And wrapping herself in thick clouds she started for the earth to cover the battle-field with impenetrable shadows.
“Let me rather,” said the great Alligator, “empty the Swamp on them again, and overwhelm them with a second flood.”
“They have made boats,” said the Wind, “and now defy the waters. Let me rather start the air against them. I will give it wings to beat their faces and call in Thunder to frighten them and Rain to blind them, and will so mix heaven and earth and sea together against them that they cannot proceed.”
“There is nothing,” said Shoozoo, “that will avail, but to assuage their wrath, which crosses streams and night and outlasts weather. An interruption to-day prolongs the war, but does not end it. Let us not, by impeding them, add to their rage against each other and their anger against us. For I fear that men will one day mount to heaven and destroy the Gods.”
This advice they consented to follow, not, however, because any of them wanted to, but because they could not agree among themselves what to do.
It was accordingly decided that the deities, operating all together, should descend to the combatants to work on their minds; and so, wrapping themselves in clouds, and mists, and rain, and shadow, and light, which were all mistaken by Mortals for forms of the weather, they entered the battle with both Men and Apes, and worked for peace and a mitigation of the horrors of war.
But when Men and Gods are thus at variance, the Gods fail; and the council of heaven having broken up, the war of earth went on.