The Gods of Pegana

by Lord Dunsany

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 MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI and said: "Now make gods for Me, for I have won the cast and the Game is to be Mine." Who it was that won the cast, and whether it was Fate or whether Chance that went through the mists before THE BEGINNING to MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI—none knoweth.

Some say that the Worlds and the Suns are but the echoes of the drumming of Skarl, and others say that they be dreams that arise in the mind of MANA because of the drumming of Skarl, as one may dream whose rest is troubled by sound of song, but none knoweth, for who hath heard the voice of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, or who hath seen his drummer?

Skarl still beateth his drum, for the purposes of the gods are not yet fulfilled.

for if he cease for an instant then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI will start awake, and there will be worlds nor gods no more.

And They made Earth to wonder, each god by the

uplifting of his hand according to his sign.

"What are these things that move upon The Earth yet move not in circles like the

Worlds, that regard like the Moon and yet they do not shine?" And Kib

said: "This i...

"We are the gods; We are the little games of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI that he hath played and hath forgotten.

"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."

At Sish's bidding do the hours run before him as he goeth upon his way. Never hath Sish stepped backward nor ever hath he tarried; never hath he relented to the things that once he knew nor turned to them again. Before

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.

Pegana and the Earth flutter ten thousand thousand prayers that beat their wings against the face of Death, and never for one of them hath the hand of the Striker been stayed, nor yet have tarried the feet of the Relentless One. "Utter thy prayer! It may accomplish where failed ten thousand thousand.

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.

Whether the dreams and the fancies of Yoharneth-Lahai be false and the Things that are done in the Day be real, or the Things that are done in the Day be false and the dreams and the fancies of Yoharneth-Lahai be true, none knoweth saving only MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, who hath not spoken.

But when the end

of Dorozhand hath been achieved there will be need no longer of Life upon the Worlds, nor any more a game for the small gods to play. Then will Kib tiptoe gently across Pegana to the resting-place in Highest Pegana of MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, and touching reverently his hand, the hand that wrought the gods, say: "MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, thou hast rested long." And MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI shall say: "Not so; for I have rested for but fifty aeons of the gods, each of

them scarce more than ten million mortal years of the Worlds that ye have made." And then shall the gods be afraid when they find that MANA knoweth that they have made Worlds while he rested. And they shall answer: "Nay; but the Worlds came all of themselves." Then MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI, as one who would have done with an irksome matter, wi...

Then shall the Times that were be Times no more; and it may be that the old, dead days

shall return from beyond the Rim, and we who have wept for them shall see those days again, as one who, returning from long travel to his home, comes suddenly on dear, remembered things.

For none shall know of MANA who hath rested for so long, whether he be a harsh or merciful god. It may be that he shall have me...

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 for ever until THE END.

Mai Doon Izahn, which means The End For Ever, and book and gods and worlds shall be no more.

The gods have set a brightness upon the farther side of the Things to Come that they may appear more felititous to men than the Things that Are.

To the gods the Things to Come are but as the Things that Are, and nothing altereth in Pegana.

"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.

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 i...

behold that the people may know.' And he showed me the paths of Sish stretching far down into the future time.

I walked with Dorozhand adown the paths of Sish into the future time. "And ever beside the way did men slay men. And the sum of their slaying was greater than the slaying of the pestilence of any of the evils of the gods. "And cities arose and shed their houses in dust, and ever the desert returned again to its own, and covered over and hid the last of all that had troubled its repose. "And still men slew men.

"And I came at last to a time when men set their yoke no longer upon beasts but made them beasts of iron. "And after that did men slay men with mists. "Then, because the slaying exceeded their desire, there came peace upon the world that was brought by the hand of the slayer, and men slew men no more. "And cities multiplied, and overthrew the desert and conquered its repose. "And suddenly I beheld that THE END was near, for there was a stirring above

Pegana as of One who grows weary of resting, and I saw the hound Time crouch to spring, with his eyes upon the throats of the gods, shifting from throat to throat, and the drumming of Skarl grew faint. "And if a god may fear, it seemed that there was fear upon the face of Dorozhand, and he seized me by the hand and led me back along the paths of Time that I might not see THE END. "Then I saw ci...

And as he lay he pondered on the Scheme of Things and the works of all the gods. And it seemed to the prophet of the gods as he watched the

stream run by that the Scheme was a right scheme and the gods benignant gods; yet there was sorrow in the Worlds.

It seemed that Kib was bountiful, that Mung calmed all who suffer, that Sish dealt not too harshly with the hours, and that all the gods were g...

"There is some other god of whom naught...

"'I said: "I will make men rich." And the gods said: "What is rich?" "'And I said: "I will send them love." And the gods said:

"What is love?" And I sent gold into the Worlds, and, alas! I sent with it poverty and strife. And I sent love into the Worlds, and with it grief.

"'Then I said: "I will give men wisdom that they may be glad." And those who got my wisdom found that they knew nothing, and from having been happy became glad no more.

"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."

"'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

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.

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