At the Earth's Core

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  VIII

  THE MAHAR TEMPLE

  The aborigine, apparently uninjured, climbed quickly into the skiff,and seizing the spear with me helped to hold off the infuriatedcreature. Blood from the wounded reptile was now crimsoning the watersabout us and soon from the weakening struggles it became evident that Ihad inflicted a death wound upon it. Presently its efforts to reach usceased entirely, and with a few convulsive movements it turned upon itsback quite dead.

  And then there came to me a sudden realization of the predicament inwhich I had placed myself. I was entirely within the power of thesavage man whose skiff I had stolen. Still clinging to the spear Ilooked into his face to find him scrutinizing me intently, and there westood for some several minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the weaponthe while we gazed in stupid wonderment at each other.

  What was in his mind I do not know, but in my own was merely thequestion as to how soon the fellow would recommence hostilities.

  Presently he spoke to me, but in a tongue which I was unable totranslate. I shook my head in an effort to indicate my ignorance ofhis language, at the same time addressing him in the bastard tonguethat the Sagoths use to converse with the human slaves of the Mahars.

  To my delight he understood and answered me in the same jargon.

  "What do you want of my spear?" he asked.

  "Only to keep you from running it through me," I replied.

  "I would not do that," he said, "for you have just saved my life," andwith that he released his hold upon it and squatted down in the bottomof the skiff.

  "Who are you," he continued, "and from what country do you come?"

  I too sat down, laying the spear between us, and tried to explain how Icame to Pellucidar, and wherefrom, but it was as impossible for him tograsp or believe the strange tale I told him as I fear it is for youupon the outer crust to believe in the existence of the inner world.To him it seemed quite ridiculous to imagine that there was anotherworld far beneath his feet peopled by beings similar to himself, and helaughed uproariously the more he thought upon it. But it was everthus. That which has never come within the scope of our reallypitifully meager world-experience cannot be--our finite minds cannotgrasp that which may not exist in accordance with the conditions whichobtain about us upon the outside of the insignificant grain of dustwhich wends its tiny way among the bowlders of the universe--the speckof moist dirt we so proudly call the World.

  So I gave it up and asked him about himself. He said he was a Mezop,and that his name was Ja.

  "Who are the Mezops?" I asked. "Where do they live?"

  He looked at me in surprise.

  "I might indeed believe that you were from another world," he said,"for who of Pellucidar could be so ignorant! The Mezops live upon theislands of the seas. In so far as I ever have heard no Mezop liveselsewhere, and no others than Mezops dwell upon islands, but of courseit may be different in other far-distant lands. I do not know. At anyrate in this sea and those near by it is true that only people of myrace inhabit the islands.

  "We are fishermen, though we be great hunters as well, often going tothe mainland in search of the game that is scarce upon all but thelarger islands. And we are warriors also," he added proudly. "Eventhe Sagoths of the Mahars fear us. Once, when Pellucidar was young,the Sagoths were wont to capture us for slaves as they do the other menof Pellucidar, it is handed down from father to son among us that thisis so; but we fought so desperately and slew so many Sagoths, and thoseof us that were captured killed so many Mahars in their own cities thatat last they learned that it were better to leave us alone, and latercame the time that the Mahars became too indolent even to catch theirown fish, except for amusement, and then they needed us to supply theirwants, and so a truce was made between the races. Now they give uscertain things which we are unable to produce in return for the fishthat we catch, and the Mezops and the Mahars live in peace.

  "The great ones even come to our islands. It is there, far from theprying eyes of their own Sagoths, that they practice their religiousrites in the temples they have builded there with our assistance. Ifyou live among us you will doubtless see the manner of their worship,which is strange indeed, and most unpleasant for the poor slaves theybring to take part in it."

  As Ja talked I had an excellent opportunity to inspect him moreclosely. He was a huge fellow, standing I should say six feet six orseven inches, well developed and of a coppery red not unlike that ofour own North American Indian, nor were his features dissimilar totheirs. He had the aquiline nose found among many of the highertribes, the prominent cheek bones, and black hair and eyes, but hismouth and lips were better molded. All in all, Ja was an impressiveand handsome creature, and he talked well too, even in the miserablemakeshift language we were compelled to use.

