Book of Wars Against Jehovih Chapter 33, Chapter 34

Chapter 33

1. Te-in’s Lords and their angels departed out of Che-su-gow, Te-in’s heavenly place, and
descended to the earth on their mission; and this is what came of it, to wit:

2. Kan Kwan was the son of Kwan Ho, a flat-head; but Kan Kwan came of the converts
to the Brahmin priests, and so had not his head flattened. But because su’is and sar’gis had
been long in their family they descended to Kwan all the same. And he could see and hear
the angels and their Lords; hear all the words spoken to him, a most excellent thing in a
king, when drujas are restrained from observing him.

3. The Lords guarded Kan Kwan on every side, day and night, and Kwan being stupid,
because of the flat heads of his parents, he was well suited to carry out all that was
commanded of him. So he at once announced himself with all his titles, and sent heralds
hither and thither to proclaim him and let all peoples and kings know that he was coming
to subdue them unto himself.

4. Kwan issued this decree, to wit: Kan Kwan, king of the world, and of the sun, and
moon, and stars, I command! I, son of the sun, son of Te-in, behold! There is but one
ruler in heaven, Te-in! There shall be but one on earth, Kan Kwan. Bow your heads
down! I come! Choose ye: to bow down, or to die. One or the other shall be. When the
world is subdued to me, I will war no more!

5. In those days there were many great kings in Jaffeth, and their kingdoms were in many
places far apart. Betwixt them, in a sparse region, in the Valley of Lun, lay the city of
Ow Tswe, and this was the small kingdom of Kan Kwan, known for a thousand years.

6. When the other kings heard of Kwan’s proclamation they laughed. And this is the
vanity of mortals, for they heed not the power of the Gods over them.

7. So Kwan started with an army of four thousand soldiers, men and women, with spears,
axes, scythes, swords and slings, and bows and arrows; and he marched against Tzeyot, a
city of a hundred thousand people; and here ruled king Cha Ung Chin, with twenty
thousand soldiers. Cha Ung Chin laughed. He said to his captain: Send thou a thousand
women soldiers and kill Kwan and his army; they are mad, they know not what war is.

8. The captain went forth to battle, but he took beside the thousand women soldiers a
thousand men soldiers. But lo and behold, Kwan and his soldiers knew no drill, but they
ran forward so strangely that their enemies knew not how to fight them, and they fled in
fear, save the captain and a hundred women, who were instantly put to death. But not one
of Kwan’s army was killed.

9. Cha Ung Chin was angry, and he sent ten thousand soldiers against Kwan’s ragged
army; and when the battle was begun, the angels cast clouds before the hosts of Cha Ung
Chin, and they thought they beheld hundreds of thousands of soldiers coming upon them,
and they turned and fled also, save five hundred, who were captured and instantly slain,
men and women.

10. Cha Ung Chin said: It is time now I go myself. My laziness has cost me dear. On
the morrow I will lead thirty thousand pressed men and women, and make it a day of
sport to slaughter Kwan’s army. So the king sent his marshals to select and summon
his soldiers during the night. Many were too frightened to sleep; and those that slept
had such visions and dreams that when they awoke they were as persons nearly dead.

11. Cha Ung Chin, next morning, sallied forth out of the city to battle, going before
his army. When he saw the pitiful army of Kwan, he said: Of a truth, the world is
going mad! That such fools have courage is because they know not what a battle is.
With that he rushed forward, faster and faster, calling to his soldiers. But they stretched
out in a line, after him, for they trembled from head to foot, remembering their dreams.

12. Presently Kwan and his army started for them, not with orderly commands, but
screaming and howling. Cha Ung Chin’s soldiers took panic, broke ranks and fled in all
directions, save one thousand, including King Cha Ung Chin, who were captured and
instantly slain.

13. And on the same day Kan Kwan went and possessed the city, Tzeyot, commanding
obedience and allegiance of the people. And on the following day he set twenty thousand
men to work building a temple to Te-in, pulling down other edifices for the material
thereof. Nor had Kwan a learned man in all his army; but the Lords with him showed him
how to build the temple, east and west and north and south, and how to make the
archways and the pillars to support the roof; and the sacred chambers and altars of
sacrifice. Of brick and mortar and wood built he it, and when it was completed it was
large enough for twelve thousand people to do sacrifice in. And it was, from first to last,
forty days in building.

