Then on the altar of Zungari a priest had set a figure
squat, carven in purple agate, saying: “Yazun
is god.” Still the gods sat and smiled.
About the feet of Yonu, Bazun, Nidish and Sundrao
had gone the worship of the people of Mlideen, and
still the gods sat holding the avalanche in leash
above the city.
There set a great calm towards sunset over the heights,
and Mowrah Nawut stood up still with gleaming snow,
and into the hot city cool breezes blew from his benignant
slopes as Tarsi Zalo, high prophet of Mlideen, carved
out of a great sapphire the city’s hundredth
god, and then upon Mowrah Nawut the gods turned away
saying: “One hundred infamies have now
been wrought.” And they looked no longer
upon Mlideen and held the avalanche no more in leash,
and he leapt forward howling.
Over the Middle City of Mlideen now lies a mass of
rocks, and on the rocks a new city is builded wherein
people dwell who know not old Mlideen, and the gods
are seated on Mowrah Nawut still. And in the new
city men worship carven gods, and the number of the
gods that they have carven is ninety and nine, and
I, the prophet, have found a curious stone and go
to carve it into the likeness of a god for all Mlideen
to worship.
Zyni Moe, the small snake, saw the cool river gleaming
before him afar off and set out over the burning sand
to reach it.
Uldoon, the prophet, came out of the desert and followed
up the bank of the river towards his old home.
Thirty years since Uldoon had left the city, where
he was born, to live his life in a silent place where
he might search for the secret of the gods. The
name of his home was the City by the River, and in
that city many prophets taught concerning many gods,
and men made many secrets for themselves, but all the
while none knew the Secret of the gods. Nor might
any seek to find it, for if any sought men said of
him:
“This man sins, for he giveth no worship to
the gods that speak to our prophets by starlight when
none heareth.”
And Uldoon perceived that the mind of a man is as
a garden, and that his thoughts are as the flowers,
and the prophets of a man’s city are as many
gardeners who weed and trim, and who have made in the
garden paths both smooth and straight, and only along
these paths is a man’s soul permitted to go
lest the gardeners say, “This soul transgresseth.”
And from the paths the gardeners weed out every flower
that grows, and in the garden they cut off all flowers
that grow tall, saying:
“It is customary,” and “it is written,”
and “this hath ever been,” or “that
hath not been before.”
Therefore Uldoon saw that not in that city might he
discover the Secret of the gods. And Uldoon said
to the people:
