Time and the Gods

by Lord Dunsany

  THE JOURNEY OF THE KING

  _I_

  One day the King turned to the women that danced and said to them:"Dance no more," and those that bore the wine in jewelled cups he sentaway. The palace of King Ebalon was emptied of sound of song and thererose the voices of heralds crying in the streets to find the prophetsof the land.

  Then went the dancers, the cupbearer and the singers down into the hardstreets among the houses, Pattering Leaves, Silvern Fountain and SummerLightning, the dancers whose feet the gods had not devised for stonyways, which had only danced for princes. And with them went the singer,Soul of the South, and the sweet singer, Dream of the Sea, whose voicesthe gods had attuned to the ears of kings, and old Istahn the cupbearerleft his life's work in the palace to tread the common ways, he thathad stood at the elbows of three kings of Zarkandhu and had watched hisancient vintage feeding their valour and mirth as the waters ofTondaris feed the green plains to the south. Ever he had stood graveamong their jests, but his heart warmed itself solely by the fire ofthe mirth of Kings. He too, with the singers and dancers, went out intothe dark.

  And throughout the land the heralds sought out the prophets thereof.Then one evening as King Ebalon sat alone within his palace there werebrought before him all who had repute for wisdom and who wrote thehistories of the times to be. Then the King spake, saying: "The Kinggoeth upon a journey with many horses, yet riding upon none, when thepomp of travelling shall be heard in the streets and the sound of thelute and the drum and the name of the King. And I would know whatprinces and what people shall greet me on the other shore in the landto which I travel."

  Then fell a hush upon the prophets for they murmured: "All knowledge iswith the King."

  Then said the King: "Thou first, Samahn, High Prophet of the Temple ofgold in Azinorn, answer or thou shalt write no more the history of thetimes to be, but shalt toil with thy hand to make record of the littlehappenings of the days that were, as do the common men."

  Then said Samahn: "All knowledge is with the King," and when the pomp oftravelling shall be heard in the streets and the slow horses whereonthe King rideth not go behind lute and drum, then, as the King wellknoweth, thou shalt go down to the great white house of Kings and,entering the portals where none are worthy to follow, shalt makeobeisance alone to all the elder Kings of Zarkandhu, whose bones areseated upon golden thrones grasping their sceptres still. Therein thoushalt go with robes and sceptre through the marble porch, but thoushalt leave behind thee thy gleaming crown that others may wear it, andas the times go by come in to swell the number of the thirty Kings thatsit in the great white house on golden thrones. There is one doorway inthe great white house, and it stands wide with marble portals yawningfor kings, but when it shall receive thee, and thine obeisance hathbeen made because of thine obligation to the thirty Kings, thou shaltfind at the back of the house an unknown door through which the soul ofa King may just pass, and leaving thy bones upon a golden throne thoushalt go unseen out of the great white house to tread the velvet spacesthat lie among the worlds. Then, O King, it were well to travel fastand not to tarry about the houses of men as do the souls of some whostill bewail the sudden murder that sent them upon the journey beforetheir time, and who, being yet both to go, linger in dark chambers allthe night. These, setting forth to travel in the dawn and travellingall the day, see earth behind them gleaming when an evening falls, andagain are loth to leave its pleasant haunts, and come back againthrough dark woods and up into some old loved chamber, and ever tarrybetween home and flight and find no rest.

  Thou wilt set forth at once because the journey is far and lasts formany hours; but the hours on the velvet spaces are the hours of thegods, and we may not say what time such an hour may be if reckoned inmortal years.

  At last thou shalt come to a grey place filled with mist, with greyshapes standing before it which are altars, and on the altars risesmall red flames from dying fires that scarce illumine the mist. And inthe mist it is dark and cold because the fires are low. These are thealtars of the people's faiths, and the flames are the worship of men,and through the mist the gods of Old go groping in the dark and in thecold. There thou shalt hear a voice cry feebly: "Inyani, Inyani, lordof the thunder, where art thou, for I cannot see?" And a voice shallanswer faintly in the cold: "O maker of many worlds, I am here." And inthat place the gods of Old are nearly deaf for the prayers of men growfew, they are nigh blind because the fires burn low upon the altars ofmen's faiths and they are very cold. And all about the place of mistthere lies a moaning sea which is called the Sea of Souls. And behindthe place of mist are the dim shapes of mountains, and on the peak ofone there glows a silvern light that shines in the moaning sea; andever as the flames on the altars die before the gods of Old the lighton the mountain increases, and the light shines over the mist and neverthrough it as the gods of Old grow blind. It is said that the light onthe mountain shall one day become a new god who is not of the gods ofOld.

  There, O King, thou shalt enter the Sea of Souls by the shore where thealtars stand which are covered in mist. In that sea are the souls ofall that ever lived on the worlds and all that ever shall live, allfreed from earth and flesh. And all the souls in that sea are aware ofone another but more than with hearing or sight or by taste or touch orsmell, and they all speak to each other yet not with lips, with voiceswhich need no sound. And over the sea lies music as winds o'er an oceanon earth, and there unfettered by language great thoughts set outwardthrough the souls as on earth the currents go.

  Once did I dream that in a mist-built ship I sailed upon that sea andheard the music that is not of instruments, and voices not from lips,and woke and found that I was upon the earth and that the gods had liedto me in the night. Into this sea from fields of battle and cities comedown the rivers of lives, and ever the gods have taken onyx cups andfar and wide into the worlds again have flung the souls out of the sea,that each soul may find a prison in the body of a man with five smallwindows closely barred, and each one shackled with forgetfulness.

  But all the while the light on the mountain grows, and none may saywhat work the god that shall be born of the silvern light shall work onthe Sea of Souls, when the gods of Old are dead and the Sea is livingstill.

  And answer made the King:

  "Thou that art a prophet of the gods of Old, go back and see that thosered flames burn more brightly on the altars in the mist, for the godsof Old are easy and pleasant gods, and thou canst not say what toilshall vex our souls when the god of the light on the mountain shallstride along the shore where bleach the huge bones of the gods of Old."

  And Samahn answered: "All knowledge is with the King."

  _II_

  Then the King called to Ynath bidding him speak concerning the journeyof the King. Ynath was the prophet that sat at the Eastern gate of theTemple of Gorandhu. There Ynath prayed his prayers to all the passersby lest ever the gods should go abroad, and one should pass him dressedin mortal guise. And men are pleased as they walk by that Eastern gatethat Ynath should pray to them for fear that they be gods, so men bringgifts to Ynath in the Eastern gate.