14. Besides this, Kwan put another ten thousand men and women to clearing houses and
walls away, and making new streets in many ways; so that at the time of the first sacrifice
the city of Tzeyot looked not like itself; and Kwan gave it a new name, Lu An, and
commanded all people to call it by that name, or suffer death.

15. Kan Kwan made the people go and do sacrifice to Te-in in the temple every morning;
enforced a day of rest for each quarter of the moon; enforced worship on the part of
children to their fathers and mothers, the father taking first rank.

16. Then Kwan made them pray for those who were slain in battle. And these are the
words he commanded them: Te-in! Father of Life and Death! Who feedeth on suns and
stars! Whose refuse is mortals. In thy praise I bow my head. For thy glory I lie on my
belly before thy altar. I am the filthiest of things; my breath and my flesh and my blood
are rotten. Death would be sweet to me if thou or thy soldiers would slay me. For my soul
would come to thee to be thy slave forever.

17. Behold, my brothers and sisters who fought against thee are dead, and I glorify thee
because thereof. We have buried their rotten carcasses deep in the ground, good enough
for them.

18. But their spirits are lost and wild on the battle-field, howling about. O Te-in, Father,
send thy spirits from Che-su-gow, thy heavenly place, to them, to help them out of
darkness. And we will ever praise thee, our mightiest, all highest ruler!

19. When they made the sacrifice they laid down on their bellies, certain ones prompting
them with the words which Kwan received from the Lords.

20. After this, Kwan appointed them a governor, Ding Jow, who was the first governor of
a province in Jaffeth, after the order of governors as they exist to this day. Which is to
say: As a Lord is to a God, so is a governor to a king. And this was the first of that order
established by the Gods of hada. Prior to this a like government had been given by
Jehovih to the Faithists; even as it had been given in its purity to the pure, so was it now
given in its crudity to the crude.

21. Jehovih had said: Independent kingdoms shall not exist side by side; nor shall one be
tributary to another; but there shall be one whole, and the lesser shall be parts thereof, not
over nor under them, but as helpmates. The wicked will not see this now; but their own
wickedness will bring it about in time to come. And it was so.

Chapter 34
1. Kan Kwan again went forth to conquer and subdue, going to the southward, to Ho-tsze,
a large city having five tributary cities, ruled over by Oo-long, a king with two hundred
wives and thirty thousand soldiers, men and women, well disciplined.

2. Kwan’s army was now seven thousand strong, but without discipline; and with no head
save himself. And on his march through the country he compelled the farmers to embrace
the Te-in religion, under penalty of death.

3. Now when he had come near Ho-tsze, he sent an order for the king to surrender, even
after the manner as at the city he had already conquered.

4. Oo-long laughed when told of the kind of company that had come against him, and he
sent only women soldiers, eight thousand, to give him battle. When the armies were near
together, the Lords said to Kwan: Send thou a truce, and beseech thine enemy to
surrender under penalty of death; for the angels of Te-in will deliver them into thy hand,
and not one shall die.

5. A truce was sent, and lo and behold, the whole of Oo-long’s army surrendered, and
made oaths of allegiance to Kwan, and not one was slain. Oo-long, when informed of it,
said: Now will I go with all my army and slay this ragged king and all his people, and also
my eight thousand who have surrendered. So he marched to battle with twenty-two
thousand soldiers. Kwan’s army was scattered about the fields. Oo-long said to his
captain: Go, thou, tell this foolish king to set his army in line of battle; I desire not to take
advantage of a flock of sheep.

6. The captain started to go, but ere he reached the place, he fell down in a swoon, for the
angels overpowered him. The king saw his captain fall, and he cried out to his army: It is
enough! My army have never seen such fools, and know not how to battle with them.
Come, I will lead!

7. At that, he rushed on, followed by his thousands. Instantly, Kwan’s army set up their
screams and howls, and ran forward in every direction, and lo and behold, Oo-long’s army
broke and fled, save one thousand two hundred who were captured, Oo-long amongst
them; and they were instantly slain. But of Kwan’s army only one man was killed.

