The People of the Mist

  CHAPTER XXII

  THE TEMPLE OF JAL

  In considerable agitation of mind Leonard bid good-bye to Juanna,promising to return soon, and went to visit the Settlement men, whom hehad not seen since the previous evening.

  He found them in good case enough, so far as their material comfort wasconcerned, for they were well supplied with food and warmly lodged. Somuch could not be said, however, of their mental state, for they wereterrified by the multitude of solemn priests and warriors who watchedthem as cats watch mice. Crouching round him dejectedly they imploredLeonard not to leave them, saying that they expected to be murderedevery minute. He pacified them as well as he could and left them withthe assurance that he would return presently, having first reminded themthat the lives of all depended upon the maintenance of the delusion asto the divinity of Otter and the Shepherdess.

  The remainder of that day passed heavily enough. After the firstexcitement of their strange position had gone by a reaction set in, andeverybody was much depressed. As the hours drew on, the mist, which hadlifted a little about ten o'clock, closed in very densely, throwingthe ill-lighted chamber where they sat into a deep gloom. In such anatmosphere conversation languished; indeed, at times it died altogether,and the only sound to be heard was that of the monotonous voices of thepriests without the curtains, as they muttered prayers unceasingly. Atlength Leonard could bear it no longer, but rose, declaring that hewas going out to see whatever might be seen. Juanna tried faintly todissuade him, and Otter wished to come too, which was impossible. Theend of it was that he went alone.

  First he revisited the Settlement men and tried to cheer them, and sadlydid they need cheering. Then he passed to the great gates of the palaceyard and looked through them. The mist had lifted a little, and about ahundred paces away he could perceive the doors of the temple, on eitherside of which rose Cyclopean walls fifty feet or more in height. It wasobvious that here preparations for some ceremony were in progress, andon a large scale, for immense crowds of people were gathered about thedoors, through which bodies of priests and armed men passed continually.More he could not learn, for the gates of the palace yard were barredand guarded, and the soldiers would not let him through. He stood bythem watching till sunset, then returning to the others, he told themwhat he had seen.

  Another hour passed, and suddenly the curtains were drawn aside and abody of priests entered, twelve in number, bearing large candles of fatin their hands, and headed by their chief, Nam. Prostrating themselvesbefore Juanna and Otter they remained plunged in silence.

  "Speak on," said Juanna at length.

  "We come, O Mother, and O Snake," said the priest Nam, "to lead you tothe temple that the people may look upon their gods."

  "It is well; lead on," Juanna answered.

  "First you must be robed, Mother," said Nam, "for without the templenone may look upon your divinity, save your priests alone."

  Rising as he spoke, he produced a black dress from a grass bag, whichwas carried by an attendant. This dress was very curious. It fastened infront with buttons of horn, and either was, or seemed to be, woven in asingle piece from the softest hair of black-fleeced goats. Moreover, ithad sleeves just long enough to leave the hands of the wearer visible,and beneath its peaked cap was a sort of mask with three slits, two forthe eyes and one for the mouth.

  Juanna retired to put on this hideous garment over her white robe, andreappeared presently, looking like the black ghost of a mediaeval monk.Then the priests gave her two flowers, a red lily and a white, to beheld in either hand, and it appeared that her equipment was complete.Next they came to Otter and bound a scarlet fringe of hair about hisforehead in such fashion that the fringe hid his eyes, at the sametime placing in his hand a sceptre of ivory, apparently of very ancientworkmanship, and fashioned in the shape of a snake standing on its tail.

  "All is prepared," said Nam.

  "Lead on," answered Juanna again. "But let our servants come with us,both those here and those without, save the woman only, who stays tomake ready for our return."

  Juanna spoke thus because Soa had announced her wish to be left behindwhen they went to the temple. Juanna had consulted Leonard on thesubject, who gave it as his opinion that Soa had good reasons of her ownfor making this request. Also he pointed out that in case of disturbanceshe could scarcely help them, and might possibly prove an encumbrance.

  "They wait," answered Nam; "all is prepared for _them_ also": and as hespoke a sardonic smile flickered on his withered countenance that madeLeonard feel very uncomfortable. What was prepared, he wondered?

  They passed through the curtains into the courtyard, where soldiers,clad in goat-skin cloaks, waited with two litters. Here also werethe Settlement men, armed, but in an extremity of fear, for they wereguarded by about fifty of the Great People, also armed.

