Satan in Goray - Isaac Bashevis Singer [60]
and vanquish disbelief. With sacred pride, the Face recited the blessing before meals, and prayers that come at the beginning and the end of the Sabbath, as well as whole sections from the liturgy and the Zohar. Sometimes shutting her eyes, Rechele could see the Face surging up from the darkness. Tiny old-man's wrinkles quivered in the corners of its eyes. Delicate blue veins shone in its red cheeks, its eyes smiled with grandfatherly grace. The Profane was situated in some distant place, in darkness, deep down, like a cellar. Sometimes he spoke very low, voicelessly. Hidden and veiled, he lay inside some web or cocoon. Often, he changed shape - at times he looked human, at other times like a bat or a spider. At moments all that Rechele could see was an open mouth, askew like a frog's. The Profane was audacious, making lewd remarks. Then his voice boomed from the pit, or the cave, where he lay concealed. Taunting and blaspheming, he bandied about the names of holy men and angels. A stream of vulgarities escaped his lips. He jested and mocked profusely, bringing Rechele to the verge of laughter, though she knew that to be sinful. Where did such shameful thoughts come from? The Profane called the nether parts of men and women by their crudest names; he showed Rechele vile sights, and discovered obscene meanings in Biblical verses. Nor did he spare the patriarchs and King David, Bathsheba and Queen Esther. He depicted the copulation of beasts and animals, an ox with a woman, and a man with a sow. He told tales of women who lay at night with monstrous men, and of girls who had assignations with goblins and evil spirits. He recited magical incantations in Aramaic, and invoked destroyer demons in Latin. Sometimes the Profane would begin to babble in a strange tongue, cackling toothlessly and throatily, as though something tickled him. At other times he poked fun at Rechele in rhyme: Rechele, now I'll teach thee how.. Rechele was terrified of the Profane, for he grew stronger from day to day, entangling her. Sometimes, when Rechele lay down and shut her eyes, the Face of the sacred would begin to recede until, becoming as small as a nut, it would disappear. One night Rechele found herself in a fenced-in place, full of mounds, and thorns, and stones--like a cemetery. In the dubious dusk, broken pots and rags lay about; there were puddles of water, as though a corpse had been washed here. She stood before a but with no opening except for a round hole in the wall, whence steam issued. A dying light seeped through the cracks of the hut, and some lunglike, red, and swollen thing peered out. Afraid, Rechele wanted to run away, but her legs were leaden and faltering. Desperately she tried to run, but in her helplessness only became lost in some subterranean passage with bolted shutters, blind walls, and crooked rafters. Rechele clambered up hill and down, wormed through small openings; with feeble arms she climbed wavering ladders and pulled herself up ropes. But she continued to sink, and the lower she sank the darker it became, the more suffocating the air. A bearded figure pursued her, hairy and naked, wet and stinking, with long monkey hands and open maw. Catching her at last, he carried her as light as a feather (for she had all at once become weightless) and flew with her over dusk- filled streets and tall buildings, through a skyless space full of mounds, and pits, and pollution. At their back ran hosts of airy things, half-devil and half-man, pointing at them, pursuing them. The Thing swept her over steep rooftops, gutters, and chimneys, huge and mildewy; there was no escape. It was stifling and the Thing pressed her to him, leaned against her. The Thing was a male; he wanted to ravish her. He squeezed her breasts; he tried to force her legs apart with his bony knees. He spoke to her rapidly, hoarsely, breathing hard, imploring and demanding: "Rechele! Quick! Let me! I want to defile you!" "No, no!" "Rechele, make a covenant with me!" "No, no!" "Rechele, you are already defiled!" He threw her down, and entered her. She cried a