not be greater than the one which I have already received
my dream-world ravished from me.

ILDEANA (advancing rapidly). Your majesty, loud rumors
are afloat of insurrections led by a lord high-seated in the
court.

SOLDERO (aside). The snake s last hiss ! Would I could
wish that it had taken effect.

KORONIE. We were just about to call you to inform
you of the news. The treason has been discovered and the
traitor has confessed. Here, Elouard, leave your bride a
moment; call my attendants to me, so they may hear the
sentence passed by their queen on treachery.

SOLDERO (aside). To play a part into which you put
your heart is great indeed; but to triumph in a part with
out a heart to put into it is surely greater still !

KORONIE (to her attendants who eagerly reply to her
summons). Behold this wretch, who dared to love his queen !
For such high treason she will punish him by depriving him
of liberty forever; she herself to be his jailer. And as an
added punishment for his crime she will press his head
down with the heaviness of a crown. Salute your king !
My lady Ildeana, you have been so actively engaged in scent
ing out this treason that you surely must be weary and, for
your health s sake, we bid you to return unto your father s
castle and tell him that the queen commands him to take his
daughter traveling. And you, my lord of Baldico, who
were strenuously employed in this same business, you had
better travel, also, for your health s sake. I will bestow a
great favor upon you, my lord of Firman ; you were so
greatly troubled about Lord Soldero s conspiracies that it
must be a pleasure to you to trumpet the traitor s doom.
Inform the people of the neighborhood that their queen

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S o 1 d e r o

grants their request even before the two weeks have been
ended that Soldero is their king. As for you, my lady
Kashiru and you and you

( While she continues speaking in the same mocking vein to
her alarmed attendants ELOUARD and FLORIANA approach
SOLDERO.)

ELOUARD. Your ambition then has triumphed, Soldero;
you have won the crown. (Clasping SOLDERO S hand.}

SOLDERO. Yes, it has triumphed. (After a pause.) But
what of that? The crown is nothing to me. Twas not
the crown that worried me, that turned me mad and forced
me to greet you strangely, Elouard, a while ago ; it was
the world will not believe it but you will, my friend, you
will believe it it was because I loved the queen for her
own self and feared she did not understand my love, but
thought I aimed at sovereignty alone. I find I was mistaken,
and my troublesome ghost has been laid.

ELOUARD. How glad I am to hear this, Soldero! There
is no shadow on my happiness now at all. Hear! Hear!
He loves her, Floriana! (Kissing FLORIANA.)

FLORIANA. Forgive me, Soldero! How I misjudged you!
And we will all be happy now, so happy!

SOLDERO. Yes, we will all be happy now so happy !

ELOUARD. After all, there is nothing that can take the
place of love, is there, Soldero ?

SOLDERO. No, there is nothing that can take the place
of love, Elouard Floriana.

( The queen joins them ; her attendants have all disap
peared. )

KORONIE. How gloriously the sun is setting! And hear
that bird s rhapsodic song ! The very winds seem to be
wooing, and the leaves are whispering affectionate words !
Come, love makes poets of us all. Let us stroll toward

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S o 1 d e r o

King Soldero s castle, where we will sup and speak what is
in our hearts. You are not coming, Soldero ?

SOLDERO. I lost a jewel. I will follow you on Elouard s
horse in just a moment.

( The queen, with her arm about FLORIANA S waist and
ELOUARD at her side, ascends the hill. SOLDERO stoops as
though looking for something and when they are out of sight
he kneels before the stone on which FLORIANA sat, soliloquizing. )

Here is where Soldero died! And they will bury him soon
in a tomb of gold, with all the hollow pageantry of death.

(As he arises from his knees a nun passes by.) Sister, a
life has just now passed away; pray for this departed soul.

(He moves toward ELOUARD S horse, but stops on hearing
jubilant shouts of "A King! A King! Our SOLDERO is our
King! SOLDERO and KORONIE! Long live SOLDERO, our
King!") The dirge!



