The Gods of Pegana
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Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett] >> The Gods of Pegana
And Kabok fled out of his house as flees a hunted beast and flung
himself before Mung.
And Mung made the sign of Mung, pointing towards THE END.
And the fears of Kabok had rest from troubling Kabok any more, for
they and he were among accomplished things.
OF THE CALAMITY THAT BEFEL YUN-ILARA BY THE SEA, AND OF THE
BUILDING OF THE TOWER OF THE ENDING OF DAYS
When Kabok and his fears had rest the people sought a prophet who
should have no fear of Mung, whose hand was against the prophets.
And at last they found Yun-Ilara, who tended sheep and had no fear
of Mung, and the people brought him to the town that he might be
their prophet.
And Yun-Ilara builded a tower towards the sea that looked upon the
setting of the Sun. And he called it the Tower of the Ending of
Days.
And about the ending of the day would Yun-Ilara go up to his
tower's top and look towards the setting of the Sun to cry his
curses against Mung, crying: "O Mung! whose hand is against the
Sun, whom men abhor but worship because they fear thee, here stands
and speaks a man who fears thee not. Assassin lord of murder and
dark things, abhorrent, merciless, make thou the sign of Mung
against me when thou wilt, but until silence settles upon my lips,
because of the sign of Mung, I will curse Mung to his face." And
the people in the street below would gaze up with wonder towards
Yun-Ilara, who had no fear of Mung, and brought him gifts; only in
their homes after the falling of the night would they pray again
with reverence to Mung. But Mung said: "Shall a man curse a god?"
And still Mung came not nigh to Yun-Ilara as he cried his curses
against Mung from his tower towards the sea.
And Sish throughout the Worlds hurled Time away, and slew the
Hours that had served him well, and called up more out of the
timeless waste that lieth beyond the Worlds, and drave them forth
to assail all things. And Sish cast a whiteness over the hairs of
Yun-Ilara, and ivy about his tower, and weariness over his limbs,
for Mung passed by him still.
And when Sish became a god less durable to Yun-Ilara than ever
Mung hath been he ceased at last to cry from his tower's top his
curses against Mung whenever the sun went down, till there came
the day when weariness of the gift of Kib fell heavily upon
Yun-Ilara.
Then from the tower of the Ending of Days did Yun-Ilara cry out
thus to Mung, crying: "O Mung! O loveliest of the gods! O Mung,
most dearly to be desired! thy gift of Death is the heritage of
Man, with ease and rest and silence and returning to the Earth.
Kib giveth but toil and trouble; and Sish, he sendeth regrets with
each of his hours wherewith he assails the World. Yoharneth-Lahai
cometh nigh no more. I can no longer be glad with Limpang-Tung.
When the other gods forsake him a man hath only Mung."
But Mung said: "Shall a man curse a god?"
And every day and all night long did Yun-Ilara cry aloud: "Ah, now
for the hour of the mourning of many, and the pleasant garlands of
flowers and the tears, and the moist, dark earth. Ah, for repose
down underneath the grass, where the firm feet of the trees grip
hold upon the world, where never shall come the wind that now blows
through my bones, and the rain shall come warm and trickling, not
driven by storm, where is the easeful falling asunder of bone from
bone in the dark." Thus prayed Yun-Ilara, who had cursed in his
folly and youth, while never heeded Mung.
Still from a heap of bones that are Yun-Ilara still, lying about
the ruined base of the tower that once he builded, goes up a
shrill voice with the wind crying out for the mercy of Mung, if
any such there be.
OF HOW THE GODS WHELMED SIDITH
There was dole in the valley of Sidith. For three years there had
been pestilence, and in the last of the three a famine; moreover,
there was imminence of war.
Throughout all Sidith men died night and day, and night and day
within the Temple of All the gods save One (for none may pray to
MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI) did the priests of the gods pray hard.
For they said: "For a long while a man may hear the droning of
little insects and yet not be aware that he hath heard them, so
may the gods not hear our prayers at first until they have been
very oft repeated. But when your praying has troubled the silence
long it may be that some god as he strolls in Pegana's glades may
come on one of our lost prayers, that flutters like a butterfly
tossed in storm when all its wings are broken; then if the gods be
merciful they may ease our fears in Sidith, or else they may crush
us, being petulant gods, and so we shall see trouble in Sidith no
longer, with its pestilence and dearth and fears of war."
But in the fourth year of the pestilence and in the second year
of the famine, and while still there was imminence of war, came
all the people of Sidith to the door of the Temple of All the gods
save One, where none may enter but the priests--but only leave
gifts and go.
