The Gods of Pegāna quotes

There be islands in the Central Sea, whose waters are bounded by no shore and where no ships come⁠—this is the faith of their people.

In the mists before the beginning, Fate and Chance cast lots to decide whose the Game should be; and he that won strode through the mists to Māna-Yood-Sushāī and said:

Before there stood gods upon Olympus, or ever Allah was Allah, had wrought and rested Māna-Yood-Sushāī.

There are in Pegāna Mung and Sish and Kib, and the maker of all small gods, who is Māna-Yood-Sushāī. Moreover, we have a faith in Roon and Slid.

And They made by the lifting of Their hands, each god according to his sign, the Bright One with the flaring tail to seek from the end of the Worlds to the end of them again, to return again after a hundred years.

Man, when thou seest the comet, know that another seeketh besides thee nor ever findeth out.

Then said the gods, still speaking with Their hands: “Let there be now a Watcher to regard.”

“

It is a very serious thing that there be Worlds and Suns, and yet most withering is the laughter of Māna-Yood-Sushāī.

“And when he arises from resting at the Last, and laughs at us for playing with Worlds and Suns, We will hastily put them behind us, and there shall be Worlds no more.”

Time is the hound of Sish.

At Sish’s bidding do the hours run before him as he goeth upon his way.

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.

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.

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.

“

Pray to the small gods, who are the gods of Doing; but Māna is the god of Having Done⁠—the god of Having Done and of the Resting.

“Pray to the small gods and hope that they may hear thee. Yet what mercy should the small gods have, who themselves made Death and Pain; or shall they restrain their old hound Time for thee?

Then Mung made against him the sign of Mung and the Life of the Man was fettered no longer with hands and feet.

At the end of the flight of the arrow there is Mung, and in the houses and the cities of Men.

Mung walketh in all places at all times. But mostly he loves to walk in the dark and still, along the river mists when the wind hath sank, a little before night meeteth with the morning upon the highway between Pegāna and the Worlds.

And Mung said: “

Many turnings hath the road that Kib hath given every man to tread upon the earth. Behind one of these turnings sitteth Mung.

”

And Mung said: “

With the gods it is always Now.

And before Sish hath banished many of the years the sorrows of thy family for thee shall go the way of thine.” And the man beheld Mung making the sign of Mung before his eyes, which beheld things no more.

He sendeth little dreams to the poor man and to The King.

He is so busy to send his dreams to all before the night be ended that oft he forgetteth which be the poor man and which be The King.

To whom Yoharneth-Lahai cometh not with little dreams and sleep he must endure all night the laughter of the gods, with highest mockery, in Pegāna.

Roon met the Worlds all in the morning of Things, before there was light upon Pegāna, and Roon danced before them in the Void, since when they are never still,

Roon sendeth all streams to the Sea, and all the rivers to the soul of Slid.

Roon maketh the sign of Roon before the waters, and lo! they have left the hills; and Roon hath spoken in the ear of the North Wind that he may be still no more.

And

Jabim is the Lord of broken things, who sitteth behind the house to lament the things that are cast away.

And there he sitteth lamenting the broken things until the worlds be ended, or until someone cometh to mend the broken things. Or sometimes he sitteth by the river’s edge to lament the forgotten things that drift upon it.

And when it is dark, all in the hour of Triboogie, Hish creepeth from the forest, the Lord of Silence, whose children are the bats, that have broken the command of their father, but in a voice that is ever so low.

Hish husheth the mouse and all the whispers in the night; he maketh all noises still.

Only the cricket rebelleth. But Hish hath set against him such a spell that after he hath cried a thousand times his voice may be heard no more but becometh part of the silence.

there is only North of it where lie the Worlds, and Beyond it where lies the Silence, and the Rim is a mass of rocks that were never used by the gods when They made the Worlds, and on it sat Trogool.