KIOWANA.

A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS.



CHARACTERS.

KIOWANA, Priestess of Hell.

GLUKO, Her Attendant.

YAJEHO, Her Dwarf.

SYLVADOR, A Jealous Lover.

( RODERIC ) TT

. ., r \ /Her attendants

Spirits of 1 and y , r

) f before GLUKO.

( ELDERO, )

YAJECHIN, A Baboon.
Elementary Spirit Voices.

ACT I.

A room of rotunda-like form, the walls of which are
covered with heavy black velvet, A solitary light shows
KIOWANA, clad in a scarlet robe, with a purple flower in her
yellow hair, sitting on a raised seat. At her feet squats the
dwarf, YAJEHO, grotesquely attired, twisting the tail of
YAJECHIN, the baboon.

YAJEHO (muttering). An owl rode on a he-goat s back
to visit the sisters of Satan. Oh, that is what a frog told
me as he sat on a lily-pad, dreaming!

BABOON. Umph-humph! Umph-humph! Umph-humph!

KIOWANA. Cease your chattering jargon! Let the
baboon go! Call Gluko at once! Begone!

(Enter GLUKO, swinging a whip.}

GLUKO (striking the dwarf and baboon.) Yajeho and
Yajechin, ape and baboon! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Brew the
Devil s broth for the Devil s Hour ! Kiowana is hungry for
the feast !



Ki



a n a



(YAJEHO and the baboon run from the room, screaming.)

KIOWANA. Gluko, you drunken clown, take care! My
patience with your presumption must soon have an end;
how dare you strike my beasts? Beware, beware of my
tired mood!

GLUKO. Kiowana, enchantress of Gluko s thoughts, your
slightest frown shivers his heart! (He kisses, with mocking
grace, her hand. )

KIOWANA. Has Sylvador come?

GLUKO. Is a fool ever wanting when folly is near?

KIOWANA. Not while the sot Gluko lives!

GLUKO. Rail not against your work, Kiowana, you have
besotted him. Yes, Sylvador is here a greater fool than
Gluko, since vengeance is his motive.

KIOWANA. Then bring this wonder in.

GLUKO. Kiowana, Empress of Black Art, hail! High-
Priestess of the spells of Hell! Dispenser of the souls of
men! Gluko brings you your master pardon your
slave! (Aside.} She calls me a drunken clown, but I am
neither too drunk nor too stupid to fathom the drift of her
wiles. (Gluko saunters, carelessly laughing, into the hall.}

KIOWANA. Madman! You rush on to your doom! O,
weary companions are folly and fraud! After to-night I am
through with you all; a new life begins with new love!
Sylvador! Sylvador, you have awakened me! Sylvador!
Sylvador, crown of my destiny! Lo! from the depths of
my infernal reverie I spring to your breast and ascend!
Hear me, you serpentine creatures of chaos! Imps that
controlled me before I was born! I have been faithful to
my lonely mission at the altar of magic I sacrificed fools.
Now is the time to reward me, sweet demons! The favor I
crave is not hard to bestow; yet why should I name it?
You know all my feelings you know that I love him,
this hot Sylvador! He seeks, in his passion, my occult



