|
Prev
| Next
| Contents
THE BIRD OF DOOM AND THE END
For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom
of the gods, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound
of the gods, shall bay hungrily at his masters because he is lean
with age.
And from the innermost of Pegana's vales shall the bird of doom,
Mosahn, whose voice is like the trumpet, soar upward with
boisterous beatings of his wings above Pegana's mountains and the
gods, and there with his trumpet voice acclaim THE END.
Then in the tumult and amid the fury of their hound the gods shall
make for the last time in Pegana the sign of all the gods, and go
with dignity and quiet down to Their galleons of gold, and sail
away down the River of Silence, not ever to return.
Then shall the River overflow its banks, and a tide come setting
in from the Silent Sea, till all the Worlds and the Skies are
drowned in silence; while MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI in the Middle of All
sits deep in thought. And the hound Time, when all the Worlds and
cities are swept away whereon he used to raven, having no more to
devour, shall suddenly die.
But there are some that hold--and this is the heresy of the
Saigoths--that when the gods go down at the last into their
galleons of gold Mung shall turn alone, and, setting his back
against Trehagobol and wielding the Sword of Severing which is
called Death, shall fight out his last fight with the hound Time,
his empty scabbard Sleep clattering loose beside him.
There under Trehagobol they shall fight alone when all the gods
are gone.
And the Saigoths say that for two days and nights the hound shall
leer and snarl before the face of Mung-days and nights that shall
be lit by neither sun nor moons, for these shall go dipping down
the sky with all the Worlds as the galleons glide away, because
the gods that made them are gods no more.
And then shall the hound, springing, tear out the throat of Mung,
who, making for the last time the sign of Mung, shall bring down
Death crashing through the shoulders of the hound, and in the
blood of Time that Sword shall rust away.
Then shall MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI be all alone, with neither Death nor
Time, and never the hours singing in his ears, nor the swish of
the passing lives.
But far away from Pegana shall go the galleons of gold that bear
the gods away, upon whose faces shall be utter calm, because They
are the gods knowing that it is THE END.
Prev
| Next
| Contents
|