“’And I, who was only a shepherd, how could I know?
“’I said: “I will make men rich.” And the gods said: “What is rich?”
“’And I said: “I will send them love.” And the gods said: “What is love?” And I sent gold into the Worlds, and, alas! I sent with it poverty and strife. And I sent love into the Worlds, and with it grief.
“’And now I have mixed gold and love most woefully together, and I can never remedy what I have done, for the deeds of the gods are done, and nothing may undo them.
“’Then I said: “I will give men wisdom that they may be glad.” And those who got my wisdom found that they knew nothing, and from having been happy became glad no more.
“’And I, who would make men happy, have made them sad, and I have spoiled the beautiful scheme of the gods.
“’And now my hand is for ever on the handle of Their plough. I was only a shepherd, and how should I have known?
“’Now I come to thee as thou restest by the river to ask of thee thy forgiveness, for I would fain have the forgiveness of a man.’
“And I answered: ’O Lord of seven skies, whose children are the storms, shall a man forgive a god?’
“He answered: ’Men have sinned not against the gods as the gods have sinned against men since I came into Their councils.’
“And I, the prophet, answered: ’O Lord of seven skies, whose plaything is the thunder, thou art amongst the gods, what need hast thou for words from any man?’
“He said: ’Indeed I am amongst the gods, who speak to me as they speak to other gods, yet is there always a smile about Their mouths, and a look in Their eyes that saith: “Thou wert a man.’’
“I said: ’O Lord of seven skies, about whose feet the Worlds are as drifted sand, because thou biddest me, I, a man, forgive thee.’
“And he answered: ‘I was but a shepherd, and I could not know.’ Then he was gone.”
PEGANA
The prophet of the gods cried out to the gods: “O! All the gods save One” for none may pray to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, “where shall the life of a man abide when Mung hath made against his body the sign of Mung?—for the people with whom ye play have sought to know.”
But the gods answered, speaking through the mist:
“Though thou shouldst tell thy secrets to the beasts, even that the beasts should understand, yet will not the gods divulge the secret of the gods to thee, that gods and beasts and men shall be all the same, all knowing the same things.”
That night Yoharneth-Lahai same to Aradec, and said unto Imbaun: “Wherefore wouldst thou know the secret of the gods that not the gods may tell thee?
“When the wind blows not, where, then, is the wind?
“Or when thou art not living, where art thou?
“What should the wind care for the hours of calm or thou for death?
“Thy life is long, Eternity is short.
“So short that, shouldst thou die and Eternity should pass, and after the passing of Eternity thou shouldst live again, thou wouldst say: ‘I closed mine eyes but for an instant.’
“There is an eternity behind thee as well as one before. Hast thou bewailed the aeons that passed without thee, who art so much afraid of the aeons that shall pass?”
Then said the prophet: “How shall I tell the people that the gods have not spoken and their prophet doth not know? For then should I be prophet no longer, and another would take the people’s gifts instead of me.”
Then said Imbaun to the people: “The gods have spoken, saying: ’O Imbaun, Our prophet, it is as the people believe whose wisdom hath discovered the secret of the gods, and the people when they die shall come to Pegana, and there live with the gods, and there have pleasure without toil. And Pegana is a place all white with the peaks of mountains, on each of them a god, and the people shall lie upon the slopes of the mountains each under the god that he hath worshipped most when his lot was in the Worlds. And there shall music beyond thy dreaming come drifting through the scent of all the orchards in the Worlds, with somewhere someone singing an old song that shall be as a half-remembered thing. And there shall be gardens that have always sunlight, and streams that are lost in no sea beneath skies for ever blue. And there shall be no rain nor no regrets. Only the roses that in highest Pegana have achieved their prime shall shed their petals in showers at thy feet, and only far away on the forgotten earth shall voices drift up to thee that cheered thee in thy childhood about the gardens of thy youth. And if thou sighest for any memory of earth because thou hearest unforgotten voices, then will the gods send messengers on wings to soothe thee in Pegana, saying to them: “There one sigheth who hath remembered Earth.” And they shall make Pegana more seductive for thee still, and they shall take thee by the hand and whisper in thine ear till the old voices are forgot.
“’And besides the flowers of Pegana there shall have climbed by then until it hath reached to Pegana the rose that clambered about the house where thou wast born. Thither shall also come the wandering echoes of all such music as charmed thee long ago.
“’Moreover, as thou sittest on the orchard lawns that clothe Pegana’s mountains, and as thou hearkenest to melody that sways the souls of the gods, there shall stretch away far down beneath thee the great unhappy Earth, till gazing from rapture upon sorrows thou shalt be glad that thou wert dead.
“’And from the three great mountains that stand aloof and over all the others—Grimbol, Zeebol, and Trehagobol—shall blow the wind of the morning and the wind of all the day, borne upon the wings of all the butterflies that have died upon the Worlds, to cool the gods and Pegana.
“’Far through Pegana a silvery fountain, lured upward by the gods from the Central Sea, shall fling its waters aloft, and over the highest of Pegana’s peaks, above Trehagobol, shall burst into gleaming mists, to cover Highest Pegana, and make a curtain about the resting-place of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
“’Alone, still and remote below the base of one of the inner mountains, lieth a great blue pool.
“’Whoever looketh down into its waters may behold all his life that was upon the Worlds and all the deeds that he hath done.
“’None walk by the pool and none regard its depths, for all in Pegana have suffered and all have sinned some sin, and it lieth in the pool.
“’And there is no darkness in Pegana, for when night hath conquered the sun and stilled the Worlds and turned the white peaks of Pegana into grey then shine the blue eyes of the gods like sunlight on the sea, where each god sits upon his mountain.
“’And at the Last, upon some afternoon, perhaps in summer, shall the gods say, speaking to the gods: “What is the likeness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and whattheend?”
“’And then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI draw back with his hand the mists that cover his resting, saying: “This is the Face of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and thistheend.’’”
Then said the people to the prophet: “Shall not black hills draw round in some forsaken land, to make a vale-wide cauldron wherein the molten rock shall seethe and roar, and where the crags of mountains shall be hurled upward to the surface and bubble and go down again, that there our enemies may boil for ever?”
And the prophet answered: “It is writ large about the bases of Pegana’s mountains, upon which sit the gods: ’Thine Enemies Are Forgiven.’’
THE SAYINGS OF IMBAUN
The Prophet of the gods said: “Yonder beside the road there sitteth a false prophet; and to all who seek to know the hidden days he saith: ’Upon the morrow the King shall speak to thee as his chariot goeth by.’”
Moreover, all the people bring him gifts, and the false prophet hath more to listen to his words than hath the Prophet of the gods.
Then said Imbaun: “What knoweth the Prophet of the gods? I know only that I and men know naught concerning the gods or aught concerning men. Shall I, who am their prophet, tell the people this?
“For wherefore have the people chosen prophets but that they should speak the hopes of the people, and tell the people that their hopes be true?”
The false prophet saith: “Upon the morrow the king shall speak to thee.”
Shall not I say: “Upon The Morrow the gods shall speak with thee as thou restest upon Pegana?”