Read Online In the Land of Time by Alfred Dunsany - Free Book Online

pages and never answers prayer, and his voice was like the murmurs of the waste at night when echoes have been lost: “Though the whirlwind of the South should tug with his claws at a page that hath been turned yet shall he not be able ever to turn it back.”
    Then because of words in the book that said that it should be so, Yadin found himself lying in the desert where one gave him water, and afterwards carried him on a camel into Bodraháhn.
    There some said that he had but dreamed when thirst had seized him while he wandered among the rocks in the desert. But certain aged men of Bodraháhn say that indeed there sitteth somewhere a Thing that is called Trogool, that is neither god nor beast, that turneth the leaves of a book, black and white, black and white, until he come to the words: MAI DOON IZAHN, which means The End For Ever, and book and gods and worlds shall be no more.

YONATH THE PROPHET
    Yonath was the first among prophets who uttered unto men.
    These are the words of Yonath, the first among all prophets:
    There be gods upon Pegaāna.
    Upon a night I slept. And in my sleep Pegāna came very near. And Pegāna was full of gods.
    I saw the gods beside me as one might see wonted things.
    Only I saw not MĀNA-YOOD-SUSHAI.
    And in that hour, in the hour of my sleep—I knew.
    And the end and the beginning of my knowing, and all of my knowing that there was, was this—that Man Knoweth Not.
    Seek thou to find at night the utter edge of the darkness, or seek to find the birthplace of the rainbow where he leapeth upward from the hills, only seek not concerning the wherefore of the making of the gods.
    The gods have set a brightness upon the farther side of the Things to Come that they may appear more felicitous to men than the Things that Are.
    To the gods the Things to Come are but as the Things that Are, and nothing altereth in Pegāna.
    The gods, although not merciful, are not ferocious gods. They are the destroyers of the Days that Were, but they set a glory about the Days to Be.
    Man must endure the Days that Are, but the gods have left him his ignorance as a solace.
    Seek not to know. Thy seeking will weary thee, and thou wilt return much worn, to rest at last about the place from whence thou settest out upon thy seeking.
    Seek not to know. Even I, Yonath, the olden prophet, burdened with the wisdom of great years, and worn with seeking, know only that man knoweth not.
    Once I set out seeking to know all things. Now I know one thing only, and soon the Years will carry me away.
    The path of my seeking, that leadeth to seeking again, must be trodden by very many more, when Yonath is no longer even Yonath.
    Set not thy foot upon that path.
    Seek not to know.
    These be the Words of Yonath.

YUG THE PROPHET
    When the Years had carried away Yonath, and Yonath was dead, there was no longer a prophet among men.
    And still men sought to know.
    Therefore they said unto Yug: “Be thou our prophet, and know all things, and tell us concerning the wherefore of It All.”
    And Yug said: “I know all things.” And men were pleased.
    And Yug said of the Beginning that it was in Yug’s own garden, and of the End that it was in the sight of Yug.
    And men forgot Yonath.
    One day Yug saw Mung behind the hills making the sign of Mung. And Yug was Yug no more.

ALHIRETH-HOTEP THE PROPHET
    When Yug was Yug no more men said unto Alhireth-Hotep: “Be thou our prophet, and be as wise as Yug.”
    And Alhireth-Hotep said: “I am as wise as Yug.” And men were very glad.
    And Alhireth-Hotep said of Life and Death: “These be the affairs of Alhireth-Hotep.” And men brought gifts to him.
    One day Alhireth-Hotep wrote in a book: “Alhireth-Hotep knoweth All Things, for he hath spoken with Mung.”
    And Mung stepped from behind him, making the sign of Mung, saying: “Knowest thou All Things, then, Alhireth-Hotep?” And Alhireth-Hotep became among the Things that