up at intervals from every part of
the innumerable throng. Imagine the moonlight of the East, pouring in
unclouded glory over all—and you will form some idea of the view that
met me when I looked forth from the summit of the hill.
A strain of plaintive music, played on stringed instruments and flutes,
recalled my attention to the hidden shrine.
I turned, and saw on the rocky platform the figures of three men. In
the central figure of the three I recognised the man to whom I had
spoken in England, when the Indians appeared on the terrace at Lady
Verinder’s house. The other two who had been his companions on that
occasion were no doubt his companions also on this.
One of the spectators, near whom I was standing, saw me start. In a
whisper, he explained to me the apparition of the three figures on the
platform of rock.
They were Brahmins (he said) who had forfeited their caste in the
service of the god. The god had commanded that their purification
should be the purification by pilgrimage. On that night, the three men
were to part. In three separate directions, they were to set forth as
pilgrims to the shrines of India. Never more were they to look on each
other’s faces. Never more were they to rest on their wanderings, from
the day which witnessed their separation, to the day which witnessed
their death.
As those words were whispered to me, the plaintive music ceased. The
three men prostrated themselves on the rock, before the curtain which
hid the shrine. They rose—they looked on one another—they embraced.
Then they descended separately among the people. The people made way
for them in dead silence. In three different directions I saw the crowd
part, at one and the same moment. Slowly the grand white mass of the
people closed together again. The track of the doomed men through the
ranks of their fellow mortals was obliterated. We saw them no more.
A new strain of music, loud and jubilant, rose from the hidden shrine.
The crowd around me shuddered, and pressed together.
The curtain between the trees was drawn aside, and the shrine was
disclosed to view.
There, raised high on a throne—seated on his typical antelope, with his
four arms stretching towards the four corners of the earth—there,
soared above us, dark and awful in the mystic light of heaven, the god
of the Moon. And there, in the forehead of the deity, gleamed the
yellow Diamond, whose splendour had last shone on me in England, from
the bosom of a woman’s dress!
Yes! after the lapse of eight centuries, the Moonstone looks forth once
more, over the walls of the sacred city in which its story first began.
How it has found its way back to its wild native land—by what accident,
or by what crime, the Indians regained possession of their sacred gem,
may be in your knowledge, but is not in mine. You have lost sight of it
in England, and (if I know anything of this people) you have lost sight
of it for ever.
So the years pass, and repeat each other; so the same events revolve in
the cycles of time. What will be the next adventures of the Moonstone?
Who can tell?
FINIS