  And Ynath said: "All knowledge is with the King. When a strange shipcomes to anchor in the air outside thy chamber window, thou shalt leavethy well-kept garden and it shall become a prey to the nights and daysand be covered again with grass. But going aboard thou shalt set sailover the Sea of Time and well shall the ship steer through the manyworlds and still sail on. If other ships shall pass thee on the way andhail thee saying: 'From what port' thou shalt answer them: 'FromEarth.' And if they ask thee 'whither bound?' then thou shalt answer:'The End.' Or thou shalt hail them saying: 'From what port?' And theyshall answer: 'From The End called also The Beginning, and bound toEarth.' And thou shalt sail away till like an old sorrow dimly felt byhappy men the worlds shall gleam in the distance like one star, and asthe star pales thou shalt come to the shore of space where aeonsrolling shorewards from Time's sea shall lash up centuries to foam awayin years. There lies the Centre Garden of the go
ds, facing fullseawards. All around lie songs that on earth were never sung, fairthoughts not heard among the worlds, dream pictures never seen thatdrifted over Time without a home till at last the aeons swept them onto the shore of space. And in the Centre Garden of the gods bloom manyfancies. Therein once some souls were playing where the gods walked upand down and to and fro. And a dream came in more beauteous than therest on the crest of a wave of Time, and one soul going downward to theshore clutched at the dream and caught it. Then over the dreams andstories and old songs that lay on the shore of space the hours camesweeping back, and the centuries caught that soul and swirled him withhis dream far out to the Sea of Time, and the aeons swept himearthwards and cast him into a palace with all the might of the sea andleft him there with his dream. The child grew to a King and stillclutched at his dream till the people wondered and laughed. Then, OKing, Thou didst cast thy dream back into the Sea, and Time drowned itand men laughed no more, but thou didst forget that a certain sea beaton a distant shore and that there was a garden and therein souls. Butat the end of the journey that thou shalt take, when thou comest to theshore of space again thou shalt go up the beach, and coming to a gardengate that stands in a garden wall shalt remember these things again,for it stands where the hours assail not above the beating of Time, farup the shore, and nothing altereth there. So thou shalt go through thegarden gate and hear again the whispering of the souls when they talklow where sing the voices of the gods. There with kindred souls thoushalt speak as thou didst of yore and tell them what befell thee beyondthe tides of time and how they took thee and made of thee a King sothat thy soul found no rest. There in the Centre Garden thou shalt sitat ease and watch the gods all rainbow-clad go up and down and to andfro on the paths of dreams and songs, and shalt not venture down to thecheerless sea. For that which a man loves most is not on this side ofTime, and all which drifts on its aeons is a lure.

  "All knowledge is with the King."

  Then said the King: "Ay, there was a dream once but Time hath swept itaway."

  _III_

  Then spake Monith, Prophet of the Temple of Azure that stands on thesnow-peak of Ahmoon and said: "All knowledge is with the King. Oncethou didst set out upon a one day's journey riding thy horse and beforethee had gone a beggar down the road, and his name was Yeb. Him thoudidst overtake and when he heeded not thy coming thou didst ride overhim.

  "Upon the journey that thou shalt one day take riding upon no horse,this beggar has set out before thee and is labouring up the crystalsteps towards the moon as a man goeth up the steps of a high tower inthe dark. On the moon's edge beneath the shadow of Mount Angises heshall rest awhile and then shall climb the crystal steps again. Then agreat journey lies before him before he may rest again till he come tothat star that is called the left eye of Gundo. Then a journey of manycrystal steps lieth before him again with nought to guide him but thelight of Omrazu. On the edge of Omrazu shall Yeb tarry long, for themost dreadful part of his journey lieth before him. Up the crystalsteps that lie beyond Omrazu he must go, and any that follow, thoughthe howling of all the meteors that ride the sky; for in that part ofthe crystal space go many meteors up and down all squealing in thedark, which greatly perplex all travellers. And, if he may see thoughthe gleaming of the meteors and in spite of their uproar come safelythrough, he shall come to the star Omrund at the edge of the Track ofStars. And from star to star along the Track of Stars the soul of a manmay travel with more ease, and there the journey lies no more straightforward, but curves to the right."

  Then said King Ebalon:

  "Of this beggar whom my horse smote down thou hast spoken much, but Isought to know by what road a King should go when he taketh his lastroyal journey, and what princes and what people should meet him uponanother shore."

  Then answered Monith:

  "All knowledge is with the King. It hath been doomed by the gods, whospeak not in jest, that thou shalt follow the soul that thou didst sendalone upon its journey, that that soul go not unattended up the crystalsteps.

  "Moreover, as this beggar went upon his lonely journey he dared tocurse the King, and his curses lie like a red mist along the valleysand hollows wherever he uttered them. By these red mists, O King, thoushalt track him as a man follows a river by night until thou shalt fareat last to the land wherein he hath blessed thee (repenting of anger atlast), and thou shalt see his blessing lie over the land like a blazeof golden sunshine illumining fields and gardens."

  Then said the King:

  "The gods have spoken hard above the snowy peak of this mountainAhmoon."

  And Monith said:

  "How a man may come to the shore of space beyond the tides of time Iknow not, but it is doomed that thou shalt certainly first follow thebeggar past the moon, Omrund and Omrazu till thou comest to the Trackof Stars, and up the Track of Stars coming towards the right along theedge of it till thou comest to Ingazi. There the soul of the beggar Yebsat long, then, breathing deep, set off on his great journey earthwardadown the crystal steps. Straight through the spaces where no stars arefound to rest at, following the dull gleam of earth and her fields tillhe come at last where journeys end and start."

  Then said King Ebalon:

  "If this hard tale be true, how shall I find the beggar that I mustfollow when I come again to the earth?"

  And the Prophet answered:

  "Thou shalt know him by his name and find him in this place, for thatbeggar shall be called King Ebalon and he shall be sitting upon thethrone of the Kings of Zarkandhu."

  And the King answered:

  "If one sit upon this throne whom men call King Ebalon, who then shallI be?"

  And the Prophet answered:

  "Thou shalt be a beggar and thy name shall be Yeb, and thou shalt evertread the road before the palace waiting for alms from the King whommen shall call Ebalon."

  Then said the King:

  "Hard gods indeed are those that tramp the snows of Ahmoon about thetemple of Azure, for if I sinned against this beggar called Yeb, theytoo have sinned against him when they doomed him to travel on thisweary journey though he hath not offended."

  And Monith said:

  "He too hath offended, for he was angry as thy horse struck him, andthe gods smite anger. And his anger and his curses doom him to journeywithout rest as also they doom thee."

  Then said the King:

  "Thou that sittest upon Ahmoon in the Temple of Azure, dreaming thydreams and making prophecies, foresee the ending of this weary questand tell me where it shall be?"

  And Monith answered:

  "As a man looks across great lakes I have gazed into the days to be,and as the great flies come upon four wings of gauze to skim over bluewaters, so have my dreams come sailing two by two out of the days tobe. And I dreamed that King Ebalon, whose soul was not thy soul, stoodin his palace in a time far hence, and beggars thronged the streetoutside, and among them was Yeb, a beggar, having thy soul. And it wason the morning of a festival and the King came robed in white, with allhis prophets and his seers and magicians, all down the marble steps tobless the land and all that stood therein as far as the purple hills,because it was the morning of festival. And as the King raised up hishand over the beggars' heads to bless the fields and rivers and allthat stood therein, I dreamed that the quest was ended.

  "All knowledge is with the King."

  _IV_

  Evening darkened and above the palace domes gleamed out the starswhereon haply others missed the secret too.

  And outside the palace in the dark they that had borne the wine injewelled cups mocked in low voices at the King and at the wisdom of hisprophets.

