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THE EYE IN THE WASTE
There lie seven deserts beyond Bodrahan, which is the city of the
caravans' end. None goeth beyond. In the first desert lie the
tracks of mighty travellers outward from Bodrahan, and some
returning. And in the second lie only outward tracks, and none
return.
The third is a desert untrodden by the feet of men.
The fourth is the desert of sand, and the fifth is the desert of
dust, and the sixth is the desert of stones, and the seventh is
the Desert of Deserts.
In the midst of the last of the deserts that lie beyond Bodrahan,
in the centre of the Desert of Deserts, standeth the image that
hath been hewn of old out of the living hill whose name is
Ranorada--the eye in the waste.
About the base of Ranorada is carved in mystic letters that are
vaster than the beds of streams these words:
To the god who knows.
Now, beyond the second desert are no tracks, and there is no water
in all the seven deserts that lie beyond Bodrahan. Therefore came
no man thither to hew that statue from the living hills, and
Ranorada was wrought by the hands of gods. Men tell in Bodrahan,
where the caravans end and all the drivers of the camels rest, how
once the gods hewed Ranorada from the living hill, hammering all
night long beyond the deserts. Moreover, they say that Ranorada is
carved in the likeness of the god Hoodrazai, who hath found the
secret of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and knoweth the wherefore of the making
of the gods.
They say that Hoodrazai stands all alone in Pegana and speaks to
none because he knows what is hidden from the gods.
Therefore the gods have made his image in a lonely land as one who
thinks and is silent--the eye in the waste.
They say that Hoodrazai had heard the murmers of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI
as he muttered to himself, and gleaned the meaning, and knew; and
that he was the god of mirth and of abundant joy, but became from
the moment of his knowing a mirthless god, even as his image,
which regards the deserts beyond the track of man.
But the camel drivers, as they sit and listen to the tales of the
old men in the market-place of Bodrahan, at evening, while the
camels rest, say:
"If Hoodrazai is so very wise and yet is sad, let us drink wine,
and banish wisdom to the wastes that lie beyond Bodrahan."
Therefore is there feasting and laughter all night long in the
city where the caravans end.
All this the camel drivers tell when the caravans come in from
Bodrahan; but who shall credit tales that camel drivers have heard
from aged men in so remote a city?
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