Iv i o w a n a

assistance to tear from his rival the girl both adore; he soon
will be here the mad Gluko prepares him; help me to
crush his love for her who spurns him, and to lure him into
my warm arms. (A diabolical laugh is heard. ) It is not
true that you laugh at me, devils! Do you believe that my
senses are gone in that I would give up my richly-paid
living for the sake of a stranger whose rage masters me?
O, you forget that with all her weird powers, your priestess
is human! She needs more than gold! The gold that you
gave her for banning and tricks; her name which strikes
terror; her palace, a queen s, alone in the wood here, where
sorrow and spite are turned into victims of fever and, duped,
make but a dull shadow of true recompense for service to
unholy spirits. Love is the only return you can give her
love, the ambrosia that tempts gods and men to struggle, to
battle, to kneel, and to lie for; the price is not high for the
work she has done! (Another laugh is heard.) Ha, ha, I
laugh with you! The jest were upon me did I once consider
frail coquetries love. No, you have not paid me. My flirta
tious dealings with Roderic, Eldero, Gluko, the beast,
were trivial games to preserve my brain s forces from weari
ness born of contempt for mankind. ( The laiighter con
tinues; she springs from her seat.) You think Sylvador is
another toy merely for my fancy to sport with? O, listen !
Not one of these troublesome water-pates caused me to
tremble, except with impatience to love is to fear. But
how my frame quivered beneath this man s wrath-flame!
He did not entreat, but commanded my aid, as though it
were due him, and I proud to serve him. I recognized love
when it came like a storm. ( The laughter increases; she
closes the door.) If he hears this derision my power is gone.
So this is the way that the devils pay wages to mock when
the time comes to settle accounts. I had all the fire that a
mortal can burn with; how often death danced in my heart!
And when I would bury those torturous hours in joys to



K i o w a n a

which I have just claim, they, who owe it to me for infamous
labors, reply to my yearning with jeers. (The laughter grows
louder and wilder, and murmuring voices are heard.) Well, I
have enough of your contemptuous laughter; I leave you
forever with your debts unpaid. (She picks up a wand by
the raised seat and breaks it,) I renounce all my charms that
are wielded by you ; but I still have some charms of
my own. (Even while she tries vainly to open the door the
flickering light is extinguished by invisible hands and chaotic
sounds stir the air.) In what hideous way do you hope to
restrain me? This hissing and swishing means malice
is near! ( The blackness turns into deep blue; two shadowy
forms stand before the raised seat. )

FIRST SHADOW. Return to your throne. What you sue
for is granted.

KIOWANA. How foolish it was to have doubted your
favor, Satanic protectors! I meant no offense. You can
not be angry with rage it is evil; and if love sounds too
gentle, call my passion lust. (The notes of a trumpet pierce
through the closed door.) The trumpet of Gluko! Being
drunk he blows well. The Devil s Hour-service begins. You
will not desert me? I had no intention, even in my ill
humor, of serving your foes; white angels of heaven will
not flutter near me, for the breath of my schemes would
soon blacken their wings. Before night is over the irksome
antics of Gluko will be ended forever by poison or sword,
as I did rid my bored self of like playthings before him
Roderic and Eldero, when they amused me no more. Is
not this a dish for you, fiends? And when I have captured
the prey of my bosom the prize you award for condemned
industry even while I am feasting I shall not be idle, for
each morsel I swallow pays tribute to sin. ( The trumpet
sounds again, nearer.} Another blast of the trumpet; scorned
and scorner approach; the one to his death, the other to

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my breast, and, coming to love me, he comes to love hell.
Mischief enough for a woman to do! The devils should
give me their blessing.

SECOND SHADOW. We promise assistance. You shall
have your reward!

ACT II.
THE SAME AS ACT I.

The solitary light as before. Opposite the raised seat,
against the wall, the two shadowy figures stand rigidly.
KIOWANA, on the dais, looks alternately at them and toward
the door.

KIOWANA. They never appeared thus before. Their
voices seem strangely familiar, and yet, not as spirits, but
mortals, whom I have once very well known. I wish that
this night of capricious fate were over and my dangerous
spells ended forever. Did they only not stare at me so; or,
since they must ceaselessly stare, did their faces not con
tinually change, as clouds, now threatening with black, and
now with livid hue, but always rolling, rolling.

Courage, Kiowana, courage! you who have dared to
bargain with the abysmal shadows need never tremble more.
The limit is reached when flesh communes with space; flesh
then becomes the master. Down, down, unreal fear! ( Two
strokes of a bell float throttgh the deep air.) The Devil s
Hour is come, and love and death are at the door! I must
be calm to greet them.