  Then spake Ynar, called the prophet of the Crystal Peak; for thererises Amanath above all that land, a mountain whose peak is crystal,and Ynar beneath its summit hath his Temple, and when day shines nolonger on the world Amanath takes the sunlight and gleams afar as abeacon in a bleak land lit at night. And at the hour when all faces areturned on Amanath, Ynar comes forth beneath the Crystal peak to weavestrang
e spells and to make signs that people say are surely for thegods. Therefore it is said in all those lands that Ynar speaks atevening to the gods when all the world is still.

  And Ynar said:

  "All knowledge is with the King, and without doubt it hath come to theKing's ears how certain speech is held at evening on the Peak ofAmanath.

  "They that speak to me at evening on the Peak are They that live in acity through whose streets Death walketh not, and I have heard it fromTheir Elders that the King shall take no journey; only from thee thehills shall slip away, the dark woods, the sky and all the gleamingworlds that fill the night, and the green fields shall go on untroddenby thy feet and the blue sky ungazed at by thine eyes, and still therivers shall all run seaward but making no music in thine ears. And allthe old laments shall still be spoken, troubling thee not, and to theearth shall fall the tears of the children of earth and never grievingthee. Pestilence, heat and cold, ignorance, famine and anger, thesethings shall grip their claws upon all men as heretofore in fields androads and cities but shall not hold thee. But from thy soul, sitting inthe old worn track of the worlds when all is gone away, shall fall offthe shackles of circumstance and thou shalt dream thy dreams alone.

  "And thou shalt find that dreams are real where there is nought as faras the Rim but only thy dreams and thee.

  "With them thou shalt build palaces and cities resting upon nothing andhaving no place in time, not to be assailed by the hours or harmed byivy or rust, not to be taken by conquerors, but destroyed by thy fancyif thou dost wish it so or by thy fancy rebuilded. And nought shallever disturb these dreams of thine which here are troubled and lost byall the happenings of earth, as the dreams of one who sleeps in atumultuous city. For these thy dreams shall sweep outward like a strongriver over a great waste plain wherein are neither rocks nor hills toturn it, only in that place there shall be no boundaries nor sea,neither hindrance nor end. And it were well for thee that thou shouldsttake few regrets into thy waste dominions from the world wherein thoulivest, for such regrets or any memory of deeds ill done must sitbeside thy soul forever in that waste, singing one song always offorlorn remorse; and they too shall be only dreams but very real.

  "There nought shall hinder thee among thy dreams, for even the gods mayharass thee no more when flesh and earth and events with which Theybound thee shall have slipped away."

  Then said the King:

  "I like not this grey doom, for dreams are empty. I would see actionroaring through the world, and men and deeds."

  Then answered the Prophet:

  "Victory, jewels and dancing but please thy fancy. What is the sparkleof the gem to thee without thy fancy which it allures, and thy fancy isall a dream. Action and deeds and men are nought without dreams and dobut fetter them, and only dreams are real, and where thou stayest whenthe worlds shall drift away there shall be only dreams."

  And the King answered:

  "A mad prophet."

  And Ynar said:

  "A mad prophet, but believing that his soul possesseth all things ofwhich his soul may become aware and that he is master of that soul, andthou a high-minded King believing only that thy soul possesseth suchfew countries as are leaguered by thine armies and the sea, and thatthy soul is possessed by certain strange gods of whom thou knowest not,who shall deal with it in a way whereof thou knowest not. Until aknowledge come to us that either is wrong I have wider realms, I King,than thee and hold them beneath no overlords."

  Then said the King:

  "Thou hast said no overlords! To whom then dost thou speak by strangesigns at evening above the world?"

  And Ynar went forward and whispered to the King. And the King shouted:

  "Seize ye this prophet for he is a hypocrite and speaks to no gods atevening above the world, but has deceived us with his signs."

  And Ynar said:

  "Come not near me or I shall point towards you when I speak at eveningupon the mountain with Those that ye know of."

  Then Ynar went away and the guards touched him not.

  _V_

  Then spake the prophet Thun, who was clad in seaweed and had no Temple,but lived apart from men. All his life he had lived on a lonely beachand had heard for ever the wailing of the sea and the crying of thewind in hollows among the cliffs. Some said that having lived so longby the full beating of the sea, and where always the wind criesloudest, he could not feel the joys of other men, but only felt thesorrow of the sea crying in his soul for ever.

  "Long ago on the path of stars, midmost between the worlds, therestrode the gods of Old. In the bleak middle of the worlds They sat andthe worlds went round and round, like dead leaves in the wind atAutumn's end, with never a life on one, while the gods went sighing forthe things that might not be. And the centuries went over the gods togo where the centuries go, toward the End of Things, and with Them wentthe sighs of all the gods as They longed for what might not be.

  "One by one in the midst of the worlds, fell dead the gods of Old,still sighing for the things that might not be, all slain by Their ownregrets. Only Shimono Kani, the youngest of the gods, made him a harpout of the heart strings of all the elder gods, and, sitting upon thePath of Stars in the Middle of Things, played upon the harp a dirge forthe gods of Old. And the song told of all vain regrets and of unhappyloves of the gods in the olden time, and of Their great deeds that wereto adorn the future years. But into the dirge of Shimono Kani camevoices crying out of the heart strings of the gods, all sighing stillfor the things that might not be. And the dirge and the voices crying,go drifting away from the Path of Stars, away from the Midst of Things,till they come twittering among the Worlds, like a great host of birdsthat are lost by night. And every note is a life, and many notes becomecaught up among the worlds to be entangled with flesh for a littlewhile before they pass again on their journey to the great Anthem thatroars at the End of Time. Shimono Kani hath given a voice to the windand added a sorrow to the sea. But when in lighted chambers afterfeasting there arises the voice of the singer to please the King, thenis the soul of that singer crying aloud to his fellows from where hestands chained to earth. And when at the sound of the singing the heartof the King grows sad and his princes lament then they remember, thoughknowing not that, they remember it, the sad face of Shimono Kanisitting by his dead brethren, the elder gods, playing on the harp ofcrying heart strings whereby he sent their souls among the worlds.

  "And when the music of one lute is lonely on the hills at night, thenone soul calleth to his brother souls--the notes of Shimono Kani'sdirge which have not been caught among the worlds--and he knoweth notto whom he calls or why, but knoweth only that minstrelsy is his onlycry and sendeth it out into the dark.

  "But although in the prison houses of earth all memories must die, yetas there sometimes clings to a prisoner's feet some dust of the fieldswherein he was captured, so sometimes fragments of remembrance cling toa man's soul after it hath been taken to earth. Then a great minstrelarises, and, weaving together the shreds of his memories, maketh somemelody such as the hand of Shimono Kani smites out of his harp; andthey that pass by say: 'Hath there not been some such melody before?'and pass on sad at heart for memories which are not.

  "Therefore, O King, one day the great gates of thy palace shall lieopen for a procession wherein the King comes down to pass through apeople, lamenting with lute and drum; and on the same day a prison doorshall be opened by relenting hands, and one more lost note of ShimonoKani's dirge shall go back to swell his melody again.

  "The dirge of Shimono Kani shall roll on till one day it shall comewith all its notes complete to overwhelm the Silence that sits at theEnd of Things. Then shall Shimono Kani say to his brethren's bones: Thethings that might not be have at last become.'

