Time and the Gods Part 3

Then went the priests of Agrodaun away from the sh.o.r.e and up the steep streets of the city, the people following, and over the moor beyond it to the foot of Agrodaun, and then said:

"Agrodaun, if thou art not our G.o.d, go back and herd with yonder common hills, and put a cap of snow upon thy head and crouch far off as they do beneath the sky; but if we have given thee divinity in two thousand years, if our hopes are all about thee like a cloak, then stand and look upon thy worshippers from over our city for ever." And the smoke that ascended from his feet stood still and there fell a hush over great Agrodaun; and the priests went back to the sea and said to the three Yozis:

"New G.o.ds shall have our worship when Agrodaun grows weary of being our G.o.d, or when in some night-time he shall stride away, leaving us nought to gaze at that is higher than our city."

And the Yozis sailed away and cursed towards Agrodaun, but could not hurt him, for he was but a mountain.

And the Yozis sailed along the coast till they came to a river running to the sea, and they sailed up the river till they came to a people at work, who furrowed the soil and sowed, and strove against the forest.

Then the Yozis called to the people as they worked in the fields:

"Give us your worship and ye shall have many joys."

But the people answered:

"We may not worship you."

Then answered Snyrg:

"Ye also, have ye a G.o.d?"

And the people answered:

"We worship the years to come, and we set the world in order for their coming, as one layeth raiment on the road before the advent of a King.

And when those years shall come, they shall accept the worship of a race they knew not, and their people shall make their sacrifice to the years that follow them, who, in their turn, shall minister to the _End_."

Then answered Snyrg:

"G.o.ds that shall recompense you not. Rather give us your prayers and have our pleasures, the pleasures that we shall give you, and when your G.o.ds shall come, let them be wroth--they cannot punish you."

But the people continued to sacrifice their labour to their G.o.ds, the years to come, making the world a place for G.o.ds to dwell in, and the Yozis cursed those G.o.ds and sailed away. And Ya, the Lord of malice, swore that when those years should come, they should see whether it were well for them to have s.n.a.t.c.hed away the worship from three Yozis.

And still the Yozis sailed, for they said:

"It were better to be birds and have no air to fly in, than to be G.o.ds having neither prayers nor worship."

But where sky met with ocean, the Yozis saw land again, and thither sailed; and there the Yozis saw men in strange old garments performing ancient rites in a land of many temples. And the Yozis called to the men as they performed their ancient rites and said:

"We be three G.o.ds well versed in the needs of men, to worship whom were to obtain instant joy."

But the men said:

"We have already G.o.ds."

And Snyrg replied:

"Ye, too?"

The men answered:

"For we worship the things that have been and all the years that were.

Divinely have they helped us, therefore we give them worship that is their due."

And the Yozis answered the people:

"We be G.o.ds of the present and return good things for worship."

But the people answered, saying from the sh.o.r.e:

"Our G.o.ds have given us already the good things, and we return Them the worship that is Their due."

And the Yozis set their faces to landward, and cursed all things that had been and all the years that were, and sailed in their galleons away.

A rocky sh.o.r.e in an inhuman land stood up against the sea. Thither the Yozis came and found no man, but out of the dark from inland towards evening came a herd of great baboons and chattered greatly when they saw the ships.

Then spake Snyrg to them:

"Have ye, too, a G.o.d?"

And the baboons spat.

Then said the Yozis:

"We be seductive G.o.ds, having a particular remembrance for little prayers."

But the baboons leered fiercely at the Yozis and would have none of them for G.o.ds.

One said that prayers hindered the eating of nuts. But Snyrg leaned forward and whispered, and the baboons went down upon their knees and clasped their hands as men clasp, and chattered prayer and said to one another that these were the G.o.ds of old, and gave the Yozis their worship--for Snyrg had whispered in their ears that, if they would worship the Yozis, he would make them men. And the baboons arose from worshipping, smoother about the face and a little shorter in the arms, and went away and hid their bodies in clothing, and afterwards galloped away from the rocky sh.o.r.e and went and herded with men. And men could not discern what they were, for their bodies were bodies of men, though their souls were still the souls of beasts and their worship went to the Yozis, spirits of ill.

And the lords of malice, hatred and madness sailed back to their island in the sea and sat upon the sh.o.r.e as G.o.ds sit, with right hand uplifted; and at evening foul prayers from the baboons gathered about them and infested the rocks.

But in Pegana the G.o.ds awoke with a start.

THE KING THAT WAS NOT

The land of Runazar hath no King nor ever had one; and this is the law of the land of Runazar that, seeing that it hath never had a King, it shall not have one for ever. Therefore in Runazar the priests hold sway, who tell people that never in Runazar hath there been a King.

Althazar, King of Runazar, and lord of all lands near by, commanded for the closer knowledge of the G.o.ds that Their images should be carven in Runazar, and in all lands near by. And when Althazar's command, wafted abroad by trumpets, came tinkling in the ear of all the G.o.ds, right glad were They at the sound of it. Therefore men quarried marble from the earth, and sculptors busied themselves in Runazar to obey the edict of the King. But the G.o.ds stood by starlight on the hills where the sculptors might see Them, and draped the clouds about Them, and put upon Them Their divinest air, that sculptors might do justice to Pegana's G.o.ds. Then the G.o.ds strode back into Pegana and the sculptors hammered and wrought, and there came a day when the Master of Sculptors took audience of the King, saying:

"Althazar, King of Runazar, High Lord moreover of all the lands near by, to whom be the G.o.ds benignant, humbly have we completed the images of all such G.o.ds as were in thine edict named."

Then the King commanded a great s.p.a.ce to be cleared among the houses in his city, and there the images of all the G.o.ds were borne and set before the King, and there were a.s.sembled the Master of Sculptors and all his men; and before each stood a soldier bearing a pile of gold upon a jewelled tray, and behind each stood a soldier with a drawn sword pointing against their necks, and the King looked upon the images. And lo! they stood as G.o.ds with the clouds all draped about them, making the sign of the G.o.ds, but their bodies were those of men, and lo! their faces were very like the King's, and their beards were as the King's beard. And the King said:

"These be indeed Pegana's G.o.ds."

And the soldiers that stood before the sculptors were caused to present to them the piles of gold, and the soldiers that stood behind the sculptors were caused to sheath their swords. And the people shouted: