Fragments XVI-XVIII

> You say that life in the cities has not poisoned our judgment, but you are mistaken! When there were no kings nor queens, we lived like a pack of free lions. We used to be more respectful of the world than we are now when we follow the Etoi fables too literally. We prayed to the Double-Crested Panther then. Now many say that the Panther does not care about us and does not hear our prayers, and yet every Iskuzai, when about to face an ordeal, goes to a secret place in his house and appeals to it. The Panther, Leopard, or Lion may appear under different shapes because it is in truth shapeless and thus possesses each and every form — it is above Gods, it is above everything. It is the joy, the pain and the glory of destruction and rebirth. Before encountering the Etoi, we worshipped the Double-Crested Panther as pure existence. Wise men were the ones who had witnessed the changeable nature of reality and did not cling to it; they honored the Panther. These men were called the Hypsoi, ‘the Sublime ones’. Despite what the poets of Psantes chant, in every Iskuzai warrior’s home there is an alcove, a room used to honor the Double-Crested Panther. On the walls of this room, there are painted scenes, with colors and styles that were common in the Etoi eparchies. After conquering them, we absorbed these old drawing traditions, older than the faith in the Twelve Gods. Maybe the Etoi painters who brought them forth knew the Panther as well and worshipped it in another shape. But there is little wisdom in discussing such ancient things, who may say with certainty what happened in our ancient past, and what were the thoughts of the people who lived in an epoch now irremediably vanished?
>
>
> [....]
>
>
> These paintings tell us ancient stories — stories that might be true but whose original meaning is lost. In them we see dancers preparing themselves to appear in front of the Double-Crested Panther to entertain it with their swinging bodies, delicate voices and sweet profusion of movements. This is what our mind perceives. However, who knows what the meaning of those figures was for the people who painted them? If inquired about it, the Etoi that live in the northern islands shake their head in melancholy. Maybe they too have forgotten. It is rumored that some perceptive women, touched by the Moons, have gone further and deciphered in their oracular dreams the arcane alphabet of the painted dances. They learned the secrets of the Etoi sorceresses of the past, and now they keep that power hidden behind their crimson painted lips. The people of the South think that the famous poem attributed to the Mistress of Cydonia is connected with these beliefs, the only part that remain available to us recites:
>
>
> "To you, O mist-born, ever-wet, shadow-lust, Bringer of the Masks, Never-Shining, to you, Night of the Nights, we raise our chant.
>
>
> We are your daughters, sisters and mothers, Oh, yes, we are the Milk Creators, your humble, most humble servants. O, Night of the Nights,
>
>
> We are the Keepers of Light, for in our dark,
>
>
> O, most dismal, womb, the seed of men
>
>
> finds its Death and Rebirth.
>
>
> And in you, you great, No-Shape, Never-vanishing,
>
>
> Ever-present, Most-fleeting, Mist of Mists, in you,
>
>
> O, Sweet Nights of the Night, we find bliss
>
>
>
> and peace."
>
>

"An offering to the Double-Crested Panther" from *The Hyperborean Dialogue*, I by Orgomenio, son of Abari