"
"Old? Yes, it is old indeed. Time after time have nations, ay, and rich
and strong nations, learned in the arts, been and passed away and
been forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This is but one of
several; for Time eats up the works of man, unless, indeed, he digs in
caves like the people of Kor, and then mayhap the sea swallows them, or
the earthquake shakes them in. Who knows what hath been on the earth, or
what shall be? There is no new thing under the sun, as the wise Hebrew
wrote long ago. Yet were not these people utterly destroyed, as I think.
Some few remained in the other cities, for their cities were many. But
the barbarians from the south, or perchance my people, the Arabs,
came down upon them, and took their women to wife, and the race of the
Amahagger that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of Kor, and
behold it dwelleth in the tombs with its fathers' bones.[*] But I know
not: who can know? My arts cannot pierce so far into the blackness of
Time's night.
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