Time and the Gods
Page 3
A LEGEND OF THE DAWN
When the worlds and All began the gods were stern and old and They sawthe Beginning from under eyebrows hoar with years, all but Inzana,Their child, who played with the golden ball. Inzana was the child ofall the gods. And the law before the Beginning and thereafter was thatall should obey the gods, yet hither and thither went all Pegana's godsto obey the Dawnchild because she loved to be obeyed.
It was dark all over the world and even in Pegana, where dwell thegods, it was dark when the child Inzana, the Dawn, first found hergolden ball. Then running down the stairway of the gods with trippingfeet, chalcedony, onyx, chalcedony, onyx, step by step, she cast hergolden ball across the sky. The golden ball went bounding up the sky,and the Dawnchild with her flaring hair stood laughing upon thestairway of the gods, and it was day. So gleaming fields below saw thefirst of all the days that the gods have destined. But towards eveningcertain mountains, afar and aloof, conspired together to stand betweenthe world and the golden ball and to wrap their crags about it and toshut it from the world, and all the world was darkened with their plot.And the Dawnchild up in Pegana cried for her golden ball. Then all thegods came down the stairway right to Pegana's gate to see what ailedthe Dawnchild and to ask her why she cried. Then Inzana said that hergolden ball had been taken away and hidden by mountains black and ugly,far away from Pegana, all in a world of rocks under the rim of the sky,and she wanted her golden ball and could not love the dark.
Thereat Umborodom, whose hound was the thunder, took his hound inleash, and strode away across the sky after the golden ball until hecame to the mountains afar and aloof. There did the thunder put hisnose to the rocks and bay along the valleys, and fast at his heelsfollowed Umborodom. And the nearer the hound, the thunder, came to thegolden ball the louder did he bay, but haughty and silent stood themountains whose plot had darkened the world. All in the dark among thecrags in a mighty cavern, guarded by two twin peaks, at last they foundthe golden ball for which the Dawnchild wept. Then under the world wentUmborodom with his thunder panting behind him, and came in the darkbefore the morning from underneath the world and gave the Dawnchildback her golden ball. And Inzana laughed and took it in her hands, andUmborodom went back into Pegana, and at its threshold the thunder wentto sleep.
Again the Dawnchild tossed the golden ball far up into the blue acrossthe sky, and the second morning shone upon the world, on lakes andoceans, and on drops of dew. But as the ball went bounding on its way,the prowling mists and the rain conspired together and took it andwrapped it in their tattered cloaks and carried it away. And throughthe rents in their garments gleamed the golden ball, but they held itfast and carried it right away and underneath the world. Then on anonyx step Inzana sat down and wept, who could no more be happy withouther golden ball. And again the gods were sorry, and the South Wind cameto tell her tales of most enchanted islands, to whom she listened not,nor yet to the tales of temples in lone lands that the East Wind toldher, who had stood beside her when she flung her golden ball. But fromfar away the West Wind came with news of three grey travellers wraptround with battered cloaks that carried away between them a goldenball.
Then up leapt the North Wind, he who guards the pole, and drew hissword of ice out of his scabbard of snow and sped away along the roadthat leads across the blue. And in the darkness underneath the world hemet the three grey travellers and rushed upon them and drove them farbefore him, smiting them with his sword till their grey cloaks streamedwith blood. And out of the midst of them, as they fled with flappingcloaks all red and grey and tattered, he leapt up with the golden balland gave it to the Dawnchild.
Again Inzana tossed the ball into the sky, making the third day, and upand up it went and fell towards the fields, and as Inzana stooped topick it up she suddenly heard the singing of all the birds that were.All the birds in the world were singing all together and also all thestreams, and Inzana sat and listened and thought of no golden ball, norever of chalcedony and onyx, nor of all her fathers the gods, but onlyof all the birds. Then in the woods and meadows where they had allsuddenly sung, they suddenly ceased. And Inzana, looking up, found thather ball was lost, and all alone in the stillness one owl laughed. Whenthe gods heard Inzana crying for her ball They clustered together onthe threshold and peered into the dark, but saw no golden ball. Andleaning forward They cried out to the bat as he passed up and down:"Bat that seest all things, where is the golden ball?"
And though the bat answered none heard. And none of the winds had seenit nor any of the birds, and there were only the eyes of the gods inthe darkness peering for the golden ball. Then said the gods: "Thouhast lost thy golden ball," and They made her a moon of silver to rollabout the sky. And the child cried and threw it upon the stairway andchipped and broke its edges and asked for the golden ball. And LimpangTung, the Lord of Music, who was least of all the gods, because thechild cried still for her golden ball, stole out of Pegana and creptacross the sky, and found the birds of all the world sitting in treesand ivy, and whispering in the dark. He asked them one by one for newsof the golden ball. Some had last seen it on a neighbouring hill andothers in trees, though none knew where it was. A heron had seen itlying in a pond, but a wild duck in some reeds had seen it last as shecame home across the hills, and then it was rolling very far away.
At last the cock cried out that he had seen it lying beneath the world.There Limpang Tung sought it and the cock called to him through thedarkness as he went, until at last he found the golden ball. ThenLimpang Tung went up into Pegana and gave it to the Dawnchild, whoplayed with the moon no more. And the cock and all his tribe cried out:"We found it. We found the golden ball."
Again Inzana tossed the ball afar, laughing with joy to see it, herhands stretched upwards, her golden hair afloat, and carefully shewatched it as it fell. But alas! it fell with a splash into the greatsea and gleamed and shimmered as it fell till the waters became darkabove it and could be seen no more. And men on the world said: "How thedew has fallen, and how the mists set in with breezes from thestreams."