  "But very quiet shall be the bones of the gods of Old, and only Theirvoices shall live which cried from the harp of heart strings, for thethings which might not be."

  _VI_

  When the caravans, saying farewell to Zandara, set out across the wastenort
hwards towards Einandhu, they follow the desert track for sevendays before they come to water where Shubah Onath rises black out ofthe waste, with a well at its foot and herbage on its summit. On thisrock a prophet hath his Temple and is called the Prophet of Journeys,and hath carven in a southern window smiling along the camel track allgods that are benignant to caravans.

  There a traveller may learn by prophecy whether he shall accomplish theten days' journey thence across the desert and so come to the whitecity of Einandhu, or whether his bones shall lie with the bones of oldalong the desert track.

  No name hath the Prophet of Journeys, for none is needed in that desertwhere no man calls nor ever a man answers.

  Thus spake the Prophet of Journeys standing before the King:

  "The journey of the King shall be an old journey pushed on apace.

  "Many a year before the making of the moon thou camest down with dreamcamels from the City without a name that stands beyond all the stars.And then began thy journey over the Waste of Nought, and thy dreamcamel bore thee well when those of certain of thy fellow travellersfell down in the Waste and were covered over by the silence and wereturned again to nought; and those travellers when their dream camelsfell, having nothing to carry them further over the Waste, were lostbeyond and never found the earth. These are those men that might havebeen but were not. And all about thee fluttered the myriad hourstravelling in great swarms across the Waste of Nought.

  "How many centuries passed across the cities while thou wast making thyjourney none may reckon, for there is no time in the Waste of Nought,but only the hours fluttering earthwards from beyond to do the work ofTime. At last the dream-borne travellers saw far off a green placegleaming and made haste towards it and so came to Earth. And there, OKing, ye rest for a little while, thou and those that came with thee,making an encampment upon earth before journeying on. There theswarming hours alight, settling on every blade of grass and tree, andspreading over your tents and devouring all things, and at last bendingyour very tent poles with their weight and wearying you.

  "Behind the encampment in the shadow of the tents lurks a dark figurewith a nimble sword, having the name of Time. This is he that hathcalled the hours from beyond and he it is that is their master, and itis his work that the hours do as they devour all green things upon theearth and tatter the tents and weary all the travellers. As each of thehours does the work of Time, Time smites him with his nimble sword assoon as his work is done, and the hour falls severed to the dust withhis bright wings scattered, as a locust cut asunder by the scimitar ofa skillful swordsman.

  "One by one, O King, with a stir in the camp, and the folding up of thetents one by one, the travellers shall push on again on the journeybegun so long before out of the City without a name to the place wheredream camels go, striding free through the Waste. So into the Waste, OKing, thou shalt set forth ere long, perhaps to renew friendships begunduring thy short encampment upon earth.

  "Other green places thou shalt meet in the Waste and thereon shaltencamp again until driven thence by the hours. What prophet shallrelate how many journeys thou shalt make or how many encampments? Butat last thou shalt come to the place of The Resting of Camels, andthere shall gleaming cliffs that are named The Ending of Journeys liftup out of the Waste of Nought, Nought at their feet, Nought laying widebefore them, with only the glint of worlds far off to illumine theWaste. One by one, on tired dream camels, the travellers shall come in,and going up the pathway through the cliff in that land of The Restingof Camels shall come on The City of Ceasing. There, the dream-wroughtpinnacles and the spires that are builded of men's hopes shall rise upreal before thee, seen only hitherto as a mirage in the Waste.

  "So far the swarming hours may not come, and far away among the tentsshall stand the dark figure with the nimble sword. But in thescintillant streets, under the song-built abodes of the last of cities,thy journey, O King, shall end."

  _VII_

  In the valley beyond Sidono there lies a garden of poppies, and wherethe poppies' heads are all a-swing with summer breezes that go up thevalley there lies a path well strewn with ocean shells. Over Sidono'ssummit the birds come streaming to the lake that lies in the valley ofthe garden, and behind them rises the sun sending Sidono's shadow asfar as the edge of the lake. And down the path of many ocean shellswhen they begin to gleam in the sun, every morning walks an aged manclad in a silken robe with strange devices woven. A little temple wherethe old man lives stands at the edge of the path. None worship there,for Zornadhu, the old prophet, hath forsaken men to walk among hispoppies.

  For Zornadhu hath failed to understand the purport of Kings and citiesand the moving up and down of many people to the tune of the clinkingof gold. Therefore hath Zornadhu gone far away from the sound of citiesand from those that are ensnared thereby, and beyond Sidono's mountainhath come to rest where there are neither kings nor armies norbartering for gold, but only the heads of the poppies that sway in thewind together and the birds that fly from Sidono to the lake, and thenthe sunrise over Sidono's summit; and afterwards the flight of birdsout of the lake and over Sidono again, and sunset behind the valley,and high over lake and garden the stars that know not cities. ThereZornadhu lives in his garden of poppies with Sidono standing betweenhim and the whole world of men; and when the wind blowing athwart thevalley sways the heads of the tall poppies against the Temple wall, theold prophet says: "The flowers are all praying, and lo! they be nearerto the gods than men."

  But the heralds of the King coming after many days of travel to Sidonoperceived the garden valley. By the lake they saw the poppy gardengleaming round and small like a sunrise over water on a misty morningseen by some shepherd from the hills. And descending the bare mountainfor three days they came to the gaunt pines, and ever between the talltrunks came the glare of the poppies that shone from the garden valley.For a whole day they travelled through the pines. That night a coldwind came up the garden valley crying against the poppies. Low in hisTemple, with a song of exceeding grief, Zornadhu in the morning made adirge for the passing of poppies, because in the night time there hadfallen petals that might not return or ever come again into the gardenvalley. Outside the Temple on the path of ocean shells the heraldshalted, and read the names and honours of the King; and from the Templecame the voice of Zornadhu still singing his lament. But they took himfrom his garden because of the King's command, and down his gleamingpath of ocean shells and away up Sidono, and left the Temple empty withnone to lament when silken poppies died. And the will of the wind ofthe autumn was wrought upon the poppies, and the heads of the poppiesthat rose from the earth went down to the earth again, as the plume ofa warrior smitten in a heathen fight far away, where there are none tolament him. Thus out of his land of flowers went Zornadhu and cameperforce into the lands of men, and saw cities, and in the city's midststood up before the King.

  And the King said:

  "Zornadhu, what of the journey of the King and of the princes and thepeople that shall meet me?"

  Zornadhu answered:

  "I know nought of Kings, but in the night time the poppy made hisjourney a little before dawn. Thereafter the wildfowl came as is theirwont over Sidono's summit, and the sun rising behind them gleamed uponSidono, and all the flowers of the lake awoke. And the bee passing upand down the garden went droning to other poppies, and the flowers ofthe lake, they that had known the poppy, knew him no more. And thesun's rays slanting from Sidono's crest lit still a garden valley whereone poppy waved his petals to the dawn no more. And I, O King, thatdown a path of gleaming ocean shells walk in the morning, found not,nor have since found, that poppy again, that hath gone on the journeywhence there is not returning, out of my garden valley. And I, O King,made a dirge to cry beyond that valley and the poppies bowed theirheads; but there is no cry nor no lament that may adjure the life toreturn again to a flower that grew in a garden once and hereafter isnot.

