the ruined base of the tower that once he builded, goes up a
shrill voice with the wind crying out for the mercy of Mung, if
any such there be.



OF HOW THE GODS WHELMED SIDITH


There was dole in the valley of Sidith. For three years there had
been pestilence, and in the last of the three a famine; moreover,
there was imminence of war.

Throughout all Sidith men died night and day, and night and day
within the Temple of All the gods save One (for none may pray to
MANA-YOOD-SUSHAI) did the priests of the gods pray hard.

For they said: "For a long while a man may hear the droning of
little insects and yet not be aware that he hath heard them, so
may the gods not hear our prayers at first until they have been
very oft repeated. But when your praying has troubled the silence
long it may be that some god as he strolls in Pegana's glades may
come on one of our lost prayers, that flutters like a butterfly
tossed in storm when all its wings are broken; then if the gods be
merciful they may ease our fears in Sidith, or else they may crush
us, being petulant gods, and so we shall see trouble in Sidith no
longer, with its pestilence and dearth and fears of war."

But in the fourth year of the pestilence and in the second year
of the famine, and while still there was imminence of war, came