The Gods of Pegana
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Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett] >> The Gods of Pegana
Whither Roon hath desired there must Roon's people go, and the
worlds and their streams and the winds.
I heard the whisper of Roon at evening, saying: "There are islands
of spices to the South," and the voice of Roon saying: "Go."
And Roon said: "There are a thousand home gods, the little gods
that sit before the hearth and mind the fire--there is one Roon."
Roon saith in a whisper, in a whisper when none heareth, when the
sun is low: "What doeth MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI?" Roon is no god that
thou mayest worship by thy hearth, nor will he be benignant to thy
home.
Offer to Roon thy toiling and thy speed, whose incense is the
smoke of the camp fire to the South, whose song is the sound of
going, whose temples stand beyond the farthest hills in his lands
behind the East.
Yarinareth, Yarinareth, Yarinareth, which signifieth Beyond--these
words be carved in letters of gold upon the arch of the great portal
of the Temple of Roon that men have builded looking towards the East
upon the Sea, where Roon is carved as a giant trumpeter, with his
trumpet pointing towards the East beyond the Seas.
Whoso heareth his voice, the voice of Roon at evening, he at once
forsaketh the home gods that sit beside the hearth. These be the
gods of the hearth: Pitsu, who stroketh the cat; Hobith who calms
the dog; and Habaniah, the lord of glowing embers; and little
Zumbiboo, the lord of dust; and old Gribaun, who sits in the heart
of the fire to turn the wood to ash--all these be home gods, and
live not in Pegana and be lesser than Roon.
There is also Kilooloogung, the lord of arising smoke, who taketh
the smoke from the hearth and sendeth it to the sky, who is
pleased if it reacheth Pegana, so that the gods of Pegana,
speaking to the gods, say: "There is Kilooloogung doing the work
on earth of Kilooloogung."
All these are gods so small that they be lesser than men, but
pleasant gods to have beside the hearth; and often men have prayed
to Kilooloogung, saying: "Thou whose smoke ascendeth to Pegana
send up with it our prayers, that the gods may hear." And
Kilooloogung, who is pleased that men should pray, stretches
himself up all grey and lean, with his arms above his head, and
sendeth his servant the smoke to seek Pegana, that the gods of
Pegana may know that the people pray.
And Jabim is the Lord of broken things, who sitteth behind the
house to lament the things that are cast away. And there he
sitteth lamenting the broken things until the worlds be ended, or
until someone cometh to mend the broken things. Or sometimes he
sitteth by the river's edge to lament the forgotten things that
drift upon it.
A kindly god is Jabim, whose heart is sore if anything be lost.
There is also Triboogie, the Lord of Dusk, whose children are the
shadows, who sitteth in a corner far off from Habaniah and
speaketh to none. But after Habaniah hath gone to sleep and old
Gribaun hath blinked a hundred times, until he forgetteth which be
wood or ash, then doth Triboogie send his children to run about
the room and dance upon the walls, but never disturb the silence.
But when there is light again upon the worlds, and dawn comes
dancing down the highway from Pegana, then does Triboogie retire
into his corner, with his children all around him, as though they
had never danced about the room. And the slaves of Habaniah and
old Gribaun come and awake them from their sleep upon the hearth,
and Pitsu strokes the cat, and Hobith calms the dog, and
Kilooloogung stretches aloft his arms towards Pegana, and
Triboogie is very still, and his children asleep.
And when it is dark, all in the hour of Triboogie, Hish creepeth
from the forest, the Lord of Silence, whose children are the bats,
that have broken the command of their father, but in a voice that
is ever so low. Hish husheth the mouse and all the whispers in the
night; he maketh all noises still. Only the cricket rebelleth. But
Hish hath set against him such a spell that after he hath cried a
thousand times his voice may be heard no more but becometh part of
the silence.
And when he hath slain all sounds Hish boweth low to the ground;
then cometh into the house, with never a sound of feet, the god
Yoharneth-Lahai.
But away in the forest whence Hish hath come Wohoon, the Lord of
Noises in the Night, awaketh in his lair and creepeth round the
forest to see whether it be true that Hish hath gone.
Then in some glade Wohoon lifts up his voice and cries aloud, that
all the night may hear, that it is he, Wohoon, who is abroad in
all the forest. And the wolf and the fox and the owl, and the
great beasts and the small, lift up their voices to acclaim
Wohoon. And there arise the sounds of voices and the stirring of
leaves.
THE REVOLT OF THE HOME GODS
There be three broad rivers of the plain, born before memory or
fable, whose mothers are three grey peaks and whose father was the
storm. There names be Eimes, Zaenes, and Segastrion.
