doomed, predestined and foreordained to be a waste for ever.

When the world prayed at evening to the gods and the gods answered
prayers They forgot the prayers of all the Tribes of Arim. Therefore
the men of Arim were assailed with wars and driven from land to land
and yet would not be crushed. And the men of Arim made them gods for
themselves, appointing men as gods until the gods of Pegana should
remember them again. And their leaders, Yoth and Haneth, played the
part of gods and led their people on though every tribe assailed them.
At last they came to Harza, where no tribes were, and at last had rest
from war, and Yoth and Haneth said: "The work is done, and surely now
Pegana's gods will remember." And they built a city in Harza and tilled
the soil, and the green came over the waste as the wind comes over the
sea, and there were fruit and cattle in Harza and the sounds of a
million sheep. There they rested from their flight from all the tribes,
and builded fables out of all their sorrows till all men smiled in
Harza and children laughed.

Then said the gods, "Earth is no place for laughter." Thereat They
strode to Pegana's outer gate, to where the Pestilence lay curled
asleep, and waking him up They pointed toward Harza, and the Pestilence
leapt forward howling across the sky.

That night he came to the fields near Harza, and stalking through the
grass sat down and glared at the lights, and licked his paws and glared
at the lights again.

But the next night, unseen, through laughing crowds, the Pestilence
crept into the city, and stealing into the houses one by one, peered
into the people's eyes, looking even through their eyelids, so that