by Lord Dunsany
USURY
The men of Zonu hold that Yahn is God, who sits as a usurer behind aheap of little lustrous gems and ever clutches at them with both hisarms. Scarce larger than a drop of water are the gleaming jewels thatlie under the grasping talons of Yahn, and every jewel is a life. Mentell in Zonu that the earth was empty when Yahn devised his plan, andon it no life stirred. Then Yahn lured to him shadows whose home wasbeyond the Rim, who knew little of joys and nought of any sorrow, whoseplace was beyond the Rim before the birth of Time. These Yahn lured tohim and showed them his heap of gems; and in the jewels there waslight, and green fields glistened in them, and there were glimpses ofblue sky and little streams, and very faintly little gardens showedthat flowered in orchard lands. And some showed winds in the heaven,and some showed the arch of the sky with a waste plain drawn across it,with grasses bent in the wind and never aught but the plain. But thegems that changed the most had in their centre the ever changing sea.Then the shadows gazed into the Lives and saw the green fields and thesea and earth and the gardens of earth. And Yahn said: "I will loan youeach a Life, and you may do your work with it upon the Scheme ofThings, and have each a shadow for his servant in green fields and ingardens, only for these things you shall polish these Lives withexperience and cut their edges with your griefs, and in the end shallreturn them again to me."
And thereto the shadows consented, that they might have gleaming Livesand have shadows for their servants, and this thing became the Law. Butthe shadows, each with his Life, departed and came to Zonu and to otherlands, and there with experience they polished the Lives of Yahn, andcut them with human griefs until they gleamed anew. And ever they foundnew scenes to gleam within these Lives, and cities and sails and menshone in them where there had been before only green fields and sea,and ever Yahn the usurer cried out to remind them of their bargain.When men added to their Lives scenes that were pleasant to Yahn, thenwas Yahn silent, but when they added scenes that pleased not the eyesof Yahn, then did he take a toll of sorrow from them because it was theLaw.
But men forgot the usurer, and there arose some claiming to be wise inthe Law, who said that after their labour, which they wrought upontheir Lives, was done, those Lives should be theirs to possess; so mentook comfort from their toil and labour and the grinding and cutting oftheir griefs. But as their Lives began to shine with experience of manythings, the thumb and forefinger of Yahn would suddenly close upon aLife, and the man became a shadow. But away beyond the Rim the shadowssay:
"We have greatly laboured for Yahn, and have gathered griefs in theworld, and caused his Lives to shine, and Yahn doeth nought for us. Farbetter had we stayed where no cares are, floating beyond the Rim."
And there the shadows fear lest ever again they be lured by speciouspromises to suffer usury at the hands of Yahn, who is overskilled inLaw. Only Yahn sits and smiles, watching his hoard increase inpreciousness, and hath no pity for the poor shadows whom he hath luredfrom their quiet to toil in the form of men.
And ever Yahn lures more shadows and sends them to brighten his Lives,sending the old Lives out again to make them brighter still; andsometimes he gives to a shadow a Life that was once a king's andsendeth him with it down to the earth to play the part of a beggar, orsometimes he sendeth a beggar's Life to play the part of a king. Whatcareth Yahn?
The men of Zonu have been promised by those that claim to be wise inthe Law that their Lives which they have toiled at shall be theirs topossess for ever, yet the men of Zonu fear that Yahn is greater andoverskilled in the Law. Moreover it hath been said that Time will bringthe hour when the wealth of Yahn shall be such as his dreams havelusted for. Then shall Yahn leave the earth at rest and trouble theshadows no more, but sit and gloat with his unseemly face over hishoard of Lives, for his soul is a usurer's soul. But others say, andthey swear that this is true, that there are gods of Old, who be fargreater than Yahn, who made the Law wherein Yahn is overskilled, andwho will one day drive a bargain with him that shall be too hard forYahn. Then Yahn shall wander away, a mean forgotten god, and perchancein some forsaken land shall haggle with the rain for a drop of water todrink, for his soul is a usurer's soul. And the Lives--who knoweth thegods of Old or what Their will shall be?
