14. The Ki and the Ki-Ki

The Enchanted Island of Yew

by L. Frank Baum

From the tops of the hills the travelers caught their first
glimpse of the wonderful cities of Twi. Two walls surrounded the
cities, and in the walls were two gates just alike. Within the
inclosures stood many houses, but all were built in pairs, from the
poorest huts to the most splendid palaces. Every street was double,
the pavements running side by side. There were two lamp-posts on
every corner, and in the dim twilight that existed these lamp-posts
were quite necessary. If there were trees or bushes anywhere, they
invariably grew in pairs, and if a branch was broken on one it was
sure to be broken on the other, and dead leaves fell from both trees
at identically the same moment.

Much of this Marvel and Nerle learned after they had entered the
cities, but the view from the hills showed plainly enough that the
"double" plan existed everywhere and in every way in this strange
land.

They followed the paths down to the gates of the walls, where
two pairs of soldiers rushed out and seized their horses by the
bridles. These soldiers all seemed to be twins, or at least mates,
and each one of each pair was as like the other as are two peas
growing in the same pod. If one had a red nose the other's was red
in the same degree, and the soldiers that held the bridles of Nerle's
horse both had their left eyes bruised and blackened, as from a blow
of the same force.

These soldiers, as they looked upon Nerle and the prince, seemed
fully as much astonished and certainly more frightened than their
prisoners. They were dressed in bright yellow uniforms with green
buttons, and the soldiers who had arrested the prince had both torn
their left coat-sleeves and had patches of the same shape upon the
seats of their trousers.

"How dare you stop us, fellows?" asked the prince, sternly.

The soldiers holding his horse both turned and looked
inquiringly at the soldiers holding Nerle's horse; and these turned
to look at a double captain who came out of two doors in the wall and
walked up to them.

"Such things were never before heard of!" said the two captains,
their startled eyes fixed upon the prisoners. "We must take them to
the Ki and the Ki-Ki."

"Why so?" asked Prince Marvel.

"Because," replied the officers, "they are our rulers, under
grace of the High Ki, and all unusual happenings must be brought to
their notice. It is our law, you know--the law of the Kingdom of
Twi."

"Very well," said Marvel, quietly; "take us where you will; but
if any harm is intended us you will be made to regret it."

"The Ki and the Ki-Ki will decide," returned the captains
gravely, their words sounding at the same instant.

And then the two pairs of soldiers led the horses through the
double streets, the captains marching ahead with drawn swords, and
crowds of twin men and twin women coming from the double doors of the
double houses to gaze upon the strange sight of men and horses who
were not double.

Presently they came upon a twin palace with twin turrets rising
high into the air; and before the twin doors the prisoners
dismounted. Marvel was escorted through one door and Nerle through
another, and then they saw each other going down a double hallway to
a room with a double entrance.

Passing through this they found themselves in a large hall with
two domes set side by side in the roof. The domes were formed of
stained glass, and the walls of the hall were ornamented by pictures
in pairs, each pair showing identically the same scenes. This, was,
of course, reasonable enough in such a land, where two people would
always look at two pictures at the same time and admire them in the
same way with the same thoughts.

Beneath one of the domes stood a double throne, on which sat the
Ki of Twi--a pair of gray-bearded and bald-headed men who were lean
and lank and stoop-shouldered. They had small eyes, black and
flashing, long hooked noses, great pointed ears, and they were
smoking two pipes from which the smoke curled in exactly the same
circles and clouds.

Beneath the other dome sat the Ki-Ki of Twi, also on double
thrones, similar to those of the Ki. The Ki-Ki were two young men,
and had golden hair combed over their brows and "banged" straight
across; and their eyes were blue and mild in expression, and their
cheeks pink and soft. The Ki-Ki were playing softly upon a pair of
musical instruments that resembled mandolins, and they were evidently
trying to learn a new piece of music, for when one Ki-Ki struck a
false note the other Ki-Ki struck the same false note at the same
time, and the same expression of annoyance came over the two faces at
the same moment.

When the prisoners entered, the pairs of captains and soldiers
bowed low to the two pairs of rulers, and the Ki exclaimed--both in
the same voice of surprise:

"Great Kika-koo! what have we here?"