But the dew was the tears of the Dawnchild, and the mists were hersighs when she said: "There will no more come a time when I play withmy ball again, for now it is lost for ever."
And the gods tried to comfort Inzana as she played with her silvermoon, but she would not hear Them, and went in tears to Slid, where heplayed with gleaming sails, and in his mighty treasury turned over gemsand pearls and lorded it over the sea. And she said: "O Slid, whosesoul is in the sea, bring back my golden ball."
And Slid stood up, swarthy, and clad in seaweed, and mightily divedfrom the last chalcedony step out of Pegana's threshold straight intoocean. There on the sand, among the battered navies of the nautilus andbroken weapons of the swordfish, hidden by dark water, he found thegolden ball. And coming up in the night, all green and dripping, hecarried it gleaming to the stairway of the gods and brought it back toInzana from the sea; and out of the hands of Slid she took it andtossed it far and wide over his sails and sea, and far away it shone onlands that knew not Slid, till it came to its zenith and droppedtowards the world.
But ere it fell the Eclipse dashed out from his hiding, and rushed atthe golden ball and seized it in his jaws. When Inzana saw the Eclipsebearing her plaything away she cried aloud to the thunder, who burstfrom Pegana and fell howling upon the throat of the Eclipse, whodropped the golden ball and let it fall towards earth. But the blackmountains disguised themselves with snow, and as the golden ball felldown towards them they turned their peaks to ruby crimson and theirlakes to sapphires gleaming amongst silver, and Inzana saw a jewelledcasket into which her plaything fell. But when she stooped to pick itup again she found no jewelled casket with rubies, silver or sapphires,but only wicked mountains disguised in snow that had trapped her goldenball. And then she cried because there was none to find it, for thethunder was far away chasing the Eclipse, and all the gods lamentedwhen They saw her sorrow. And Limpang Tung, who was least of all thegods, was yet the saddest at the Dawnchild's gr
ief, and when the godssaid: "Play with your silver moon," he stepped lightly from the rest,and coming down the stairway of the gods, playing an instrument ofmusic, went out towards the world to find the golden ball becauseInzana wept.
And into the world he went till he came to the nether cliffs that standby the inner mountains in the soul and heart of the earth where theEarthquake dwelleth alone, asleep but astir as he sleeps, breathing andmoving his legs, and grunting aloud in the dark. Then in the ear of theEarthquake Limpang Tung said a word that only the gods may say, and theEarthquake started to his feet and flung the cave away, the cavewherein he slept between the cliffs, and shook himself and wentgalloping abroad and overturned the mountains that hid the golden ball,and bit the earth beneath them and hurled their crags about and coveredhimself with rocks and fallen hills, and went back ravening andgrowling into the soul of the earth, and there lay down and slept againfor a hundred years. And the golden ball rolled free, passing under theshattered earth, and so rolled back to Pegana; and Limpang Tung camehome to the onyx step and took the Dawnchild by the hand and told notwhat he had done but said it was the Earthquake, and went away to sitat the feet of the gods. But Inzana went and patted the Earthquake onthe head, for she said it was dark and lonely in the soul of the earth.Thereafter, returning step by step, chalcedony, onyx, chalcedony, onyx,up the stairway of the gods, she cast again her golden ball from theThreshold afar into the blue to gladden the world and the sky, andlaughed to see it go.
And far away Trogool upon the utter Rim turned a page that was numberedsix in a cipher that none might read. And as the golden ball wentthrough the sky to gleam on lands and cities, there came the Fogtowards it, stooping as he walked with his dark brown cloak about him,and behind him slunk the Night. And as the golden ball rolled past theFog suddenly Night snarled and sprang upon it and carried it away.Hastily Inzana gathered the gods and said: "The Night hath seized mygolden ball and no god alone can find it now, for none can say how farthe Night may roam, who prowls all round us and out beyond the worlds."
At the entreaty of Their Dawnchild all the gods made Themselves starsfor torches, and far away through all the sky followed the tracks ofNight as far as he prowled abroad. And at one time Slid, with thePleiades in his hand, came nigh to the golden ball, and at anotherYoharneth-Lahai, holding Orion for a torch, but lastly Limpang Tung,bearing the morning star, found the golden ball far away under theworld near to the lair of Night.
And all the gods together seized the ball, and Night turning smote outthe torches of the gods and thereafter slunk away; and all the gods intriumph marched up the gleaming stairway of the gods, all praisinglittle Limpang Tung, who through the chase had followed Night so closein search of the golden ball. Then far below on the world a human childcried out to the Dawnchild for the golden ball, and Inzana ceased fromher play that illumined world and sky, and cast the ball from theThreshold of the gods to the little human child that played in thefields below, and would one day die. And the child played all day longwith the golden ball down in the little fields where the humans lived,and went to bed at evening and put it beneath his pillow, and went tosleep, and no one worked in all the world because the child wasplaying. And the light of the golden ball streamed up from under thepillow and out through the half shut door and shone in the western sky,and Yoharneth-Lahai in the night time tip-toed into the room, and tookthe ball gently (for he was a god) away from under the pillow andbrought it back to the Dawnchild to gleam on an onyx step.
But some day Night shall seize the golden ball and carry it right awayand drag it down to his lair, and Slid shall dive from the Thresholdinto the sea to see if it be there, and coming up when the fishermendraw their nets shall find it not, nor yet discover it among the sails.Limpang Tung shall seek among the birds and shall not find it when thecock is mute, and up the valleys shall go Umborodom to seek among thecrags. And the hound, the thunder, shall chase the Eclipse and all thegods go seeking with Their stars, but never find the ball. And men, nolonger having light of the golden ball, shall pray to the gods no more,who, having no worship, shall be no more the gods.
These things be hidden even from the gods.