  During our conversation Ja had taken the paddle and was propelling theskiff with vigorous strokes toward a large island that lay somehalf-mile from the mainland. The skill with which he handled his crudeand awkward craft elicited my deepest admiration, since it had been soshort a time before that I had made such pitiful work of it.

  As we touched the pretty, level beach Ja leaped out and I followed him.Together we dragged the skiff far up into the bushes that grew beyondthe sand.

  "We must hide our canoes," explained Ja, "for the Mezops of Luana arealways at war with us and would steal them if they found them," henodded toward an island farther out at sea, and at so great a distancethat it seemed but a blur hanging in the distant sky. The upward curveof the surface of Pellucidar was constantly revealing the impossible tothe surprised eyes of the outer-earthly. To see land and water curvingupward in the distance until it seemed to stand on edge where it meltedinto the distant sky, and to feel that seas and mountains hungsuspended directly above one's head required such a complete reversalof the perceptive and reasoning faculties as almost to stupefy one.

  No sooner had we hidden the canoe than Ja plunged into the jungle,presently emerging into a narrow but well-defined trail which woundhither and thither much after the manner of the highways of allprimitive folk, but there was one peculiarity about this Mezop trailwhich I was later to find distinguished them from all other trails thatI ever have seen within or without the earth.

  It would run on, plain and clear and well defined to end suddenly inthe midst of a tangle of matted jungle, then Ja would turn directlyback in his tracks for a little distance, spring into a tree, climbthrough it to the other side, drop onto a fallen log, leap over a lowbush and alight once more upon a distinct trail which he would followback for a short distance only to turn directly about and retrace hissteps until after a mile or less this new pathway ended as suddenly andmysteriously as the former section. Then he would pass again acrosssome media which would reveal no spoor, to take up the broken thread ofthe trail beyond.

  As the purpose of this remarkable avenue dawned upon me I could not butadmire the native shrewdness of the ancient progenitor of the Mezopswho hit upon this novel plan to throw his enemies from his track anddelay or thwart them in their attempts to follow him to his deep-buriedcities.

  To you of the outer earth it might seem a slow and tortuous method oftraveling through the jungle, but were you of Pellucidar you wouldrealize that time is no factor where time does not exist. Solabyrinthine are the windings of these trails, so varied the connectinglinks and the distances which one must retrace one's steps from thepaths' ends to find them that a Mezop often reaches man's estate beforehe is familiar even with those which lead from his own city to the sea.

  In fact three-fourths of the education of the young male Mezop consistsin familiarizing himself with these jungle avenues, and the status ofan adult is largely determined by the number of trails which he canfollow upon his own island. The females never learn them, since frombirth to death they never leave the clearing in which the village oftheir nativity is situated except they be taken to mate by a male fromanother village, or captured in war by the enemies of their tribe.

  After proceedi
ng through the jungle for what must have been upward offive miles we emerged suddenly into a large clearing in the exactcenter of which stood as strange an appearing village as one might wellimagine.

  Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet above theground, and upon the tops of them spherical habitations of woven twigs,mud covered, had been built. Each ball-like house was surmounted bysome manner of carven image, which Ja told me indicated the identity ofthe owner.

  Horizontal slits, six inches high and two or three feet wide, served toadmit light and ventilation. The entrances to the house were throughsmall apertures in the bases of the trees and thence upward by rudeladders through the hollow trunks to the rooms above. The housesvaried in size from two to several rooms. The largest that I enteredwas divided into two floors and eight apartments.

  All about the village, between it and the jungle, lay beautifullycultivated fields in which the Mezops raised such cereals, fruits, andvegetables as they required. Women and children were working in thesegardens as we crossed toward the village. At sight of Ja they saluteddeferentially, but to me they paid not the slightest attention. Amongthem and about the outer verge of the cultivated area were manywarriors. These too saluted Ja, by touching the points of their spearsto the ground directly before them.

  Ja conducted me to a large house in the center of the village--thehouse with eight rooms--and taking me up into it gave me food anddrink. There I met his mate, a comely girl with a nursing baby in herarms. Ja told her of how I had saved his life, and she was thereaftermost kind and hospitable toward me, even permitting me to hold andamuse the tiny bundle of humanity whom Ja told me would one day rulethe tribe, for Ja, it seemed, was the chief of the community.

