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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511099" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Sacrifice Of Er-Heb</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai<br> Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai<br> Hath told the men of Gorukh. Thence the tale<br> Comes westward o'er the peaks to India.<br> <br>The story of Bisesa, Armod's child, --<br>A maiden plighted to the Chief in War,<br>The Man of Sixty Spears, who held the Pass<br>That leads to Thibet, but to-day is gone<br>To seek his comfort of the God called Budh<br>The Silent -- showing how the Sickness ceased<br>Because of her who died to save the tribe.<br> <br>Taman is One and greater than us all,<br>Taman is One and greater than all Gods:<br>Taman is Two in One and rides the sky,<br>Curved like a stallion's croup, from dusk to dawn,<br>And drums upon it with his heels, whereby<br>Is bred the neighing thunder in the hills.<br> <br>This is Taman, the God of all Er-Heb,<br>Who was before all Gods, and made all Gods,<br>And presently will break the Gods he made,<br>And step upon the Earth to govern men<br>Who give him milk-dry ewes and cheat his Priests,<br>Or leave his shrine unlighted -- as Er-Heb<br>Left it unlighted and forgot Taman,<br>When all the Valley followed after Kysh<br>And Yabosh, little Gods but very wise,<br>And from the sky Taman beheld their sin.<br> <br>He sent the Sickness out upon the hills,<br>The Red Horse Sickness with the iron hooves,<br>To turn the Valley to Taman again.<br> <br>And the Red Horse snuffed thrice into the wind,<br>The naked wind that had no fear of him;<br>And the Red Horse stamped thrice upon the snow,<br>The naked snow that had no fear of him;<br>And the Red Horse went out across the rocks,<br>The ringing rocks that had no fear of him;<br>And downward, where the lean birch meets the snow,<br>And downward, where the gray pine meets the birch,<br>And downward, where the dwarf oak meets the pine,<br>Till at his feet our cup-like pastures lay.<br> <br>That night, the slow mists of the evening dropped,<br>Dropped as a cloth upon a dead man's face,<br>And weltered in the Valley, bluish-white<br>Like water very silent -- spread abroad,<br>Like water very silent, from the Shrine<br>Unlighted of Taman to where the stream<br>Is dammed to fill our cattle-troughs -- sent up<br>White waves that rocked and heaved and then were still,<br>Till all the Valley glittered like a marsh,<br>Beneath the moonlight, filled with sluggish mist<br>Knee-deep, so that men waded as they walked.<br> <br>That night, the Red Horse grazed above the Dam,<br>Beyond the cattle-troughs. Men heard him feed,<br>And those that heard him sickened where they lay.<br> <br>Thus came the Sickness to Er-Heb, and slew<br>Ten men, strong men, and of the women four;<br>And the Red Horse went hillward with the dawn,<br>But near the cattle-troughs his hoof-prints lay.<br> <br>That night, the slow mists of the evening dropped,<br>Dropped as a cloth upon the dead, but rose<br>A little higher, to a young girl's height;<br>Till all the Valley glittered like a lake,<br>Beneath the moonlight, filled with sluggish mist.<br> <br>That night, the Red Horse grazed beyond the Dam,<br>A stone's-throw from the troughs. Men heard him feed,<br>And those that heard him sickened where they lay.<br>Thus came the Sickness to Er-Heb, and slew<br>Of men a score, and of the women eight,<br>And of the children two.<br> <br>  Because the road<br>To Gorukh was a road of enemies,<br>And Ao-Safai was blocked with early snow,<br>We could not flee from out the Valley. Death<br>Smote at us in a slaughter-pen, and Kysh<br>Was mute as Yabosh, though the goats were slain;<br>And the Red Horse grazed nightly by the stream,<br>And later, outward, towards the Unlighted Shrine,<br>And those that heard him sickened where they lay.<br> <br>Then said Bisesa to the Priests at dusk,<br>When the white mist rose up breast-high, and choked<br>The voices in the houses of the dead: --<br>&quot;Yabosh and Kysh avail not. If the Horse<br>Reach the Unlighted Shrine we surely die.<br>Ye have forgotten of all Gods the Chief,<br>Taman!&quot; Here rolled the thunder through the Hills<br>And Yabosh shook upon his pedestal.<br>&quot;Ye have forgotten of all Gods the Chief<br>Too long.&quot; And all were dumb save one, who cried<br>On Yabosh with the Sapphire 'twixt His knees,<br>But found no answer in the smoky roof,<br>And, being smitten of the Sickness, died<br>Before the altar of the Sapphire Shrine.<br> <br>Then said Bisesa: -- &quot;I am near to Death,<br>And have the Wisdom of the Grave for gift<br>To bear me on the path my feet must tread.<br>If there be wealth on earth, then I am rich,<br>For Armod is the first of all Er-Heb;<br>If there be beauty on the earth,&quot; -- her eyes<br>Dropped for a moment to the temple floor, --<br>&quot;Ye know that I am fair. If there be love,<br>Ye know that love is mine.&quot; The Chief in War,<br>The Man of Sixty Spears, broke from the press,<br>And would have clasped her, but the Priests withstood,<br>Saying: -- &quot;She has a message from Taman.&quot;<br>Then said Bisesa: -- &quot;By my wealth and love<br>And beauty, I am chosen of the God<br>Taman.