Once upon a time, when the world was much younger, there came to a
small obscure village the last bird of that species called the Roc.
And the Roc was very near to death, for it had had nothing to drink
for a long time, and was weak from the heat, and so desperate that it
had no choice but to approach the village and trust to the kindness of
human beings, which it knew had no love for its kind.
And the people of that village, when they perceived that a great bird
had come among them, fled at first and cried out for salvation, but the
Roc, searching desperately for water, harmed none of them. Then the
people perceived that the Roc was weak and defenseless. Small children
threw stones at it, and others laughed and jeered, and when it slipped
and fell on a road and could not get up, others came and threw sand in
its eyes, and still it did nothing.
Now there was in that village a woodcutter, and seeing the Roc took
pity, and taking his small share of the water from the last well washed
clear the eyes of the Roc, and gave of it to the Roc to drink. And the
villagers warned him, be careful; for perhaps there is nothing wrong
with the Roc but its thirst, and when you have given it enough to drink
it will turn on us and destroy you as well as the village. But the
woodcutter persisted, and soon the Roc was able to rise again to its
feet, and drink the rest of the water it had been offered.
As it happened, there was nothing wrong with the Roc but its thirst.
Yet, rather than be angry at the village, he spared its people because
of the one who had saved it, and told the village in the subtle
non-direct ways that the Rocs used in those days that it would lead
them to another place, one where there was more water and where the
village would be happier, and told them only to remember its two great
instructions. In memory of the one who aided it, they were always to
hold the profession of the woodcutters sacred, and treat them with the
utmost respect; and because it could see what was wrong with the land
in which the people dwelt, it bade them also be careful of trees, and
harvest no more of them than was required by greatest need. And the
people agreed gladly to follow the Commandments laid down by the Roc,
and followed where it led, proclaiming it to be their new god.
And the Roc led them to a distant, forsaken place, and because it could
smell distant water down deep directed them to dig in a certain spot,
and there they found a well that provided them with plenty of cold
water, and in another place the Roc made for them by digging into the
stone of a hillside a spring that fed a small pond that would keep
their village provided for and happy.
The people rejoiced, and the Roc, speaking again to them in the subtle
way that requires no voice, told them that it would sleep now, and
would stay asleep for some time; but that while it slept, it hoped that they would remember its commandments, and stay faithful to them until
it woke. And the Roc took itself into a cave in the hill, and there it
slept for very many years.
While the Roc slept, the villagers remembered that they were to treat
trees with care, and carefully planted fruit trees, and shade trees,
but for long years could not cut any of them, for they were too small,
and the only wood that they used was deadfall for many years until the
Roc would awaken again, and there were no woodcutters in the village,
so that the first of the commandments was honored only by the teaching
of it.
Then one day the Roc awoke, and looked about its cave, and saw that
where all had been dry, there were now woods and many trees. The Roc
rejoiced, and went to the village to see what had become of it, and
saw a rich, happy place with many people going about their lives. And the Roc, not wishing to disturb or frighten many of the people, went to
a man who lived alone near the edge of the village and appeared first
to the man, telling him that the Time of the Awakening was come, and
that the man should build for the Roc a shelter of wood, and described
it most particularly. The man agreed, but pointed out that the only
wood available for building was deadfall, and that there was far too
little of it to make the shelter that the Roc required. Do not be
troubled, the Roc replied in the subtle way. For did I not make it my
first commandment to you that the profession of the woodcutter would
always be honored? Now you will be the first woodcutter that this
village has seen in a very long time, and will have an honored
profession and be uplifted amongst men. So the man agreed to do as he
had been told, and went to find an axe, for such items were rare where
no woodcutting had been done.
Then the man went to a tree in the woods, as he had been directed, and
began to cut it down, and when the villagers heard the strange sound of
the axe on wood they came to see what transpired. And when they saw
the man chopping down the tree, they at once demanded that he desist.
“For,” said they, “the Commandment of the Roc” is to treat trees with
care, and not harvest more than we need.”
The man explained that the Roc was awakened, but the villagers did not
listen, and the man ran from them in fright and came upon the Roc where
it waited for him. Perhaps, the Roc said to him, the two of us should
leave this place and go to another place where we can make new lives
and so avoid the angry villagers. But the man advised against it,
telling the Roc that when the people saw it, they would realize that
they had been mistaken, and would relent. So the Roc waited, though
not easily, for it knew much of people and was not very hopeful. It
knew also that even a god, if he allow his people free will, must needs
fear the voice of the mob.
And it happened that in a while the people came to where the man and the
Roc waited, and the Roc and the man tried to explain the matter to the
people, telling them that the first of the Commandments of the Roc was
to respect the office of woodcutter. But mostly all that the people
could see was that there was someone less deserving than themselves who
sought to be raised above them, and then they could not clearly remember
the Commandments that they had been taught with such care, and called
the Roc a false god, and drove it away by hurling cobblestones at its
delicate wings, and laid hands upon the man.
As they took the man away, the Roc looked after them with a great pity,
and then went to the stream from the spring that still fed the pond, and
drank the pond dry, and drank much of the water from the stream before
blocking the spring with a great stone. It was not disturbed, for the
people concerned themselves with the fate of the man who had tried to
destroy their whole social order. The Roc found also a great tank where
the people stored water to irrigate their fields, and it drank the tank
empty, and it was not disturbed, for the people were listening to
speakers proclaim that the True Commandment Of The Roc was that no man
should disturb or harm any tree, and whoso did this must die, and that
the commandments that had been taught to the people for many years were
the result of a mistranslation and poor memories.
And the Roc flew away grieving, for it was still not strong or whole
enough to save the poor man who had tried to help it, and as it left the
village for ever the screams of its first woodcutter could yet be heard
in the air. And the village soon disappeared, for with no water the
crops failed and with no spring or pond the well was not sufficient,
as the village had grown much larger in the many years while the Roc
slept. But the Roc winged its way back to the distant mountains of
legend, whence its kind had dwelt for many years, and where, far from
men, perhaps it dwells yet.