Then because the draught was cold the physician shivered and went and closed the door, but as he turned again he saw the Pestilence lapping at his mixing, who sprang and set one paw upon Adro's shoulder and another upon his cloak, while with two he clung to his waist, and looked him in the eyes.

Two men were walking in the street; one said to the other: "Upon the morrow I will sup with thee."

And the Pestilence grinned a grin that none beheld, baring his dripping teeth, and crept away to see whether upon the morrow those men should sup together.

A traveller coming in said: "This is Harza. Here will I rest."

But his life went further than Harza upon that day's journey.

All feared the Pestilence, and those that he smote beheld him, but none saw the great shapes of the G.o.ds by starlight as They urged Their Pestilence on.

Then all men fled from Harza, and the Pestilence chased dogs and rats and sprang upward at the bats as they sailed above him, who died and lay in the streets. But soon he returned and pursued the men of Harza where they fled, and sat by rivers where they came to drink, away below the city. Then back to Harza went the people of Harza pursued by the Pestilence still, and gathered in the Temple of All the G.o.ds save One, and said to the High Prophet: "What may now be done?" who answered:

"All the G.o.ds have mocked at prayer. This sin must now be punished by the vengeance of men."

And the people stood in awe.

The High Prophet went up to the Tower beneath the sky whereupon beat the eyes of all the G.o.ds by starlight. There in the sight of the G.o.ds he spake in the ear of the G.o.ds, saying: "High G.o.ds! Ye have made mock of men. Know therefore that it is writ in ancient lore and found by prophecy that there is an _End_ that waiteth for the G.o.ds, who shall go down from Pegana in galleons of gold all down the Silent River and into the Silent Sea, and there Their galleons shall go up in mist and They shall be G.o.ds no more. And men shall gain harbour from the mocking of the G.o.ds at last in the warm moist earth, but to the G.o.ds shall no ceasing ever come from being the Things that were the G.o.ds. When Time and worlds and death are gone away nought shall then remain but worn regrets and Things that were once G.o.ds.

"In the sight of the G.o.ds.

"In the ear of the G.o.ds."

Then the G.o.ds shouted all together and pointed with Their hands at the High Prophet's throat, and the Pestilence sprang.

Long since the High Prophet is dead and his words are forgotten by men, but the G.o.ds know not yet whether it be true that _The End_ is waiting for the G.o.ds, and him who might have told Them They have slain. And the G.o.ds of Pegana are fearing the fear that hath fallen upon the G.o.ds because of the vengeance of men, for They know not when _The End_ shall be, or whether it shall come.

WHEN THE G.o.dS SLEPT

All the G.o.ds were sitting in Pegana, and Their slave, Time, lay idle at Pegana's gate with nothing to destroy, when They thought of worlds, worlds large and round and gleaming, and little silver moons. Then (who knoweth when?), as the G.o.ds raised Their hands making the sign of the G.o.ds, the thoughts of the G.o.ds became worlds and silver moons. And the worlds swam by Pegana's gate to take their places in the sky, to ride at anchor for ever, each where the G.o.ds had bidden. And because they were round and big and gleamed all over the sky, the G.o.ds laughed and shouted and all clapped Their hands. Then upon earth the G.o.ds played out the game of the G.o.ds, the game of life and death, and on the other worlds They did a secret thing, playing a game that is hidden.

At last They mocked no more at life and laughed at death no more, and cried aloud in Pegana: "Will no new thing be? Must those four march for ever round the world till our eyes are wearied with the treading of the feet of the Seasons that will not cease, while Night and Day and Life and Death drearily rise and fall?"

And as a child stares at the bare walls of a narrow hut, so the G.o.ds looked all listlessly upon the worlds, saying:

"Will no new thing be?"

And in Their weariness the G.o.ds said: "Ah! to be young again. Ah! to be fresh once more from the brain of _Mana-Yood-Sushai_."

And They turned away Their eyes in weariness from all the gleaming worlds and laid Them down upon Pegana's floor, for They said:

"It may be that the worlds shall pa.s.s and we would fain forget them."

Then the G.o.ds slept. Then did the comet break loose from his moorings and the eclipse roamed about the sky, and down on the earth did Death's three children--Famine, Pestilence, and Drought--come out to feed. The eyes of the Famine were green, and the eyes of the Drought were red, but the Pestilence was blind and smote about all round him with his claws among the cities.

