"I am Bhairon of the Common Folk, and this my staff is Kotwal of all Kashi. I spoke for the Common People."
"Thou?" The young G.o.d"s eyes sparkled.
"Am I not the first of the G.o.ds in their mouths to-day?" returned Bhairon, unabashed. "For the sake of the Common People I said--very many wise things which I have now forgotten--but this my staff----"
Krishna turned impatiently, saw the Mugger at his feet, and kneeling, slipped an arm round the cold neck. "Mother," he said gently, "get thee to thy flood again. The matter is not for thee. What harm shall thy honour take of this live dirt? Thou hast given them their fields new year after year, and by thy flood they are made strong. They come all to thee at the last. What need to slay them now? Have pity, mother, for a little--and it is only for a little."
"If it be only for a little----" the slow beast began.
"Are they G.o.ds, then?" Krishna returned with a laugh, his eyes looking into the dull eyes of the River. "Be certain that it is only for a little. The Heavenly Ones have heard thee, and presently justice will be done. Go, now, mother, to the flood again. Men and cattle are thick on the waters--the banks fall--the villages melt because of thee."
"But the bridge--the bridge stands." The Mugger turned grunting into the undergrowth as Krishna rose.
"It is ended," said the Tigress, viciously. "There is no more justice from the Heavenly Ones. Ye have made shame and sport of Gunga, who asked no more than a few score lives."
"Of _my_ people--who lie under the leaf-roofs of the village yonder--of the young girls, and the young men who sing to them," said Krishna. "And when all is done, what profit? To-morrow sees them at work. Ay, if ye swept the bridge out from end to end they would begin anew. Hear me! Bhairon is drunk always. Hanuman mocks his people with new riddles."
"Nay, but they are very old ones," the Ape said, laughing.
"Shiv hears the talk of the schools and the dreams of the holy men; Ganesh thinks only of his fat traders; but I--I live with these my people, asking for no gifts, and so receiving them hourly."
"And very tender art thou of thy people," said the Tigress.
"They are my own. The old women dream of me, turning in their sleep; the maids look and listen for me when they go to fill their lotahs by the river. I walk by the young men waiting without the gates at dusk, and I call over my shoulder to the white-beards. Ye know, Heavenly Ones, that I alone of us all walk upon the earth continually, and have no pleasure in our heavens so long as a green blade springs here, or there are two voices at twilight in the standing crops. Wise are ye, but ye live far off, forgetting whence ye came. So do I not forget.
And the fire-carriage feeds your shrines, ye say? And the fire-carriages bring a thousand pilgrimages where but ten came in the old years? True. That is true to-day."
"But to-morrow they are dead, brother," said Ganesh.
"Peace!" said the Bull, as Hanuman leaned forward again. "And to-morrow, beloved--what of to-morrow?"
"This only. A new word creeping from mouth to mouth among the Common Folk--a word that neither man nor G.o.d can lay hold of--an evil word--a little lazy word among the Common Folk, saying (and none know who set that word afoot) that they weary of ye, Heavenly Ones."
The G.o.ds laughed together softly. "And then, beloved?" they said.
"And to cover that weariness they, my people, will bring to thee, Shiv, and to thee, Ganesh, at first greater offerings and a louder noise of worship. But the word has gone abroad, and, after, they will pay fewer dues to your fat Brahmins. Next they will forget your altars, but so slowly that no man can say how his forgetfulness began."
"I knew--I knew! I spoke this also, but they would not hear," said the Tigress. "We should have slain--we should have slain!"
"It is too late now. Ye should have slain at the beginning, when the men from across the water had taught our folk nothing. Now my people see their work, and go away thinking. They do not think of the Heavenly Ones altogether. They think of the fire-carriage and the other things that the bridge-builders have done, and when your priests thrust forward hands asking alms, they give unwillingly a little. That is the beginning, among one or two, or five or ten--for I, moving among my people, know what is in their hearts."
"And the end, Jester of the G.o.ds? What shall the end be?" said Ganesh.
"The end shall be as it was in the beginning, O slothful son of Shiv!
The flame shall die upon the altars and the prayer upon the tongue till ye become little G.o.ds again--G.o.ds of the jungle--names that the hunters of rats and noosers of dogs whisper in the thicket and among the caves--rag-G.o.ds, pot G.o.dlings of the tree, and the village-mark, as ye were at the beginning. That is the end, Ganesh, for thee, and for Bhairon--Bhairon of the Common People."
"It is very far away," grunted Bhairon. "Also, it is a lie."
"Many women have kissed Krishna. They told him this to cheer their own hearts when the gray hairs came, and he has told us the tale," said the Bull, below his breath.
"Their G.o.ds came, and we changed them. I took the woman and made her twelve-armed. So shall we twist all their G.o.ds," said Hanuman.
