The Gods of Pegana
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Lord Dunsany [Edward J. M. D. Plunkett] >> The Gods of Pegana
Then heralds came to the temple of All the gods save One, and
cried aloud, having first commanded silence, crying: "Rhazahan,
King over Aradec, Prince by right of Ildun and Ildaun, and Prince
by conquest of Pathia, Ezek, and Azhan, Lord of the Hills, to the
High 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 save
One, shall I indeed die?"
And the prophet answered: "O King! thy people may not rejoice for
ever, and some day the King will die."
And the King answered: "This may be so, but certainly thou shalt
die. It may be that one day I shall die, but till then the lives
of the people are in my hands."
Then guards led the prophet away.
And there arose prophets in Aradec who spake not of death to
Kings.
OF OOD
Men say that if thou comest to Sundari, beyond all the plains, and
shalt climb to his summit before thou art seized by the avalanche
which sitteth always on his slopes, that then there lie before thee
many peaks. And if thou shalt climb these and cross their valleys
(of which there be seven and also seven peaks) thou shalt come at
last to the land of forgotten hills, where amid many valleys and
white snow there standeth the "Great Temple of One god Only."
Therein is a dreaming prophet who doeth naught, and a drowsy
priesthood about him.
These be the priests of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
Within the temple it is forbidden to work, also it is forbidden to
pray. Night differeth not from day within its doors. They rest as
MANA 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 to
pray chaunting all together and calling upon MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
that MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI would then awake, for surely he would hear
the prayers of his own prophet--then would there be Worlds no more.
There is also another way to the land of forgotten hills, which is
a smooth road and a straight, that lies through the heart of the
mountains. But for certain hidden reasons it were better for thee
to go by the peaks and snow, even though thou shouldst perish by
the way, that thou shouldst seek to come to the house of Ood by
the smooth, straight road.
THE RIVER
There arises a river in Pegana that is neither a river of water
nor yet a river of fire, and it flows through the skies and the
Worlds to the Rim of the Worlds, a river of silence. Through all
the Worlds are sounds, the noises of moving, and the echoes of
voices and song; but upon the River is no sound ever heard, for
there all echoes die.
The River arises out of the drumming of Skarl, and flows for ever
between banks of thunder, until it comes to the waste beyond the
Worlds, behind the farthest star, down to the Sea of Silence.
I lay in the desert beyond all cities and sounds, and above me
flowed the River of Silence through the sky; and on the desert's
edge 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' fancies
made her tall, straight masts, and her rigging was wrought out of
the people's hopes.
Upon her deck were rowers with dream-made oars, and the rowers
were the people of men's fancies, and princes of old story and
people who had died, and people who had never been.
These swung forward and swung back to row Yoharneth-Lahai through
the Worlds with never a sound of rowing. For ever on every wind
float up to Pegana the hopes and the fancies of the people which
have no home in the Worlds, and there Yoharneth-Lahai weaves them
into dreams, to take them to the people again.
And every night in his dream-built ship Yoharneth-Lahai setteth
forth, with all his dreams on board, to take again their old hopes
back to the people and all forgotten fancies.
But ere the day comes back to her own again, and all the
conquering armies of the dawn hurl their red lances in the face of
the night, Yoharneth-Lahai leaves the sleeping Worlds, and rows
back up the River of Silence, that flows from Pegana into the Sea
of Silence that lies beyond the Worlds.
And the name of the River is Imrana the River of Silence. All they
that be weary of the sound of cities and very tired of clamour
creep down in the night-time to Yoharneth-Lahai's ship, and going
aboard it, among the dreams and the fancies of old times, lie down
upon 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 the
dawn, where the sound of the cities comes not, nor the voice of
the thunder is heard, nor the midnight howl of Pain as he gnaws
at the bodies of men, and far away and forgotten bleat the small
sorrows that trouble all the Worlds.
But where the River flows through Pegana's gates, between the
great twin constellations Yum and Gothum, where Yum stands
sentinel upon the left and Gothum upon the right, there sits
Sirami, the lord of All Forgetting. And, when the ship draws near,
Sirami looketh with his sapphire eyes into the faces and beyond
them of those that were weary of cities, and as he gazes, as one
that looketh before him remembering naught, he gently waves his
hands. And amid the waving of Sirami's hands there fall from all
that behold him all their memories, save certain things that may
not be forgotten even beyond the Worlds.
It hath been said that when Skarl ceases to drum, and MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
awakes, and the gods of Pegana know that it is THE END, that then the
gods will enter galleons of gold, and with dream-born rowers glide down
Imrana (who knows whither or why?) till they come where the River enters
the 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 shall
bay their old hound Time, that shall seek to rend his masters; while
MANA-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 doom
of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound
of the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is lean
with age.
And from the innermost of Pegana's vales shall the bird of doom,
Mosahn, whose voice is like the trumpet, soar upward with
boisterous beatings of his wings above Pegana's mountains and the
gods, and there with his trumpet voice acclaim THE END.
Then in the tumult and amid the fury of their hound the gods shall
make for the last time in Pegana the sign of all the gods, and go
with dignity and quiet down to Their galleons of gold, and sail
away down the River of Silence, not ever to return.
Then shall the River overflow its banks, and a tide come setting
in from the Silent Sea, till all the Worlds and the Skies are
drowned in silence; while MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI in the Middle of All
sits deep in thought. And the hound Time, when all the Worlds and
cities are swept away whereon he used to raven, having no more to
devour, shall suddenly die.
But there are some that hold--and this is the heresy of the
Saigoths--that when the gods go down at the last into their
galleons of gold Mung shall turn alone, and, setting his back
against Trehagobol and wielding the Sword of Severing which is
called 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 gods
are gone.
And the Saigoths say that for two days and nights the hound shall
leer and snarl before the face of Mung-days and nights that shall
be lit by neither sun nor moons, for these shall go dipping down
the sky with all the Worlds as the galleons glide away, because
the 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 down
Death crashing through the shoulders of the hound, and in the
blood of Time that Sword shall rust away.
Then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI be all alone, with neither Death nor
Time, and never the hours singing in his ears, nor the swish of
the passing lives.
But far away from Pegana shall go the galleons of gold that bear
the gods away, upon whose faces shall be utter calm, because They
are the gods knowing that it is THE END.