  Juanna and Otter entered the litters, behind which Leonard formed up hislittle band, going in front of it himself with Francisco, both of themhaving rifles in their hands and revolvers at their girdles, of which noattempt was made to deprive them, for none knew their use.

  Then they started, surrounded by the bare-breasted priests, who chantedand waved torches as they walked, and preceded and followed by thegrim files of tall soldiers, on whose spears the torch-light flashedominously. As they came the gates of the palace yard were opened. Theypassed them and across the space beyond until they reached the doors ofthe temple, which were thrown wide before them.

  Here Otter and Juanna descended from the litters, and all the torcheswere extinguished, leaving them in darkness.

  Leonard felt his hand seized and was led along, he knew not where, forthe misty gloom was intense. He could scarcely see the face even ofthe priest who conducted them, but from the sounds he gathered that alltheir party were being guided in a similar fashion. Once or twice alsohe heard the voice of a Settlement man speaking in accents of fear orcomplaint, but such demonstrations were followed quickly by the soundof a heavy blow, dealt, no doubt, by the priest or soldier in charge ofthat individual. Evidently it was expected that all should be silent.Presently Leonard became aware that they had left the open space acrosswhich they were walking, for the air grew close and their footsteps ranghollow on the rocky floor.

  "I believe that we are in a tunnel," whispered Francisco.

  "Silence, dog," hissed a priest in his ear. "Silence, this place isholy."

  They did not understand the meaning of the words at the moment, but thetone in which they were spoken made their purport sufficiently clear.Leonard took the hint, and at the same time clutched his rifle moretightly. He began to be afraid for their safety. Whither were they beingled--to a dungeon? Well, they would soon know, and at the worst it wasnot probable that these barbarians would harm Juanna. They followedthe tunnel or passage for about a hundred and fifty paces; at first itsloped downwards, then the floor became level till at length they beganto ascend a stair. There were sixty-one stone steps in this stairway,for Leonard counted them, each about ten inches high, and when all wereclimbed they advanced eleven paces along a tunnel that echoed strangelyto their steps, and was so low that they must bend their heads to passit. Emerging from this tunnel through a narrow opening, they stood upona platform also of stone, and once more the chill night air fanned theirbrows.

  So dense was the gloom that Leonard could tell nothing of the placewhere they might be, but from far beneath them rose a hissing soundas of seething water, and combined with it another sound of faintmurmuring, as though thousands of people whispered each to each. Alsofrom time to time he heard a rustling like that of a forest whena gentle wind stirs its leaves, or the rustling of the robes ofinnumerable women.

  This sense of the presence of hidden waters and of an unseen multitudewas strange and terrifying in the extreme. It was as though, withoutperceiving them, their human faculties suddenly became aware of thespirits of the unnumbered dead, thronging, watching, following--there,but intangible; speaking without words, touching without hands.

  Leonard
was tempted to cry aloud, so great was the strain upon hisnerves, which usually were strong enough; nor was he alone in thisdesire. Presently a sound arose from below him, as of some person inhysterics, and he heard a priest command silence in a fierce voice.The sobbing and laughter went on till it culminated in a shrill scream.After the scream came the thud of a blow, a heavy fall, a groan, andonce again the invisible multitudes whispered and rustled.

  "Someone has been killed," muttered Francisco in Leonard's ear; "who isit, I wonder?"

  Leonard shuddered, but made no answer, for a great hand was placed uponhis mouth in warning.

  At length the portentous silence was broken and a voice spoke, the voiceof Nam the priest. In the silence all that he uttered could be heardplainly, but his words came from far away, and the sound of them wasstill and small. This was what he said, as Juanna told it to them afterthe ceremony.

  "Hear me, ye Children of the Snake, ye ancient People of the Mist!Hearken to me, Nam, the priest of the Snake! Many a generation gone inthe beginning of time, so runs the legend, the Mother goddess whom weworship from of old, descended from heaven and came hither to us, andwith her came the Snake, her child. While she tarried in the land thecrime of crimes was wrought, the Darkness slew the Daylight, and shepassed hence, we know not how, or where; and from that hour the land hasbeen a land of mist, and its people have wandered in the mist, for hewhose name is Darkness has ruled over them, answering their prayers withdeath. But this doom was on the Snake, that because of his wickedness hemust put off the flesh of men and descend into the holy place of waters,where, as we and our fathers have known, his symbol dwells eternally,taking tribute of the lives of men.

