goddess whom they
named _Lulala_, while some of them chose Truth for their queen, since
Truth, they said, was greater and more to be desired than the fierce
Sun-King or even the sweet Moon-Lady, Truth, who sat above them both
throned in the furthest stars of Heaven. Then the demon, Rezu, grew
wroth and sent a pestilence upon Kor and its subject lands and slew
their people, save those who clung to him in the great apostasy, and
with them some others who served Lulala and Truth the Divine, that
escaped I know not how."

"Did you see this great pestilence?" I asked, much interested.

"Nay, it befell generations before I came to Kor. One Junis, a priest,
wrote a record of it in the caves yonder where I have my home and where
is the burying-place of the countless thousands that it slew. In my
day Kor, of which, should you desire to hear it, I will tell you the
history, was a ruin as it is now, though scattered in the lands amidst
the tumbled stones which once built up her subject cities, a people
named the Amahagger dwelt in Households, or Tribes and there sacrificed
men by fire and devoured them, following the rites of the demon Rezu.
For these were the descendants of those who escaped the pestilence. Also
there were certain others, children of the worshippers of Lulala whose
kingdom is the moon, and of Truth the Queen, who clung to the gentle
worship of their forefathers and were ever at war with the followers of
Rezu."

"What brought _you_ to Kor, Ayesha?" I asked irrelevantly.

"Have I not said that I was led hither by the command and the symbol of
great Isis whom I serve? Also," she added after a pause, "that I might
find a certain pair, one of whom had broken his oaths to her, tempted
thereto by the other."

"And did you find them, Ayesha?" I asked.

"Aye, I found them, or rather they found me, and in my presence
the goddess executed her decree upon her false priest and drove his
temptress back to the world."

"That must have been dreadful for you, Ayesha, since I understood that
you also--liked this priest."

She sprang from her couch and in a low, hissing voice which resembled
the sound made by an angry snake and turned my blood cold to hear,
exclaimed,

"Man, do you dare to mock me? Nay, you are but a blundering, curious
fool, and it is well for you that this is so, since otherwise like
Kallikrates, never should you leave Kor living. Cease from seeking that
which you may not learn. Suffice it for you to