Page:SheAndAllan.pdf/184

172  and storm. He was no gentle king of heaven, but one who demanded blood-sacrifice from his worshippers, yes, even that of maids and children. So it came about that the people of Kôr, who saw their virgins slain and eaten by the priests of Rezu, and their infants burned to ashes in the fires that his rays lit, turned themselves to the worship of the gentle moon, the goddess whom they named Lulala,  while some of them chose Truth for their queen, since Truth, they said, was greater and more to be desired than the fierce Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them both throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu, grew wroth and sent a pestilence upon Kôr and its subject lands and slew their people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy, and with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that escaped I know not how.

Did you see this great pestilence? I asked, much interested.

Nay, it befell generations before I came to Kôr. One Junis, a priest, wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where is the burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my day Kôr, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands about amidst the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people named the Amahagger dwelt in Households or Tribes and there sacrificed men by fire and devoured them, following the rites of the demon Rezu. For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence. Also there were certain others, children of the worshippers of Lulala whose kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the gentle worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the followers of Rezu.

What brought you to Kôr, O Ayesha? I asked irrelevantly.

Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of great Isis whom I serve? Also, she added after a pause, that I might track down a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted thereto by the other.

And did you find them, O Ayesha? I asked.

Aye, I found them, and in my presence the goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his temptress back to the world.

That must have been dreadful for you, O Ayesha, since I understood that you also—liked this priest.