The Gods of Pegana Page 5

  "'And there is no darkness in Pegana, for when night hath conqueredthe sun and stilled the Worlds and turned the white peaks of Peganainto grey then shine the blue eyes of the gods like sunlight on thesea, where each god sits upon his mountain.

  "'And at the Last, upon some afternoon, perhaps in summer, shall thegods say, speaking to the gods: "What is the likeness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAIand what THE END?"

  "'And then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI draw back with his hand the miststhat cover his resting, saying: "This is the Face of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAIand this THE END."'"

  Then said the people to the prophet: "Shall not black hills drawround in some forsaken land, to make a vale-wide cauldron whereinthe molten rock shall seethe and roar, and where the crags ofmountains shall be hurled upward to the surface and bubble and godown again, that there our enemies may boil for ever?"

  And the prophet answered: "It is writ large about the bases ofPegana's mountains, upon which sit the gods: 'Thine Enemies AreForgiven."'

  THE SAYINGS OF IMBAUN

  The Prophet of the gods said: "Yonder beside the road theresitteth a false prophet; and to all who seek to know the hiddendays he saith: 'Upon the morrow the King shall speak to thee ashis chariot goeth by.'"

  Moreover, all the people bring him gifts, and the false prophethath more to listen to his words than hath the Prophet of thegods.

  Then said Imbaun: "What knoweth the Prophet of the gods? I knowonly that I and men know naught concerning the gods or aughtconcerning men. Shall I, who am their prophet, tell the peoplethis?

  "For wherefore have the people chosen prophets but that theyshould speak the hopes of the people, and tell the people thattheir hopes be true?"

  The false prophet saith: "Upon the morrow the king shall speak tothee."

  Shall not I say: "Upon The Morrow the gods shall speak with theeas thou restest upon Pegana?"

  So shall the people be happy, and know that their hopes be truewho have believed the words that they have chosen a prophet to say.

  But what shall know the Prophet of the gods, to whom none may cometo say: "Thy hopes are true," for whom none may make strange signsbefore his eyes to quench his fear of death, for whom alone thechaunt of his priests availeth naught?

  The Prophet of the gods hath sold his happiness for wisdom, andhath given his hopes for the people.

  Said also Imbaun: "When thou art angry at night observe how calmbe the stars; and shall small ones rail when there is such a calmamong the great ones? Or when thou art angry by day regard thedistant hills, and see the calm that doth adorn their faces. Shaltthou be angry while they stand so serene?

  "Be not angry with men, for they are driven as thou art byDorozhand. Do bullocks goad one another on whom the same yokerests?

  "And be not angry with Dorozhand, for then thou beatest thy barefingers against iron cliffs.

  "All that is is so because it was to be. Rail not, therefore,against what is, for it was all to be."

  And Imbaun said: "The Sun ariseth and maketh a glory about all thethings that he seeth, and drop by drop he turneth the common dewto every kind of gem. And he maketh a splendour in the hills.

  "And also man is born. And there rests a glory about the gardensof his youth. Both travel afar to do what Dorozhand would havethem do.

  "Soon now the sun will set, and very softly come twinkling in thestillness all the stars.

  "Also man dieth. And quietly about his grave will all the mournersweep.

  "Will not his life arise again somewhere in all the worlds? Shallhe not again behold the gardens of his youth? Or does he set toend?"

  OF HOW IMBAUN SPAKE OF DEATH TO THE KING

  There trod such pestilence in Aradec that, the King as he lookedabroad out of his palace saw men die. And when the King saw Deathhe feared that one day even the King should die. Therefore hecommanded guards to bring before him the wisest prophet thatshould be found in Aradec.

  Then heralds came to the temple of All the gods save One, andcried aloud, having first commanded silence, crying: "Rhazahan,King over Aradec, Prince by right of Ildun and Ildaun, and Princeby conquest of Pathia, Ezek, and Azhan, Lord of the Hills, to theHigh Prophet of All the gods save One sends salutations."

  Then they bore him before the King.

  The King said unto the prophet: "O Prophet of All the gods saveOne, shall I indeed die?"

  And the prophet answered: "O King! thy people may not rejoice forever, and some day the King will die."

  And the King answered: "This may be so, but certainly thou shaltdie. It may be that one day I shall die, but till then the livesof the people are in my hands."

  Then guards led the prophet away.

  And there arose prophets in Aradec who spake not of death toKings.

  OF OOD

  Men say that if thou comest to Sundari, beyond all the plains, andshalt climb to his summit before thou art seized by the avalanchewhich sitteth always on his slopes, that then there lie before theemany peaks. And if thou shalt climb these and cross their valleys(of which there be seven and also seven peaks) thou shalt come atlast to the land of forgotten hills, where amid many valleys andwhite snow there standeth the "Great Temple of One god Only."

  Therein is a dreaming prophet who doeth naught, and a drowsypriesthood about him.

  These be the priests of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.

  Within the temple it is forbidden to work, also it is forbidden topray. Night differeth not from day within its doors. They rest asMANA rests. And the name of their prophet is Ood.

  Ood is a greater prophet than any of all the prophets of Earth,and it hath been said by some that were Ood and his priests topray chaunting all together and calling upon MANA-YOOD-SUSHAIthat MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI would then awake, for surely he would hearthe prayers of his own prophet--then would there be Worlds no more.

  There is also another way to the land of forgotten hills, which isa smooth road and a straight, that lies through the heart of themountains. But for certain hidden reasons it were better for theeto go by the peaks and snow, even though thou shouldst perish bythe way, that thou shouldst seek to come to the house of Ood bythe smooth, straight road.

