"I seem to have touched some chord of recollection in your mind, O my
saviour of Dunwich," said the Man. "Look at me and tell me, who am I?"
Hugh looked, and shook his head.
"I never saw you before, nor any one at all like you," he answered.
"No, no; you never saw me, though I have been very near to you once or
twice. Yet, your pardon, look again."
Hugh obeyed, and this time, for a second only, perceived that the Man's
head was surrounded by a multitude of doves. Two endless lines of
doves, one line black and the other line white, stretched from his right
shoulder and from his left shoulder, till miles away they melted into
the lofty gloom of the sky that was full of the soughing sound of their
wings.
Now he knew, and for the first time in his life fell upon his knees to a
man, or to what bore the semblance of man.
"You are named Murgh, Gate of the Gods," he said. "Murgh, whom old Sir
Andrew saw in that courtyard over which the iron dragons watch in the
country called Cathay, that courtyard with the pool of water and the
many doors."
"Ay," answered the Man in a new voice, a great voice that seemed to fill
the air like the mutter of distant thunder. "I am Murgh, Gateway of the
Gods, and since you have striven to defend Murgh, he who is the friend
of all men, although they know it not, will above all be your friend and
the friend of those you love.
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