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MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI) did the priests of the gods pray hard.
- For they said
- "For a long while a man may hear the droning of
little insects and yet not be aware that he hath heard them, so
may the gods not hear our prayers at first until they have been
very oft repeated. But when your praying has troubled the silence
long it may be that some god as he strolls in Pegana's glades may
come on one of our lost prayers, that flutters like a butterfly
tossed in storm when all its wings are broken; then if the gods be
merciful they may ease our fears in Sidith, or else they may crush
us, being petulant gods, and so we shall see trouble in Sidith no
longer, with its pestilence and dearth and fears of war."
But in the fourth year of the pestilence and in the second year
of the famine, and while still there was imminence of war, came
all the people of Sidith to the door of the Temple of All the gods
save One, where none may enter but the priests--but only leave
gifts and go.
And there the people cried out: "O High Prophet of All the gods
save One, Priest of Kib, Priest of Sish, and Priest of Mung,
Teller of the mysteries of Dorozhand, Receiver of the gifts of the
People, and Lord of Prayer, what doest thou within the Temple of
All the gods save One?"
And Arb-Rin-Hadith, who was the High Prophet, answered: "I pray for
all the People."
But the people answered: "O High Prophet of All the gods save One,
Priest of Kib, Priest of Sish, and Priest of Mung, Teller of the
mysteries of Dorozhand, Receiver of the gifts of the People, and
Lord of Prayer, for four long years hast thou prayed with the
priests of all thine order, while we brought ye gifts and died.
Now, therefore, since They have not heard thee in four grim years,
thou must go and carry to Their faces the prayer of the people of
Sidith when They go to drive the thunder to his pasture upon the
mountain Aghrinaun, or else there shall no longer be gifts upon
thy temple door, whenever falls the dew, that thou and thine order
may fatten.
"Then thou shalt say before Their faces: 'O All the gods save One,
Lords of the Worlds, whose child is the eclipse, take back thy
pestilence from Sidith, for ye have played the game of the gods
too long with the people of Sidith, who would fain have done with
the gods'."
Then in great fear answered the High Prophet, saying: "What if the
gods be angry and whelm Sidith?" And the people answered: "Then are
we sooner done with pestilence and famine and the imminence of war."
That night the thunder howled upon Aghrinaun, which stood a peak above
all others in the land of Sidith. And the people took Arb-Rin-Hadith
from his Temple and drave him to Aghrinaun, for they said: "There walk
to-night upon the mountain All the gods save One."
And Arb-Rin-Hadith went trembling to the gods.
Next morning, white and frightened from Aghrinaun, came Arb-Rin-Hadith
back into the valley, and there spake to the people, saying: "The
faces of the gods are iron and their mouths set hard. There is no
hope from the gods."
Then said the people: "Thou shalt go to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, to whom
no man may pray: seek him upon Aghrinaun where it lifts clear into
the stillness before morning, and on its summit, where all things
seem to rest surely there rests also MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI. Go to him,
and say: 'Thou hast made evil gods, and They smite Sidith.'
Perchance he hath forgotten all his gods, or hath not heard of
Sidith. Thou hast escaped the thunder of the gods, surely thou
shalt also escape the stillness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI."
Upon a morning when the sky and lakes were clear and the world
still, and Aghrinaun was stiller than the world, Arb-Rin-Hadith
crept in fear towards the slopes of Aghrinaun because the people
were urgent.
All that day men saw him climbing. At night he rested near the
top. But ere the morning of the day that followed, such as rose
early saw him in the silence, a speck against the blue, stretch up
his arms upon the summit to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI. Then instantly they
saw him not, nor was he ever seen of men again who had dared to
trouble the stillness of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
Such as now speak of Sidith tell of a fierce and potent tribe
that smote away a people in a valley enfeebled by pestilence,
where stood a temple to "All the gods save One" in which was no
high priest.
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