"Lord Dunsany - The Gods Of The Mountain (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

corner for fifty years doing the one thing, and yet a
day may come when it is well for him to rise up and do
another thing while the timorous man starves.

Ulf:
Also it were not well to anger the gods.

Agmar:
Is not all life a beggary to the gods? Do they not see
 all men always begging of them and asking alms with
incense, and bells, and subtle devices?

Oogno:
Yes, all men indeed are beggars before the gods.

Agmar:
Does not the mighty Soldan often sit by the agate altar
in his royal temple as we sit at a street corner or by
a palace gate?

Ulf:
It is even so.

Agmar:
Then will the gods be glad when we follow the holy
calling with new devices and with subtlety, as they are
glad when the priests sing a new song.

Ulf:
Yet I have a fear.

{Enter two men talking.}

Agmar: {to Slag}
Go you into the city before us and let there be a
prophecy there which saith that the gods who are carven
from green rock in the mountain shall one day arise in
Marma and come here in the guise of men.

Slag:
Yes, master. Shall I make the prophecy myself? Or
shall it be found in some old document?

Agmar:
Let someone have seen it once in some rare document.
Let it be spoken of in the market place.

Slag:
It shall be spoken of, master.