And Eimes is the joy of lowing herds; and Zaenes hath bowed his
neck to the yoke of man, and carries the timber from the forest
far up below the mountain; and Segastrion sings old songs to
shepherd boys, singing of his childhood in a lone ravine and of
how he once sprang down the mountain sides and far away into the
plain to see the world, and of how one day at last he will find
the sea. These be the rivers of the plain, wherein the plain
rejoices. But old men tell, whose fathers heard it from the
ancients, how once the lords of the three rivers of the plain
rebelled against the law of the Worlds, and passed beyond their
boundaries, and joined together and whelmed cities and slew men,
saying: "We now play the game of the gods and slay men for our
pleasure, and we be greater than the gods of Pegana."
And all the plain was flooded to the hills.
And Eimes, Zaenes, and Segastrion sat upon the mountains, and
spread their hands over their rivers that rebelled by their
command.
But the prayer of men going upward found Pegana, and cried in the
ear of the gods: "There be three home gods who slay us for their
pleasure, and say that they be mightier than Pegana's gods, and
play Their game with men."
Then were all the gods of Pegana very wroth; but They could not
whelm the lords of the three rivers, because being home gods,
though small, they were immortal.
And still the home gods spread their hands across their rivers,
with their fingers wide apart, and the waters rose and rose, and
the voice of their torrent grew louder, crying: "Are we not Eimes,
Zaenes, and Segastrion?"
Then Mung went down into a waste of Afrik, and came upon the
drought Umbool as he sat in the desert upon iron rocks, clawing
with miserly grasp at the bones of men and breathing hot.
And Mung stood before him as his dry sides heaved, and ever as
they sank his hot breath blasted dry sticks and bones.
Then Mung said: "Friend of Mung! Go, thou and grin before the
faces of Eimes, Zaenes, and Segastrion till they see whether it be
wise to rebel against the gods of Pegana."
And Umbool answered: "I am the beast of Mung."
And Umbool came and crouched upon a hill upon the other side of
the waters and grinned across them at the rebellious home gods.
And whenever Eimes, Zaenes, and Segastrion stretched out their
hands over their rivers they saw before their faces the grinning
of Umbool; and because the grinning was like death in a hot and
hideous land therefore they turned away and spread their hands no
more over their rivers, and the waters sank and sank.
But when Umbool had grinned for thirty days the waters fell back
into the river beds and the lords of the rivers slunk away back
again to their homes: still Umbool sat and grinned.
Then Eimes sought to hide himself in a great pool beneath a rock,
and Zaenes crept into the middle of a wood, and Segastrion lay and
panted on the sand--still Umbool sat and grinned.
And Eimes grew lean, and was forgotten, so that the men of the
plain would say: "Here once was Eimes"; and Zaenes scarce had
strength to lead his river to the sea; and as Segastrion lay and
panted a man stepped over his stream, and Segastrion said: "It is
the foot of a man that has passed across my neck, and I have sought
to be greater than the gods of Pegana."
Then said the gods of Pegana: "It is enough. We are the gods of
Pegana, and none are equal."
Then Mung sent Umbool back to his waste in Afrik to breathe again
upon the rocks, and parch the desert, and to sear the memory of
Afrik into the brains of all who ever bring their bones away.
And Eimes, Zaenes, and Segastrion sang again, and walked once more
in their accustomed haunts, and played the game of Life and Death
with fishes and frogs, but never essayed to play it any more with
men, as do the gods of Pegana.
OF DOROZHAND
(Whose Eyes Regard The End)
Sitting above the lives of the people, and looking, doth Dorozhand
see that which is to be.
The god of Destiny is Dorozhand. Upon whom have looked the eyes of
Dorozhand he goeth forward to an end that naught may stay; he
becometh the arrow from the bow of Dorozhand hurled forward at a
mark he may not see--to the goal of Dorozhand. Beyond the thinking
of men, beyond the sight of all the other gods, regard the eyes of
Dorozhand.
He hath chosen his slaves. And them doth the destiny god drive
onward where he will, who, knowing not whither nor even knowing
why, feel only his scourge behind them or hear his cry before.
There is something that Dorozhand would fain achieve, and,
therefore, hath he set the people striving, with none to cease or
rest in all the worlds. But the gods of Pegana, speaking to the
gods, say: "What is it that Dorozhand would fain achieve?"
It hath been written and said that not only the destinies of men
are the care of Dorozhand but that even the gods of Pegana be not
unconcerned by his will.
