1. AND over all the lands, east and west and north and south, of Arabin'ya and Parsi'e and Heleste, stood the discomfited Osirian angels, in groups, tens of thousands, unseen by mortals, and considering how best to proceed to overthrow Jehovih and His worshippers.
2. Meantime, messengers and map-makers bore the disastrous news to Osiris, who in turn sent word on up to De'yus, the self-Lord God, who now, through Osiris, his most favorite God of power, sent these commands:
3. When night is on and mortals sleep, my hosts shall fall upon the ashars, the guardian angels, and drive them hence, obsessing every man, and woman and child, in these great divisions of the earth. What care I for the altars and temples and oracles and arcs? Possess ye the mortals before the morrow's morning sun. Hear ye the command of De'yus, The Lord your God, through his high-raised son, Osiris!
4. And the well-stationed messengers plied all day long to the near and remote parts of the assaulting armies, giving De'yus' commands. And ere the sun went down, the whole thousand millions knew their work, and were wheeled in line, to march with the falling darkness, and pounce furiously upon the ashars of Jehovih.
5. But the true God, in Craoshivi, had been warned by Jehovih's Voice of the course of events, and he had sent his messengers with all speed down to the earth to warn them of the enemy's designs that night; the which they accomplished none too soon, for, already, when they had completed their most exhaustive work, the sun had dropped below the west horizon.
6. So, at the midnight hour, the terrible approach began on all sides; and to each and every spirit there came enemies, in tens, and hundreds, and thousands, shouting: Begone, thou Jehovian fool! The Lord our God and his son, Osiris, command! Away from thy sleeping mortal ward, or by the voice of God we will cast thee, bound, at Annubi's feet, food for hell! Begone!
7. Each Jehovian answered: To Great Jehovih I am sworn! Though ye bind me and cast me into hell, by the Great Spirit's hand I will free myself and come here again and teach His sacred name. And repeat forever my peaceful mission to raise up this heir of Jehovih!
8. Again the threatening adversaries stormed, and wondered whilst they stormed, that one alone stood so boldly in face of such great odds and flew not away at once. And every ashar laid his hand on the sleeping mortal in his charge, for by this his power was multiplied a thousand-fold, and raising up his other hand, thus addressed the All Highest: By Thy Wisdom and Power, O Jehovih, circumscribe Thou this, Thy sleeping heir, that whosoever toucheth the mortal part shall cut himself from off Thy everlasting kingdoms!
9. And, with the words, a circle of light fell about the place, bewildering to the assaulters, who, having once halted, opened the way to their own p. 397 cowardice to recoil within them, a most valiant warrior against unrighteous deeds. Whereupon, a war of words and arguments ensued, till again the morning sun rose upon the almost harmless assault, and left the Osirians discomfited and ashamed.
10. Though not in all places, for in some extremes they waited not for words but rushed in and laid hands on the mortals, gaining power sufficient to hurl clubs, and stones, and boards, and stools and tables about the house, and so roused, wide awake the mortal occupants. Who, seeing things tumble about by some unseen power, were quickly up and frightened past composure. Some hurried off to the rab'bahs, some to the oracles and temples, to inquire about the trouble betwixt the ruling Gods.
11. And in these few places, when once De'yus' spirit-soldiers gained possession, they fastened on in thousands, even quarreling as to who had most honor in the hellish work. And yet not one of the ashars in all the lands was seized or borne away.
12. And now, in the time of the rising sun, the messengers of the Lord God flew hastily to Osiris' kingdom, where he sat on his throne, expecting news of an overwhelming victory. And when they told him of the most pitiful failure, save in so small a degree, Osiris raved and swore: By my soul, I swear an everlasting curse, but I will fill all the hells in hada with these fool-hardy ashars! Yea, even though I go down to the earth in person, and with Baal and Ashtaroth go from house to house throughout the world!
13. Osiris again sent word to De'yus, who was of vast experience, and not so hasty; a wiser God, and better acquainted with the tides in mortal energy to serve Jehovih. So De'yus sent back word to this effect: To rest the soldiers three days, that the surveyors might measure the stature of mortal faith, and so make the third attack more successful. And with these words concluded, to wit:
14. Because of the long spiritual peace amongst mortals, there must be many grown to intellectual disbelief in an All Highest. For groveling down in the earth to measure the rocks, and to study the habits of worms and bugs, for generations, their seed hath brought forth many skeptics, believing nothing of spiritual kind, but rating high their own judgment. With these, for lack of faith in Jehovih, the ashars are powerless to ward off my soldiers. Mark them out in every city and in all the country places, and again at mid-hour of the night, fall upon them, crowding away Jehovih's ashars.
15. Besides these, find ye the ignorant and superstitious amongst mortals, who are lazy and of lustful desires, for by their habits the ashars have little power in their presence. Mark these also, and, at midnight, fall upon them and possess them.
16. And go ye amongst the rich, whose sons and daughters are raised in idleness and pleasure; whose thoughts seldom rise to the heaven; for with them the ashars are also weak to protect them, who are most excellent subjects to spirits fond of sporting pleasures. Mark ye them, also, and at midnight fall upon them, driving hence the ashars.
17. Abandon ye the altars and arcs and temples and oracles, and all the strongest, most zealous Faithists, for the present. Save such few as still flatten the head and are dull in judgment, whom ye shall also possess.
18. Thus prepared Osiris and Baal and Ashtaroth for the third assault on Jehovih's angels. And their millions of groups were kept in constant drill, ready for the work. The first fire and flush of boasting was already gone from them, save of a few, and the serious aspect of a long war stared them in the face.