If he 'falls into languishment,' as does the Fisher
King in Perlesvaus, the land and its inhabitants will suffer
correspondingly; not only will the country suffer from drought, "Nus
pres n'i raverdia," but the men will die in numbers:
"Dames en perdront lor maris"
we may say; the cattle will cease to bear increase:
"Ne se n'i ot beste faon,"
and the people take drastic steps to bring about a rejuvenation; the
old King dies, to be replaced by a young and vigorous successor, even
as Brons was replaced by Perceval.
Let us now turn back to the preceding chapter, and compare the
position of the people of the Shilluk tribe, and the subjects of the
Grail King, with that of the ancient Babylonians, as set forth in
their Lamentations for Tammuz.
There we find that the absence of the Life-giving deity was followed
by precisely the same disastrous consequences;
Vegetation fails--
"The wailing is for the plants; the first lament is they grow not.
The wailing is for the barley; the ears grow not."
The reproductive energies of the animal kingdom are suspended--
"For the habitation of flocks it is; they produce not.
For the perishing wedded ones, for perishing children it is; the
dark-headed people create not.
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