But as the G.o.ds slept, there came from beyond the Rim, out of the dark and unknown, three Yozis, spirits of ill, that sailed up the river of Silence in galleons with silver sails. Far away they had seen Yum and Gothum, the stars that stand sentinel over Pegana's gate, blinking and falling asleep, and as they neared Pegana they found a hush wherein the G.o.ds slept heavily. Ya, Ha, and Snyrg were these three Yozis, the lords of evil, madness, and of spite. When they crept from their galleons and stole over Pegana's silent threshold it boded ill for the G.o.ds. There in Pegana lay the G.o.ds asleep, and in a corner lay the Power of the G.o.ds alone upon the floor, a thing wrought of black rock and four words graven upon it, whereof I might not give thee any clue, if even I should find it--four words of which none knoweth. Some say they tell of the opening of a flower towards dawn, and others say they concern earthquakes among hills, and others that they tell of the death of fishes, and others that the words be these: Power, Knowledge, Forgetting, and another word that not the G.o.ds themselves may ever guess. These words the Yozis read, and sped away in dread lest the G.o.ds should wake, and going aboard their galleons, bade the rowers haste.

Thus the Yozis became G.o.ds, having the power of G.o.ds, and they sailed away to the earth, and came to a mountainous island in the sea. There they sat upon the rocks, sitting as the G.o.ds sit, with their right hands uplifted, and having the power of G.o.ds, only none came to worship. Thither came no ships nigh them, nor ever at evening came the prayers of men, nor smell of incense, nor screams from the sacrifice.

Then said the Yozis:

"Of what avails it that we be G.o.ds if no one worship us nor give us sacrifice?"

And Ya, Ha, and Snyrg set sail in their silver galleons, and went looming down the sea to come to the sh.o.r.es of men. And first they came to an island where were fisher folk; and the folk of the island, running down to the sh.o.r.e cried out to them:

"Who be ye?"

And the Yozis answered:

"We be three G.o.ds, and we would have your worship."

But the fisher folk answered:

"Here we worship Rahm, the Thunder, and have no worship nor sacrifice for other G.o.ds."

Then the Yozis snarled with anger and sailed away, and sailed till they came to another sh.o.r.e, sandy and low and forsaken. And at last they found an old man upon the sh.o.r.e, and they cried out to him:

"Old man upon the sh.o.r.e! We be three G.o.ds that it were well to worship, G.o.ds of great power and apt in the granting of prayer."

The old man answered:

"We worship Pegana's G.o.ds, who have a fondness for our incense and the sound of our sacrifice when it squeals upon the altar."

Then answered Snyrg:

"Asleep are Pegana's G.o.ds, nor will They wake for the humming of thy prayers which lie in the dust upon Pegana's floor, and over Them Sniracte, the spider of the worlds, hath woven a web of mist. And the squealing of the sacrifice maketh no music in ears that are closed in sleep."

The old man answered, standing upon the sh.o.r.e:

"Though all the G.o.ds of old shall answer our prayers no longer, yet still to the G.o.ds of old shall all men pray here in Syrinais."

But the Yozis turned their ships about and angrily sailed away, all cursing Syrinais and Syrinais's G.o.ds, but most especially the old man that stood upon the sh.o.r.e.

Still the three Yozis l.u.s.ted for the worship of men, and came, on the third night of their sailing, to a city's lights; and nearing the sh.o.r.e they found it a city of song wherein all folks rejoiced. Then sat each Yozi on his galleon's prow, and leered with his eyes upon the city, so that the music stopped and the dancing ceased, and all looked out to sea at the strange shapes of the Yozis beneath their silver sails. Then Snyrg demanded their worship, promising increase of joys, and swearing by the light of his eyes that he would send little flames to leap over the gra.s.s, to pursue the enemies of that city and to chase them about the world.

But the people answered that in that city men worshipped Agrodaun, the mountain standing alone, and might not worship other G.o.ds even though they came in galleons with silver sails, sailing from over the sea. But Snyrg answered:

"Certainly Agrodaun is only a mountain, and in no manner a G.o.d."

But the priests of Agrodaun sang answer from the sh.o.r.e:

"If the sacrifice of men make not Agrodaun a G.o.d, nor blood still young on his rocks, nor the little fluttering prayers of ten thousand hearts, nor two thousands years of worship and all the hopes of the people and the whole strength of our race, then are there no G.o.ds and ye be common sailors, sailing from over the sea."

Then said the Yozis:

"Hath Agrodaun answered prayer?" And the people heard the words that the Yozis said.