Trogool is the Thing that is neither god nor beast, who neither howls nor breathes, only It turns over the leaves of a great book, black and white, black and white forever until the end.

And all that is to be is written in the book is also all that was.

When It turneth a black page it is night, and when It turneth a white page it is day.

Because it is written that there are gods⁠—there are the gods.

Also there is writing about thee and me until the page where our names no more are written.

Because it is written that there are gods—there are the gods.

Also there is writing about thee and me until the page where our names no more are written.

Then as the prophet watched It, Trogool turned a page—a black one, and night was over, and day shone on the Worlds.

Then spake Trogool who turns the pages and never answers prayer, and his voice was like the murmurs of the waste at night when echoes have been lost: “

Though the whirlwind of the South should tug with his claws at a page that hath been turned yet shall he not be able to ever turn it back.

”

Therefore they said unto Yug: “Be thou our prophet, and know all things, and tell us concerning the wherefore of It All.”

And Yug said: “I know all things.” And men were pleased.

And Yug said of the Beginning that it was in Yug’s own garden, and of the End that it was in the sight of Yug.

And Yug said of the Beginning that it was in Yug’s own garden, and of the End that it was in the sight of Yug.

One day Yug saw Mung behind the hills making the sign of Mung. And Yug was Yug no more.

And Mung made the sign of Mung, pointing towards the end.

And the fears of Kabok had rest from troubling Kabok any more, for they and he were among accomplished things.

When Kabok and his fears had rest the people sought a prophet who should have no fear of Mung, whose hand was against the prophets.

And at last they found Yūn-Ilāra, who tended sheep and had no fear of Mung, and the people brought him to the town that he might be their prophet.

“ ‘

And I, who was only a shepherd, how could I know?

“ ‘I said: “I will make men rich.” And the gods said: “What is rich?”

“ ‘And now my hand is forever on the handle of Their plough.

I was only a shepherd, and how should I have known?

“ ‘Now I come to thee as thou restest by the river to ask of thee thy forgiveness, for I would fain have the forgiveness of a man.’

“

When the wind blows not, where, then, is the wind?

“Or when thou art not living, where art thou?

“

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?

”

And the prophet answered: “

It is writ large about the bases of Pegāna’s mountains, upon which sit the gods: ‘Thine Enemies Are Forgiven.’

”

“Thy hopes are true,” for whom none may make strange signs before his eyes to quench his fear of death, for whom alone the chaunt of his priests availeth naught?

The Prophet of the gods hath sold his happiness for wisdom, and hath given his hopes for the people.

Said also Imbaun: “When thou art angry at night observe how calm be the stars; and shall small ones rail when there is such a calm among the great ones?

Said also Imbaun: “

When thou art angry at night observe how calm be the stars; and shall small ones rail when there is such a calm among the great ones?

Or when thou art angry by day regard the distant hills, and see the calm that doth adorn their faces. Shalt thou be angry while they stand so serene?

“

Be not angry with men, for they are driven as thou art by Dorozhand. Do bullocks goad one another on whom the same yoke rests?

“And be not angry with Dorozhand, for then thou beatest thy bare fingers against iron cliffs.

“

All that is is so because it was to be. Rail not, therefore, against what is, for it was all to be.

”

There arises a river in Pegāna that is neither a river of water nor yet a river of fire, and it flows through the skies and the Worlds to the Rim of the Worlds, a river of silence.

Through all the Worlds are sounds, the noises of moving, and the echoes of voices and song; but upon the River is no sound ever heard, for there all echoes die.

Then on the River I saw the dream-built ship of the god Yoharneth-Lahai, whose great prow lifted grey into the air above the River of Silence.

Her timbers were olden dreams dreamed long ago, and poets’ fancies made her tall, straight masts, and her rigging was wrought out of the people’s hopes.

Upon her deck were rowers with dream-made oars, and the rowers were the people of men’s fancies, and princes of old story and people who had died, and people who had never been.