United States or Guam ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"The stranger-man told us also that his people worship a priestess called Hes or the Hesea, who is said to reign from generation to generation. She lives in a great mountain, apart, and is feared and adored by all, but is not the queen of the country, in the government of which she seldom interferes.
The first priestess, having recognized in this gigantic column the familiar Symbol of Life of the Egyptian worship, established her altars beneath its shadow. For the rest, the Mountain with its mighty slopes and borderlands was peopled by a multitude of half-savage folk, who accepted the rule of the Hesea, bringing her tribute of all things necessary, such as food and metals.
Aid them in all things and bring them safely to the Mountain, knowing that in this matter I shall hold him and you to account. Myself I will not meet them, since to do so would be to break the pact between our powers, which says that the Hesea of the Sanctuary visits not the territory of Kaloon, save in war. Also their coming is otherwise appointed."
Ayesha stood considering the mighty prospect, then addressing Leo, she said "The world is very fair; I give it all to thee." Now Atene spoke for the first time. "Dost thou mean Hes if thou art still the Hesea and not a demon arisen from the Pit that thou offerest my territories to this man as a love-gift? If so, I tell thee that first thou must conquer them."
Come on, Horace," and he rose to follow the messenger. The priest bowed again and said "The commands of the Hesea are that my lords should bring their weapons and their guard." "What," grumbled Leo, "to protect us for a walk of a hundred yards through the heart of an army?" "The Hesea," explained the man, "has left her tent; she is in the gorge yonder, studying the line of advance."
We killed him and came on in spite of this lady, his wife, and her uncle, who would have prevented us, and were met in a Place of Bones by a certain veiled guide, who led us up the Mountain and twice saved us from death. That is all the story." "Woman, what hast thou to say?" asked the Hesea in a menacing voice. "But little," Atene answered, without flinching.
"Where is she?" asked Leo, in a whisper, for here we scarcely dared to speak aloud. "I see no one." "The Hesea dwells yonder," he answered, and, taking each of us by the hand, he led us forward across the great emptiness of the apse to the altar at its head.
He is caught in his own snare, and so shall you be, every one of you who dares to think evil in his heart or to do it with his hands. "Such is the just decree of the Hesea, spoken by her from her throne amidst the fires of the Mountain." One by one the terrified tribesmen crept away. When the last of them were gone the priest advanced to Leo and saluted him by placing his hand upon his forehead.
"Remember the dead heaped upon the plains of Kaloon. Remember the departing of the Shaman Simbri with his message and the words that she spoke then. Remember the passing of the Hesea from the Mountain point. Stranger from the West, surely as to-morrow's sun must rise, as she went, so she will return again, and in my borrowed garment I await her advent."
"We came as fast as we might, O Hes," said Leo; "and if thy spies could visit those mountains, where no man was, and find a path down that hideous precipice, they must have been able also to tell thee the reason of our delay. Therefore I pray, ask it not of us." "Nay, I will ask it of Atene herself, and she shall surely answer me, for she stands without," replied the Hesea in a cold voice.
Word Of The Day