Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances
THE BOOK OF CREDIT
T
O
WILSON FOLLETT
Then answered the Magician dredefully: Manuel, Manuel, now I shall
shewe unto thee many bokes of Nygromancy, and howe thou shalt cum by it
lyghtly and knowe the practyse therein. And, moreouer, I shall shewe and
informe you so that thou shall have thy Desyre, whereby my thynke it is a
great Gyfte for so lytyll a doynge.
I
How Manuel Left the Mire
They of Poictesme narrate that in the old days when miracles were as com-
mon as fruit pies, young Manuel was a swineherd, living modestly in atten-
dance upon the miller's pigs. They tell also thatManuelwas content enough:
he knew not of the fate which was reserved for him.
3 JAMES BRANCH CABELL
Meanwhile in all the environs of Rathgor, and in the thatched villages of
Lower Targamon, he was well liked: and when the young people gathered
in the evening to drink brandy and eat nuts and gingerbread, nobody danced
more merrily than SquintingManuel. He had a quiet way with the girls, and
with the men a way of solemn, blinking simplicity which caused the more
hasty in judgment to consider him a fool. Then, too, young Manuel was
very often detected smiling sleepily over nothing, and his gravest care in life
appeared to be that figure which Manuel had made out of marsh clay from
the pool of Haranton.
This figure he was continually reshaping and realtering. The figure stood
upon the margin of the pool; and near by were two stones overgrown with
moss, and supporting a cross of old worm-eaten wood, which commemo-
rated what had been done there.
One day, toward autumn, as Manuel was sitting in this place, and looking
into the deep still water, a stranger came, and he wore a fierce long sword
that interfered deplorably with his walking.
"Now I wonder what it is you find in that dark pool to keep you staring so?"
the stranger asked, first of all.
"I do not very certainly know," replied Manuel "but mistily I seem to see
drowned there the loves and the desires and the adventures I had when I
wore another body than this. For the water of Haranton, I must tell you, is
not like the water of other fountains, and curious dreams engender in this
pool."
"I speak no ill against oneirologya, although broad noon is hardly the best
time for its practise," declared the snub-nosed stranger. "But what is that
thing?" he asked, pointing.
"It is the figure of a man, which I have modeled and re-modeled, sir, but
cannot seem to get exactly to my liking. So it is necessary that I keep laboring
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