them?"
God said, "Because the bones cried out, they covered them."
And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God
why it was.
God said, "Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while,
when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also,
and plant flowers over it."
And still the feast went on.
Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw
their arms about each other, and danced and sang. They pledged each other
in the wine, and kissed each other's blood-red lips.
Higher and higher grew the revels.
Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in
their glasses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades. Women dyed
their children's garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny
mouths were red. Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a
vessel, and their garments were bespattered. Children sat upon the floor
with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats. They put
their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.
And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder
and louder the singing. But here and there among the revellers were those
who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there were men who
sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they
looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And when one
touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and
sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine
in the cup, but they did not move.
And here and there I saw a
woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and
fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she
listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she
was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.
The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay
their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more
leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers'
