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CONCERNING SISH
(The Destroyer of Hours)
Time is the hound of Sish.
At Sish's bidding do the hours run before him as he goeth upon
his way.
Never hath Sish stepped backward nor ever hath he tarried; never
hath he relented to the things that once he knew nor turned to
them again.
Before Sish is Kib, and behind him goeth Mung.
Very pleasant are all things before the face of Sish, but behind
him they are withered and old.
And Sish goeth ceaselessly upon his way.
Once the gods walked upon Earth as men walk and spake with their
mouths like Men. That was in Wornath-Mavai. They walk not now.
And Wornath-Mavai was a garden fairer than all the gardens upon
Earth.
Kib was propitious, and Mung raised not his hand against it,
neither did Sish assail it with his hours.
Wornath-Mavai lieth in a valley and looketh towards the south, and
on the slopes of it Sish rested among the flowers when Sish was
young.
Thence Sish went forth into the world to destroy its cities, and
to provoke his hours to assail all things, and to batter against
them with the rust and with the dust.
And Time, which is the hound of Sish, devoured all things; and
Sish sent up the ivy and fostered weeds, and dust fell from the
hand of Sish and covered stately things. Only the valley where
Sish rested when he and Time were young did Sish not provoke his
hours to assail.
There he restrained his old hound Time, and at its borders Mung
withheld his footsteps.
Wornath-Mavai still lieth looking towards the south, a garden
among gardens, and still the flowers grow about its slopes as they
grew when the gods were young; and even the butterflies live in
Wornath-Mavai still. For the minds of the gods relent towards
their earliest memories, who relent not otherwise at all.
Wornath-Mavai still lieth looking towards the south; but if thou
shouldst ever find it thou art then more fortunate than the gods,
because they walk not in Wornath-Mavai now.
Once did the prophet think that he discerned it in the distance
beyond mountains, a garden exceeding fair with flowers; but Sish
arose, and pointed with his hand, and set his hound to pursue him,
who hath followed ever since.
Time is the hound of the gods; but it hath been said of old that
he will one day turn upon his masters, and seek to slay the gods,
excepting only MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, whose dreams are the gods
themselves--dreamed long ago.
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