"Philip Jose Farmer - Flesh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

not in the plan, since the way had to be left open for the passage of the parade. The Honor Guards and
the Vassar graduates rushed out in front of the stag and its rider. The Guard jabbed with arrows at those
who crossed a white line on the curb, and the priestesses struck out with their whips. The virgins in the
front ranks did not whimper or shrink at the blood drawn from them, but instead yelled as if they liked the
sight of their own blood.

There was a hush. The drums and bugles and Panpipes ceased for a moment.

Maidens appeared from the White House, carrying on their shoulders and hands a chair in which
lolled the body of John Barleycorn. These maidens were dressed in the garb of their sisterhood, long stiff
cloths dyed green to look like corn leaves and on their heads tall yellow crowns like ears of corn. They
belonged to the Corn sisterhood. They were carrying out the single male member. He was dead. But
apparently the crowd did not realize it, since they laughed at the sight of the body. It was not the first time
he had passed out in public, and nobody except the Corn Maidens knew the difference. They took their
appointed place in the procession just behind the Guard and priestesses and just ahead of the Sunhero.

The drums began again; the bugles blared; the syrinxes shrilled; the men roared; the women
screamed.

The stag lurched forward with its rider.

The man on its back had to be restrained from climbing down and joining the teen-aged girls who
lined the street. They were shouting suggestions that would have made a sailor blush, and he was shouting
back at them in kind. His face, which had been emptied of intellect as he came down the steps, was now
demoniac. He struggled to leave the beast. When the Elks pushed him back, he hit at them with his fists.
They reeled back, their noses broken and bloody, and fell on the street where the marchers trampled
them. Others took their places and gripped the Sunhero with many hands.

тАЬHold on, Great Stag!тАЭ they shouted. тАЬWait until we get to the domes! There we will release you, and
you may do what you want! There the High Priestess Virginia waits in the aspect of the Great White
Mother as maiden! And there wait also the most beautiful mascots of Washington, tender maidens filled
with the divine presence ofColumbiaand ofAmerica, her daughter! Waiting to be filled with the divine
seed of the Son!тАЭ

The man with the antlers did not seem to hear them or to understand themтАФpart of which might be
explained by the fact that his speech, though American, was a variant of theirs. The other part was
explained by the thing that possessed him. It made him deaf to anything but the roar of blood in him.

Though the paraders made an attempt to pace slowly toward their destination, six blocks away, they
could not help increasing speed as they came closer. Perhaps the insults and threats of the young girls to
tear them apart if they didnтАЩt hurry had something to do with it. The whips and arrows drew more blood.
The girls nevertheless pressed in, and once a girl made a fantastically high jump into the air and knocked
over a priestess. She scrambled up and leaped again onto the shoulders of an Elk, but she lost her footing
and fell headlong into the group. There she was treated savagely; the men ripped off her clothes, pinched
and gripped her everywhere until they drew blood. One man intended to anticipate the Sunhero, but this
blasphemy was prevented by others. They knocked him over the head, and then kicked the girl back into
line.

тАЬWait your turn, honey!тАЭ they shouted. They laughed, and one yelled, тАЬIf the Great Stag isnтАЩt enough,
the little stags will accommodate you later, baby!тАЭ