And there the people cried out: "O High Prophet of All the gods
save One, Priest of Kib, Priest of Sish, and Priest of Mung,
Teller of the mysteries of Dorozhand, Receiver of the gifts of the
People, and Lord of Prayer, what doest thou within the Temple of
All the gods save One?"
And Arb-Rin-Hadith, who was the High Prophet, answered: "I pray for
all the People."
But the people answered: "O High Prophet of All the gods save One,
Priest of Kib, Priest of Sish, and Priest of Mung, Teller of the
mysteries of Dorozhand, Receiver of the gifts of the People, and
Lord of Prayer, for four long years hast thou prayed with the
priests of all thine order, while we brought ye gifts and died.
Now, therefore, since They have not heard thee in four grim years,
thou must go and carry to Their faces the prayer of the people of
Sidith when They go to drive the thunder to his pasture upon the
mountain Aghrinaun, or else there shall no longer be gifts upon
thy temple door, whenever falls the dew, that thou and thine order
may fatten.
"Then thou shalt say before Their faces: 'O All the gods save One,
Lords of the Worlds, whose child is the eclipse, take back thy
pestilence from Sidith, for ye have played the game of the gods
too long with the people of Sidith, who would fain have done with
the gods'."
Then in great fear answered the High Prophet, saying: "What if the
gods be angry and whelm Sidith?" And the people answered: "Then are
we sooner done with pestilence and famine and the imminence of war."
That night the thunder howled upon Aghrinaun, which stood a peak above
all others in the land of Sidith. And the people took Arb-Rin-Hadith
from his Temple and drave him to Aghrinaun, for they said: "There walk
to-night upon the mountain All the gods save One."
And Arb-Rin-Hadith went trembling to the gods.
Next morning, white and frightened from Aghrinaun, came Arb-Rin-Hadith
back into the valley, and there spake to the people, saying: "The
faces of the gods are iron and their mouths set hard. There is no
hope from the gods."
Then said the people: "Thou shalt go to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, to whom
no man may pray: seek him upon Aghrinaun where it lifts clear into
the stillness before morning, and on its summit, where all things
seem to rest surely there rests also MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI. Go to him,
and say: 'Thou hast made evil gods, and They smite Sidith.'
Perchance he hath forgotten all his gods, or hath not heard of
Sidith. Thou hast escaped the thunder of the gods, surely thou
shalt also escape the stillness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI."
Upon a morning when the sky and lakes were clear and the world
still, and Aghrinaun was stiller than the world, Arb-Rin-Hadith
crept in fear towards the slopes of Aghrinaun because the people
were urgent.
All that day men saw him climbing. At night he rested near the
top. But ere the morning of the day that followed, such as rose
early saw him in the silence, a speck against the blue, stretch up
his arms upon the summit to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI. Then instantly they
saw him not, nor was he ever seen of men again who had dared to
trouble the stillness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
Such as now speak of Sidith tell of a fierce and potent tribe
that smote away a people in a valley enfeebled by pestilence,
where stood a temple to "All the gods save One" in which was no
high priest.
OF HOW IMBAUN BECAME HIGH PROPHET IN ARADEC OF ALL
THE GODS SAVE ONE
Imbaun was to be made High Prophet in Aradec, of All the Gods save
One.
From Ardra, Rhoodra, and the lands beyond came all High Prophets
of the Earth to the Temple in Aradec of All the gods save One.
And then they told Imbaun how The Secret of Things was upon the
summit of the dome of the Hall of Night, but faintly writ, and in
an unknown tongue.
Midway in the night, between the setting and the rising sun, they
led Imbaun into the Hall of Night, and said to him, chaunting
altogether: "Imbaun, Imbaun, Imbaun, look up to the roof, where is
writ The Secret of Things, but faintly, and in an unknown tongue."
And Imbaun looked up, but darkness was so deep within the Hall of
Night that Imbaun was not even the High Prophets who came from
Ardra, Rhoodra, and the lands beyond, nor saw he aught in the Hall
of Night at all.
Then called the High Prophets: "What seest thou, Imbaun?"
And Imbaun said: "I see naught."
Then called the High Prophets: "What knowest thou Imbaun?"
And Imbaun said: "I know naught."
Then spake the High Prophet of Eld of All the gods save One, who
is first on Earth of prophets: "O Imbaun! we have all looked
upwards in the Hall of Night towards the secret of Things, and
ever it was dark, and the Secret faint and in an unknown tongue.
And now thou knowest what all High Prophets know."
