by Lord Dunsany
WHEN THE GODS SLEPT
All the gods were sitting in Pegana, and Their slave, Time, lay idle atPegana's gate with nothing to destroy, when They thought of worlds,worlds large and round and gleaming, and little silver moons. Then (whoknoweth when?), as the gods raised Their hands making the sign of thegods, the thoughts of the gods became worlds and silver moons. And theworlds swam by Pegana's gate to take their places in the sky, to rideat anchor for ever, each where the gods had bidden. And because theywere round and big and gleamed all over the sky, the gods laughed andshouted and all clapped Their hands. Then upon earth the gods playedout the game of the gods, the game of life and death, and on the otherworlds They did a secret thing, playing a game that is hidden.
At last They mocked no more at life and laughed at death no more, andcried aloud in Pegana: "Will no new thing be? Must those four march forever round the world till our eyes are wearied with the treading of thefeet of the Seasons that will not cease, while Night and Day and Lifeand Death drearily rise and fall?"
And as a child stares at the bare walls of a narrow hut, so the godslooked all listlessly upon the worlds, saying:
"Will no new thing be?"
And in Their weariness the gods said: "Ah! to be young again. Ah! to befresh once more from the brain of _Mana-Yood-Sushai_."
And They turned away Their eyes in weariness from all the gleamingworlds and laid Them down upon Pegana's floor, for They said:
"It may be that the worlds shall pass and we would fain forget them."
Then the gods slept. Then did the comet break loose from his mooringsand the eclipse roamed about the sky, and down on the earth did Death'sthree children--Famine, Pestilence, and Drought--come out to feed. Theeyes of the Famine were green, and the eyes of the Drought were red,but the Pestilence was blind and smote about all round him with hisclaws among the cities.
But as the gods slept, there came from beyond the Rim, out of the darkand unknown, three Yozis, spirits of ill, that sailed up the river ofSilence in galleons with silver sails. Far away they had seen Yum andGothum, the stars that stand sentinel over Pegana's gate, blinking andfalling asleep, and as they neared Pegana they found a hush wherein thegods slept heavily. Ya, Ha, and Snyrg were these three Yozis, the lordsof evil, madness, and of spite. When they crept from their galleons andstole over Pegana's silent threshold it boded ill for the gods. Therein Pegana lay the gods asleep, and in a corner lay the Power of thegods alone upon the floor, a thing wrought of black rock and four wordsgraven upon it, whereof I might not give thee any clue, if even Ishould find it--four words of which none knoweth. Some say they tell ofthe opening of a flower towards dawn, and others say they concernearthquakes among hills, and others that they tell of the death offishes, and others that the words be these: Power, Knowledge,Forgetting, and another word that not the gods themselves may everguess. These words the Yozis read, and sped away in dread lest the godsshould wake, and going aboard their galleons, bade the rowers haste.Thus the Yozis became gods, having the power of gods, and they sailedaway to the earth, and came to a mountainous island in the sea. Therethey sat upon the rocks, sitting as the gods sit, with their righthands uplifted, and having the power of gods, only none came toworship. Thither came no ships nigh them, nor ever at evening came theprayers of men, nor smell of incense, nor screams from the sacrifice.Then said the Yozis:
"Of what avails it that we be gods if no one worship us nor give ussacrifice?"
And Ya, Ha, and Snyrg set sail in their silver galleons, and wentlooming down the sea to come to the shores of men. And first they cameto an island where were fisher folk; and the folk of the island,running down to the shore cried out to them:
"Who be ye?"
And the Yozis answered:
"We be three gods, and we would have your worship."
But the fisher folk answered:
"Here we worship Rahm, the Thunder, and have no worship nor sacrificefor other gods."
Then the Yozis snarled with anger and sailed away, and sailed till theycame to another shore, sandy and low and forsaken. And at last theyfound an old man upon the shore, and they cried out to him:
"Old man upon the shore! We be three gods that it were well to worship,gods of great power and apt in the granting of prayer."
The old man answered:
"We worship Pegana's gods, who have a fondness for our incense and thesound of our sacrifice when it squeals upon the altar."
Then answered Snyrg:
"Asleep are Pegana's gods, nor will They wake for the humming of thyprayers which lie in the dust upon Pegana's floor, and over ThemSniracte, the spider of the worlds, hath woven a web of mist. And thesquealing of the sacrifice maketh no music in ears that are closed insleep."
The old man answered, standing upon the shore:
"Though all the gods of old shall answer our prayers no longer, yetstill to the gods of old shall all men pray here in Syrinais."
But the Yozis turned their ships about and angrily sailed away, allcursing Syrinais and Syrinais's gods, but most especially the old manthat stood upon the shore.
Still the three Yozis lusted for the worship of men, and came, on thethird night of their sailing, to a city's lights; and nearing the shorethey found it a city of song wherein all folks rejoiced. Then sat eachYozi on his galleon's prow, and leered with his eyes upon the city, sothat the music stopped and the dancing ceased, and all looked out tosea at the strange shapes of the Yozis beneath their silver sails. ThenSnyrg demanded their worship, promising increase of joys, and swearingby the light of his eyes that he would send little flames to leap overthe grass, to pursue the enemies of that city and to chase them aboutthe world.