"Most wonderful prisoners, your Highnesses," answered the
captains. "We found them at your cities' gates and brought them to
you at once. They are, as your Highnesses will see, each singular,
and but half of what he should be."

"'Tis so!" cried the double Ki, in loud voices, and slapping
their right thighs with their right palms at the same time. "Most
remarkable! Most remarkable!"

"I don't see anything remarkable about it," returned Prince
Marvel, calmly. "It is you, who are not singular, but double, that
seem strange and outlandish."

"Perhaps--perhaps!" said the two old men, thoughtfully. "It is
what we are not accustomed to that seems to us remarkable. Eh,
Ki-Ki?" they added, turning to the other rulers.

The Ki-Ki, who had not spoken a word but continued to play
softly, simply nodded their blond heads carelessly; so the Ki looked
again at the prisoners and asked:

"How did you get here?"

"We cut a hole through the prickly hedge," replied Prince
Marvel.

"A hole through the hedge! Great Kika-koo!" cried the
gray-bearded Ki; "is there, then, anything or any place on the other
side of the hedge?"

"Why, of course! The world is there," returned the prince,
laughing.

The old men looked puzzled, and glanced sharply from their
little black eyes at their prisoners.

"We thought nothing existed outside the hedge of Twi," they
answered, simply. "But your presence here proves we were wrong. Eh!
Ki-Ki?"

This last was again directed toward the pair of musicians, who
continued to play and only nodded quietly, as before.

"Now that you are here," said the twin Ki, stroking their two
gray beards with their two left hands in a nervous way, "it must be
evident to you that you do not belong here. Therefore you must go
back through the hedge again and stay on the other side. Eh,
Ki-Ki?"

The Ki-Ki still continued playing, but now spoke the first words
the prisoners had heard from them.

"They must die," said the Ki-Ki, in soft and agreeable
voices.

"Die!" echoed the twin Ki, "die? Great Kika-koo! And why
so?"

"Because, if there is a world on the other side of the hedge,
they would tell on their return all about the Land of Twi, and others
of their kind would come through the hedge from curiosity and annoy
us. We can not be annoyed. We are busy."

Having delivered this speech both the Ki-Ki went on playing the
new tune, as if the matter was settled.

"Nonsense!" retorted the old Ki, angrily. "You are getting more
and more bloodthirsty every day, our sweet and gentle Ki-Ki! But we
are the Ki--and we say the prisoners shall not die!"

"We say they shall!" answered the youthful Ki-Ki, nodding their
two heads at the same time, with a positive motion. "You may be the
Ki, but we are the Ki-Ki, and your superior."

"Not in this case," declared the old men. "Where life and death
are concerned we have equal powers with you."

"And if we disagree?" asked the players, gently.

"Great Kika-koo! If we disagree the High Ki must judge between
us!" roared the twin Ki, excitedly.

"Quite so," answered the Ki-Ki. "The strangers shall die."

"They shall not die!" stormed the old men, with fierce gestures
toward the others, while both pairs of black eyes flashed angrily.

"Then we disagree, and they must be taken to the High Ki,"
returned the blond musicians, beginning to play another tune.

The two Ki rose from their thrones, paced two steps to the right
and three steps to the left, and then sat down again.

"Very well!" they said to the captains, who had listened unmoved
to the quarrel of the rulers; "keep these half-men safe prisoners
until to-morrow morning, and then the Ki-Ki and we ourselves will
conduct them to the mighty High Ki."

At this command the twin captains bowed again to both pairs of
rulers and led Prince Marvel and Nerle from the room. Then they were
escorted along the streets to the twin houses of the captains, and
here the officers paused and scratched their left ears with uncertain
gestures.

"There being only half of each of you," they said, "we do not
know how to lock each of you in double rooms."

"Oh, let us both occupy the same room," said Prince Marvel. "We
prefer it."

"Very well," answered the captains; "we must transgress our
usual customs in any event, so you may as well be lodged as you
wish."

So Nerle and the prince were thrust into a large and pleasant
room of one of the twin houses, the double doors were locked upon
them by twin soldiers, and they were left to their own thoughts.