knowing that as the moon attracted the sea the sea must attract the
moon, and hoping by his device to humble her spells. Another would
have fetched iron bars and clamped them across the street, remembering
the earthquake there was in the street of the shearers. Another would
have honoured his household gods, the little cat-faced idols seated
above his hearth, gods to whom magic was no unusual thing, and, having
paid their fees and honoured them well, would have put the whole case
before them. His scheme found favour with many, and yet at last was
rejected, for others ran indoors and brought out their gods, too, to
be honoured, till there was a herd of gods all seated there on the
pavement; yet would they have honoured them and put their case before
them but that a fat man ran up last of all, carefully holding under a
reverent arm his own two hound-faced gods, though he knew well--as,
indeed, all men must--that they were notoriously at war with the
little cat-faced idols. And although the animosities natural to faith
had all been lulled by the crisis, yet a look of anger had come into
the cat-like faces that no one dared disregard, and all perceived that
if they stayed a moment longer there would be flaming around them the
jealousy of the gods; so each man hastily took his idols home, leaving
the fat man insisting that his hound-faced gods should be honoured.

Then there were schemes again and voices raised in debate, and many
new dangers feared and new plans made.

But in the end they made no defence against danger, for they knew not
what it would be, but wrote upon parchment as a warning, and in order
that all might know: "_The bad old woman in black ran down the street
of the ox-butchers._"