to you plainly."

"Tell me then: Phorenice still reigns?"
"Most vilely."

"As a maiden?"
"As the mother of twin sons. Tatho's her husband now, and has

been these three years."
"Tatho! Who followed him as viceroy of Yucatan?"

"There is no Yucatan. A vast nation of little hairy men, so
the tale goes, coming from the West overran the country. They had

clubs of wood tipped with stone as their only arm, but numbers made
their chief weapon. They had no desire for plunder, or the taking

of slaves, or the conquering of cities. To eat the flesh of
Atlanteans was their only lust, and they followed it prodigiously.

Their numbers were like the bees in a swarm.
"They came to each of the cities of Yucatan in turn, and

though the colonists slew them in thousands, the weight of numbers
always prevailed. They ate clean each city they took, and left it

to the beasts of the forest, and went on to the next. And so in
time they reached the coast towns, and Tatho and the few that

survived took ship, and sailed home. They even ate Tatho's wife
for him. They must be curious persevering things, these little

hairy men. The Gods send they do not get across the seas to
Atlantis, or they would be worse plague to the poor country than

Phorenice."
Now I had heard of these little hairy creatures before, and

though indeed I had never seen them, I had gathered that they were
a little less than human and a little more than bestial; a link so

to speak between the two orders; and specially held in check by the
Gods in certain forest solitudes. Also I had learned that on

occasion, when punishment was needful, they could be set loose as
a devastating army upon men, devouring all before them. But I said

nothing of this to the nymph, she being but a vulgar woman, and
indeed half silly, as is always the case with these self-styled

sorceresses who gull the ignorant, common folk. But within myself
I was bitterly grieved at the fate of that fine colony of Yucatan,

in which I had expended such an infinity of pains to do my share of
the building.

But it did not suit my purpose to have my name and quality
blazoned abroad till the time was full, and so I said nothing to

the nymph about Yucatan, but let the talk continue upon other
matters. "What about Egypt?" I asked.

"In its accustomed darkness, so they say. Who cares for Egypt
these latter years? Who cares for anyone or anything for that

matter except for himself and his own proper estate? Time was when
the country folk and the hunters hereabouts brought me offerings to

this cave for sheer piety's sake. But now they never come near
unless they see a way of getting good value in return for their

gifts. And, by result, instead of living fat and hearty, I make
lean meals off honey and grubs. It's a poor life, a nymph's, in

these latter years I tell you, my lord. It's the fashion for all
classes to believe in no kind of mystery now."

"What manner of pestilence is this you spoke of?"
"I have not seen it. Thank the Gods it has not come this way.

But they do say that it has grown from the folk Phorenice has
slain, and whose bodies remain unburied. She is always slaying,

and so the bodies lie thicker than the birds and beasts can eat
them. For which of our sins, I wonder, did the Gods let Phorenice

come to reign? I wish that she and her twins were boiled alive in
brine before they came between an honest nymph of the forest and

her living.
"They say she has put an image of herself in all the temples

of the city now, and has ordered prayers and sacrifices to be made
night and morning. She has decreed all other Gods inferior to

herself and forbidden their worship, and those of the people that
are not sufficientlydevout for her taste, have their hamstrings

slit by their tormentors to aid them constantly into a devotional
attitude.--Will you eat of my grubs and honey? There is nothing

else. Your back was bloody with carrying meat when I met you, but
you had lost your load. You must either taste this mess of mine

now, or go without."
I harboured with that nymph in cave six days, she using her

drugs and charms to cure my leg the while, and when I was
recovered, I hunted the plains and killed her a fat cloven-hoofed

horse as payment, and then went along my ways.
The country from there onwards had at one time carried a

sturdy population which held its own firmly, and, as its numbers
grew, took in more ground, and built more homesteads farther

afield. The houses were perched in trees for the most part, as
there they were out of reach of cave-bear and cave-tiger and the

other more dangerous beasts. But others, and these were the better
ones, were built on the ground, of logs so ponderous and so firmly

clamped and dovetailed that the beasts could not pull them down,
and once inside a house of this fashion its owners were safe, and

could progue at any attackers through the interstices between the
logs, and often wound, sometimes make a kill.

But not one in ten of these outlying settlers remained. The
houses were silent when I reached them, the fire-hearth before the

door weed-grown, and the patch of vegetables taken back by the
greedy fingers of the forest into mere scrub and jungle. And

farther on, when villages began to appear, strongly-walled as the
custom is, to ward off the attacks of beasts, the logs which

aforetime had barred the gateway lay strewn in a sprouting
undergrowth, and naught but the kitchen middens remained to prove

that once they had sheltered human tenants. Phorenice's influence
seemed to have spread as though it were some horridblight over the

whole face of what was once a smiling and an easy-living land.
So far I had met with little enough interference from any men

I had come across. Many had fled with their women into the depths
of the forest at the bare sight of me; some stood their ground with

a threatening face, but made no offer to attack, seeing that I did
not offer them insult first; and a few, a very few, offered me

shelter and provision. But as I neared the city, and began to come
upon muddy beaten paths, I passed through governments that were

more thickly populated, and here appeared strong chance of delay.
The watcher in the tower which is set above each village would spy

me and cry: "Here is a masterless man," and then the people that
were within would rush out with intent to spoil me of my weapons,

and afterwards to appoint me as a labourer.
I had no desire to slay these wretched folk, being filled with

pity at the state to which they had fallen; and often words served
me to make them stand aside from the path, and stare wonderingly at

my fierceness, and let me go my ways. And when at other times
words had no avail, I strove to strike as lightly as could be, my

object being to get forward with my journey and leave no
unnecessary dead behind me. Indeed, having found the modern way of

these villages, it grew to be my custom to turn off into the
forest, and make a circuitwhenever I came within smell of their

garbage.
Similarly, too, when I got farther on, and came amongst

greater towns also, I kept beyond challenge of their walls, having
no mind to risk delay from the whim of any new law which might

chance to be set up by their governors. My progress might be
slinking, but my pride did not upbraid me very loudly; indeed, the

fever of haste burned within me so hot and I had little enough
carrying space for other emotions.