  "Yet ere that crime was wrought the Mother gave a word of promise to herpeople. 'Now that I am about to die at the hands of him I bore, for soit is fated,' she said. 'But not for ever do I leave you, and not forever shall the Snake be punished by putting off the flesh of men. Manygenerations shall go by and we will return again and rule over you, andthe veil of mist shall be lifted from your land, and ye shall be greatin the earth. Till then, choose you kings and let them govern you;moreover, forget not my worship, and see to it that throughout the agesthe altar of the Snake is wet with blood, and that he lacks not the foodhe loves. And I will give you a sign by which we shall be known when atlength the fate is accomplished, and the hour of forgiveness is at hand.

  "'As a fair maid will I come again, a maid lovely and white, but becauseof his sin the Snake shall appear in the shape of that which sits withinyour temple, and his hue shall be black and his face hideous. Out of theearth will we arise, and we will call to you and ye shall know us, andwe will tell you our holy names that shall not be spoken aloud fromthis hour to that hour of our coming. But beware lest ye be deceivedand false gods set themselves up among you, for then shall the last evilfall upon you and the sun shall hide his face.'

  "Thus, Children of the Mist, did the Mother speak to him who was herchief priest in the long ago, and he graved her words with iron on thestone of that whereon I stand, but none can read that writing, for itssecret is lost to us, although the prophecy remains. And now the time isfull, and it has been given to me, his successor, in my old age, to seethe fulfilment of the saying.

  "The time is full, and this night the promise of the past isaccomplished, for, People of the Mist, the immortal gods, whose namesare holy, have appeared to rule their children. Yesterday they came,ye saw them, and in your ears they called aloud the sacred names. As amaiden fair and white, and as a dwarf black and hideous, have theycome, and _Aca_ is the name of the maiden, and _Jal_ is the name of thedwarf."

  He ceased, and his voice died away in the echoes of the great place.Once again there was silence, broken only by the seething sound ofwaters and the indefinable murmur of an unseen throng beneath.

  Leonard stood awhile, then edged himself gently forward with the designof discovering where and upon what they were standing. His curiositysoon met with a violent check, for before he had gone a yard he feltthat his right foot was dangling in space, and it was only by a strongeffort that he prevented himself from falling, whither he knew not.

  Recovering his balance, he shuffled himself back again to the side ofFrancisco, and whispered a warning to him not to move if he valued hislife. As Leonard spoke, he noticed that the blackness of the nightwas turning grey with the light of the unrisen moon. Already her rays,striking upwards, brightened the sky above and the mountains behind,and from them fell a pale reflection, which grew gradually stronger andclearer.

  Now he could discover that close upon him to the left a black masstowered high into the air, and that far beneath him gleamed somethinglike the foam on broken water. For a time he watched this water, orwhatever it might be, until a smothered exclamation from Franciscocaused him to look up again. As he looked, the edge of the moon roseabove the temple wall, and by slow degrees a wonderful sight wasrevealed to him. Not till the moon was fully visible did he seeeverything, and to describe all as he discovered it, piecemeal, would bedifficult. This was what Leonard saw at length.

  Before him and underneath him lay a vast and roofless building, open tothe east, covering some two acres of ground, and surrounded by Titanicwalls, fifty feet or more in height. This building was shaped like aRoman amphitheatre, but, with the exception of the space immediatelybelow him, its area was filled with stone seats, and round its widecircumference stone seats rose tier on tier. These were all occupied bymen and women in hundreds, and, except at the further end, scarcely aplace was empty. At the western extremity of the temple a huge statuetowered seventy or eighty feet into the air, hewn, to all appearance,from a mass of living rock. Behind this colossus, and not more thana hundred paces from it, the sheer mountain rose, precipice uponprecipice, to the foot of a white peak clad in eternal snow. It was thepeak that they had seen from the plain when the mist lifted, and thestatue was the dark mass beneath it which had excited their curiosity.

  This fearful colossus was fashioned to the shape of a huge dwarf ofhideous countenance, seated with bent arms outstretched in a forwarddirection, and palms turned upwards as though to bear the weight of thesky. The statue stood, or rather sat, upon a platform of rock; and notmore than four paces from its base, so that the outstretched hands andslightly bowed head overhung it indeed, was a circular gulf measuring,perhaps, thirty yards across, in which seething waters raged and boiled.Whence they came and whither they went it was impossible to see, butLeonard discovered afterwards that here was the source of the riverwhich they had followed for so many days. Escaping from the gulf byunderground passages that it had hollowed for itself through the solidrock, the two branches of the torrent passed round the walls of thetown, to unite again in the plain below. How the pool itself wassupplied Leonard was destined to learn in after days.

