LordDunsanysPegana/OfHowtheGodsWhelmedSidith
LordDunsanysPegana/OftheCalamity -LordDunsanysPegana/OfHowImbaunbecameHighProphet
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 our
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 prayers 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.
"There thou shall 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.