All the gods of Pegana have felt a fear, for they have seen a look
in the eyes of Dorozhand that regardeth beyond the gods.
The reason and purpose of the Worlds is that there should be Life
upon the Worlds, and Life is the instrument of Dorozhand wherewith
he would achieve his end.
Therefore the Worlds go on, and the rivers run to the sea, and Life
ariseth and flieth even in all the Worlds, and the gods of Pegana
do the work of the gods--and all for Dorozhand. But when the end of
Dorozhand hath been achieved there will be need no longer of Life upon
the Worlds, nor any more a game for the small gods to play. Then will
Kib tiptoe gently across Pegana to the resting-place in Highest Pegana
of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and touching reverently his hand, the hand that
wrought the gods, say: "MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, thou hast rested long."
And MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI shall say: "Not so; for I have rested for but
fifty aeons of the gods, each of them scarce more than ten million
mortal years of the Worlds that ye have made."
And then shall the gods be afraid when they find that MANA knoweth
that they have made Worlds while he rested. And they shall answer:
"Nay; but the Worlds came all of themselves."
Then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, as one who would have done with an irksome
matter, will lightly wave his hand--the hand that wrought the
gods--and there shall be gods no more.
When there shall be three moons towards the north above the Star
of the Abiding, three moons that neither wax nor wane but regard
towards the North.
Or when the comet ceaseth from his seeking and stands still, not any
longer moving among the Worlds but tarrying as one who rests after
the end of search, then shall arise from resting, because it is THE
END, the Greater One, who rested of old time, even MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
Then shall the Times that were be Times no more; and it may be
that the old, dead days shall return from beyond the Rim, and we
who have wept for them shall see those days again, as one who,
returning from long travel to his home, comes suddenly on dear,
remembered things.
For none shall know of MANA who hath rested for so long, whether
he be a harsh or merciful god. It may be that he shall have mercy,
and that these things shall be.
THE EYE IN THE WASTE
There lie seven deserts beyond Bodrahan, which is the city of the
caravans' end. None goeth beyond. In the first desert lie the
tracks of mighty travellers outward from Bodrahan, and some
returning. And in the second lie only outward tracks, and none
return.
The third is a desert untrodden by the feet of men.
The fourth is the desert of sand, and the fifth is the desert of
dust, and the sixth is the desert of stones, and the seventh is
the Desert of Deserts.
In the midst of the last of the deserts that lie beyond Bodrahan,
in the centre of the Desert of Deserts, standeth the image that
hath been hewn of old out of the living hill whose name is
Ranorada--the eye in the waste.
About the base of Ranorada is carved in mystic letters that are
vaster than the beds of streams these words:
To the god who knows.
Now, beyond the second desert are no tracks, and there is no water
in all the seven deserts that lie beyond Bodrahan. Therefore came
no man thither to hew that statue from the living hills, and
Ranorada was wrought by the hands of gods. Men tell in Bodrahan,
where the caravans end and all the drivers of the camels rest, how
once the gods hewed Ranorada from the living hill, hammering all
night long beyond the deserts. Moreover, they say that Ranorada is
carved in the likeness of the god Hoodrazai, who hath found the
secret of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and knoweth the wherefore of the making
of the gods.
They say that Hoodrazai stands all alone in Pegana and speaks to
none because he knows what is hidden from the gods.
Therefore the gods have made his image in a lonely land as one who
thinks and is silent--the eye in the waste.
They say that Hoodrazai had heard the murmers of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
as he muttered to himself, and gleaned the meaning, and knew; and
that he was the god of mirth and of abundant joy, but became from
the moment of his knowing a mirthless god, even as his image,
which regards the deserts beyond the track of man.
But the camel drivers, as they sit and listen to the tales of the
old men in the market-place of Bodrahan, at evening, while the
camels rest, say:
"If Hoodrazai is so very wise and yet is sad, let us drink wine,
and banish wisdom to the wastes that lie beyond Bodrahan."
Therefore is there feasting and laughter all night long in the
city where the caravans end.
All this the camel drivers tell when the caravans come in from
Bodrahan; but who shall credit tales that camel drivers have heard
from aged men in so remote a city?
OF THE THING THAT IS NEITHER GOD NOR BEAST
Seeing that wisdom is not in cities nor happiness in wisdom, and
because Yadin the prophet was doomed by the gods ere he was born
to go in search of wisdom, he followed the caravans to Bodrahan.
There in the evening, where the camels rest, when the wind of the
day ebbs out into the desert sighing amid the palms its last
farewells and leaving the caravans still, he sent his prayer with
the wind to drift into the desert calling to Hoodrazai.