  "Unto what place the lives of poppies have gone no man shall truly say.Sure it is that to that place are on
ly outward tracks. Only it may bethat when a man dreams at evening in a garden where heavily the scentof poppies hangs in the air, when the winds have sunk, and far away thesound of a lute is heard on lonely hills, as he dreams of silken-scarletpoppies that once were a-swing together in the gardens of his youth, thelives of those old lost poppies shall return, living again in his dream.*So there may dream the gods.* And through the dreams of some divinityreclining in tinted fields above the morning we may haply pass again,although our bodies have long swirled up and down the world with otherdust. In these strange dreams our lives may be again, all in the centreof our hopes, rejoicings and laments, until above the morning the godswake to go about their work, haply to remember still Their idle dreams,haply to dream them all again in the stillness when shines the starlightof the gods."

  _VIII_

  Then said the King: "I like not these strange journeys nor this faintwandering through the dreams of gods like the shadow of a weary camelthat may not rest when the sun is low. The gods that have made me tolove the earth's cool woods and dancing streams do ill to send me intothe starry spaces that I love not, with my soul still peering earthwardthrough the eternal years, as a beggar who once was noble staring fromthe street at lighted halls. For wherever the gods may send me I shallbe as the gods have made me, a creature loving the green fields ofearth.

  "Now if there stand one prophet here that hath the ear of those toosplendid gods that stride above the glories of the orient sky, tellthem that there is on earth one King in the land called Zarkandhu tothe south of the opal mountains, who would fain tarry among the manygardens of earth, and would leave to other men the splendours that thegods shall give the dead above the twilight that surrounds the stars."

  Then spake Yamen, prophet of the Temple of Obin that stands on theshores of a great lake, facing east. Yamen said: "I pray oft to thegods who sit above the twilight behind the east. When the clouds areheavy and red at sunset, or when there is boding of thunder or eclipse,then I pray not, lest my prayers be scattered and beaten earthward. Butwhen the sun sets in a tranquil sky, pale green or azure, and the lightof his farewells stays long upon lonely hills, then I send forth myprayers to flutter upward to gods that are surely smiling, and the godshear my prayers. But, O King, boons sought out of due time from thegods are never wholly to be desired, and, if They should grant to theeto tarry on the earth, old age would trouble thee with burdens more andmore till thou wouldst become the driven slave of the hours in fettersthat none may break."

  The King said: "They that have devised this burden of age may surelystay it, pray therefore on the calmest evening of the year to the godsabove the twilight that I may tarry always on the earth and alwaysyoung, while over my head the scourges of the gods pass and alightnot."

  Then answered Yamen: "The King hath commanded, yet among the blessingsof the gods there always cries a curse. The great princes that make merrywith the King, who tell of the great deeds that the King wrought in theformer time, shall one by one grow old. And thou, O King, seated at thefeast crying, 'make merry' and extolling the former time shall find aboutthee white heads nodding in sleep, and men that are forgetting the formertime. Then one by one the names of those that sported with thee oncecalled by the gods, one by one the names of the singers that sing thesongs thou lovest called by the gods, lastly of those that chased thegrey boar by night and took him in Orghoom river--only the King. Thena new people that have not known the old deeds of the King nor fought andchased with him, who dare not make merry with the King as did his longdead princes. And all the while those princes that are dead growing dearerand greater in thy memory, and all the while the men that served thee thengrowing more small to thee. And all the old things fading and new thingsarising which are not as the old things were, the world changing yearlybefore thine eyes and the gardens of thy childhood overgrown. Because thychildhood was in the olden years thou shalt love the olden years, but everthe new years shall overthrow them and their customs, and not the will ofa King may stay the changes that the gods have planned for all the customsof old. Ever thou shalt say 'This was not so,' and ever the new customshall prevail even against a King. When thou hast made merry a thousandtimes thou shalt grow tired of making merry. At last thou shalt becomeweary of the chase, and still old age shall not come near to thee tostifle desires that have been too oft fulfilled; then, O King, thou shaltbe a hunter yearning for the chase but with nought to pursue that hathnot been oft overcome. Old age shall come not to bury thine ambitions ina time when there is nought for thee to aspire to any more. Experienceof many centuries shall make thee wise but hard and very sad, and thoushalt be a mind apart from thy fellows and curse them all for fools,and they shall not perceive thy wisdom because thy thoughts are nottheir thoughts and the gods that they have made are not the gods of theolden time. No solace shall thy wisdom bring thee but only an increasingknowledge that thou knowest nought, and thou shalt feel as a wise manin a world of fools, or else as a fool in a world of wise men, whenall men feel so sure and ever thy doubts increase. When all that spakewith thee of thine old deeds are dead, those that saw them not shallspeak of them again to thee; till one speaking to thee of thy deeds ofvalour add more than even a man should when speaking to a King, and thoushalt suddenly doubt whether these great deeds were; and there shall benone to tell thee, only the echoes of the voices of the gods stillsinging in thine ears when long ago They called the princes that werethy friends. And thou shalt hear the knowledge of the olden time mostwrongly told and afterwards forgotten. Then many prophets shall ariseclaiming discovery of that old knowledge. Then thou shalt find thatseeking knowledge is vain, as the chase is vain, as making merry isvain, as all things are vain. One day thou shalt find that it is vainto be a King. Greatly then will the acclamations of the people wearythee, till the time when people grow aweary of Kings. Then thou shaltknow that thou hast been uprooted from thine olden time and set to livein uncongenial years, and jests all new to royal ears shall smite theeon the head like hailstones, when thou hast lost thy crown, when thoseto whose grandsires thou hadst granted to bring them as children to kissthe feet of the King shall mock at thee because thou hast not learnt tobarter with gold.

  "Not all the marvels of the future time shall atone to thee for thoseold memories that glow warmer and brighter every year as they recedeinto the ages that the gods have gathered. And always dreaming of thylong dead princes and of the great Kings of other kingdoms in the oldentime thou shalt fail to see the grandeur to which a hurrying jestingpeople shall attain in that kingless age. Lastly, O King, thou shaltperceive men changing in a way that thou shalt not comprehend, knowingwhat thou canst not know, till thou shalt discover that these are menno more and a new race holds dominion over the earth whose forefatherswere men. These shall speak to thee no more as they hurry upon a questthat thou shalt never understand, and thou shalt know that thou canstno longer take thy part in shaping destinies, but in a world of citiesonly pine for air and the waving grass again and the sound of a wind intrees. Then even this shall end with the shapes of the gods in thedarkness gathering all lives but thine, when the hills shall fling upearth's long stored heat back to the heavens again, when earth shall beold and cold, with nothing alive upon it but one King."

  Then said the King: "Pray to those hard gods still, for those that haveloved the earth with all its gardens and woods and singing streams willlove earth still when it is old and cold and with all its gardens goneand all the purport of its being failed and nought but memories."

  _IX_

  Then spake Paharn, a prophet of the land of Hurn.

  And Paharn said:

  "There was one man that knew, but he stands not here."

  And the King said:

  "Is he further than my heralds might travel in the night if they wentupon fleet horses?"

