The Gods of Pegana | Page 8

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.
And when he hath slain all sounds Hish boweth low to the ground; then
cometh into the house, with never a sound of feet, the god
Yoharneth-Lahai.
But away in the forest whence Hish hath come Wohoon, the Lord of
Noises in the Night, awaketh in his lair and creepeth round the forest to
see whether it be true that Hish hath gone.
Then in some glade Wohoon lifts up his voice and cries aloud, that all
the night may hear, that it is he, Wohoon, who is abroad in all the forest.
And the wolf and the fox and the owl, and the great beasts and the
small, lift up their voices to acclaim Wohoon. And there arise the
sounds of voices and the stirring of leaves.

THE REVOLT OF THE HOME GODS
There be three broad rivers of the plain, born before memory or fable,
whose mothers are three grey peaks and whose father was the storm.
There names be Eimës, Zänës, and Segástrion.
And Eimës is the joy of lowing herds; and Zänës hath bowed his neck
to the yoke of man, and carries the timber from the forest far up below
the mountain; and Segástrion sings old songs to shepherd boys, singing
of his childhood in a lone ravine and of how he once sprang down the
mountain sides and far away into the plain to see the world, and of how
one day at last he will find the sea. These be the rivers of the plain,
wherein the plain rejoices. But old men tell, whose fathers heard it from
the ancients, how once the lords of the three rivers of the plain rebelled
against the law of the Worlds, and passed beyond their boundaries, and
joined together and whelmed cities and slew men, saying: "We now
play the game of the gods and slay men for our pleasure, and we be
greater than the gods of Pegana."
And all the plain was flooded to the hills.
And Eimës, Zänës, and Segástrion sat upon the mountains, and spread

their hands over their rivers that rebelled by their command.
But the prayer of men going upward found Pegana, and cried in the ear
of the gods: "There be three home gods who slay us for their pleasure,
and say that they be mightier than Pegana's gods, and play Their game
with men."
Then were all the gods of Pegana very wroth; but They could not
whelm the lords of the three rivers, because being home gods, though
small, they were immortal.
And still the home gods spread their hands across their rivers, with
their fingers wide apart, and the waters rose and rose, and the voice of
their torrent grew louder, crying: "Are we not Eimës, Zänës, and
Segástrion?"
Then Mung went down into a waste of Afrik, and came upon the
drought Umbool as he sat in the desert upon iron rocks, clawing with
miserly grasp at the bones of men and breathing hot.
And Mung stood before him as his dry sides heaved, and ever as they
sank his hot breath blasted dry sticks and bones.
Then Mung said: "Friend of Mung! Go, thou and grin before the faces
of Eimës, Zänës, and Segástrion till they see whether it be wise to rebel
against the gods of Pegana."
And Umbool answered: "I am the beast of Mung."
And Umbool came and crouched upon a hill upon the other side of the
waters and grinned across them at the rebellious home gods.
And whenever Eimës, Zänës, and Segástrion stretched out their hands
over their rivers they saw before their faces the grinning of Umbool;
and because the grinning was like death in a hot and hideous land
therefore they turned away and spread their hands no more over their
rivers, and the waters sank and sank.
But when Umbool had grinned for thirty days the waters fell back into
the river beds and the lords of the rivers slunk away back again to their
homes: still Umbool sat and grinned.
Then Eimës sought to hide himself in a great pool beneath a rock, and
Zänës crept into the middle of a wood, and Segástrion lay and panted
on the sand--still Umbool sat and grinned.
And Eimës grew lean, and was forgotten, so that the men