(Enter GLUKO, fantastically dressed in green, with a
trumpet in one hand and a goblet in the other, accompanied
by SYLVADOR in a flowing red robe, with coronet and staff.
Followed by YAJEHO, leading the baboon, which is costumed
in the habit of a monk. )

34



K i o w a n a

SYLVADOR {advancing angrily to KIOWANA). This tinseled
mummery, priestess, no doubt befits your dupes but, unless
your powers are dull, you must know I am none of these.
I demand of you merely, Kiowana, to do what I myself
could do were it not for my heated temper which disturbs
the charms held by each strong mind. You, having no
interest whatever in passions that agitate, can steadily
wield your native magic to bless or to curse as you will.
No buffoonery is needed to accomplish that which requires
but a self-possessed mood; since I am acquainted with the
secret of your spells, why am I treated as a fool?

YAJEHO (Lying on his back on the floor, with the baboon
between his crooked legs, at KIOWANA S /<?/).

Oh, I thought I would break my jaws laughing! Gray
Night-mare, the witch s cat, singed his blue whiskers while
his mistress was frying bat-liver. Crying, " Curse you! curse
you! curse you!" he clawed out her yellow eyes ; so now
she has only two bleeding holes to ogle the Devil with!

BABOON. Umph-humph! Umph-humph! Umph-humph.

KIOWANA. Jabbering air, remember the whip! (Aside.)
He says all this in the presence of these starers! (Aloud.)
Do you not see those awful shadows there? They come
directly from the spirit-world to aid my uncanny practice.

SYLVADOR. I see more idle jugglery; and even were
they beings of another sphere, they would as readily come
to me as to you, did I yield myself up to them. There is
nothing that I fear in flesh or air except to be balked of my
purpose, and that shall never happen while I live.

KIOWANA (aside). How little do they know who boast!
The delusions of the conceited are sweet! Yet it is the
magnetism of his conceit which makes me love him so.
(Aloud.) You speak shrewdly, Sylvador; still, keep your
vestments on, since what we are robed in often checks or
loosens our flow of talent. Now, do not you, who easily

25



K i



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wins a way into the coldest female heart, feel lighter in your
grace when clad in gallant garb?

SYLVADOR. Lighter, perhaps, had I no clothing on at
all. No finery can smooth the tongue that captures men s
and women s eyes; no rags can stop a fiery hand from thrust
ing its sword into a rival s breast!

KIOWANA. Pray, why not use that sword?

SYLVADOR. Why, if I used it, would his corpse cause
her to even clasp my hand? His blood, which I so itch to
spill, would flow in triumph over me and fill her bosom with
still deeper love for him; for she is no unnatural woman,
whose fidelity death can chill. Therefore, I come to you.
Since love is all enchantment, weird spells alone can deal
with it. He won her lips through witchery, else why should
she care for him? He is a student, merely, and, unlike me,
not of noble birth.

GLUKO (standing against the wall, near the door, beside a
small table, on which he rests his goblet, when not raising
it to his lips}. (Aside.} He thinks himself so wise, and
yet he talks as though love had aught to do with lack of
brains or station! Kiowana has fondled sovereigns, im
beciles, and slaves ; she once even petted me, the only wise
fool in the room, for I have sense enough to know that all is
folly in this world but drink. What do those shadows
here? Kiowana must be weak, indeed, from love, since her
fiend-masters appear themselves to strengthen her conjuring
mischief. Well, let us see how the play ends ; curiosity and
drink save life from being a bore.

SYLVADOR. The hour you call the Devil s has almost
passed. I came to see you several nights ago, for the pur
pose I explained. You could have done the work as easily
then I had the fee at hand as now ; but even priestesses,
it seems, must be perverse. My troublesome rides through
these deceiving woods are hardly less agreeable than this
absurd regalia and delay, or company of a sot.

