"Dunsany, Lord - Idle Days On The Yann" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

material or custom, that was new in Astahahn. Now they took
no notice at all of us as we went by, but continued their
processions and ceremonies in the ancient city, and the
sailors, knowing their custom, took no notice of them. But
I called, as we came near, to one who stood beside the
water's edge, asking him what men did in Astahahn and what
their merchandise was, and with whom they traded. He said,
"Here we have fettered and manacled Time, who would
otherwise slay the gods."
I asked him what gods they worshipped in that city, and
he said, "All those gods whom Time has not yet slain." Then
he turned from me and would say no more, but busied himself
in behaving in accordance with ancient custom. And so,
according to the will of Yann, we drifted onwards and left
Astahahn. The river widened below Astahahn, and we found in
greater quantities such birds as prey on fishes. And they
were very wonderful in their plumage, and they came not out
of the jungle, but flew, with their long necks stretched out
before them, and their legs lying on the wind behind,
straight up the river over the mid-stream.
And now the evening began to gather in. A thick white
mist had appeared over the river, and was softly rising
higher. It clutched at the trees with long impalpable arms,
it rose higher and higher, chilling the air; and white
shapes moved away into the jungle as though the ghosts of
shipwrecked mariners were searching stealthily in the
darkness for the spirits of evil that long ago had wrecked
them on the Yann.
As the sun sank behind the field of orchids that grew on
the matted summit of the jungle, the river monsters came
wallowing out of the slime in which they had reclined during
the heat of the day, and the great beasts of the jungle came
down to drink. The butterflies a while since were gone to
rest. In little narrow tributaries that we passed night
seemed already to have fallen, though the sun which had
disappeared from us had not yet set.
And now the birds of the jungle came flying home far over
us, with the sunlight glistening pink upon their breasts,
and lowered their pinions as soon as they saw the Yann, and
dropped into the trees. And the widgeon began to go up the
river in great companies, all whistling, and then would
suddenly wheel and all go down again. And there shot by us
the small and arrow-like teal; and we heard the manifold
cries of flocks of geese, which the sailors told me had
recently come in from crossing over the Lispasian ranges;
every year they come by the same way, close by the peak of
Mluna, leaving it to the left, and the mountain eagles know
the way they come and -- men say -- the very hour, and every
year they expect them by the same way as soon as the snows
have fallen upon the Northern Plains. But soon it grew so