was Khnum. He was a God long and long before Yawvah of the Jews, who was also a maker of dolls,
you will recall, shaping two of them in the Garden of Eden; animating them; but giving them only two
inalienable rights-first, the right to suffer; second, the right to die. Khnum was a far more merciful God.
He did not deny the right to die-but he did not think the dolls should suffer; he liked to see them enjoy
themselves in their brief breathing space. Khnum was so old that he had ruled in Egypt ages before the
Pyramids or the Sphinx were thought of. He had a brother God whose name was Kepher, and who had
the head of a Beetle. It was Kepher who sent a thought rippling like a little wind over the surface of
Chaos. That, thought fertilized Chaos, and from it the world was born…
"Only a ripple over the surface, Ricori! If it had pierced the skin of Chaos…or thrust even deeper…into its
heart…what might not mankind now be? Nevertheless, rippling, the thought achieved the superficiality