  And the prophet answered:

  "He is no further than thy heralds may well travel in the night, butfurther than they may return from in all the years. Out of this citythere goes a valley wandering through
all the world and opens out atlast on the green land of Hurn. On the one side in the distance gleamsthe sea, and on the other side a forest, black and ancient, darkens thefields of Hurn; beyond the forest and the sea there is no more, savingthe twilight and beyond that the gods. In the mouth of the valleysleeps the village of Rhistaun.

  "Here I was born, and heard the murmur of the flocks and herds, and sawthe tall smoke standing between the sky and the still roofs ofRhistaun, and learned that men might not go into the dark forest, andthat beyond the forest and the sea was nought saving the twilight, andbeyond that the gods. Often there came travellers from the world alldown the winding valley, and spake with strange speech in Rhistaun andreturned again up the valley going back to the world. Sometimes withbells and camels and men running on foot, Kings came down the valleyfrom the world, but always the travellers returned by the valley againand none went further than the land of Hurn.

  "And Kithneb also was born in the land of Hurn and tended the flockswith me, but Kithneb would not care to listen to the murmur of theflocks and herds and see the tall smoke standing between the roofs andthe sky, but needed to know how far from Hurn it was that the world metthe twilight, and how far across the twilight sat the gods.

  "And often Kithneb dreamed as he tended the flocks and herds, and whenothers slept he would wander near to the edge of the forest wherein menmight not go. And the elders of the land of Hurn reproved Kithneb whenhe dreamed; yet Kithneb was still as other men and mingled with hisfellows until the day of which I will tell thee, O King. For Kithnebwas aged about a score of years, and he and I were sitting near theflocks, and he gazed long at the point where the dark forest met thesea at the end of the land of Hurn. But when night drove the twilightdown under the forest we brought the flocks together to Rhistaun, and Iwent up the street between the houses to see four princes that had comedown the valley from the world, and they were clad in blue and scarletand wore plumes upon their heads, and they gave us in exchange for oursheep some gleaming stones which they told us were of great value onthe word of princes. And I sold them three sheep, and Darniag sold themeight.

  "But Kithneb came not with the others to the market place where thefour princes stood, but went alone across the fields to the edge of theforest.

  "And it was upon the next morning that the strange thing befellKithneb; for I saw him in the morning coming from the fields, and Ihailed him with the shepherd's cry wherewith we shepherds call to oneanother, and he answered not. Then I stopped and spake to him, andKithneb said not a word till I became angry and left him.

  "Then we spake together concerning Kithneb, and others had hailed him,and he had not answered them, but to one he had said that he had heardthe voices of the gods speaking beyond the forest and so would neverlisten more to the voices of men.

  "Then we said: 'Kithneb is mad,' and none hindered him.

  "Another took his place among the flocks, and Kithneb sat in theevenings by the edge of the forest on the plain, alone.

  "So Kithneb spake to none for many days, but when any forced him tospeak he said that every evening he heard the gods when they came tosit in the forest from over the twilight and sea, and that he wouldspeak no more with men.

  "But as the months went by, men in Rhistaun came to look on Kithneb asa prophet, and we were wont to point to him when strangers came downthe valley from the world, saying:

  "'Here in the land of Hurn we have a prophet such as you have not amongyour cities, for he speaks at evening with the gods.'

  "A year had passed over the silence of Kithneb when he came to me andspake. And I bowed before him because we believed that he spake amongthe gods. And Kithneb said:

  "'I will speak to thee before the end because I am most lonely. For howmay I speak again with men and women in the little streets of Rhistaunamong the houses, when I have heard the voices of the gods singingabove the twilight? But I am more lonely than ever Rhistaun wonts of,for this I tell thee, _when I hear the gods I know not what They say_.Well indeed I know the voice of each, for ever calling me away fromcontentment; well I know Their voices as they call to my soul andtrouble it; I know by Their tone when They rejoice, and I know whenThey are sad, for even the gods feel sadness. I know when over fallencities of the past, and the curved white bones of heroes They sing thedirges of the gods' lament. But alas! Their words I know not, and thewonderful strains of the melody of Their speech beat on my soul andpass away unknown.

  "'Therefore I travelled from the land of Hurn till I came to the houseof the prophet Arnin-Yo, and told him that I sought to find the meaningof the gods; and Arnin-Yo told me to ask the shepherds concerning allthe gods, for what the shepherds knew it was meet for a man to know,and, beyond that, knowledge turned into trouble.

  "'But I told Arnin-Yo that I had heard myself the voices of the godsand knew that They were there beyond the twilight and so could nevermore bow down to the gods that the shepherds made from the red claywhich they scooped with their hands out of the hillside.

  "'Then said Arnin-Yo to me:

  "'"Natheless forget that thou hast heard the gods and bow down again tothe gods of the red clay that the shepherds make, and find thereby theease that the shepherds find, and at last die, remembering devoutly thegods of the red clay that the shepherds scooped with their hands out ofthe hill. For the gifts of the gods that sit beyond the twilight andsmile at the gods of clay, are neither ease nor contentment."

  "'And I said:

  "'"The god that my mother made out of the red clay that she had gotfrom the hill, fashioning it with many arms and eyes as she sang mesongs of its power, and told me stories of its mystic birth, this godis lost and broken; and ever in my ears is ringing the melody of thegods."

  "'And Arnin-Yo said:

  "'"If thou wouldst still seek knowledge know that only those that comebehind the gods may clearly know their meaning. And this thou canstonly do by taking ship and putting out to sea from the land of Hurn andsailing up the coast towards the forest. There the sea cliffs turn tothe left or southward, and full upon them beats the twilight from overthe sea, and there thou mayest come round behind the forest. Here wherethe world's edge mingles with the twilight the gods come in theevening, and if thou canst come behind Them thou shalt hear Theirvoices clear, beating full seaward and filling all the twilight withsound of song, and thou shalt know the meaning of the gods. But wherethe cliffs turn southward there sits behind the gods Brimdono, theoldest whirlpool in the sea, roaring to guard his masters. Him the godshave chained for ever to the floor of the twilit sea to guard the doorof the forest that lieth above the cliffs. Here, then, if thou cansthear the voices of the gods as thou hast said, thou wilt know theirmeaning clear, but this will profit thee little when Brimdono dragsthee down and all thy ship.'"

  "Thus spake Kithneb to me.

  "But I said:

  "'O Kithneb, forget those whirlpool-guarded gods beyond the forest, andif thy small god be lost thou shalt worship with me the small god thatmy mother made. Thousands of years ago he conquered cities but is notany longer an angry god. Pray to him, Kithneb, and he shall bring theecomfort and increase to thy flocks and a mild spring, and at the last aquiet ending for thy days.'

  "But Kithneb heeded not, and only bade me find a fisher ship and men torow it. So on the next day we put forth from the land of Hurn in a boatthat the fisher folk use. And with us came four of the fisher folk whorowed the boat while I held the rudder, but Kithneb sat and spake notin the prow. And we rowed westward up the coast till we came at eveningwhere the cliffs turned southward and the twilight gleamed upon themand the sea.