26



K i o w a n a

GLUKO {aside). Who pricks you with his wit? There
are heads wiser drunk than others sober.

YAJEHO. The frogs were dancing with the lizards in the
moonlight, about a hag of the earth; she emptied her ladle
upon them, and they turned into beautiful girls, but when
they smiled you could see by their teeth that they all were
the daughters of fiends.

BABOON. Umph-humph ! Umph-humph ! Umph-humph !

KIOWANA. Gluko, out with the freak and the baboon!
(GLUKO walks very deliberately to YAJEHO and the BABOON and
carries them, one after the other, kicking and gibbering, out of
the room, returning afterwards.} I do not need your fee.
{Aside. ) In what contempt he holds me ! With what con
tempt he would receive my love ! My wand is broken, so I
must use my tongue to charm him, and my tongue is weary,
weary. And then those shadows they unfix my thoughts.
My spirit-masters never acted thus before. Why will they
do so now? At one moment they seem to turn into faces I
have known, and then they change again. How can I play
a part before Uncertainty? Still, I must try to say a word.
{Aloud.} Sylvador! {Aside.} Oh, I cannot! My voice
begins to falter; I am lost! {Aloud.} Sylvador! {Aside.}
Weakness glides over me ! I am tired, tired ; would I were
resting in his arms ! O precious dream, that saves me from
life s bitterness. Will it be ever realized? ( The room sud
denly becomes entirely dark.}

ACT III.

THE SAME.

{The darkness has turned into a beautiful motning glow.
Sweet strains of music float above and about. The shadowy
figures are gone. }

KIOWANA. The music of my dream ! O Sylvador ! And
they have done this for me ! They were not thankless as I

27



K i o



w a n a



thought they were. They showed you, did they not, how
foolish was your love for her? How foolish thoughts of
vengeance?

SYLVADOR. Foolish, perhaps, were my thoughts of
vengeance. This music at least soothes my hate away.
No, do not harm my rival in the least, or cause, if possible,
my love to shed a tear; bring her unto me gently. For,
under the spell of this angelic music, I think of days when
I was nearer Heaven than now, and when my dreams had
wings. (Aside. ) Oh, did I but feel that she cared half so
much for me as she dotes upon him, I would have been a
better man, and not be wooing sin now.

KIOWANA. A dream from which let us never awaken,
Sylvador! They have departed, those ugly shadows, after
they at last gave us to one another. Let us flee far from
them and from these scenes of hateful recollection. I have
riches enough to feed our outward pleasures, and I will never
exert my dark powers again, unless it be to make you
happy. Come, Sylvador! (She draws her arm about his
neck.) Do you not feel the breath of passion upon us,
urging toward the feast of love? Even were I sure that
we could have a thousand years of bliss together I would
not lose a moment of it for the world.

GLUKO (aside). I do not understand the motive of her
play, and I am not so very drunk either.

SYLVADOR. Whatever these reverie-melodies suggest to
you they lure me to no mood for dalliance; they bear my
thoughts, rather, skyward to innocent love, and bid me
speed, with shame, from here, this witch s brothel! ( Thrust
ing her away from him.}

KIOWANA. They bid me nestle in my lover s arms. That
is what these chords of music say to me. ( The music ceases,
and is followed by sobs. ) Love seems to weep that we are
losing time in joining its revels. Come, Sylvador, let us at
once away!



K i o w a n a

SYLVADOR. Love seems to weep that I still loiter here.
Away, indeed, but not away with you! The door is locked !
Sot, open it, I say! for I have done with vice and deviltry!

(Darkness again and wild laughter.}

KIOWANA. What do they mean? They can not take
you from me, Sylvador! Quick! Quick! They plan a mis
chief to rob us of each other; they have fastened the
door, but there is an underground passage O, I am dumb!
He can not hear me! What hands force me back to my seat?

hell! hell! thankless, unrelenting hell, what a fool I
was ever to have served you!