And Imbaun answered: "I know."
So Imbaun became High Prophet in Aradec of All the gods save One,
and prayed for all the people, who knew not that there was
darkness in the Hall of Night or that the secret was writ faint
and in an unknown tongue.
These are the words of Imbaun that he wrote in a book that all the
people might know:
"In the twentieth night of the nine hundredth moon, as night came
up the valley, I performed the mystic rites of each of the gods in
the temple as is my wont, lest any of the gods should grow angry
in the night and whelm us while we slept.
"And as I uttered the last of certain secret words I fell asleep
in the temple, for I was weary, with my head against the altar of
Dorozhand. Then in the stillness, as I slept, there entered
Dorozhand by the temple door in the guise of a man, and touched me
on the shoulder, and I awoke.
"But when I saw that his eyes shone blue and lit the whole of the
temple I knew that he was a god though he came in mortal guise.
And Dorozhand said: 'Prophet of Dorozhand, behold that the people
may know.' And he showed me the paths of Sish stretching far down
into the future time. Then he bade me arise and follow whither he
pointed, speaking no words but commanding with his eyes.
"Therefore upon the twentieth night of the nine hundredth moon I
walked with Dorozhand adown the paths of Sish into the future
time.
"And ever beside the way did men slay men. And the sum of their
slaying was greater than the slaying of the pestilence of any of
the evils of the gods.
"And cities arose and shed their houses in dust, and ever the
desert returned again to its own, and covered over and hid the
last of all that had troubled its repose.
"And still men slew men.
"And I came at last to a time when men set their yoke no longer
upon beasts but made them beasts of iron.
"And after that did men slay men with mists.
"Then, because the slaying exceeded their desire, there came peace
upon the world that was brought by the hand of the slayer, and men
slew men no more.
"And cities multiplied, and overthrew the desert and conquered its
repose.
"And suddenly I beheld that THE END was near, for there was a
stirring above Pegana as of One who grows weary of resting, and I
saw the hound Time crouch to spring, with his eyes upon the
throats of the gods, shifting from throat to throat, and the
drumming of Skarl grew faint.
"And if a god may fear, it seemed that there was fear upon the
face of Dorozhand, and he seized me by the hand and led me back
along the paths of Time that I might not see THE END.
"Then I saw cities rise out of the dust again and fall back into
the desert whence they had arisen; and again I slept in the Temple
of All the gods save One, with my head against the altar of
Dorozhand.
"Then again the Temple was alight, but not with light from the
eyes of Dorozhand; only dawn came all blue out of the East and
shone through the arches of the Temple. Then I awoke and performed
the morning rites and mysteries of All the gods save One, lest any
of the gods be angry in the day and take away the Sun.
"And I knew that because I who had been so near to it had not
beheld THE END that a man should never behold it or know the doom
of the gods. This They have hidden."
OF HOW IMBAUN MET ZODRAK
The prophet of the gods lay resting by the river to watch the
stream run by.
And as he lay he pondered on the Scheme of Things and the works of
all the gods. And it seemed to the prophet of the gods as he
watched the stream run by that the Scheme was a right scheme and
the gods benignant gods; yet there was sorrow in the Worlds. It
seemed that Kib was bountiful, that Mung calmed all who suffer,
that Sish dealt not too harshly with the hours, and that all the
gods were good; yet there was sorrow in the Worlds.
Then said the prophet of the gods as he watched the stream run by:
"There is some other god of whom naught is writ." And suddenly the
prophet was aware of an old man who bemoaned beside the river,
crying: "Alas! alas!"
His face was marked by the sign and the seal of exceeding many
years, and there was yet vigour in his frame. These be the words
of the prophet that he wrote in his book: "I said: 'Who art thou
that bemoans beside the river?' And he answered: 'I am the fool.'
I said: 'Upon thy brow are the marks of wisdom such as is stored
in books.' He said: 'I am Zodrak. Thousands of years ago I tended
sheep upon a hill that sloped towards the sea. The gods have many
moods. Thousands of years ago They were in a mirthful mood. They
said: 'Let Us call up a man before Us that We may laugh in
Pegana.'"
"'And Their eyes that looked on me saw not me alone but also saw
THE BEGINNING and THE END and all the Worlds besides. Then said
the gods, speaking as speak the gods: "Go, back to thy sheep."
"'But I, who am the fool, had heard it said on earth that whoso
seeth the gods upon Pegana becometh as the gods, if so he demand
to Their faces, who may not slay him who hath looked them in the
eyes.