"Their G.o.ds! This is no question of their G.o.ds--one or three--man or woman. The matter is with the people. _They_ move, and not the G.o.ds of the bridge-builders," said Krishna.
"So be it. I have made a man worship the fire-carriage as it stood still breathing smoke, and he knew not that he worshipped me," said Hanuman the Ape. "They will only change a little the names of their G.o.ds. I shall lead the builders of the bridges as of old; Shiv shall be worshipped in the schools by such as doubt and despise their fellows; Ganesh shall have his mahajuns, and Bhairon the donkey-drivers, the pilgrims, and the sellers of toys. Beloved, they will do no more than change the names, and that we have seen a thousand times."
"Surely they will do no more than change the names," echoed Ganesh: but there was an uneasy movement among the G.o.ds.
"They will change more than the names. Me alone they cannot kill, so long as maiden and man meet together or the spring follows the winter rains. Heavenly Ones, not for nothing have I walked upon the earth. My people know not now what they know; but I, who live with them, I read their hearts. Great Kings, the beginning of the end is born already.
The fire-carriages shout the names of new G.o.ds that are _not_ the old under new names. Drink now and eat greatly! Bathe your faces in the smoke of the altars before they grow cold! Take dues and listen to the cymbals and the drums, Heavenly Ones, while yet there are flowers and songs. As men count time the end is far off; but as we who know reckon it is to-day. I have spoken."
The young G.o.d ceased, and his brethren looked at each other long in silence.
"This I have not heard before," Peroo whispered in his companion"s ear. "And yet sometimes, when I oiled the bra.s.ses in the engine-room of the _Goorkha_, I have wondered if our priests were so wise--so wise. The day is coming, Sahib. They will be gone by the morning."
A yellow light broadened in the sky, and the tone of the river changed as the darkness withdrew.
Suddenly the Elephant trumpeted aloud as though men had goaded him.
"Let Indra judge. Father of all, speak thou! What of the things we have heard? Has Krishna lied indeed? Or----"
"Ye know," said the Buck, rising to his feet. "Ye know the Riddle of the G.o.ds. When Brahm ceases to dream the Heavens and the h.e.l.ls and Earth disappear. Be content. Brahm dreams still. The dreams come and go, and the nature of the dreams changes, but still Brahm dreams.
Krishna has walked too long upon earth, and yet I love him the more for the tale he has told. The G.o.ds change, beloved--all save One!"
"Ay, all save one that makes love in the hearts of men," said Krishna, knotting his girdle. "It is but a little time to wait, and ye shall know if I lie."
"Truly it is but a little time, as thou sayest, and we shall know. Get thee to thy huts again, beloved, and make sport for the young things, for still Brahm dreams. Go, my children! Brahm dreams--and till He wakes the G.o.ds die not."
"Whither went they?" said the Lascar, awe-struck, shivering a little with the cold.
"G.o.d knows!" said Findlayson. The river and the island lay in full daylight now, and there was never mark of hoof or pug on the wet earth under the peepul. Only a parrot screamed in the branches, bringing down showers of water-drops as he fluttered his wings.
"Up! We are cramped with cold! Has the opium died out? Canst thou move, Sahib?"
Findlayson staggered to his feet and shook himself. His head swam and ached, but the work of the opium was over, and, as he sluiced his forehead in a pool, the Chief Engineer of the Kashi Bridge was wondering how he had managed to fall upon the island, what chances the day offered of return, and, above all, how his work stood.
"Peroo, I have forgotten much. I was under the guard-tower watching the river; and then--Did the flood sweep us away?"
"No. The boats broke loose, Sahib, and" (if the Sahib had forgotten about the opium, decidedly Peroo would not remind him) "in striving to retie them, so it seemed to me--but it was dark--a rope caught the Sahib and threw him upon a boat. Considering that we two, with Hitchc.o.c.k Sahib, built, as it were, that bridge, I came also upon the boat, which came riding on horseback, as it were, on the nose of this island, and so, splitting, cast us ash.o.r.e. I made a great cry when the boat left the wharf, and without doubt Hitchc.o.c.k Sahib will come for us. As for the bridge, so many have died in the building that it cannot fall."
A fierce sun, that drew out all the smell of the sodden land, had followed the storm, and in that clear light there was no room for a man to think of dreams of the dark. Findlayson stared up-stream, across the blaze of moving water, till his eyes ached. There was no sign of any bank to the Ganges, much less of a bridge-line.
"We came down far," he said. "It was wonderful that we were not drowned a hundred times."
"That was the least of the wonder, for no man dies before his time. I have seen Sydney, I have seen London, and twenty great ports, but"--Peroo looked at the damp, discoloured shrine under the peepul--"never man has seen that we saw here."
"What?"