had not been with a man!

Which came to the ears of So-qi, upon his great black throne supported
on a tower of human skulls, in his palace of Gran, across from the great
Golgotha, which was built entirely of human skulls--the skulls of people
conquered by the armies of Par'si'ya, over which the city of Oas
reigned.

So-qi shook his big belly under the lion's skin, let slip his serpent
skin headdress, and let the battle axe that was his symbol of office
drop from his hand as he shook with mirth at the great and thumping lie
told by Too-che.

"I suppose her child was fathered by Mazda, peering into her womb with
his All-light," laughed So-qi, for in Oas it was not the fashion to
worship the God Mazda anymore. The great skull temples had their priests
and their sacrifices, but no more did people bow down in the temples of
Mazda, or have anything but ridicule for those few who did still worship
in the old way.

His serpent skin headdress and battle axe scepter, too, were relics from
the past. Just as the belief in Mazda. But more _potent_ relics, by far.
With them he was the Sun King, Lord of Battles, Master of Life and
Death, Creator of the Universe, Lord of Souls, Maker of the Law, etc.
Without them he was just old So-qi, getting fatter and more stupid every
day.

"Bring this harlot before me, to see if she can produce a miracle to
prove her child is not a common one. If she cannot, she will be stoned
to death at once, do you hear! I have no time to be bothered with the
lies of every sinning woman who seeks to hide her bastard's origin."

* * * * *

Asha, the philosopher who had told his king of the birth of the child,
nodded his head sadly and left the presence. Why did kings have to get
so blown up as to be inhuman? He sympathized with the girl and her
predicament. If it had been his to say, he would have had the child
proclaimed divine a thousand times in preference to shedding one drop of
her blood. But then, he had seen Too-che sauntering home from the well,
with her water jar on her head, and her hips the focal point of all eyes
in the street. Asha smiled, and took his grey-headed, bent, unnoticed
figure down the back streets to the house of Too-che.

As he went, he pondered gloomily on the fate of this great city under
the heartless and ignorant So-qi. Surely something dreadful would happen
to Par'si'ya, lying as it did at the juncture of the lands of the three
mightiest ki