and went to bed at evening and put it beneath his pillow, and went to
sleep, and no one worked in all the world because the child was
playing. And the light of the golden ball streamed up from under the
pillow and out through the half shut door and shone in the western sky,
and Yoharneth-Lahai in the night time tip-toed into the room, and took
the ball gently (for he was a god) away from under the pillow and
brought it back to the Dawnchild to gleam on an onyx step.

But some day Night shall seize the golden ball and carry it right away
and drag it down to his lair, and Slid shall dive from the Threshold
into the sea to see if it be there, and coming up when the fishermen
draw their nets shall find it not, nor yet discover it among the sails.
Limpang Tung shall seek among the birds and shall not find it when the
cock is mute, and up the valleys shall go Umborodom to seek among the
crags. And the hound, the thunder, shall chase the Eclipse and all the
gods go seeking with Their stars, but never find the ball. And men, no
longer having light of the golden ball, shall pray to the gods no more,
who, having no worship, shall be no more the gods.

These things be hidden even from the gods.




THE VENGEANCE OF MEN


Ere the Beginning the gods divided earth into waste and pasture.
Pleasant pastures They made to be green over the face of earth,
orchards They made in valleys and heather upon hills, but Harza They