  "There we turned southwards and saw at once Brimdono. Andas a man tears the purple cloak of a king slain in battle to divide itwith other warriors,--Brimdono tore the sea. And ever around and aroundhim with a gnarled hand Brimdono whirled the sail of some adventurousship, the trophy of some calamity wrought in his greed for shipwrecklong ago where he sat to guard his masters from all who fare on thesea. And ever one far-reaching empty hand swung up and down
so that wedurst go no nearer.

  "Only Kithneb neither saw Brimdono nor heard his roar, and when wewould go no further bade us lower a small boat with oars out of theship. Into this boat Kithneb descended, not heeding words from us, andonward rowed alone. A cry of triumph over ships and men Brimdonouttered before him, but Kithneb's eyes were turned toward the forest ashe came behind the gods. Upon his face the twilight beat full from thehaunts of evening to illumine the smiles that grew about his eyes as hecame behind the gods. Him that had found the gods above Their twilitcliffs, him that had heard Their voices close at last and knew Theirmeaning clear, him, from the cheerless world with its doubtings andprophets that lie, from all hidden meanings, where truth rang clear atlast, Brimdono took."

  But when Paharn ceased to speak, in the King's ears the roar ofBrimdono exulting over ancient triumphs and the whelming of shipsseemed still to ring.

  _X_

  Then Mohontis spake, the hermit prophet, who lived in the deepuntravelled woods that seclude Lake Ilana.

  "I dreamed that to the west of all the seas I saw by vision the mouthof Munra-O, guarded by golden gates, and through the bars of the gatesthat guard the mysterious river of Munra-O I saw the flashes of goldenbarques, wherein the gods went up and down, and to and fro through theevening dusk. And I saw that Munra-O was a river of dreams such as camethrough remembered gardens in the night, to charm our infancy as weslept beneath the sloping gables of the houses of long ago. And Munra-Orolled down her dreams from the unknown inner land and slid them underthe golden gates and out into the waste, unheeding sea, till they beatfar off upon low-lying shores and murmured songs of long ago to theislands of the south, or shouted tumultuous paeans to the Northerncrags; or cried forlornly against rocks where no one came, dreams thatmight not be dreamed.

  "Many gods there be, that through the dusk of an evening in the summergo up and down this river. There I saw, in a high barque all of gold,gods the of the pomp of cities; there I saw gods of splendour, in boatsbejewelled to the keels; gods of magnificence and gods of power. I sawthe dark ships and the glint of steel of the gods whose trade was war,and I heard the melody of the bells of silver arow in the rigging ofharpstrings as the gods of melody went sailing through the dusk on theriver of Munra--O. Wonderful river of Munra--O! I saw a grey ship withsails of the spider's web all lit with dewdrop lanterns, and on itsprow was a scarlet cock with its wings spread far and wide when thegods of the dawn sailed also on Munra-O.

  "Down this river it is the wont of the gods to carry the souls of meneastward to where the world in the distance faces on Munra-O. Then Iknew that when the gods of the Pride of Power and gods of the Pomp ofCities went down the river in their tall gold ships to take earthwardother souls, swiftly adown the river and between the ships had gone inthis boat of birch bark the god Tarn, the hunter, bearing my soul tothe world. And I know now that he came down the stream in the duskkeeping well to the middle, and that he moved silently and swiftlyamong the ships, wielding a twin-bladed oar. I remember, now, theyellow gleaming of the great boats of the gods of the Pomp of Cities,and the huge prow above me of the gods of the Pride of Power, whenTarn, dipping his right blade into the river, lifted his left bladehigh, and the drops gleamed and fell. Thus Tarn the hunter took me tothe world that faces across the sea of the west on the gate of Munra-O.And so it was that there grew upon me the glamour of the hunt, though Ihad forgotten Tarn, and took me into mossy places and into dark woods,and I became the cousin of the wolf and looked into the lynx's eyes andknew the bear; and the birds called to me with half-remembered notes,and there grew in me a deep love of great rivers and of all westernseas, and a distrust of cities, and all the while I had forgotten Tarn.

  "I know not what high galleon shall come for thee, O King, nor whatrowers, clad with purple, shall row at the bidding of gods when thougoest back with pomp to the river of Munra-O. But for me Tarn waitswhere the Seas of the West break over the edge of the world, and, asthe years pass over me and the love of the chase sinks low, and as theglamour of the dark woods and mossy places dies down in my soul, everlouder and louder lap the ripples against the canoe of birch barkwhere, holding his twin-bladed oar, Tarn waits.

  "But when my soul hath no more knowledge of the woods nor kindred anylonger with the creatures of the dark, and when all that Tarn hathgiven it shall be lost, then Tarn shall take me back over the westernseas, where all the remembered years lie floating idly aswing with theebb and flow, to bring me again to the river of Munra-O. Far up thatriver we shall haply chase those creatures whose eyes are peering inthe night as they prowl around the world, for Tarn was ever a hunter."

  _XI_

  Then Ulf spake, the prophet who in Sistrameides lives in a templeanciently dedicated to the gods. Rumour hath guessed that there thegods walked once some time towards evening. But Time whose hand isagainst the temples of the gods hath dealt harshly with it andoverturned its pillars and set upon its ruins his sign and seal: nowUlf dwells there alone. And Ulf said, "There sets, O King, a riveroutward from earth which meets with a mighty sea whose waters rollthrough space and fling their billows on the shores of every star.These are the river and the sea of the Tears of Men."

  And the King said:

  "Men have not written of this sea."

  And the prophet answered:

  "Have not tears enough burst in the night time out of sleeping cities?Have not the sorrows of 10,000 homes sent streams into this river whentwilight fell and it was still and there was none to hear? Have therenot been hopes, and were they all fulfilled? Have there not beenconquests and bitter defeats? And have not flowers when spring was overdied in the gardens of many children? Tears enough, O King, tearsenough have gone down out of earth to make such a sea; and deep it isand wide and the gods know it and it flings its spray on the shores ofall the stars. Down this river and across this sea thou shalt fare in aship of sighs and all around thee over the sea shall fly the prayers ofmen which rise on white wings higher than their sorrows. Sometimesperched in the rigging, sometimes crying around thee, shall go theprayers that availed not to stay thee in Zarkandhu. Far over thewaters, and on the wings of the prayers beats the light of aninaccessible star. No hand hath touched it, none hath journeyed to it,it hath no substance, it is only a light, it is the star of Hope, andit shines far over the sea and brightens the world. It is nought but alight, but the gods gave it.

  "Led only by the light of this star the myriad prayers that thou shaltsee all around thee fly to the Hall of the gods.

  "Sighs shall waft thy ship of sighs over the sea of Tears. Thou shaltpass by islands of laughter and lands of song lying low in the sea, andall of them drenched with tears flung over their rocks by the waves ofthe sea all driven by the sighs.

  "But at last thou shalt come with the prayers of men to the great Hallof the gods where the chairs of the gods are carved of onyx groupedround the golden throne of the eldest of the gods. And there, O King,hope not to find the gods, but reclining upon the golden throne wearinga cloak of his master's thou shalt see the figure of Time with bloodupon his hands, and loosely dangling from his fingers a dripping sword,and spattered with blood but empty shall stand the onyx chairs.

  "There he sits on his master's throne dangling idly his sword, or withit flicking cruelly at the prayers of men that lie in a great heapbleeding at his feet.

