Part 10 (2/2)

THE BIRD OF DOOM AND THE END

For at the last shall the thunder, fleeing to escape from the doom of the G.o.ds, roar horribly among the Worlds; and Time, the hound of the G.o.ds, 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 G.o.ds, and there with his trumpet voice acclaim THE END.

Then in the tumult and amid the fury of their hound the G.o.ds shall make for the last time in Pegana the sign of all the G.o.ds, 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds that made them are G.o.ds 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 cras.h.i.+ng 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 pa.s.sing lives.

But far away from Pegana shall go the galleons of gold that bear the G.o.ds away, upon whose faces shall be utter calm, because They are the G.o.ds knowing that it is THE END.

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