  We had eaten and rested, and I had slept, much to Ja's amusement, forit seemed that he seldom if ever did so, and then the red man proposedthat I accompany him to the temple of the Mahars which lay not far fromhis village. "We are not supposed to visit it," he said; "but thegreat ones cannot hear and if we keep well out of sight they need neverknow that we have been there. For my part I hate them and always have,but the other chieftains of the island think it best that we continueto maintain the amicable relations which exist between the two races;otherwise I should like nothing better than to lead my warriors amongstthe hideous creatures and exterminate them--Pellucidar would be abetter place to live were there none of them."

  I wholly concurred in Ja's belief, but it seemed that it might be adifficult matter to exterminate the dominant race of Pellucidar. Thusconversing we followed the intricate trail toward the temple, which wecame upon in a small clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar tothose which must have flourished upon the outer crust during thecarboniferous age.

  Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock built in the shape of a roughoval with rounded roof in which were several large openings. No doorsor windows were visible in the sides of the structure, nor was thereneed of any, except one entrance for the slaves, since, as Jaexplained, the Mahars flew to and from their place of ceremonial,entering and leaving the building by means of the apertures in the roof.

  "But," added Ja, "there is an entrance near the base of which even theMahars know nothing. Come," and he led me across the clearing andabout the end to a pile of loose rock which lay against the foot of thewall. Here he removed a couple of large bowlders, revealing a smallopening which led straight within the building, or so it seemed, thoughas I entered after Ja I discovered myself in a narrow place of extremedarkness.

  "We are within the outer wall," said Ja. "It is hollow. Follow meclosely."

  The red man groped ahead a few paces and then began to ascend aprimitive ladder similar to that which leads from the ground to theupper stories of his house. We ascended for some forty feet when theinterior of the space between the walls commenced to grow lighter andpresently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall which gave usan unobstructed view of the entire interior of the temple.

  The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in which numeroushideous Mahars swam lazily up and down. Artificial islands of graniterock dotted this artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men andwomen like myself.

  "What are the human beings doing here?" I asked.

  "Wait and you shall see," replied Ja. "They are to take a leading partin the ceremonies which will follow the advent of the queen. You maybe thankful that you are not upon the same side of the wall as they."

  Scarcely had he spoken than we heard a great fluttering of wings aboveand a moment later a long procession of the frightful reptiles ofPellucidar winged slowly and majestically through the large centralopening in the roof and circled in stately manner about the temple.

  There were several Mahars first, and then at least twenty awe-inspiringpterodactyls--thipdars, they are called within Pellucidar. Behindthese came the queen, flanked by other thipdars as she had been whenshe entered the amphitheater at Phutra.

  Three times they wheeled about the interior of the oval chamber, tosettle finally upon the damp, cold bowlders that fringe the outer edgeof the pool. In the center of one side the largest rock was reservedfor the queen, and here she took her place surrounded by her terribleguard.

  All lay quiet for several minutes after settling to their places. Onemight have imagined them in silent prayer. The poor slaves upon thediminutive islands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes. Themen, for the most part, stood erect and stately with folded arms,awaiting their doom; but the women and children clung to one another,hiding behind the males. They are a noble-looking race, these cave menof Pellucidar, and if our progenitors were as they, the human race ofthe outer crust has deteriorated rather than improved with the march ofthe ages. All they lack is opportunity. We have opportunity, andlittle else.

  Now the queen moved. She raised her ugly head, looking about; thenvery slowly she crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselesslyinto the water. Up and down the long tank she swam, turning at theends as you have seen captive seals turn in their tiny tanks, turningupon their backs and diving below the surface.

  Nearer and nearer to the island she came until at last she remained atrest before the largest, which was directly opposite her throne.Raising her hideous head from the water she fixed her great, round eyesupon the slaves. They were fat and sleek, for they had been broughtfrom a distant Mahar city where human beings are kept in droves, andbred and fattened, as we breed and fatten beef cattle.

