by Lord Dunsany
THE RELENTING OF SARNIDAC
The lame boy Sarnidac tended sheep on a hill to the southward of thecity. Sarnidac was a dwarf and greatly derided in the city. For thewomen said:
"It is very funny that Sarnidac is a dwarf," and they would point theirfingers at him saying:--"This is Sarnidac, he is a dwarf; also he isvery lame."
Once the doors of all the temples in the world swung open to themorning, and Sarnidac with his sheep upon the hill saw strange figuresgoing down the white road, always southwards. All the morning he sawthe dust rising above the strange figures and always they wentsouthwards right as far as the rim of the Nydoon hills where the whiteroad could be seen no more. And the figures stooped and seemed to belarger than men, but all men seemed very large to Sarnidac, and hecould not see clearly through the dust. And Sarnidac shouted to them,as he hailed all people that passed down the long white road, and noneof the figures looked to left or right and none of them turned toanswer Sarnidac. But then few people ever answered him because he waslame, and a small dwarf.
Still the figures went striding swiftly, stooping forward through thedust, till at last Sarnidac came running down his hill to watch themcloser. As he came to the white road the last of the figures passedhim, and Sarnidac ran limping behind him down the road.
For Sarnidac was weary of the city wherein all derided him, and when hesaw these figures all hurrying away he thought that they went perhapsto some other city beyond the hills over which the sun shone brighter,or where there was more food, for he was poor, even perhaps wherepeople had not the custom of laughing at Sarnidac. So this processionof figures that stooped and seemed larger than men went southward downthe road and a lame dwarf hobbled behind them.
Khamazan, now called the City of the Last of Temples, lies southward ofthe Nydoon hills. This is the story of Pompeides, now chief prophet ofthe only temple in the world, and greatest of all the prophets thathave been:
On the slopes of Nydoon I was seated once above Khamazan. There I sawfigures in the morning striding through much dust along the road thatleads across the world. Striding up the hill they came towards me, notwith the gait of men, and soon the first one came to the crest of thehill where the road dips to find the plains again, where lies Khamazan.And now I swear by all the gods that are gone that this thing happenedas I shall say it, and was surely so. When those that came striding upthe hill came to its summit they took not the road that goes down intothe plains nor trod the dust any longer, but went straight on andupwards, striding as they strode before, as though the hill had notended nor the road dipped. And they strode as though they trod noyielding substance, yet they stepped upwards through the air.
This the gods did, for They were not born men who strode that day sostrangely away from earth.
But I, when I saw this thing, when already three had passed me, leavingearth, cried out before the fourth:
'Gods of my childhood, guardians of little homes, whither are ye going,leaving the round earth to swim alone and forgotten in so great a wasteof sky?'
And one answered:
'Heresy apace shoots her fierce glare over the world and men's faithgrows dim and the gods go. Men shall make iron gods and gods of steelwhen the wind and the ivy meet within the shrines of the temples of thegods of old.'
And I left that place as a man leaves fire by night, and goingplainwards down the white road that the gods spurned cried out to allthat I passed to follow me, and so crying came to the city's gates. Andthere I shouted to all near the gates:
'From yonder hilltop the gods are leaving earth.'
Then I gathered many, and we all hastened to the hill to pray the godsto tarry, and there we cried out to the last of the departing gods:
'Gods of old prophecy and of men's hopes, leave not the earth, and allour worship shall hum about Your ears as never it hath before, and oftthe sacrifice shall squeal upon Your altars.'
And I said:--
'Gods of still evenings and quiet nights, go not from earth and leavenot Your carven shrines, and all men shall worship You still. Forbetween us and yonder still blue spaces oft roam the thunder and thestorms, there in his hiding lurks the dark eclipse, and there arestored all snows and hails and lightnings that shall vex the earth fora million years. Gods of our hopes, how shall men's prayers crying fromempty shrines pass through such terrible spaces; how shall they everfare above the thunder and many storms to whatever place the gods maygo in that blue waste beyond?'
But the gods bent straight forward, and trampled through the sky andlooked not to the right nor left nor downwards, nor ever heeded myprayer.
And one cried out hoping yet to stay the gods, though nearly all weregone, saying:--
'O gods, rob not the earth of the dim hush that hangs round all Yourtemples, bereave not all the world of old romance, take not the glamourfrom the moonlight nor tear the wonder out of the white mists in everyland; for, O ye gods of the childhood of the world, when You have leftthe earth you shall have taken the mystery from the sea and all itsglory from antiquity, and You shall have wrenched out hope from the dimfuture. There shall be no strange cries at night time half understood,nor songs in the twilight, and the whole of the wonder shall have diedwith last year's flowers in little gardens or hill-slopes leaningsouth; for with the gods must go the enchantment of the plains and allthe magic of dark woods, and something shall be lacking from the quietof early dawn. For it would scarce befit the gods to leave the earthand not take with Them that which They had given it. Out beyond thestill blue spaces Ye will need the holiness of sunset for Yourselvesand little sacred memories and the thrill that is in stories told byfiresides long ago. One strain of music, one song, one line of poetryand one kiss, and a memory of one pool with rushes, and each one thebest, shall the gods take to whom the best belongs, when the gods go.
'Sing a lamentation, people of Khamazan, sing a lamentation for all thechildren of earth at the feet of the departing gods. Sing a lamentationfor the children of earth who now must carry their prayers to emptyshrines and around empty shrines must rest at last.'
Then when our prayers were ended and our tears shed, we beheld the lastand smallest of the gods halted upon the hilltop. Twice he called toThem with a cry somewhat like the cry wherewith our shepherds hailtheir brethren, and long gazed after Them, and then deigned to look nolonger and to tarry upon earth and turn his eyes on men. Then a greatshout went up when we saw that our hopes were saved and that there wasstill on earth a haven for our prayers. Smaller than men now seemed thefigures that had loomed so big, as one behind the other far over ourheads They still strode upwards. But the small god that had pitied theworld came with us down the hill, still deigning to tread the road,though strangely, not as men tread, and into Khamazan. There we housedhim in the palace of the King, for that was before the building of thetemple of gold, and the King made sacrifice before him with his ownhands, and he that had pitied the world did eat the flesh of thesacrifice.
And the Book of the Knowledge of the gods in Khamazan tells how thesmall god that pitied the world told his prophets that his name wasSarnidac and that he herded sheep, and that therefore he is called theshepherd god, and sheep are sacrificed upon his altars thrice a day,and the North, East, West and the South are the four hurdles ofSarnidac and the white clouds are his sheep. And the Book of theKnowledge of the gods tells further how the day on which Pompeidesfound the gods shall be kept for ever as a fast until the evening andcalled the Fast of the Departing, but in the evening shall a feast beheld which is named the Feast of the Relenting, for on that eveningSarnidac pitied the whole world and tarried.
And the people of Khamazan all prayed to Sarnidac, and dreamed theirdreams and hoped their hopes because their temple was not empty.Whether the gods that are departed be greater than Sarnidac none knowin Khamazan, but some believe that in their azure windows They have setlights that lost prayers swarming upwards may come to them like mothsand at last find haven and light far up above the evening and thestillness where sit the gods.