forward with a joyous cry and flung
herself upon my neck in place of the ax and so I was saved."

"That means," replied the prophet, "that the sex instinct is stronger
than the nutritional instinct."

"I dreamed," stated another man, who was just in front of Gud, "that I
was in love with my brother."

"That means nothing indecent," expounded the prophet, "because dreams
are the voices of the unconscious mind which we inherited from an
earlier period of our evolution. Homo-sexual dreams merely hark back to
the time when we were all asexual creatures, hence they are entirely
proper. By similar psychic law we whitewash dreams of incest, murder,
torture, rape, arson, cannibalism, and political graft. All such dreams
are perfectly respectable and may be told with pride to your wife, your
mother, or your pastor, because they indicate that the unconscious mind
is perfectly natural. But there is one dream that should not be told to
your wife. To wit: a dream of polygamy--it is too damned natural."

Now Gud had supposed that his friend would recognize him. But the
prophet was busy with some figures in a small book and he merely called,
"Next." So Gud told this dream:

"I dreamed," replied Gud, "that I heard a most wonderful melody. But
when I woke up I found that I was sleeping near a strawstack and was
listening to the braying of a jackass."

"That means," replied the prophet, "that you are one too. Five dollars
please, and what did you come in here for? When I was dealing in black
magic and making prophecies by poking into the steaming entrails of
virgin goats, I at least had my self-respect. And now you get out of
here before I call the Centurian and have you arrested for stealing the
subconscious mind of the President of our Academy of Science."

Ingratitude is sharper than a woman's tongue; and when Gud heard what
the prophet said, he whipped out a ram's horn and blew a withering
blast. When the ground trembled with the echo thereof, all the shops in
the Market of Knowledge fell down and a great tidal wave swept in from
the Sea of Trouble.

Chapter XXXVI

After everyone else had drowned, Gud came up for air. He lit a cigarette
and blew a smoke ring and tossed it on the water to see if it would
float. It did and so Gud climbed upon it and sat there cross-legged to
wait for his robe to dry.

Presently he saw a man coming toward him running on the water and
carrying a package under one arm and a half-finis