Time and the Gods
Page 15
THE SOUTH WIND
Two players sat down to play a game together to while eternity away,and they chose the gods as pieces wherewith to play their game, and fortheir board of playing they chose the sky from rim to rim, whereon laya little dust; and every speck of dust was a world upon the board ofplaying. And the players were robed and their faces veiled, and therobes and veils were alike, and their names were Fate and Chance. Andas they played their game and moved the gods hither and thither aboutthe board, the dust arose, and shone in the light from the players'eyes that gleamed behind the veils. Then said the gods: "See how Westir the dust."
It chanced, or was ordained (who knoweth which?) that Ord, a prophet,one night saw the gods as They strode knee deep among the stars. But ashe gave Them worship, he saw the hand of a player, enormous over Theirheads, stretched out to make his move. Then Ord, the prophet, knew. Hadhe been silent it might have still been well with Ord, but Ord wentabout the world crying out to all men, "There is a power over thegods."
This the gods heard. Then said They, "Ord hath seen."
Terrible is the vengeance of the gods, and fierce were Their eyes whenThey looked on the head of Ord and snatched out of his mind allknowledge of Themselves. And that man's soul went wandering afield tofind for itself gods, for ever finding them not. Then out of Ord'sDream of Life the gods plucked the moon and the stars, and in thenight-time he only saw black sky and saw the lights no more. Next thegods took from him, for Their vengeance resteth not, the birds andbutterflies, flowers and leaves and insects and all small things, andthe prophet looked on the world that was strangely altered, yet knewnot of the anger of the gods. Then the gods sent away his familiarhills, to be seen no more by him, and all the pleasant woodlands ontheir summits and the further fields; and in a narrower world Ordwalked round and round, now seeing little, and his soul still wanderedsearching for some gods and finding none.
Lastly, the gods took away the fields and stream and left to theprophet only his house and the larger things that were in it. Day byday They crept about him drawing films of mist between him and familiarthings, till at last he beheld nought at all and was quite blind andunaware of the anger of the gods. Then Ord's world became only a worldof sound, and only by hearing he kept his hold upon Things. All theprofit that he had out of his days was here some song from the hills orthere the voice of the birds, and sound of the stream, or the drip ofthe falling rain. But the anger of the gods ceases not with the closingof flowers, nor is it assuaged by all the winter's snows, nor doth itrest in the full glare of summer, and They snatched away from Ord onenight his world of sound and he awoke deaf. But as a man may smite awaythe hive of the bee, and the bee with all his fellows builds again,knowing not what hath smitten his hive or that it shall smite again, soOrd built for himself a world out of old memories and set it in thepast. There he builded himself cities out of former joys, and thereinbuilt palaces of mighty things achieved, and with his memory as a keyhe opened golden locks and had still a world to live in, though thegods had taken from him the world of sound and all the world of sight.But the gods tire not from pursuing, and They seized his world offormer things and took his memory away and covered up the paths thatled into the past, and left him blind and deaf and forgetful among men,and caused all men to know that this was he who once had said that thegods were little things.
And lastly the gods took his soul, and out of it They fashioned theSouth Wind to roam the seas for ever and not have rest; and well theSouth Wind knows that he hath once understood somewhere and long ago,and so he moans to the islands and cries along southern shores, "I haveknown," and "I have known."
But all things sleep when the South Wind speaks to them and none heedhis cry that he hath known, but are rather content to sleep. But stillthe South Wind, knowing that there is something that he hath forgot,goes on crying, "I have known," seeking to urge men to arise and todiscover it. But none heed the sorrows of the South Wind even when hedriveth his tears out of the South, so that though the South Wind crieson and on and never findeth rest none heed that there is aught that maybe known, and the Secret of the gods is safe. But the business of theSouth Wind is with the North, and it is said that the time will one daycome when he shall overcome the bergs and sink the seas of ice and comewhere the Secret of the gods is graven upon the pole. And the game ofFate and Chance shall suddenly cease and He that loses shall cease tobe or ever to have been, and from the board of playing Fate or Chance(who knoweth which shall win?) shall sweep the gods away.