&quot; Here rolled the thunder through the Hills<br>And Kysh fell forward on the Mound of Skulls.<br> <br>In darkness, and before our Priests, the maid<br>Between the altars cast her bracelets down,<br>Therewith the heavy earrings Armod made,<br>When he was young, out of the water-gold<br>Of Gorukh -- threw the breast-plate thick with jade<br>Upon the turquoise anklets -- put aside<br>The bands of silver on her brow and neck;<br>And as the trinkets tinkled on the stones,<br>The thunder of Taman lowed like a bull.<br> <br>Then said Bisesa, stretching out her hands,<br>As one in darkness fearing Devils: -- &quot;Help!<br>O Priests, I am a woman very weak,<br>And who am I to know the will of Gods?<br>Taman hath called me -- whither shall I go?&quot;<br>The Chief in War, the Man of Sixty Spears,<br>Howled in his torment, fettered by the Priests,<br>But dared not come to her to drag her forth,<br>And dared not lift his spear against the Priests.<br>Then all men wept.<br> <br>  There was a Priest of Kysh<br>Bent with a hundred winters, hairless, blind,<br>And taloned as the great Snow-Eagle is.<br>His seat was nearest to the altar-fires,<br>And he was counted dumb among the Priests.<br>But, whether Kysh decreed, or from Taman<br>The impotent tongue found utterance we know<br>As little as the bats beneath the eaves.<br>He cried so that they heard who stood without: --<br>&quot;To the Unlighted Shrine!&quot; and crept aside<br>Into the shadow of his fallen God<br>And whimpered, and Bisesa went her way.<br> <br>That night, the slow mists of the evening dropped,<br>Dropped as a cloth upon the dead, and rose<br>Above the roofs, and by the Unlighted Shrine<br>Lay as the slimy water of the troughs<br>When murrain thins the cattle of Er-Heb:<br>And through the mist men heard the Red Horse feed.<br> <br>In Armod's house they burned Bisesa's dower,<br>And killed her black bull Tor, and broke her wheel,<br>And loosed her hair, as for the marriage-feast,<br>With cries more loud than mourning for the dead.<br> <br>Across the fields, from Armod's dwelling-place,<br>We heard Bisesa weeping where she passed<br>To seek the Unlighted Shrine; the Red Horse neighed<br>And followed her, and on the river-mint<br>His hooves struck dead and heavy in our ears.<br> <br>Out of the mists of evening, as the star<br>Of Ao-Safai climbs through the black snow-blur<br>To show the Pass is clear, Bisesa stepped<br>Upon the great gray slope of mortised stone,<br>The Causeway of Taman. The Red Horse neighed<br>Behind her to the Unlighted Shrine -- then fled<br>North to the Mountain where his stable lies.<br> <br>They know who dared the anger of Taman,<br>And watched that night above the clinging mists,<br>Far up the hill, Bisesa's passing in.<br> <br>She set her hand upon the carven door,<br>Fouled by a myriad bats, and black with time,<br>Whereon is graved the Glory of Taman<br>In letters older than the Ao-Safai;<br>And twice she turned aside and twice she wept,<br>Cast down upon the threshold, clamouring<br>For him she loved -- the Man of Sixty Spears,<br>And for her father, -- and the black bull Tor,<br>Hers and her pride. Yea, twice she turned away<br>Before the awful darkness of the door,<br>And the great horror of the Wall of Man<br>Where Man is made the plaything of Taman,<br>An Eyeless Face that waits above and laughs.<br> <br>But the third time she cried and put her palms<br>Against the hewn stone leaves, and prayed Taman<br>To spare Er-Heb and take her life for price.<br> <br>They know who watched, the doors were rent apart<br>And closed upon Bisesa, and the rain<br>Broke like a flood across the Valley, washed<br>The mist away; but louder than the rain<br>The thunder of Taman filled men with fear.<br> <br>Some say that from the Unlighted Shrine she cried<br>For succour, very pitifully, thrice,<br>And others that she sang and had no fear.<br>And some that there was neither song nor cry,<br>But only thunder and the lashing rain.<br> <br>Howbeit, in the morning men rose up,<br>Perplexed with horror, crowding to the Shrine.<br>And when Er-Heb was gathered at the doors<br>The Priests made lamentation and passed in<br>To a strange Temple and a God they feared<br>But knew not.<br> <br> From the crevices the grass<br>Had thrust the altar-slabs apart, the walls<br>Were gray with stains unclean, the roof-beams swelled<br>With many-coloured growth of rottenness,<br>And lichen veiled the Image of Taman<br>In leprosy. The Basin of the Blood<br>Above the altar held the morning sun:<br>A winking ruby on its heart: below,<br>Face hid in hands, the maid Bisesa lay.<br> <br> Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai<br> Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai<br> Hath told the men of Gorukh. Thence the tale<br> Comes westward o'er the peaks to India.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Rudyard+Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=511099" data-title="The Sacrifice Of Er-Heb de Rudyard Kipling" data-description="Er-Heb beyond the Hills of Ao-Safai
 Bears witness to the truth, and Ao-Safai
 Hath told the men of Gorukh. Thence the tale
 Comes westward o'er the peaks to India.
 
The story of Bisesa, Armod's child, --
A maiden plighted to the Chief in War,
Th..."></div>
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