then mohontis spake, the hermit prophet, who lived in the deep untravelled woods that seclude lake ilana.
"i dreamed that to the west of all the seas i saw by vision the mouth of munra-o, guarded by golden gates, and through the bars of the gates that guard the mysterious river of munra-o i saw the flashes of golden barques, wherein the gods went up and down, and to and fro through the evening dusk. and i saw that munra-o was a river of dreams such as came through remembered gardens in the night, to charm our infancy as we slept beneath the sloping gables of the houses of long ago. and munra-o rolled down her dreams from the unknown inner land and slid them under the golden gates and out into the waste, unheeding sea, till they beat far off upon low-lying shores and murmured songs of long ago to the islands of the south, or shouted tumultuous paeans to the northern crags; or cried forlornly against rocks where no one came, dreams that might not be dreamed.
"many gods there be, that through the dusk of an evening in the summer go up and down this river. there i saw, in a high barque all of gold, gods the of the pomp of cities; there i saw gods of splendour, in boats bejewelled to the keels; gods of magnificence and gods of power. i saw the dark ships and the glint of steel of the gods whose trade was war, and i heard the melody of the bells of silver arow in the rigging of harpstrings as the gods of melody went sailing through the dusk on the river of munra—o. wonderful river of munra—o! i saw a grey ship with sails of the spider's web all lit with dewdrop lanterns, and on its prow was a scarlet cock with its wings spread far and wide when the gods of the dawn sailed also on munra-o.
"down this river it is the wont of the gods to carry the souls of men eastward to where the world in the distance faces on munra-o. then i knew that when the gods of the pride of power and gods of the pomp of cities went down the river in their tall gold ships to take earthward other souls, swiftly adown the river and between the ships had gone in this boat of birch bark the god tarn, the hunter, bearing my soul to the world. and i know now that he came down the stream in the dusk keeping well to the middle, and that he moved silently and swiftly among the ships, wielding a twin-bladed oar. i remember, now, the yellow gleaming of the great boats of the gods of the pomp of cities, and the huge prow above me of the gods of the pride of power, when tarn, dipping his right blade into the river, lifted his left blade high, and the drops gleamed and fell. thus tarn the hunter took me to the world that faces across the sea of the west on the gate of munra-o. and so it was that there grew upon me the glamour of the hunt, though i had forgotten tarn, and took me into mossy places and into dark woods, and i became the cousin of the wolf and looked into the lynx's eyes and knew the bear; and the birds called to me with half-remembered notes, and there grew in me a deep love of great rivers and of all western seas, and a distrust of cities, and all the while i had forgotten tarn.
"i know not what high galleon shall come for thee, o king, nor what rowers, clad with purple, shall row at the bidding of gods when thou goest back with pomp to the river of munra-o. but for me tarn waits where the seas of the west break over the edge of the world, and, as the years pass over me and the love of the chase sinks low, and as the glamour of the dark woods and mossy places dies down in my soul, ever louder and louder lap the ripples against the canoe of birch bark where, holding his twin-bladed oar, tarn waits.
"but when my soul hath no more knowledge of the woods nor kindred any longer with the creatures of the dark, and when all that tarn hath given it shall be lost, then tarn shall take me back over the western seas, where all the remembered years lie floating idly aswing with the ebb and flow, to bring me again to the river of munra-o. far up that river we shall haply chase those creatures whose eyes are peering in the night as they prowl around the world, for tarn was ever a hunter."
