When Nyhalennia, whose real name was Min-erva, was well established,
and the Krekalanders loved her as well as our own people did, there
came some princes and priests to her citadel and asked Min-erva, where
her possessions lay. Hellenia answered, I carry my possessions in
my own bosom. What I have inherited is the love of wisdom, justice,
and freedom. If I lose these I shall become as the least of your
slaves; now I give advice for nothing, but then I should sell it. The
gentlemen went away laughing and saying, Your humble servants, wise
Hellenia. But they missed their object, for the people took up this
name as a name of honour. When they saw that their shot had missed they
began to calumniate her, and to say that she had bewitched the people;
but our people and the good Krekalanders understood at once that it
was calumny. She was once asked, If you are not a witch, what is the
use of the eggs that you always carry with you? Min-erva answered,
These eggs are the symbols of Frya's counsels, in which our future
and that of the whole human race lies concealed. Time will hatch them,
and we must watch that no harm happens to them. The priests said, Well
answered; but what is the use of the dog on your right hand? Hellenia
replied, Does not the shepherd have a sheep-dog to keep his flock
together? What the dog is to the shepherd I am in Frya's service. I
must watch over Frya's flocks. We understand that very well, said the
priests; but tell us what means the owl that always sits upon your
head, is that light-shunning animal a sign of your clear vision? No,
answered Hellenia; he reminds me that there are people on earth who,
like him, have their homes in churches and holes, who go about in the
twilight, not, like him, to deliver us from mice and other plagues,
but to invent tricks to steal away the knowledge of other people, in
order to take advantage of them, to make slaves of them, and to suck
their blood like leeches. Another time they came with a whole troop
of people, when the plague was in the country, and said: We are all
making offerings to the gods that they may take away the plague. Will
you not help to turn away their anger, or have you yourself brought the
plague into the land with all your arts? No, said Min-erva; I know no
gods that do evil, therefore I cannot ask them to do better. I only
know one good spirit, that is Wr-alda's; and as he is good he never
does evil. Where, then, does evil come from? asked the priests. All
the evil comes from you, and from the stupidity of the people who let
themselves be deceived by you. If, then, your god is so exceedingly
good, why does he not turn away the bad? asked the priests. Hellenia
answered: Frya has placed us here, and the carrier, that is, Time,
must do the rest. For all calamities there is counsel and remedy to
be found, but Wr-alda wills that we should search it out ourselves,
in order that we may become strong and wise. If we will not do that,
he leaves us to our own devices, in order that we may experience the
results of wise or foolish conduct. Then a prince said, I should think
it best to submit. Very possibly, answered Hellenia; for then men
would be like sheep, and you and the priests would take care of them,
shearing them and leading them to the shambles. This is what our god
does not desire, he desires that we should help one another, but that
all should be free and wise. That is also our desire, and therefore our
people choose their princes, counts, councillors, chiefs, and masters
among the wisest of the good men, in order that every man shall do
his best to be wise and good. Thus doing, we learn ourselves and
teach the people that being wise and acting wisely can alone lead to
holiness. That seems very good judgment, said the priests; but if you
mean that the plague is caused by our stupidity, then Nyhellenia will
perhaps be so good as to bestow upon us a little of that new light of
which she is so proud. Yes, said Hellenia, but ravens and other birds
of prey feed only on dead carrion, whereas the plague feeds not only
on carrion but on bad laws and customs and wicked passions. If you
wish the plague to depart from you and not return, you must put away
your bad passions and become pure within and without. We admit that
the advice is good, said the priests, but how shall we induce all the
people under our rule to agree to it? Then Hellenia stood up and said:
The sparrows follow the sower, and the people their good princes,
therefore it becomes you to begin by rendering yourselves pure, so
that you may look within and without, and not be ashamed of your own
conduct. Now, instead of purifying the people, you have invented foul
festivals, in which they have so long revelled that they wallow like
swine in the mire to atone for your evil passions. The people began
to mock and to jeer, so that she did not dare to pursue the subject;
and one would have thought that they would have called all the people
together to drive us out of the land; but no, in place of abusing
her they went all about from the heathenish Krekaland to the Alps,
proclaiming that it had pleased the Almighty God to send his clever
daughter Min-erva, surnamed Nyhellenia, over the sea in a cloud to
give people good counsel, and that all who listened to her should
become rich and happy, and in the end governors of all the kingdoms
of the earth. They erected statues to her on all their altars,
they announced and sold to the simple people advice that she had
never given, and related miracles that she had never performed. They
cunningly made themselves masters of our laws and customs, and by
craft and subtlety were able to explain and spread them around. They
appointed priestesses under their own care, who were apparently
under the protection of Festa, our first Eeremoeder, to watch over
the holy lamp; but that lamp they lit themselves, and instead of
imbuing the priestesses with wisdom, and then sending them to watch
the sick and educate the young, they made them stupid and ignorant,
and never allowed them to come out. They were employed as advisers,
but the advice which seemed to come from them was but the repetition of
the behests of the priests. When Nyhellenia died, we wished to choose
another mother, and some of us wished to go to Texland to look for
her; but the priests, who were all-powerful among their own people,
would not permit it, and accused us before the people of being unholy.