April Fool (44 page)

 

34

W
ith Selwyn Loo at his elbow, Arthur enters a squat, pompous edifice hunched over the south bank of the Ottawa River. Many of the new Supremes he won't know, but he hopes they're more openhanded than those he squabbled with in the past.

The factum was authored by Selwyn with the aid of old Riley, and Selwyn will argue that part of it, the law. When it's Arthur's turn, he'll speak from the heart. He'll tell the tale of G'win d'lin, the maiden of the forest who joined her lover in the Salish sea. He'll talk about purple finches and phantom orchids and chocolate lilies. He'll talk about the bake sales and the yard sales, and about how the eagles went to nest and Doc Dooley danced a jig on the bluffs.

 

ERISICHTHON

T
he wood-nymphs, called Dryads or Hamadryads, were believed to perish with the trees which had been their abode. It was therefore an impious act wantonly to destroy a tree, and in some aggravated cases was severely punished, as in the case of Erisichthon, a profane person and a despiser of the gods.

On one occasion he presumed to violate with the axe a grove sacred to Ceres. There stood in this grove a venerable oak, so large that it seemed a wood in itself, its ancient trunk towering aloft, whereon votive garlands were often hung. Often had the Dryads danced round it hand in hand. Its trunk measured fifteen cubits round, and it overtopped the other trees. But for all that, he saw no reason why he should spare it, and he ordered his servants to cut it down. When he saw them hesitate, he snatched an axe from one and exclaimed: “I care not whether it be a tree beloved of the goddess or not; were it the goddess herself it would come down, if it stood in my way.” So saying he lifted the axe, and the oak seemed to shudder and utter a groan. From the midst of the oak came a voice, “I who dwell in this tree am a nymph beloved of Ceres, and dying by your hands forewarn you that punishment awaits you.” He desisted not from his crime, and at last the tree, sundered by repeated blows and drawn by ropes, fell with a crash and prostrated a great part of the grove in its fall.

The Dryads, in dismay at the loss of their companion and at seeing the pride of the forest laid low, went in a body to
Ceres, all clad in mourning, and invoked punishment upon Erisichthon. She planned a punishment so dire that one would pity him, if such a culprit as he could be pitied–to deliver him over to Famine.

Famine obeyed the commands of Ceres and sped through the air to the dwelling of Erisichthon…and found him asleep. She enfolded him with her wings and breathed herself into him, infusing her poison into his veins. When Erisichthon awoke his hunger was raging. Without a moment's delay he would have food set before him, of whatever kind earth, sea, or air produces; and complained of hunger even while he ate. What would have sufficed for a city or a nation was not enough for him. The more he ate the more he craved. His hunger was like the sea, which receives all the rivers, yet is never filled; or like fire that burns all the fuel that is heaped upon it, yet is still voracious for more.

His property rapidly diminished under the unceasing demands of his appetite, but his hunger continued unabated, At length he had spent all, and at last hunger compelled him to devour his limbs, and he strove to nourish his body by eating his body, till death relieved him of the vengeance of Ceres.

 

Excerpted from H.A. Guerber,
The Myths of Greece and Rome
, 1907.

 

BOOKS BY WILLIAM DEVERELL

FICTION

Needles

High Crimes

Mecca

The Dance of Shiva

Platinum Blues

Mindfield

Kill All the Lawyers

Street Legal: The Betrayal

Trial of Passion

Slander

The Laughing Falcon

Mind Games

April Fool

NON-FICTION

A Life on Trial
(previously published as
Fatal Cruise
)

 

Copyright © 2005 by William Deverell

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher–or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency–is an infringement of the copyright law.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Deverell, William, 1937–
April fool / William Deverell.

eISBN: 978-1-55199-148-1

I. Title.

PS
8557.
E
8775
A
68 2006    
C
813'.54    
C
2006-900861-2

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