"'And I, the fool, said: "I have looked in the eyes of the gods,
and I demand what a man may demand of the gods when he hath seen
Them in Pegana." And the gods inclined Their heads and Hoodrazai
said: "It is the law of the gods."
"'And I, who was only a shepherd, how could I know?
"'I said: "I will make men rich." And the gods said: "What is
rich?"
"'And I said: "I will send them love." And the gods said: "What is
love?" And I sent gold into the Worlds, and, alas! I sent with it
poverty and strife. And I sent love into the Worlds, and with it
grief.
"'And now I have mixed gold and love most woefully together, and I
can never remedy what I have done, for the deeds of the gods are
done, and nothing may undo them.
"'Then I said: "I will give men wisdom that they may be glad." And
those who got my wisdom found that they knew nothing, and from
having been happy became glad no more.
"'And I, who would make men happy, have made them sad, and I have
spoiled the beautiful scheme of the gods.
"'And now my hand is for ever on the handle of Their plough. I was
only a shepherd, and how should I have known?
"'Now I come to thee as thou restest by the river to ask of thee
thy forgiveness, for I would fain have the forgiveness of a man.'
"And I answered: 'O Lord of seven skies, whose children are the
storms, shall a man forgive a god?'
"He answered: 'Men have sinned not against the gods as the gods
have sinned against men since I came into Their councils.'
"And I, the prophet, answered: 'O Lord of seven skies, whose
plaything is the thunder, thou art amongst the gods, what need
hast thou for words from any man?'
"He said: 'Indeed I am amongst the gods, who speak to me as they
speak to other gods, yet is there always a smile about Their
mouths, and a look in Their eyes that saith: "Thou wert a man."'
"I said: 'O Lord of seven skies, about whose feet the Worlds are
as drifted sand, because thou biddest me, I, a man, forgive thee.'
"And he answered: 'I was but a shepherd, and I could not know.'
Then he was gone."
PEGANA
The prophet of the gods cried out to the gods: "O! All the gods
save One" for none may pray to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, "where shall the
life of a man abide when Mung hath made against his body the sign
of Mung?--for the people with whom ye play have sought to know."
But the gods answered, speaking through the mist:
"Though thou shouldst tell thy secrets to the beasts, even that
the beasts should understand, yet will not the gods divulge the
secret of the gods to thee, that gods and beasts and men shall be
all the same, all knowing the same things."
That night Yoharneth-Lahai same to Aradec, and said unto Imbaun:
"Wherefore wouldst thou know the secret of the gods that not the
gods may tell thee?
"When the wind blows not, where, then, is the wind?
"Or when thou art not living, where art thou?
"What should the wind care for the hours of calm or thou for
death?
"Thy life is long, Eternity is short.
"So short that, shouldst thou die and Eternity should pass, and
after the passing of Eternity thou shouldst live again, thou
wouldst say: 'I closed mine eyes but for an instant.'
"There is an eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou
bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much
afraid of the aeons that shall pass?"
Then said the prophet: "How shall I tell the people that the gods
have not spoken and their prophet doth not know? For then should I
be prophet no longer, and another would take the people's gifts
instead of me."
Then said Imbaun to the people: "The gods have spoken, saying: 'O
Imbaun, Our prophet, it is as the people believe whose wisdom hath
discovered the secret of the gods, and the people when they die
shall come to Pegana, and there live with the gods, and there have
pleasure without toil. And Pegana is a place all white with the
peaks of mountains, on each of them a god, and the people shall
lie upon the slopes of the mountains each under the god that he
hath worshipped most when his lot was in the Worlds. And there
shall music beyond thy dreaming come drifting through the scent
of all the orchards in the Worlds, with somewhere someone singing
an old song that shall be as a half-remembered thing. And there
shall be gardens that have always sunlight, and streams that are
lost in no sea beneath skies for ever blue. And there shall be no
rain nor no regrets. Only the roses that in highest Pegana have
achieved their prime shall shed their petals in showers at thy
feet, and only far away on the forgotten earth shall voices drift
up to thee that cheered thee in thy childhood about the gardens of
thy youth. And if thou sighest for any memory of earth because thou
hearest unforgotten voices, then will the gods send messengers on
wings to soothe thee in Pegana, saying to them: "There one sigheth
who hath remembered Earth." And they shall make Pegana more seductive
for thee still, and they shall take thee by the hand and whisper in
thine ear till the old voices are forgot.
"'And besides the flowers of Pegana there shall have climbed by
then until it hath reached to Pegana the rose that clambered about
the house where thou wast born. Thither shall also come the
wandering echoes of all such music as charmed thee long ago.
