Avram Davidson: The Scarlet Fig: Or, Slowly Through a Land of Stone, Book Three of the Vergil Magus Series

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Some say “the rainy Hyades ,” by Pleiades , sayeth The Matter: and further The Matter sayeth not.

SQPR: Senatus que Populus que Romanus. Numa would have it so. And agains Numa durst no pedagogue pout his tongue. So The Matter sayeth.

from Pliny / Natura/History! VI / Books XX–XXII, tr. W.H.S. Jones (U. Heinemann/ Harvard Press 1969)

Whether lamed men, who can neither farm nor fight, became smiths instead; or if formerly smiths were made lame so as to keep their mantic metal art safe at home and not run away abroad unto an enemy: The Matter sayeth not.

Avram made the following note to himself in the manuscript: The Death of Vergil: for the very last scene in the very last book, repeat this scene, after the appearance and vanishing of the little child by the barrel in which VM has his severed-apart body placed: which child, according to the old legend greets the too-early visit of the Emperor, as the child runs thrice around the barrel, with the cry of, “Cursed be the day that ever ye came here!”… and then the final scene, with the shepherd in the snow: full circle … 4-16-89

And as for that Noting in the Odd-Bound Volume of The Notebook of Vergil Mage, on the third papyrus sheet set in between the parchment pages, that noting is set down here, thus: 1 2 3 4 5 l e m o n 3 2 1 4 5 m e l o n 1 2 3 4 5 m e l o n 3 2 1 4 5 l e m o n — as for that, The Matter sayeth this: seek ye the golded apples And further The Matter sayeth not.

see Appendix III

Some say this cometh from the Magno Homero, but The Matter sayeth not.

So sayeth The Matter: see the Pliny his Liber XXII

One text of The Matter gives terrabolim , that is: earth-balls. Balls made of earth? Balls found in earth? Another text gives pyrobolim , that is fire-balls. Luarer : Balls made of fire? Balls found in fire? The Ragusa Codex glosses: coal ; this but begs the question, coal being singular of coals , the common form. One naturally asks, Coals of what ? “Coals of fire” is to say “fires of fire.” It is well-known that the bolim consist in forms male and female, the conjunction of the both alone creating fire. Yet we must further ask, are these “ coals ” animal, vegetable, or mineral? Earth, air, fire, water? That air and water do not burn contradicts the belief of the learned Jew, Apella. But further The Matter sayeth not, save othioth porchoth ; and no one knows what meaneth this.

What the concise connexion was between the Lady Ishtar and the Land of Tarshish, surely The Matter knoweth. But The Matter sayeth not.

Melcarth and Memnon, some say they be called. Jachin and Boaz, some say they be called: Maimon and Minrod, others. What sayeth The Matter? The Matter sayeth not.

And here endeth the line; further The Matter sayeth not.

See Appendix IV, The Great Globe

— From The Notebook of Vergil Magus , “There is, ser, Atilla King of Huns. There is, ser, Totilla King of Goths. Tis our hope that they may never meet, and it may well be, we hope, that they three may not know who they are — that is, they know of course their names and crowns and tides, but — what, ser? Ah, yes to be sure, ser. Afilla King of Huns. Totilla King of Gotha. And Bobadilla King of Saracens. (Thus the bygone babble, bo bo to to bil til a til bo bo to.) You shoudl be a man well-larned in occamy ser. And you know well of three substances which should never meet. In that secret science we all know that one means a certain thing when one says the king. And so on. just so, ser, we must hope that these three kings must never meet. They be the Death of Rome, ser. The Death of Rome …” Unspoken: should they meet they must realize their combined strength; realize, to, that ancient saw, the enemy of my enemy is my friend (dean no. 16–17).

That “Mary is the Mate of Melcarth,” divers muckle many say; but so the Matter sayeth nought, neither yea nor nay: the Matter sayeth not.