REALMAH IS ACCUSED OF IMPIETY.

Great felicity in human life is too often but a prelude to great danger; and Realmah had only been a short time married to Talora when he had to encounter one of the greatest perils of his life--a peril, too, which was entirely caused by his success.

Hitherto, only Athlah has been mentioned as a rival in love to Realmah. But there was a far more dangerous person named Parejah, who was also a suitor of the beautiful Talora. He had believed himself to be the favoured one; and was perfectly furious at Realmah’s success.

Hatred often gives a keen insight into character; and Parejah inferred, without much apparent reason for his inference, that Realmah was not a very orthodox believer in the religious creed of his fellow-countrymen.

Their religious belief, on the whole, was anything but ignoble. They believed, as has been mentioned before, in one great deity, profoundly reverenced, but never openly worshipped, and hardly even named. His was an awful overruling presence, which gave power to all the lesser deities, who busied themselves with the affairs of men, and with the conduct of the material world. These lesser deities I find were more numerous than I had at first imagined.

In addition to those I have mentioned, there were Pelah the god of air, Varoona the goddess of water, Salera the goddess of fishes, and Baradaja the god of dry land. Then came Manoiah the god of joy, Karoiah the god of sorrow, and Plastuna the goddess of design and formation, in other words of intelligent work. The sun, moon, and the stars had also a worship of their own addressed to them, not that they were gods, but that they were symbols of the great unnameable Deity. This symbolism, however, was far beyond the conception of the populace, who honestly worshipped the heavenly bodies as distinct deities--a practice, which, however repugnant to the notions of the priesthood and the ruling families, was tacitly and somewhat contemptuously acquiesced in by them.

When a comet appeared, it was clearly a signal of displeasure on the part of the highest deity, and somebody was to be sacrificed immediately.

Among the lesser deities, none was more feared than Rotondarah. This deity, who was naturally supposed to be rather malignant than otherwise, was conciliated, sometimes by the sacrifice of animals, but more frequently by the so-called voluntary self-inflicted injuries of his worshippers.

Large sectarian differences had taken place with regard to the mode of worshipping this deity. The strictest sect wounded the four fingers of the right hand. Others maintained that a thumb should be wounded; and there was a bitter feud which subdivided this sect, as to which of the thumbs it should be. Finally, there was a third party of loose believers who maintained that blood drawn from any part of the body was equally pleasing to Rotondarah. Terrible feuds had arisen from these religious differences, which at one time had threatened to dissolve the republic.

The result was, that all the great chiefs and the important official personages ultimately sided with the thumb-wounding party, maintaining it, however, to be a matter of indifference which of the thumbs was wounded, and alternately wounding the right and the left thumb. Thus, holding the balance between the two extremes, they kept the state in peace.

Before proceeding with the narrative, it may be well to enumerate the various sects. They were--

1. The Right-hand Four-Fingerites.

2. The Right-Thumbites.

3. The Left-Thumbites.

4. The Whole-Bodyites.

5. The great official personages, who drew blood (in very small quantities) alternately from the right and the left thumb.

Now Parejah had discovered[10] that, on a solemn festival lately held in honour of Rotondarah, Realmah, who was a man keenly sensitive to pain, had not drawn blood at all. Parejah knew that this would be a great scandal even to the least strict amongst the worshippers; and he cited Realmah to appear before the Council of the Four Hundred on a charge of impiety. Realmah felt that this was one of the critical moments of his life, and that it would go hard with his influence for the future, if he were proved to have dealt in a trifling manner with these solemn rites.

Footnote 10:

Probably from the man who stood next to Realmah at the festival.

Parejah summoned Realmah’s wives as witnesses; and, in a preliminary inquiry, held before the meeting of the Four Hundred took place, they were subjected to a strict examination. But the wives, however conscious of their husband’s dereliction, could not be brought to testify directly against him. “They did not know;” “They had not observed;” “Realmah had not spoken on the subject to them:”--these, and the like answers, were all that could be obtained from Realmah’s wives.

The Ainah, who under cross-examination appeared particularly stolid, brought out in the most irrelevant way that Realmah, during the day of the festival and the day after, seemed not like himself, but as if confused by deep thought or pain. Realmah, though his sensitive ears were sorely wounded by the Ainah’s mispronunciation,[11] caught at an idea from the Ainah’s testimony, of which he did not fail to make good use.

Footnote 11:

One word especially shocked Realmah’s ears. _Selouvianah_ means confusion of mind, taken rather in a good sense, as bewilderment arising from high thought. The poor Ainah ventured upon this difficult word, which she corrupted into _Sellovee_. It is quite possible that Realmah’s blindness to his Ainah’s merits proceeded from her barbarous use of language,--such, and so dangerous, are the prejudices, arising from education, which beset even the most thoughtful men.

This charge then of impiety, not having been disproved at the preliminary inquiry, had to be heard, as a matter of course, by the Four Hundred. Amongst a people who had very few intellectual amusements, public speaking held a prominent place. It is even possible that there have been greater masterpieces of eloquence pronounced in the popular assemblies of those nations which we call savage, than in the senates of the most cultivated and learned people. It was not likely, therefore, that, when a charge of impiety was brought against the nephew of the chief of the East, so good an opportunity would be lost for hearing a great attack and a great defence.

The day was fixed for the trial, and Realmah looked forward to it with a feeling of utter dismay, knowing that if he were convicted, though the punishment might not be very severe, all influence amongst his people (that influence which, with his ambitious nature, he ardently desired) might for ever be denied to him. He did not, however, fail to summon to his aid all the powers of argument and all that great subtlety which he possessed.