But the people answered that in that city men worshipped Agrodaun, themountain standing alone, and might not worship other gods even thoughthey came in galleons with silver sails, sailing from over the sea. ButSnyrg answered:
"Certainly Agrodaun is only a mountain, and in no manner a god."
But the priests of Agrodaun sang answer from the shore:
"If the sacrifice of men make not Agrodaun a god, nor blood still youngon his rocks, nor the little fluttering prayers of ten thousand hearts,nor two thousands years of worship and all the hopes of the people andthe whole strength of our race, then are there no gods and ye be commonsailors, sailing from over the sea."
Then said the Yozis:
"Hath Agrodaun answered prayer?" And the people heard the words thatthe Yozis said.
Then went the priests of Agrodaun away from the shore and up the steepstreets of the city, the people following, and over the moor beyond itto the foot of Agrodaun, and then said:
"Agrodaun, if thou art not our god, go back and herd with yonder commonhills, and put a cap of snow upon thy head and crouch far off as theydo beneath the sky; but if we have given thee divinity in two thousandyears, if our hopes are all about thee like a cloak, then stand andlook upon thy worshippers from over our city for ever." And the smokethat ascended from his feet stood still and there fell a hush overgreat Agrodaun; and the priests went back to the sea and said to thethree Yozis:
"New gods shall have our worship when Agrodaun grows weary of being ourgod, or when in some night-time he shall stride away, leaving us noughtto gaze at that is higher than our city."
And the Yozis sailed away and cursed towards Agrodaun, but could nothurt him, for he was but a mountain.
And the Yozis sailed along the coast till they came to a river runningto the sea, and they sailed up the river till they came to a people atwork, who furrowed the soil and sowed, and strove against the forest.Then the Yozis called to the people as they worked in the fields:
"Give us your worship and ye shall have many joys."
But the people answered:
"We may not worship you."
Then answered Snyrg:
"Ye also, have ye a god?"
And the people answered:
"We worship the years to come, and we set the world in order for theircoming, as one layeth raiment o
n the road before the advent of a King.And when those years shall come, they shall accept the worship of arace they knew not, and their people shall make their sacrifice to theyears that follow them, who, in their turn, shall minister to the_End_."
Then answered Snyrg:
"Gods that shall recompense you not. Rather give us your prayers andhave our pleasures, the pleasures that we shall give you, and when yourgods shall come, let them be wroth--they cannot punish you."
But the people continued to sacrifice their labour to their gods, theyears to come, making the world a place for gods to dwell in, and theYozis cursed those gods and sailed away. And Ya, the Lord of malice,swore that when those years should come, they should see whether itwere well for them to have snatched away the worship from three Yozis.
And still the Yozis sailed, for they said:
"It were better to be birds and have no air to fly in, than to be godshaving neither prayers nor worship."
But where sky met with ocean, the Yozis saw land again, and thithersailed; and there the Yozis saw men in strange old garments performingancient rites in a land of many temples. And the Yozis called to themen as they performed their ancient rites and said:
"We be three gods well versed in the needs of men, to worship whom wereto obtain instant joy."
But the men said:
"We have already gods."
And Snyrg replied:
"Ye, too?"
The men answered:
"For we worship the things that have been and all the years that were.Divinely have they helped us, therefore we give them worship that istheir due."
And the Yozis answered the people:
"We be gods of the present and return good things for worship."
But the people answered, saying from the shore:
"Our gods have given us already the good things, and we return Them theworship that is Their due."
And the Yozis set their faces to landward, and cursed all things thathad been and all the years that were, and sailed in their galleonsaway.
A rocky shore in an inhuman land stood up against the sea. Thither theYozis came and found no man, but out of the dark from inland towardsevening came a herd of great baboons and chattered greatly when theysaw the ships.
Then spake Snyrg to them:
"Have ye, too, a god?"
And the baboons spat.
Then said the Yozis:
"We be seductive gods, having a particular remembrance for littleprayers."
But the baboons leered fiercely at the Yozis and would have none ofthem for gods.
One said that prayers hindered the eating of nuts. But Snyrg leanedforward and whispered, and the baboons went down upon their knees andclasped their hands as men clasp, and chattered prayer and said to oneanother that these were the gods of old, and gave the Yozis theirworship--for Snyrg had whispered in their ears that, if they wouldworship the Yozis, he would make them men. And the baboons arose fromworshipping, smoother about the face and a little shorter in the arms,and went away and hid their bodies in clothing, and afterwards gallopedaway from the rocky shore and went and herded with men. And men couldnot discern what they were, for their bodies were bodies of men, thoughtheir souls were still the souls of beasts and their worship went tothe Yozis, spirits of ill.
And the lords of malice, hatred and madness sailed back to their islandin the sea and sat upon the shore as gods sit, with right handuplifted; and at evening foul prayers from the baboons gathered aboutthem and infested the rocks.
But in Pegana the gods awoke with a start.