"'Moreover, as thou sittest on the orchard lawns that clothe
Pegana's mountains, and as thou hearkenest to melody that sways
the souls of the gods, there shall stretch away far down beneath
thee the great unhappy Earth, till gazing from rapture upon sorrows
thou shalt be glad that thou wert dead.
"'And from the three great mountains that stand aloof and over all
the others--Grimbol, Zeebol, and Trehagobol--shall blow the wind
of the morning and the wind of all the day, borne upon the wings
of all the butterflies that have died upon the Worlds, to cool the
gods and Pegana.
"'Far through Pegana a silvery fountain, lured upward by the gods
from the Central Sea, shall fling its waters aloft, and over the
highest of Pegana's peaks, above Trehagobol, shall burst into
gleaming mists, to cover Highest Pegana, and make a curtain about
the resting-place of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
"'Alone, still and remote below the base of one of the inner
mountains, lieth a great blue pool.
"'Whoever looketh down into its waters may behold all his life
that was upon the Worlds and all the deeds that he hath done.
"'None walk by the pool and none regard its depths, for all in
Pegana have suffered and all have sinned some sin, and it lieth in
the pool.
"'And there is no darkness in Pegana, for when night hath conquered
the sun and stilled the Worlds and turned the white peaks of Pegana
into grey then shine the blue eyes of the gods like sunlight on the
sea, where each god sits upon his mountain.
"'And at the Last, upon some afternoon, perhaps in summer, shall the
gods say, speaking to the gods: "What is the likeness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
and what THE END?"
"'And then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI draw back with his hand the mists
that cover his resting, saying: "This is the Face of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
and this THE END."'"
Then said the people to the prophet: "Shall not black hills draw
round in some forsaken land, to make a vale-wide cauldron wherein
the molten rock shall seethe and roar, and where the crags of
mountains shall be hurled upward to the surface and bubble and go
down again, that there our enemies may boil for ever?"
And the prophet answered: "It is writ large about the bases of
Pegana's mountains, upon which sit the gods: 'Thine Enemies Are
Forgiven."'
THE SAYINGS OF IMBAUN
The Prophet of the gods said: "Yonder beside the road there
sitteth a false prophet; and to all who seek to know the hidden
days he saith: 'Upon the morrow the King shall speak to thee as
his chariot goeth by.'"
Moreover, all the people bring him gifts, and the false prophet
hath more to listen to his words than hath the Prophet of the
gods.
Then said Imbaun: "What knoweth the Prophet of the gods? I know
only that I and men know naught concerning the gods or aught
concerning men. Shall I, who am their prophet, tell the people
this?
"For wherefore have the people chosen prophets but that they
should speak the hopes of the people, and tell the people that
their hopes be true?"
The false prophet saith: "Upon the morrow the king shall speak to
thee."
Shall not I say: "Upon The Morrow the gods shall speak with thee
as thou restest upon Pegana?"
So shall the people be happy, and know that their hopes be true
who 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 come
to say: "Thy hopes are true," for whom none may make strange signs
before his eyes to quench his fear of death, for whom alone the
chaunt of his priests availeth naught?
The Prophet of the gods hath sold his happiness for wisdom, and
hath given his hopes for the people.
Said also Imbaun: "When thou art angry at night observe how calm
be the stars; and shall small ones rail when there is such a calm
among the great ones? Or when thou art angry by day regard the
distant hills, and see the calm that doth adorn their faces. Shalt
thou be angry while they stand so serene?
"Be not angry with men, for they are driven as thou art by
Dorozhand. Do bullocks goad one another on whom the same yoke
rests?
"And be not angry with Dorozhand, for then thou beatest thy bare
fingers 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 the
things that he seeth, and drop by drop he turneth the common dew
to every kind of gem. And he maketh a splendour in the hills.
"And also man is born. And there rests a glory about the gardens
of his youth. Both travel afar to do what Dorozhand would have
them do.
"Soon now the sun will set, and very softly come twinkling in the
stillness all the stars.
"Also man dieth. And quietly about his grave will all the mourners
weep.
"Will not his life arise again somewhere in all the worlds? Shall
he not again behold the gardens of his youth? Or does he set to
end?"
OF HOW IMBAUN SPAKE OF DEATH TO THE KING
There trod such pestilence in Aradec that, the King as he looked
abroad out of his palace saw men die. And when the King saw Death
he feared that one day even the King should die. Therefore he
commanded guards to bring before him the wisest prophet that
should be found in Aradec.