The White Bull Read Online Free PDF

might have treated some visiting monarch paying an unexpected visit. Some monarch of great importance, Pharaoh himself, perhaps, if any visit of that kind were conceivable.
    In a hasty and informal conference we had come to an agreement with our guest the White Bull—some kind of temporary maze shelter was to be thrown up for the night. The visitor insisted that he would much prefer that to being lodged in any ordinary room, even as he preferred walking to any other kind of available transportation.
    The Bull had shown no evidence of concern at being thus separated from the sea—which was presumably his home, if he were indeed sent from Poseidon. Still, at the moment of sunset, he did pause in the long climb to look back at the sea from which he had come, and to stare into the distance to the north. Then I saw him put back his head and gaze for a time up into the night sky, as if he were looking for something there, or merely wondering as a man might wonder at the stars. But in a few moments he went along meekly at the king's courteous urging.
    Meanwhile, in haste and confusion, the temporary housing project was already being begun. Squads of workmen, impressed at a moment's notice from other tasks, were approaching through the dusk, converging on the palace. They were talking among themselves about the rumored wonders, then falling silent when the true wonders came in sight. Someone handed me a lantern, and I waved it back and forth to signal the workmen on their way.

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LABORATORY WORK
     
    On the king's orders I built the maze directly adjoining the palace. It was, I still believe, one of my more ingenious designs. After a month, though the full design was not yet manifest, the rambling structure was large and elaborate enough for the Bull to begin to feel genuinely comfortable in his private rooms, which were located at the center.
    After the first month, construction continued on the project steadily, though at a slower rate. And by the time the Bull was satisfied, the maze had come to be called the Labyrinth, after the
labrys
, or axe, for which the adjoining House was named. Indeed, during the earliest period of construction, House and Labyrinth had started a process of growing into each other, as certain additions were made to each. As this interpenetration pleased both Minos and the Bull, it was allowed to continue almost at the convenience of the workmen and their architect.
    In those days I was very busy. Not only was I architect and chief builder of the Labyrinth, but I had to keep pushing forward the previously ordained project of supplying the palace with water. Now the waterpipes and drains were also being run into the Labyrinth at the request of its occupant, and a small moat—of which more later—was being added near its center.
    Meanwhile the Bull, though he had declined to oversee any of the actual construction of his new home, had been far from idle. The men and women whom Minos considered his wisest counselors in every field were constantly being summoned to meet, singly and in groups, with the king's visitor from afar. I felt proud, particularly as a newcomer, to be included in these councils.
    Minos's enthusiasm for his inhuman visitor seemed to increase day by day. I gathered that our ruler expected to derive much wisdom from the Bull, to gain magical and other advantages that would give him an ever-increasing edge over his fellow monarchs in the world. What other king could boast of such divine assistance? In time, his domination of the whole world would be assured.
    I, too, found this strange half-human being endlessly fascinating, though for different reasons; and I groaned with weariness on hearing that at least two new projects loomed large in the Bull's plans, and therefore, of course, in the new plans of the king. These were works in which I, Daedalus, would be expected to play a considerable part, without, of course, neglecting any of my other duties.
    The first project that we