And down the wind his prayer went calling: "Why do the gods
endure, and play their game with men? Why doth not Skarl forsake
his drumming, and MANA cease to rest?" and the echo of seven
deserts answered: "Who knows? Who knows?"
But out in the waste, beyond the seven deserts where Ranorada
looms enormous in the dusk, at evening his prayer was heard; and
from the rim of the waste whither had gone his prayer, came three
flamingoes flying, and their voices said: "Going South, Going
South" at every stroke of their wings.
But as they passed by the prophet they seemed so cool and free and
the desert so blinding and hot that he stretched up his arms
towards them. Then it seemed happy to fly and pleasant to follow
behind great white wings, and he was with the three flamingoes up
in the cool above the desert, and their voices cried before him:
"Going South, Going South," and the desert below him mumbled: "Who
knows? Who knows?"
Sometimes the earth stretched up towards them with peaks of
mountains, sometimes it fell away in steep ravines, blue rivers
sang to them as they passed above them, or very faintly came the
song of breezes in lone orchards, and far away the sea sang mighty
dirges of old forsaken isles. But it seemed that in all the world
there was nothing only to be going South.
It seemed that somewhere the South was calling to her own, and
that they were going South.
But when the prophet saw that they had passed above the edge of
Earth, and that far away to the North of them lay the Moon, he
perceived that he was following no mortal birds but some strange
messengers of Hoodrazai whose nest had lain in one of Pegana's
vales below the mountains whereon sit the gods.
Still they went South, passing by all the Worlds and leaving them
to the North, till only Araxes, Zadres, and Hyraglion lay still to
the South of them, where great Ingazi seemed only a point of
light, and Yo and Mindo could be seen no more.
Still they went South till they passed below the South and came to
the Rim of the Worlds.
There there is neither South nor East nor West, but only North and
Beyond; there is only North of it where lie the Worlds, and Beyond
it where lies the Silence, and the Rim is a mass of rocks that
were never used by the gods when They made the Worlds, and on it
sat Trogool. Trogool is the Thing that is neither god nor beast,
who neither howls nor breathes, only _It_ turns over the
leaves of a great book, black and white, black and white for ever
until THE END.
And all that is to be is written in the book is also all that was.
When _It_ turneth a black page it is night, and when
_It_ turneth a white page it is day.
Because it is written that there are gods--there are the gods.
Also there is writing about thee and me until the page where our
names no more are written.
Then as the prophet watched _It_, Trogool turned a page--a
black one, and night was over, and day shone on the Worlds.
Trogool is the Thing that men in many countries have called by
many names, _It_ is the Thing that sits behind the gods,
whose book is the Scheme of Things.
But when Yadin saw that old remembered days were hidden away with
the part that _It_ had turned, and knew that upon one whose
name is writ no more the last page had turned for ever a thousand
pages back. Then did he utter his prayer in the fact of Trogool
who only turns the pages and never answers prayer. He prayed in
the face of Trogool: "Only turn back thy pages to the name of one
which is writ no more, and far away upon a place named Earth shall
rise the prayers of a little people that acclaim the name of
Trogool, for there is indeed far off a place called Earth where
men shall pray to Trogool."
Then spake Trogool who turns the pages and never answers prayer,
and his voice was like the murmurs of the waste at night when
echoes have been lost: "Though the whirlwind of the South should
tug with his claws at a page that hath been turned yet shall he
not be able to ever turn it back."
Then because of words in the book that said that it should be so,
Yadin found himself lying in the desert where one gave him water,
and afterwards carried him on a camel into Bodrahan.
There some said that he had but dreamed when thirst seized him
while he wandered among the rocks in the desert. But certain aged
men of Bodrahan say that indeed there sitteth somewhere a Thing
that is called Trogool, that is neither god nor beast, that
turneth the leaves of a book, black and white, black and white,
until he come to the words: _Mai Doon Izahn_, which means The
End For Ever, and book and gods and worlds shall be no more.
YONATH THE PROPHET
Yonath was the first among prophets who uttered unto men.
These are the words of Yonath, the first among all prophets:
There be gods upon Pegana.
Upon a night I slept. And in my sleep Pegana came very near. And
Pegana was full of gods.
I saw the gods beside me as one might see wonted things.
Only I saw not MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
And in that hour, in the hour of my sleep, I knew.
And the end and the beginning of my knowing, and all of my knowing
that there was, was this--that Man Knoweth Not.