  "For a while, O King, the gods had sought to solve the riddles of Time,for a while They made him Their slave, and Time smiled and obeyed hismasters, for a while, O King, for a while. He that hath spared nothinghath not spared the gods, nor yet shall he spare thee."

  Then the King spake dolefully in the Hall of Kings, and said:

  "May I not find at last the gods, and must it be that I may not look inTheir faces at the last to see whether They be kindly? They that havesent me on my earthward journey I would greet on my returning, if notas a King coming again to his own city, yet as one who having beenordered had obeyed, and obeying had merited something of those for whomhe toiled. I would look Them in T
heir faces, O prophet, and ask Themconcerning many things and would know the wherefore of much. I hadhoped, O prophet, that those gods that had smiled upon my childhood,Whose voices stirred at evening in gardens when I was young, would holddominion still when at last I came to seek Them. O prophet, if this isnot to be, make you a great dirge for my childhood's gods and fashionsilver bells and, setting them mostly a-swing amidst such trees as grewin the garden of my childhood, sing you this dirge in the dusk: andsing it when the low moth flies up and down and the bat first comespeering from her home, sing it when white mists come rising from theriver, when smoke is pale and grey, while flowers are yet closing, erevoices are yet hushed, sing it while all things yet lament the day, orever the great lights of heaven come blazing forth and night with hersplendours takes the place of day. For, if the old gods die, let uslament Them or ever new knowledge comes, while all the world stillshudders at Their loss.

  "For at the last, O prophet, what is left? Only the gods of mychildhood dead, and only Time striding large and lonely through thespaces, chilling the moon and paling the light of stars and scatteringearthward out of both his hands the dust of forgetfulness over thefields of heroes and smitten Temples of the older gods."

  But when the other prophets heard with what doleful words the Kingspake in the Hall they all cried out:

  "It is not as Ulf has said but as I have said--and I."

  Then the King pondered long, not speaking. But down in the city in astreet between the houses stood grouped together they that were wont todance before the King, and they that had borne his wine in jewelledcups. Long they had tarried in the city hoping that the King mightrelent, and once again regard them with kindly faces calling for wineand song. The next morning they were all to set out in search of somenew Kingdom, and they were peering between the houses and up the longgrey street to see for the last time the palace of King Ebalon; andPattering Leaves, the dancer, cried:

  "Not any more, not any more at all shall we drift up the carven hall todance before the King. He that now watches the magic of his prophetswill behold no more the wonder of the dance, and among ancientparchments, strange and wise, he shall forget the swirl of drapery whenwe swing together through the Dance of the Myriad Steps."

  And with her were Silvern Fountain and Summer Lightning and Dream ofthe Sea, each lamenting that they should dance no more to please theeyes of the King.

  And Intahn who had carried at the banquet for fifty years the goblet ofthe King set with its four sapphires each as large as an eye, said ashe spread his hands towards the palace making the sign of farewell:

  "Not all the magic of prophecy nor yet foreseeing nor perceiving mayequal the power of wine. Through the small door in the King's Hall onegoes by one hundred steps and many sloping corridors into the cool ofthe earth where lies a cavern vaster than the Hall. Therein, curtainedby the spider, repose the casks of wine that are wont to gladden thehearts of the Kings of Zarkandhu. In islands far to the eastward thevine, from whose heart this wine was long since wrung, hath climbedaloft with many a clutching finger and beheld the sea and ships of theolden time and men since dead, and gone down into the earth again andbeen covered over with weeds. And green with the damp of years therelie three casks that a city gave not up until all her defenders wereslain and her houses fired; and ever to the soul of that wine is addeda more ardent fire as ever the years go by. Thither it was my pride togo before a banquet in the olden years, and coming up to bear in thesapphire goblet the fire of the elder Kings and to watch the King's eyeflash and his face grow nobler and more like his sires as he drank thegleaming wine.

  "And now the King seeks wisdom from his prophets while all the glory ofthe past and all the clattering splendour of today grows old, far down,forgotten beneath his feet."

  And when he ceased the cupbearers and the women that danced looked longin silence at the palace. Then one by one all made the farewell signbefore they turned to go, and as they did this a herald unseen in thedark was speeding towards them.

  After a long silence the King spake:

  "Prophets of my Kingdom," he said, "you have not prophesied alike, andthe words of each prophet condemn his fellows' words so that wisdom maynot be discovered among prophets. But I command that none in my Kingdomshall doubt that the earliest King of Zarkandhu stored wine beneaththis palace before the building of the city or ever the palace arose,and I shall cause commands to be uttered for the making of a banquet atonce within this Hall, so that ye shall perceive that the power of mywine is greater than all your spells, and dancing more wondrous thanprophecy."

  The dancers and the winebearers were summoned back, and as the nightwore on a banquet was spread and all the prophets bidden to be seated,Samahn, Ynath, Monith, Ynar Thun, the prophet of Journeys, Zornadhu,Yamen, Paharn, Ilana, Ulf, and one that had not spoken nor yet revealedhis name, and who wore his prophet's cloak across his face.

  And the prophets feasted as they were commanded and spake as other menspake, save he whose face was hidden, who neither ate nor spake. Oncehe put out his hand from under his cloak and touched a blossom amongthe flowers upon the table and the blossom fell.

  And Pattering Leaves came in and danced again, and the King smiled, andPattering Leaves was happy though she had not the wisdom of theprophets. And in and out, in and out, in and out among the columns ofthe Hall went Summer Lightning in the maze of the dance. And SilvernFountain bowed before the King and danced and danced and bowed again,and old Intahn went to and fro from the cavern to the King gravelythrough the midst of the dancers but with kindly eyes, and when theKing had often drunk of the old wine of the elder Kings he called forDream of the Sea and bade her sing. And Dream of the Sea came throughthe arches and sang of an island builded by magic out of pearls, thatlay set in a ruby sea, and how it lay far off and under the south,guarded by jagged reefs whereon the sorrows of the world were wreckedand never came to the island. And how a low sunset always reddened thesea and lit the magic isle and never turned to night, and how someonesang always and endlessly to lure the soul of a King who might byenchantment pass the guarding reefs to find rest on the pearl islandand not be troubled more, but only see sorrows on the outer reefbattered and broken. Then Soul of the South rose up and sang a song ofa fountain that ever sought to reach the sky and was ever doomed tofall to the earth again until at last....

  Then whether it was the art of Pattering Leaves or the song of Dream ofthe Sea, or whether it was the fire of the wine of the elder Kings,Ebalon bade farewell kindly to the prophets when morning paled thestars. Then along the torchlit corridors the King went to his chamber,and having shut the door in the empty room, beheld suddenly a figurewearing the cloak of a prophet; and the King perceived that it was hewhose face was hidden at the banquet, who had not revealed his name.

  And the King said:

  "Art thou, too, a prophet?"

  And the figure answered:

  "I am a prophet."

  And the King said: "Knowest _thou_ aught concerning the journey of theKing?" And the figure answered: "I know, but have never said."

  And the King said: "Who art thou that knowest so much and has not toldit?"

  And he answered:

  "I am _The End_."

  Then the cloaked figure strode away from the palace; and the King,unseen by the guards, followed upon his journey.

  THE END