The Envy of Queen Zixi of Ix
This is a story by L Frank Baum, author of the Oz books, one of his lesser known works, called QUEEN ZIXI of IX it was written in 1905.
The tale is now 120 years old, but this point is more poignant and potent in our day than when it was written. Allow me to quote the whole passage at length, so that my dear readers might see and savor the simple wisdom here, and also the delicate beauty of the illustrations by Frederick Richardson.
The conceit of the tale is that the fairies have bestowed on mortals a cloak to grant its wearer his spoken wish. The cloak is given to two innocent children, King Bud and Princess Fluff of Noland, but when the Witch Queen of the neighboring kingdom of Ix hears rumor of it, she vows a mighty vow to obtain possession of it.
This vow, and her many efforts and deceptions, she expends to achieve it, unbeknownst to her, are in vain from the outset. For the fairies who wove the magic cloak wove in the blessing that the cloak grants no wish to anyone who steals it.
The author insists Queen Zixi is not a bad person, despite being a witch, but is carried off by her envy.
What I find fascinating about this 1905 children’s book is the resolution of the Queen’s fascination with envy is brought about by the chance encounter with three weeping figures: an alligator, an owl, and a ferryman’s daughter.
Note in particular what it is the third weeping figure pines to have, and how it was used in the tale as an epitome of foolishness.
To understand why Zixi of Ix wants the cloak, let us read of her beauty, her age, and the disloyalty of her looking glass.
As for her beauty, she is described thus:
Queen Zixi herself was a vision of radiant beauty and charming grace. Her hair was yellow as spun gold, and her wondrous eyes raven black in hue. Her skin was fair as a lily, save where her cheek was faintly tinted with a flush of rose-color.
Dainty and lovely, indeed, was the Queen of Ix in appearance
Her age is this:
….despite the fact that she looked to be no more than sixteen, was in reality six hundred and eighty-three years of age, and had prolonged her life in this extraordinary way by means of the arts of witchcraft.
One evening, a minstrel in her court tells her of the magic cloak owned by the children, and she vows to steal it.
The tale then describes her discontent with all mirrors:
Now the reason for this rash vow, showing Zixi’s intense desire to possess the cloak, was very peculiar. Although she had been an adept at witchcraft for more than six hundred years, and was able to retain her health and remain in appearance young and beautiful, there was one thing her art was unable to deceive, and that one thing was a mirror.
To mortal eyes Zixi was charming and attractive; yet her reflection in a mirror showed to her an ugly old hag, bald of head, wrinkled, with toothless gums and withered, sunken cheeks.
For this reason the queen had no mirror of any sort about the palace. Even from her own dressing-room the mirror had been banished, and she depended upon her maids and hair-dressers to make her look as lovely as possible. She knew she was beautiful in appearance to others; her maids declared it continually, and in all eyes she truly read admiration.
But Zixi wanted to admire herself; and that was impossible so long as the cold mirrors showed her reflection to be the old hag others would also have seen had not her arts of witchcraft deceived them.
Everything else a woman and a queen might desire Zixi was able to obtain by her arts. Yet the one thing she could not have made her very unhappy.
Zixi had given up all hope of ever accomplishing her object until she heard of the magic cloak. The powers of witches are somewhat limited; but she knew that the powers of fairies are boundless.
After many chances and mischances, and deceptions and reversals, Queen Zixi in disguise manages to steal the cloak from the children. In boundless glee she spirits it away to a hidden spot in the forest, dons it, and makes her wish.
“I wish,” she cried in a loud voice, “that my reflection in every mirror will hereafter show the same face and form as that in which I appear to exist in the sight of all mortals!”
Then she threw off the cloak and ran to the crystal spring, saying: “Now, indeed, I shall at last see the lovely Queen Zixi!”
But as she bent over the spring, she gave a sudden shriek of disappointed rage; for glaring up at her from the glassy surface of the water was the same fearful hag she had always seen as the reflection of her likeness!
The magic cloak would grant no wish to a person who had stolen it.
Zixi, more wretched than she had ever been before in her life, threw herself down upon her face in the lilac-grove and wept for more than an hour, which is an exceedingly long time for tears to run from one’s eyes. And when she finally arose, two tiny brooks flowed from the spot and wound through the lilac-trees—one to the right and one to the left.
Then, leaving the magic cloak—to possess which she had struggled so hard and sinfully—lying unheeded upon the ground, the disappointed witch-queen walked slowly away, and finally reached the bank of the great river.
Here she found a rugged old alligator who lay upon the bank, weeping with such bitterness that the sight reminded Zixi of her own recent outburst of sorrow.
“Why do you weep, friend?” she asked, for her experience as a witch had long since taught her the language of the beasts and birds and reptiles.
“Because I cannot climb a tree,” answered the alligator.
“But why do you wish to climb a tree?” she questioned, surprised.
“Because I can’t,” returned the alligator, squeezing two more tears from his eyes.
“But that is very foolish!” exclaimed the witch-queen, scornfully.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the alligator. “It doesn’t strike me that it’s much more foolish than the fancies some other people have.”
“Perhaps not,” replied Zixi, more gently, and walked away in deep thought.
While she followed the river-bank, to find a ferry across, the dusk fell, and presently a gray owl came out of a hollow in a tall tree and sat upon a limb, wailing dismally.
Zixi stopped and looked at the bird.
“Why do you wail so loudly?” she asked.
“Because I cannot swim in the river like a fish,” answered the owl, and it screeched so sadly that it made the queen shiver.
“Why do you wish to swim?” she inquired.
“Because I can’t,” said the owl, and buried its head under its wing with a groan.
“But that is absurd!” cried Zixi, with impatience.
The owl had an ear out, and heard her. So it withdrew its head long enough to retort:
“I don’t think it’s any more absurd than the longings of some other folks.”
“Perhaps you are right,” said the queen, and hung her head as she walked on.
By and by she found a ferryman with a boat, and he agreed to row her across the river. In one end of the boat crouched a little girl, the ferryman’s daughter, and she sobbed continually, so that the sound of the child’s grief finally attracted Zixi’s attention.
“Why do you sob?” questioned the queen.
“Because I want to be a man,” replied the child, trying to stifle her sobs.
“Why do you want to be a man?” asked Zixi, curiously.
“Because I’m a little girl,” was the reply.
This made Zixi angry.
“You’re a little fool!” she exclaimed loudly.
“There are other fools in the world,” said the child, and renewed her sobs.
Zixi did not reply, but she thought to herself:
“We are all alike—the alligator, the owl, the girl, and the powerful Queen of Ix. We long for what we cannot have, yet desire it not so much because it would benefit us, as because it is beyond our reach. If I call the others fools, I must also call myself a fool for wishing to see the reflection of a beautiful girl in my mirror when I know it is impossible. So hereafter I shall strive to be contented with my lot.”
This was a wise resolution, and the witch-queen abided by it for many years. She was not very bad, this Zixi; for it must be admitted that few have the courage to acknowledge their faults and strive to correct them, as she did.
Queen Zixi does indeed carry out her resolution, even to the point of aiding Noland when it is invaded.
At the very end of the tale, when the magic cloak is taken away from the mortal sphere forever, Zixi forgets herself and begs the fairy queen to make her image in the mirror fair to her own eye, but the fairies dislike magic, and do not grant the unworthy wish.
A study of the map of Oz and the surrounding realms will locate Ix and Noland to the North and East, which, as on all Oz maps, is shown on the lefthand side of the page rather than the right.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