  The queen fixed her gaze upon a plump young maiden. Her victim triedto turn away, hiding her face in her hands and kneeling behind a woman;but the reptile, with unblinking eyes, stared on with such fixity thatI could have sworn her vision penetrated the woman, and the girl's armsto reach at last the very center of her brain.

  Slowly the reptile's head commenced to move to and fro, but the eyesnever ceased to bore toward the frightened girl, and then the victimresponded. She turned wide, fear-haunted eyes toward the Mahar queen,slowly she rose to her feet, and then as though dragged by some unseenpower she moved as one in a trance straight toward the reptile, herglassy eyes fixed upon those of her captor. To the water's edge shecame, nor did she even pause, but stepped into the shallows beside thelittle island. On she moved toward the Mahar, who now slowly retreatedas though leading her victim on. The water rose to the girl's knees,and still she advanced, chained by that clammy eye. Now the water wasat her waist; now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island looked onin horror, helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecast oftheir own.

  The Mahar sank now till only the long upper bill and eyes were exposedabove the surface of the water, and the girl had advanced until the endof that repulsive beak was but an inch or two from her face, herhorror-filled eyes riveted upon those of the reptile.

  Now the water passed above the girl's mouth and nose--her eyes andforehead all that showed--yet still she walked on after the retreatingMahar. The queen's head slowly disappeared beneath the surface andafter it went the eyes of her victim--onl
y a slow ripple widened towardthe shores to mark where the two vanished.

  For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaves weremotionless in terror. The Mahars watched the surface of the water forthe reappearance of their queen, and presently at one end of the tankher head rose slowly into view. She was backing toward the surface,her eyes fixed before her as they had been when she dragged thehelpless girl to her doom.

  And then to my utter amazement I saw the forehead and eyes of themaiden come slowly out of the depths, following the gaze of the reptilejust as when she had disappeared beneath the surface. On and on camethe girl until she stood in water that reached barely to her knees, andthough she had been beneath the surface sufficient time to have drownedher thrice over there was no indication, other than her dripping hairand glistening body, that she had been submerged at all.

  Again and again the queen led the girl into the depths and out again,until the uncanny weirdness of the thing got on my nerves so that Icould have leaped into the tank to the child's rescue had I not taken afirm hold of myself.

  Once they were below much longer than usual, and when they came to thesurface I was horrified to see that one of the girl's arms wasgone--gnawed completely off at the shoulder--but the poor thing gave noindication of realizing pain, only the horror in her set eyes seemedintensified.

  The next time they appeared the other arm was gone, and then thebreasts, and then a part of the face--it was awful. The poor creatureson the islands awaiting their fate tried to cover their eyes with theirhands to hide the fearful sight, but now I saw that they too were underthe hypnotic spell of the reptiles, so that they could only crouch interror with their eyes fixed upon the terrible thing that wastranspiring before them.

  Finally the queen was under much longer than ever before, and when sherose she came alone and swam sleepily toward her bowlder. The momentshe mounted it seemed to be the signal for the other Mahars to enterthe tank, and then commenced, upon a larger scale, a repetition of theuncanny performance through which the queen had led her victim.

  Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars--they being theweakest and most tender--and when they had satisfied their appetite forhuman flesh, some of them devouring two and three of the slaves, therewere only a score of full-grown men left, and I thought that for somereason these were to be spared, but such was far from the case, for asthe last Mahar crawled to her rock the queen's thipdars darted into theair, circled the temple once and then, hissing like steam engines,swooped down upon the remaining slaves.

  There was no hypnotism here--just the plain, brutal ferocity of thebeast of prey, tearing, rending, and gulping its meat, but at that itwas less horrible than the uncanny method of the Mahars. By the timethe thipdars had disposed of the last of the slaves the Mahars were allasleep upon their rocks, and a moment later the great pterodactylsswung back to their posts beside the queen, and themselves dropped intoslumber.

  "I thought the Mahars seldom, if ever, slept," I said to Ja.

