When everything had been told and heard, they stood for a while in silent mourning. The sun rose from the hills over the water, and with a common impulse they knelt to this great god, beseeching him that he would straightway call the dragon back beyond those hills, never to return. Then they looked up at the cave. To-day the dragon was wholly inside, his smoke rolling up from within the cave’s mouth. Long looked the homelanders for that glimmer of nether fire which would show that he was indeed moving forth. There was nothing for them to see but the black smoke. ‘Peradventure,’ said one, ‘the sun is not a god.’ ‘Nay,’ said another, ‘rather may it be that he is so great a god that we cannot know his purposes, nor he be turned aside from them by our small woes.’ This was accounted a strange but a wise saying. ‘Nevertheless,’ said the sayer, ‘it is well that we should ask help of him in woes that to us are not small.’ So again the homelanders prayed, and though their prayer was still unanswered they felt themselves somehow strengthened. It was agreed that they should disperse to their dwellings, eat, and presently reassemble in formal council. And here I should mention Shib; for he was destined to be important in this council, though he was but a youth, and on his cheeks and chin the down had but begun to lengthen. I may as well also mention Veo, his brother, elder than him by one year. They were the sons of Oc and Loga, with whom they lived in a cave near the valley. Veo had large eyes which seemed to see nothing, but saw much. Shib had small eyes which seemed to see much, and saw it. Shib’s parents thought him very clever, as indeed he was. They thought Veo a fool; but Mr. Roger Fry, had he seen the mural drawings in their cave, would have assured them that he was a master. Said Veo to Shib, as they followed their parents to the cave, ‘Though I prayed that he might not, I am glad that the dragon abides with us. His smoke is as the trunk of a great tree whose branches are the sky. When he comes crawling down the hill he is more beautiful than Thia dancing.’