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earth for roots and cover their faces with mire, and run with the cheerful
goats and be even as they?
Now in their idleness caused by their discontent, the seed of the gods and
the maidens grew more discontented still, and only spake of or cared for
heavenly things; until the contempt of the dwarfs, who heard of all these
doings, was bridled no longer and it must needs be war. They burned spice,
dipped in blood and dried, before the chief of their witches, sharpening
their axes, and made war on the demi-gods.
They passed by night over the Oolnar Mountains, each dwarf with his good
axe, the old flint war-axe of his fathers, a night when no moon shone, and
they went unshod, and swiftly, to come on the demi-gods in the darkness
beyond the dells of Ulk, lying fat and idle and contemptible.
And before it was light they found the heathery lands, and the demi-gods
lying lazy all over the side of a hill. The dwarfs stole towards them warily
in the darkness.
Now the art that the gods love most is the art of war: and when the seed of
the gods and those nimble maidens awoke and found it was war it was almost
as much to them as the godlike pursuits of heaven, enjoyed in the marble
courts; or power over wind and snow. They all drew out at once their swords
of tempered bronze, cast down to them centuries since on stormy nights when
their fathers, drew them and faced the dwarfs, and casting their idleness
from them, fell on them, sword to axe. And the dwarfs fought hard that
night, and bruised the demi-gods sorely, hacking with those huge axes that
had not spared the oaks. Yet for all the weight of their blows and the
cunning of their adventure, one point they had overlooked: the demi-gods
were immortal.
As the fight rolled on towards morning the fighters were fewer and fewer,
yet for all the blows of the dwarfs men fell upon one side only.
Dawn came and the demi-gods were fighting against no more than six, and the
hour that follows dawn, and the last of the dwarfs was gone.
And when the light was clear on that peak of the Bleaks of Eerie the eagle
left his crag and flew grimly East, and found it was as he had hoped in the
matter of blood.
But the demi-gods lay down in their heathery lands, for once content though
so far from the courts of heaven, and even half forgot their heavenly
rights, and sighed no more for power over wind and snow.






Tales of Three Hemispheres -- Chapter 6



HOW THE GODS AVENGED MEOUL KI NING
MEOUL KI NING was on his way with a lily from the lotus ponds of Esh to
offer it to the Goddess of Abundance in her temple Aoul Keroon. And on the
road from the pond to the little hill and the temple Aoul Keroon, Ap Ariph,