8. The Lords sent messengers to Te-in in his heavenly place, informing him of Kwan’s
success. Te-in returned this commandment: In what has been done I am well pleased; but
suffer not your mortal king, Kan Kwan, to win so easily hereafter; but let him have losses,
that he may not forget me and my Lords and my hosts of angels. Place ye him in straits,
and cause him to pray unto me; and his army shall pray also. And when they have thus
sacrificed, deliver him and his army from their straits, and make him victorious for a
season.

9. Kwan entered the city of Ho-tsze without further opposition, and possessed himself of
it. At once he caused thirty thousand laborers to fall to work building a temple to Te-in.
Another twenty thousand he caused to pull down houses and make other streets, more
beautiful. In twenty-eight days the temple and the streets were completed; and on the
twenty-ninth day the sacrifices commenced, and all the people were obliged to swear
allegiance to Kwan and to Te-in, or be slain. And on the first day there were slain four
thousand men and women (worshippers of different Gods, but for the main part the Great
Spirit) who would not take the oath.

10. After that, none refused, and so Kwan gave the city a new name, Tue Shon; and he
appointed So’wo’tse governor, and commanded the tributary cities to come under the
yoke.

11. After that, Kan Kwan went forward again to conquer and subdue; and the Lords
of heaven and their twelve millions of angels went with him and in advance of
him, preparing the way. And the news of his success was spread abroad amongst
mortals also, well exaggerated; so that the inhabitants of cities far and near feared him.

12. The Lords suffered Kwan to conquer and subdue yet three other large cities without
loss to his army; and lo and behold, Kwan began to think it was himself that possessed
the power, and not Te-in.

13. The next city, Che-gah, was a small one, of fifty thousand inhabitants. Kwan
inquired not of Te-in (through the Lords) as to how to make the attack, but went on
his own judgment. Now there ruled over the city a woman, Lon Gwie, a tyrant
little loved, and she had but four thousand soldiers, and Kwan had seven thousand.

14. Kwan, arriving near, demanded the place; but the queen answered him not with
words; but had her soldiers in ambush, and thus fell upon Kwan’s army, and put one-half
of them to death; and yet the queen suffered small loss. Kwan, not finding his Lords with
him, fled, and his remaining army with him. But the Lords urged the queen to pursue him,
and she again fell upon them and slew another half, and crippled hundreds more. But the
queen suffered small loss.

15. The Lords then spoke to Kwan, where he had escaped, and said unto him: Because
thou wert vain and rememberedst not me, who am thy heavenly ruler, Te-in, I have
labored to show thee that of thyself thou art nothing. Then Kwan prayed to Te-in, saying:
Most mighty ruler of heaven and earth, thou hast justly punished me. I pray thee
now, with good repentance, in the bitterness of my shame. What shall I do, O Te-in?
I am far from home, in a strange country, and my army is well-nigh destroyed. All
nations are against me; a sheep is safer in a forest with wolves than I am in these regions.

16. The Lord said unto Kwan: Now that thou hast repented, behold, I, Te-in, will
show thee my power. For thou shalt gather together the remnant of thy army and
turn about and destroy the queen and her army, or put them to flight and possess the city.

17. Kwan, on the next morning, being inspired by his Lords, prepared for battle, though
he had but seven hundred men. On the other hand the Lords and their angels appeared in
the dreams and visions of the queen’s army, saying to them: The queen is deceived and
led away into a trap. Kwan will be joined in the morning by fifty thousand men. Prepare,
therefore, to die to-morrow.

18. On the morrow, then, on the queen’s side, the soldiers related their fearful dreams to
one another; and hardly had they finished the matter when Kwan’s army came upon
them. And the angels, more than fifty thousand, took on sar’gis, seeming even like
mortals. At sight of this, the queen’s army were so frightened they could not flee, save
a few, but nearly the whole army surrendered, throwing away their arms and lying down.

19. Kwan and his army fell upon them and slew them, more than four thousand, who
were rendered powerless by the angel hosts with them. Kwan then went into the city,
doing as previously in other cities, establishing himself and Te-in.

20. Such, then, was the manner of Te-in, the false, of establishing himself in Jaffeth. Hear
ye now of Sudga, of Vind’yu, and her heavenly kingdom.