  THE RIVER

  There arises a river in Pegana that is neither a river of waternor yet a river of fire, and it flows through the skies and theWorlds to the Rim of the Worlds, a river of silence. Through allthe Worlds are sounds, the noises of moving, and the echoes ofvoices and song; but upon the River is no sound ever heard, forthere all echoes die.

  The River arises out of the drumming of Skarl, and flows for everbetween banks of thunder, until it comes to the waste beyond theWorlds, behind the farthest star, down to the Sea of Silence.

  I lay in the desert beyond all cities and sounds, and above meflowed the River of Silence through the sky; and on the desert'sedge night fought against the Sun, and suddenly conquered.

  Then on the River I saw the dream-built ship of the god Yoharneth-Lahai,whose great prow lifted grey into the air above the River of Silence.

  Her timbers were olden dreams dreamed long ago, and poets' fanciesmade her tall, straight masts, and her rigging was wrought out ofthe people's hopes.

  Upon her deck were rowers with dream-made oars, and the rowerswere the people of men's fancies, and princes of old story andpeople who had died, and people who had never been.

  These swung forward and swung back to row Yoharneth-Lahai throughthe Worlds with never a sound of rowing. For ever on every windfloat up to Pegana the hopes and the fancies of the people whichhave no home in the Worlds, and there Yoharneth-Lahai weaves theminto dreams, to take them to the people again.

  And every night in his dream-built ship Yoharneth-Lahai settethforth, with all his dreams on board, to take again their old hopesback to the people and all forgotten fancies.

  But ere the day comes back to her own again, and all theconquering armies of the dawn hurl their red lances in the face ofthe night, Yoharneth-Lahai leaves the sleeping Worlds, and rowsback up the River of Silence, that flows from Pegana into the
Seaof Silence that lies beyond the Worlds.

  And the name of the River is Imrana the River of Silence. All theythat be weary of the sound of cities and very tired of clamourcreep down in the night-time to Yoharneth-Lahai's ship, and goingaboard it, among the dreams and the fancies of old times, lie downupon the deck, and pass from sleeping to the River, while Mung,behind them, makes the sign of Mung because they would have it so.And, lying there upon the deck among their own remembered fancies,and songs that were never sung, and they drift up Imrana ere thedawn, where the sound of the cities comes not, nor the voice ofthe thunder is heard, nor the midnight howl of Pain as he gnawsat the bodies of men, and far away and forgotten bleat the smallsorrows that trouble all the Worlds.

  But where the River flows through Pegana's gates, between thegreat twin constellations Yum and Gothum, where Yum standssentinel upon the left and Gothum upon the right, there sitsSirami, the lord of All Forgetting. And, when the ship draws near,Sirami looketh with his sapphire eyes into the faces and beyondthem of those that were weary of cities, and as he gazes, as onethat looketh before him remembering naught, he gently waves hishands. And amid the waving of Sirami's hands there fall from allthat behold him all their memories, save certain things that maynot be forgotten even beyond the Worlds.

  It hath been said that when Skarl ceases to drum, and MANA-YOOD-SUSHAIawakes, and the gods of Pegana know that it is THE END, that then thegods will enter galleons of gold, and with dream-born rowers glide downImrana (who knows whither or why?) till they come where the River entersthe Silent Sea, and shall there be gods of nothing, where nothing is,and never a sound shall come. And far away upon the River's banks shallbay their old hound Time, that shall seek to rend his masters; whileMANA-YOOD-SUSHAI shall think some other plan concerning gods and worlds.

  THE BIRD OF DOOM AND THE END

  For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doomof the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the houndof the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is leanwith age.

  And from the innermost of Pegana's vales shall the bird of doom,Mosahn, whose voice is like the trumpet, soar upward withboisterous beatings of his wings above Pegana's mountains and thegods, and there with his trumpet voice acclaim THE END.

  Then in the tumult and amid the fury of their hound the gods shallmake for the last time in Pegana the sign of all the gods, and gowith dignity and quiet down to Their galleons of gold, and sailaway down the River of Silence, not ever to return.

  Then shall the River overflow its banks, and a tide come settingin from the Silent Sea, till all the Worlds and the Skies aredrowned in silence; while MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI in the Middle of Allsits deep in thought. And the hound Time, when all the Worlds andcities are swept away whereon he used to raven, having no more todevour, shall suddenly die.

  But there are some that hold--and this is the heresy of theSaigoths--that when the gods go down at the last into theirgalleons of gold Mung shall turn alone, and, setting his backagainst Trehagobol and wielding the Sword of Severing which iscalled Death, shall fight out his last fight with the hound Time,his empty scabbard Sleep clattering loose beside him.

  There under Trehagobol they shall fight alone when all the godsare gone.

  And the Saigoths say that for two days and nights the hound shallleer and snarl before the face of Mung-days and nights that shallbe lit by neither sun nor moons, for these shall go dipping downthe sky with all the Worlds as the galleons glide away, becausethe gods that made them are gods no more.

  And then shall the hound, springing, tear out the throat of Mung,who, making for the last time the sign of Mung, shall bring downDeath crashing through the shoulders of the hound, and in theblood of Time that Sword shall rust away.

  Then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI be all alone, with neither Death norTime, and never the hours singing in his ears, nor the swish ofthe passing lives.

  But far away from Pegana shall go the galleons of gold that bearthe gods away, upon whose faces shall be utter calm, because Theyare the gods knowing that it is THE END.