8.

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power was in their names.  And all these gods did segregate into cliques among them, into cliques segregatnd they, chaotic amalga of betrayers & betrayd, vanquishers & vanquisht, great & greater, now bent to burden, all.

            And Siriul Merta in his day were owner of all these gods, which some times became diminutive and enterd into a pouch which he shew unto visitors, saying, My pocket gods.  These he shew, along with showing the uncomely dog Paul, and also Chariot Wheel, which was banisht out from the engiantend house to live with them all in the kennel, for his unrelenting criminol mien.  And fifty and three barrels of convert millet stood aroundabout, which were once a gang of assriders come like creepfs aseeking entry.

            Now, these gods believ-ed also the lie that dragons infested upon the walls of the city.  (But ifn a lie, whence the great scaley wings found roundabouts, and snouts, and skeledins, and scorcht cows, and midnight talons come plunging through roofs to snatch away late sitters from ’side their tallowlampfs?  What of the sightings, and hearings, and smellings, and symmetricol cropf tramplings, and dreams from the future purveyd by the spirits of the unrequited dead—such as Sarcastus, whose image hath appeard unto Siriul Merta on an piece of toast?  What of the draganflies and snapodragens, found only near dragons?)  No beatable god desireth to face the unruly dragon, lest dragon magik prove olde & decisive.  Therefore flew most gods up straight into the sky & beyond the world in travelling about, keeping them well wide of the wall; tho some tunnel-ed neath it, or parted the physicol plane & shot the rapids of the nether ethers to appear in the elsawheres:  anye way to get through widouts a showedoon.

            And it came to pass that Siriul Merta commanded unto his deioses that they shud haul him unto their nether worlds, transposing his substance unto formatte as needs must, that he enjoy the best of all worlds as one of the naturols there.  And tho they were shamed to be viewn subjugate neath him in those places where they were exalted—he standing upon their backs, an hand upon their reins and an hand clencht o’er his head, he yipfing & hooting as they flewe—nevertheless ascended they with him into the clouds, being his properdy duly registerd.  And they the lot did dysappear—gods, & Siriul Merta, & Paul the dogg, & Chariott Wheel the Assrider—leaving in the world behind Krayven Merta to peddle her tuns of rancid millet & the weevils therein, and to castigate constant that godgaining brother, the whom she suspecteth of taking for servitude and sport her missing man she callt the Wheel.  And alway she did try to link in spirit with Paul, whispring, Bite him, fellow; get him; for that ever hard was her heart.

            Whither sojourn-ed they?  What thinkt those strangers who seen them all together in their talk & pushing & disputing ranks, when that they were arrive’d thither?  Famous speculaters may alway say, and historyists, but no actuel knowers.

            Now, after a time did the beaten buyers that had bought of the caboodle of Siriul Merta at the inn, who had been fearful in his shadow whilst he yet went about with his gods, commense to bolden.  And they crackt boastful, saying, I will tell thee whither they went.  Yea, I met them in the street—him & all his bullygods—and cornerd them, and we gat going right there; and I did mince them, and feeded them all to the chickens.  This then is whither they went; go out unto the chickenyard and see how came they out.

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            And some believd them, saying, Where else cud they be?  And every man sought signs of his lord in the mud of chickens.

            But such imagining were a preposter, being preposterous; for who may feed gods and their owner unto chickans?

            And after a time ceast Envincius and his mother Nessasiny to wash the feet of Krayven Merta, who were presst then to wash her own feet or let them go (and she lat them go).  For ten tenths of the lentil field were again fetching up at harvest, after that Season of Cropdamn.  And Nessassiny persisted to flip away whosoever rous-ed her dementia.  Yet, she kept in some deep closet a seed of wist regarding Siriul Merta, saying, I mights to have married him, had he been all opposites of that he were.

            Now ’tis written that Siriul Merta shall return with his underlords, and shall make about to trim wild branches and to bundle fallen twigs.  Yea, he shall stroll amidst a certain tide (’tis writ) and shall set fast his gaze; and on that day shall the sun show its light, and many things therein shall be seen, and much occurrence shall there be, anyata, anyata, anyata. 

            Yet say some, Will not he keep unto his distant remove, and some day send for the millet?  Yea (saith such fancy), finding no steady market, that millet will by & by go up and join him in the nether worlds.  And lo, founding upon this dogmum, cultivaters rase up cults to worship the millet that once was a persuasive gang of assriders, made barrels of millet by conversien and holy by discernment of cultivater priests.

            And some say, I am the greatest of the thinkers; and I say, I do not believe, that there ever were no Siriul Merta.

            Yet unto these a poser:  Whither good Sarcastus?