elf my prisoner; but Ko-tan was not pleased
because he saw that O-lo-a loved me even more than before, her love
being strengthened and fortified by pride in my achievement.

"Powerful is my father, Ja-don, the Lion-man, chief of the largest
village outside of A-lur. Him Ko-tan hesitated to affront and so he
could not but praise me for my success, though he did it with half a
smile. But you do not understand! It is what we call a smile that moves
only the muscles of the face and affects not the light of the eyes--it
means hypocrisy and duplicity. I must be praised and rewarded. What
better than that he reward me with the hand of O-lo-a, his daughter?
But no, he saves O-lo-a for Bu-lot, son of Mo-sar, the chief whose
great-grandfather was king and who thinks that he should be king. Thus
would Ko-tan appease the wrath of Mo-sar and win the friendship of
those who think with Mo-sar that Mo-sar should be king.

"But what reward shall repay the faithful Ta-den? Greatly do we honor
our priests. Within the temples even the chiefs and the king himself
bow down to them. No greater honor could Ko-tan confer upon a
subject--who wished to be a priest, but I did not so wish. Priests
other than the high priest must become eunuchs for they may never marry.

"It was O-lo-a herself who brought word to me that her father had given
the commands that would set in motion the machinery of the temple. A
messenger was on his way in search of me to summon me to Ko-tan's
presence. To have refused the priesthood once it was offered me by the
king would have been to have affronted the temple and the gods--that
would have meant death; but if I did not appear before Ko-tan I would
not have to refuse anything. O-lo-a and I decided that I must not
appear. It was better to fly, carrying in my bosom a shred of hope,
than to remain and, with my priesthood, abandon hope forever.

"Beneath the shadows of the great trees that grow within the palace
grounds I pressed her to me for, perhaps, the last time and then, lest
by ill-fate I meet the messenger, I scaled the great wall that guards
the palace and passed through the darkened city. My name and rank
carried me beyond the city gate. Since then I have wandered far from
the haunts of the Ho-don but strong within me is the urge to return if
even but to look from without her walls upon the city that holds her
most dear to me and again to visit the village of my birth, to see
again my father and my mother."