( The darkness gradually turns into a blue glimmer show
ing KIOWANA on her dais, with one of the shadowy figures on
each side of her.}

FIRST SHADOW (speaking with the voice of KIOWANA).
Kneel, Sylvador, the farce is over. I sought but to test the
strength of your love for her whom you call pure and holy.

1 have not been delaying with my occult work, for half of
it is ended with the little play which you considered real.
The second, and the most important, part I now begin.

VOICE OF YAJEHO (at the door). The death-bird called
to the rain-ghost "I know of heart s-blood to wash away!"
(The baboon echoes, with almost a moan.)

SECOND SHADOW (with the -voice of KIOWANA). Another
word, and you dance on live coals!

KIOWANA (aside). So it was all a dream a cloud-fast
passing dream! They have not yet begun to give him to me,
and doubtless they never will. Delusion, precious delusion,
why must I part with you? They use my voice; even
Gluko thinks I am speaking. I can no more than witness
their whim s pleasure, and their whim s pleasure is, I fear,
to do me harm. And I can not utter a word, a word !



K i o w a n a

SECOND SHADOW. You have spoken truly, Sylvador;
human passions are nothing to me except as subjects for
my caprice or gain; love and hate have unsettled your will
power, so I must use mine for you mine that is always
calm, always calm. But we must first thoroughly know the
natures of those whose actions we wish to control. On these
walls, at my demon-helped summons, the life of her
whom you worship will appear. Draw aside the curtains,
Gluko, hidden things must be exposed. (GLUKO touches a
secret spring, and the black velvet, covering the wall in front
of the raised seat, is drawn aside, revealing a massive mirror. )

SECOND SHADOW. Away with illusion, born of love!
Away with distortion, wrought of hate! For truths no
mortal dare deny now in mirror-parade pass by. Spirit
friends of right and justice! Powers that frown on fraud
and plottings! Hands that uncover smothered wrongs, the
time for your aid has arrived ! Manifest yourselves !

SYLVADOR {casting away his staff and grasping, under
his robe, his dagger). Woman, take care, take care !

GLUKO (aside}. Has she lost her clever senses? If
sane, what is her game? (Drawing nearer to Sylvador. ,)

KIOWANA. I see their plot s end now ; they ll have him
kill me ; and he can never know that I am guiltless ! At last
I have you, faces ! Roderic s and Eldero s ! To taunt me
thus is folly. What care I for having murdered them !
And yet I do regret my terminating their careers, since I
was pleasing you when I did so. O, your triumphant leers !
As though you were the ghosts of those two wretches, whom
I pity now, returned here for revenge !

FIRST SHADOW. Put back your dagger, fool, and kneel
for pardon from scowling immortals. It is no human hands
that guide these awful moments ; you breathe the sultry air
of ready fate and vengeance ! You winged sympathies,
mysterious wanderers that drift unseen upon the sighs of
wronged hearts, through all the worlds of Chance and

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Change, in quest of opportunity to comfort or redress,
fulfill your mission now ! Inspire this work to triumph and
to end !

ELEMENTARY SPIRIT VOICES. Behold ! our help is given.
We fluttering sympathies of the air were here before you
called us ; we never fail when needed, as fleshly sympathies
fail.

( The room becomes gradually filled with elementary
shapes. )

KIOWANA (aside}. The entire spirit-world has come to
witness a mortal s downfall!

GLUKO (aside). The Devil himself will be here next,
I suppose ; his court seems to be rapidly assembling.
(Drinks.)

SECOND SHADOW. Look into the mirror, Sylvador.
The cause of your unsettled brain, the wine that drunkened
your career, and made you reel with foolish dreams, when
steady purpose should have been your aim arises in all the
glory of its disturbing charms Woman who gives no rest
even to the dead, but lures shades from their flight through
the ethereal worlds, to aid rewarding or avenging fates to
bless or hurl her down, down, down ! Prostrate yourself
before her, for it is Woman that turns the entire universe