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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 what THE END?"
"'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 this THE END."'"
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."'
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