Seek thou to find at night the utter edge of the darkness, or seek
to find the birthplace of the rainbow where he leapeth upward from
the hills, only seek not concerning the wherefore of the making of
the gods.
The gods have set a brightness upon the farther side of the Things
to Come that they may appear more felititous to men than the
Things that Are.
To the gods the Things to Come are but as the Things that Are, and
nothing altereth in Pegana.
The gods, although not merciful, are not ferocious gods. They are
the destroyers of the Days that Were, but they set a glory about
the Days to Be.
Man must endure the Days that Are, but the gods have left him his
ignorance as a solace.
Seek not to know. Thy seeking will weary thee, and thou wilt
return much worn, to rest at last about the place from whence thou
settest out upon thy seeking.
Seek not to know. Even I, Yonath, the oldest prophet, burdened
with the wisdom of great years, and worn with seeking, know only
that man knoweth not.
Once I set out seeking to know all things. Now I know one thing
only, and soon the Years will carry me away.
The path of my seeking, that leadeth to seeking again, must be
trodden by very many more, when Yonath is no longer even Yonath.
Set not thy foot upon that path.
Seek not to know.
These be the Words of Yonath.
YUG THE PROPHET
When the Years had carries away Yonath, and Yonath was dead,
there was no longer a prophet among men.
And still men sought to know.
Therefore they said unto Yug: "Be thou our prophet, and know all
things, and tell us concerning the wherefore of It All."
And Yug said: "I know all things." And men were pleased.
And Yug said of the Beginning that it was in Yug's own garden, and
of the End that it was in the sight of Yug.
And men forgot Yug.
One day Yug saw Mung behind the hills making the sign of Mung. And
Yug was Yug no more.
ALHIRETH-HOTEP THE PROPHET
When Yug was Yug no more men said unto Alhireth-Hotep: "Be thou
our prophet, and be as wise as Yug."
And Alhireth-Hotep said: "I am as wise as Yug." And men were very
glad.
And Alhireth-Hotep said of Life and Death: "These be the affairs
of Alhireth-Hotep." And men brought gifts to him.
One day Alhireth-Hotep wrote in a book: "Alhireth-Hotep knoweth
All Things, for he hath spoken with Mung."
And Mung stepped from behind him, making the sign of Mung, saying:
"Knowest thou All Things, then, Alhireth-Hotep?" And Alhireth-Hotep
became among the Things that Were.
KABOK THE PROPHET
When Alhireth-Hotep was among the Things that Were, and still men
sought to know, they said unto Kabok: "Be thou as wise as was
Alhireth-Hotep."
And Kabok grew wise in his own sight and in the sight of men.
And Kabok said: "Mung maketh his signs against men or withholdeth
it by the advice of Kabok."
And he said unto one: "Thou hast sinned against Kabok, therefore
will Mung make the sign of Mung against thee." And to another:
"Thou has brought Kabok gifts, therefore shall Mung forbear to
make against thee the sign of Mung."
One night as Kabok fattened upon the gifts that men had brought
him he heard the tread of Mung treading in the garden of Kabok
about his house at night.
And because the night was very still it seemed most evil to Kabok
that Mung should be treading in his garden, without the advice of
Kabok, about his house at night.
And Kabok, who knew All Things, grew afraid, for the treading was
very loud and the night still, and he knew not what lay behind the
back of Mung, which none had ever seen.
But when the morning grew to brightness, and there was light upon
the Worlds, and Mung trod no longer in the garden, Kabok forgot
his fears, and said: "Perhaps it was but a herd of cattle that
stampeded in the garden of Kabok."
And Kabok went about his business, which was that of knowing All
Things, and telling All Things unto men, and making light of Mung.
But that night Mung trod again in the garden of Kabok, about his
house at night, and stood before the window of the house like a
shadow standing erect, so that Kabok knew indeed that it was Mung.
And a great fear fell upon the throat of Kabok, so that his speech
was hoarse; and he cried out: "Thou art Mung!"
And Mung slightly inclined his head, and went on to tread in the
garden of Kabok, about his house at night.
And Kabok lay and listened with horror at his heart.
But when the second morning grew to brightness, and there was
light upon the Worlds, Mung went from treading in the garden of
Kabok; and for a little while Kabok hoped, but looked with great
dread for the coming of the third night.
And when the third night was come, and the bat had gone to his
home, and the wind had sank, the night was very still.
And Kabok lay and listened, to whom the wings of the night flew
very slow.
But, ere night met the morning upon the highway between Pegana and
the Worlds, there came the tread of Mung in the garden of Kabok
towards Kabok's door.