  Between the steep polished sides of the rock basin and the feet of thestatue was placed an altar, or sacrificial stone. Here on this ledge,which covered an area no greater than that of a small room, and in frontof the altar, stood a man bound, in whom Leonard recognised Olfan, theking, while on either side of him were priests, naked to the waist, andarmed with knives. Behind them again stood the little band of Settlementmen, trembling with terror. Nor were their fears groundless, for thereamong them lay one of their number, dead. This was the man whose nervehad broken down, who shrieked aloud in the darkness, and in reward hadbeen smitten into everlasting silence.

  All this Leonard saw by degrees, but the first thing that he saw hasnot yet been told. Long before the brilliant rays of the moon lit theamphitheatre they struck upon the huge head of the dwarf idol, andthere, on this giddy perch, some seventy feet from the ground, andnearly a hundred above the level of the pool of seething water, satJuanna herself, enthroned in an ivory chair. She had been divested ofher black cloak, and was clad in the robe of snowy linen cut low uponher breast, and fastened round her waist with a girdle. Her dark hairflowed about her shoulders; in either hand she held the lilies, red andwhite, and upon her forehead glowed the ru
by like a blood-red star. Shesat quite still, her eyes set wide in horror; and first the moonlightgleamed upon the gem bound to her forehead, next it showed the pale andlovely face beneath, then her snowy arms and breast, the whiteness ofher robes, and the hideous demon head whereon her throne was fixed.

  No spirit could have seemed more beautiful than this woman set thuson high in that dark place of blood and fear. Indeed, in the unearthlylight she looked like a spirit, the spirit of beauty triumphing overthe hideousness of hell, the angel of light trampling the Devil and hisworks.

  It was not wonderful that this fierce and barbarous people sighedlike reeds before the wind when her loveliness dawned upon them, madeethereal by the moon, or that thenceforth Leonard could never think ofher quite as he thought of any other woman. Under such conditions mostwell-favoured women would have appeared beautiful; Juanna did more, sheseemed divine.

  As the light grew downward and the shadows thinned before it, Leonardfollowed with his eyes, and presently he discovered Otter. The dwarf,naked except for his girdle and the fringe upon his head, was alsoenthroned, holding the ivory sceptre in his hand, but in a seat of ebonyplaced upon the knees of the colossus, nearly forty feet below Juanna.

  Then Leonard turned to consider Francisco's position and his own, andfound it terrible enough. Indeed, the moment that he discovered it wasnigh to being his last. In company with two priests of the Snake, theywere standing on the palm of the right hand of the idol, that formed alittle platform some six feet square, which they had won in the darknessthrough a tunnel hewn in the arm of stone. There they stood unprotectedby any railing or support, and before them and on either side of themwas a sheer drop of some ninety feet to the water beneath or of fifty tothe rock of the platform.

  Leonard saw, and for a moment turned faint and dizzy, then, setting thebutt of his rifle on to the stone, he leaned upon the barrel tillhis brain cleared. It was well for him that he had not known what laybeneath when, but now, he thrust his foot into vacancy, for then hissenses might have failed him.

  Suddenly he remembered Francisco, and opened his eyes, which he hadclosed to shut out the sight of the yawning gulf beneath. It was nottoo soon. The priest had seen also, and consciousness was desertinghim; even as Leonard turned his knees gave way, and he sank forward anddownward.

  Quick as thought Leonard stretched out his right hand and caughtFrancisco by the robe he wore, then, resting his weight upon the rifle,he strained at the priest's falling body with all his force in sucha manner that its direction was turned, and it fell sideways upon theplatform, not downwards into space. Leonard dragged at him again, andthrust him into the mouth of the little tunnel through which they hadreached this dreadful eminence, where he lay quiet and safe, lost inblessed insensibility.

  All this took place in a few seconds. The two priests of the Snake, whostood by them as calmly as though their feet were still on the solidearth, saw, but made no movement. Only Leonard thought that they smiledgrimly, and a horrible fear struck his heart like a breath of ice. Whatif they waited a signal to cast him down? It might well be so. Alreadyhe had seen enough of their rites to enable him to guess that theirs wasa religion of blood and human sacrifice.

  He shivered, and again turned faint, so faint indeed that he did notdare to keep his feet, but sank into a sitting posture, resting his backagainst the stone of the idol's thumb.