s themselves. The second circle contains the gods of art, and
the third circle the spiritual gods of sorcery, magic and love. What
gods do you people of the outer world worship?"

"In my own country," I replied, "a great many people worship one God,
the Creator of the universe. Many of these only nominally worship God,
but in reality worship gold, while a still greater number worship gold
without pretence of worshipping anything else."

"Then," said the king, "gold is your god. Our god is the aggregated
universal human soul worshipped under its various manifestations, both
real and ideal. This universal human soul forms the one supreme god
Harikar, whom we worship in the person of a living woman, the Supreme
Goddess Lyone. The great generic symbol of our faith is the golden
throne of the gods in the Bormidophia, whereon sits Lyone, the supreme
goddess, the representative of Harikar."

"Harikar is then your supreme deity?" I remarked.

"Greatest, for he embraces all other gods," said the king. "But the
greatest individual god is the Supreme Goddess, the symbol of the Holy
Soul."

I felt a strange desire to learn everything about so singular a
divinity as Lyone. It was a weird, awful, yet terribly entrancing
thought, that amid a thousand gods of dead and silent gold one only
should be alive, and that one a beautiful woman. Was it possible that
a live goddess could exist, and be both young and handsome? I was
anxious to ask a thousand questions concerning this mysterious being,
but it seemed a sacrilege to ask them. Was it possible for her to
continue worthy of worship, a human being, intoxicated, as she must
be, by the ceaseless adoration of millions? In other words, can a
woman be a veritable goddess and live? These ideas rushed through my
soul like quicksilver. My brain reeled with this discovery of the
secret of Atvatabar! What to me were its never-setting sun, its want
of gravity, its flying wayleals and bockhockids, its sculptured
cities, its sacred locomotive, its miracles of mechanism and art,
compared to a real live goddess with warm blood and a beating heart!
No wonder the discovery thrilled me! I felt like embracing his majesty
for the information, so simply given, that filled me with delight!

My companions were also greatly excited at the story of the king, and
it was with difficulty I could appear interested in the further
information he so graciously imparted to us. What were mines of gold
to this? Bu