  "They do many things in this temple which they do not do elsewhere," hereplied. "The Mahars of Phutra are not supposed to eat human flesh,yet slaves are brought here by thousands and almost always you willfind Mahars on hand to consume them. I imagine that they do not bringtheir Sagoths here, because they are ashamed of the practice, which issupposed to obtain only among the least advanced of their race; but Iwould wager my canoe against a broken paddle that there is no Mahar buteats human flesh whenever she can get it."

  "Why should they object to eating human flesh," I asked, "if it is truethat they look upon us as lower animals?"

  "It is not because they consider us their equals that they are supposedto look with abhorrence upon those who eat our flesh," replied Ja; "itis merely that we are warm-blooded animals. They would not think ofeating the meat of a thag, which we consider such a delicacy, any morethan I would think of eating a snake. As a matter of fact it isdifficult to explain just why this sentiment should exist among them."

  "I wonder if they left a single victim," I remarked, leaning far out ofthe opening in the rocky wall to inspect the temple better. Directlybelow me the water lapped the very side of the wall, there being abreak in the bowlders at this point as there was at several otherplaces about the side of the temple.

  My hands were resting upon a small piece of granite which formed a partof the wall, and all my weight upon it proved too much for it. Itslipped and I lunged forward. There was nothing to save myself and Iplunged headforemost into the water below.

  Fortunately the tank was deep at this point, and I suffered no injuryfrom the fall, but as I was rising to the surface my mind filled withthe horrors of my position as I thought of the terrible doom whichawaited me the moment the eyes of the reptiles fell upon the creaturethat had disturbed their slumber.

  As long as I could I remained beneath the surface, swimming rapidly inthe direction of the islands that I might prolong my life to theutmost. At last I was forced to rise for air, and as I cast aterrified glance in the direction of the Mahars and the thipdars I wasalmost stunned to see that not a single one remained upon the rockswhere I had last seen them, nor as I searched the temple with my eyescould I discern any within it.

  For a moment I was puzzled to account for the thing, until I realizedthat the reptiles, being deaf, could not have been disturbed by thenoise my body made when it hit the water, and that as there is no suchthing as time within Pellucidar there was no telling how long I hadbeen beneath the surface. It was a difficult thing to attempt tofigure out by earthly standards--this matter of elapsed time--but whenI set myself to it I began to realize that I might have been submergeda second or a month or not at all. You have no conception of thestrange contradictions and impossibilities which arise when all methodsof measuring time, as we know them upon earth, are non-existent.

  I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which had saved mefor the moment, when the memory of the hypnotic powers of the Maharsfilled me with apprehension lest they be practicing their uncanny artupon me to the end that I merely imagined that I was alone in thetemple. At the thought cold sweat broke out upon me from every pore,and as I crawled from the water onto one of the tiny islands I wastrembling like a leaf--you cannot imagine the awful horror which eventhe simple thought of the repulsive Mahars of Pellucidar induces in thehuman mind, and to feel that you are in their power--that they arecrawling, slimy, and abhorrent, to drag you down beneath the waters anddevour you! It is frightful.

  But they did not come, and at last I came to the conclusion that I wasindeed alone within the temple. How long I should be alone was thenext question to assail me as I swam frantically about once more insearch of a means to escape.

  Several times I called to Ja, but he must have left after I tumbledinto the tank, for I received no response to my cries. Doubtless hehad felt as certain of my doom when he saw me topple from our hidingplace as I had, and lest he too should be discovered, had hastened fromthe temple and back to his village.

  I knew that there must be some entrance to the building beside thedoorways in the roof, for it did not seem reasonable to believe thatthe thousands of slaves which were brought here to feed the Mahars thehuman flesh they craved would all be carried through the air, and so Icontinued my search until at last it was rewarded by the discovery ofseveral loose granite blocks in the masonry at one end of the temple.

  A little effort proved sufficient to dislodge enough of these stones topermit me to crawl through into the clearing, and a moment later I hadscurried across the intervening space to the dense jungle beyond.

  Here I sank panting and trembling upon the matted grasses beneath thegiant trees, for I felt that I had escaped from the grinning fangs ofdeath out of the depths of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay hiddenin this island jungle, there could be none so fearsome as those which Ihad just escaped. I knew that I could meet death bravely enough if itbut came in the form of some familiar beast or man--anything other thanthe hideous and uncanny Mahars.
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