Page:Weird Tales Volume 2 Number 2 (1923-09).djvu/59

This page needs to be proofread.

58 it was all so dreamlike. tered in the least. SUNFIRE Nothing mat- times they would do this by force, but more often by tempting them with tales of wealth or whatever the victims most desired. "Sifa said that Ama-Hotu, Lord of Day, had sent me in a cloud-canoe from the skies, so that the ancient worship might not fail. She was the last of her people. Many seasons ago, a great sick- ness carried off all that were left of her race, the Ocllos. I can't tell you much of the Oello people's history. You see, though I understood what she said, I didn't feel like speaking at all to any- one, and I asked no questions. "But Sifa, of her own accord, told me that a long time ago, at the beginning of all seasons, Ama-Hotu, Lord of Day, caused the great star Huae to descend upon the earth. Huac the Star was jealous of his honor. So Ama-Hotu commanded that Corya the great Earth Serpent with Feet, should give him wor- ship in the dark hours, and that the sacred women dedicated to Ama-Hotu's service should also serve Huac the Star. By day, in return, Huac was servant to Ama-Hotu and presided over the offer- ings. "Corya, the Serpent with Feet, had many children of which the Star was father. For seasons beyond number the children of Corya and the Star dwelt together in the pyramid, and the sacred women of Ama-Hotu danced with them in worship of the Star and Sun. But a season came when Corya, the Earth Ser- pent devoured her children. "Two of them were saved by one of the sacred women and carried to the surrounding land. Until that time the Ocllos, Sifa's people, had dwelt in great numbers on the land. The pyramid was a place of worship, and only the sacred dancing women dwelt here. But the pair of Corya's children multiplied. They would not harm the sacred women, whose music they loved, but they slew so many of the people that at last there were only a few left, and those came to dwell under protection of the dancers in the pyramid. They still grew crops along the shores, but for this the sacred ones must go ashore and protect them with music. "There were so few of the Oello peo- ple left that the human offerings to Ama- Hotu could no longer be selected from their number. For many seasons, long before Sifa was born, it had been the custom to send secret emissaries who traveled upon water, which the children of Corya could not cross, and brought back victims from the outer tribes. Some-

There is at least a question among the nat-

uralists, as to whether that rather curious creature, CHILOPODA SCOLOPENDRA, finds "Sifa said that after all her people died in a great sickness, she lived here many seasons alone. Sifa gave up trying to cultivate the fields on shore, and lived on fruits and nuts and fish from the lake. "Corya, the great Earth Serpent, was content to be fed on the fruits of the Earth, her father. Flesh had never been offered to her. I suppose really they were afraid the horrible thing would ac- quire a taste for blood and turn on them. Corya's children ashore, by the way, had never grown to any great size--never more than eighteen inches or so. I think now that all that part was merely a legend, made up to account for the com- mon centipedes one finds in the jungle, and that Corya herself was just an un- accountable freak. "Sifa had obtained what victims she could to offer Ama-Hotu. In the old days, her people had many friends among the forest tribes, and this dread- ful cannibal wizard, Kuyambira-Petro was one of them. She told me that some- times Petro came to visit her. He be- lieved that Huac the Star was greatest of all the anyi or spirits. Tata Quarahy, Life-Breath of the Sun, he called it. He brought it victims when he could to win its favor. "I remembered the name-Petro- and it made me sad, so that I cried for hours after she had told me that. But I didn't remember my father or what I had come here for. "She taught me to play on the little golden pipes and Corya came out of her lair. No, I wasn't afraid of the creature. I wasn't afraid of anything. I tell you, it was all just a dream to me. "Sifa said that Corya would never harm me, because now I was a sacred woman. She danced with Corya to show me how I was to do. I have always been very fond of dancing, and I liked that part. It was the only thing that inter- ested me, even a little. "When I woke up, at last, and found myself sitting there on the floor with you standing around me, I was terribly frightened. I knew for the first time that all those things I had been seeing and hearing and doing were real! And oh! I was scared! It was silly in me, but I was actually afraid you might, be angry enough to kill me. Mr. Waring? Oh, I thought you spoke. "So I jumped up and ran. When I reached that doorway, there was Sifa inside. She pulled the door shut and it always necessary to mate in order that the mumbled something at me, and I heard species may be perpetuated. her bare feet go pattering down the stair. The stairway is wider than the door, you may remember. I just flattened my- self tight to the wall inside the doorway. After you passed I ran back in the court and hid among the shrubbery. "Before the night was over, I had col- leeted my senses and decide the best thing I could do was to tell you I was sorry and go away. So I went down after my suit-Oh, yes, in the dark. Sifa never had any lights, but I had learned to know my way around without. No, certainly we didn't live down in that musty old vault. There are ever so many passages between the inner chambers of the pyramid and the funny little houses outside. We lived outside, of course. Sifa used to be always watching the river mouth in case more victims should come. I was with her when your canoe entered the lake. Sifa was watching you all the time. When you started up the stair, she sent me to call forth Corya, and directed me how to act toward you. I was to send Corya to her hole after a while, and beckon you to come down. But poor Mr. Tellifer, by falling in, changed that part, and rather confused me for a few minutes. . . . "It didn't change things enough to hurt? N-no-oh, no, of course not. Really, if you are angry with me, I can't blame you in the least. . . You're not? It's so dear in you all to say so. And now I-I think I must go. Why, yes, thank you, I can handle the 'plane very nicely alone, and I couldn't think of im- posing on you. Why, certainly I'm not angry! But- "Well, so long as you put it that way, I'll wait, of course, Maybe a day or two of rest would make it safer. And I can show you all around the pyramid. After I've relieved mother's anxiety, I'm com- ing back here, of course. Oh, yes, I feel it's my duty. You see, poor Dad gave his life to find this place, and I must get the-the measurements, you know, and photographs of the carvings and all that. Then I shall give the notes and pictures and what I can remember of the Ocllo people's history to some archae- ologist who understands such things, and he can write a book about it and give the credit to father. "Mr. Otway? I'm so glad you think that's a splendid idea! And Mr. Waring, you say you write for the magazines. You won't spoil my book by telling about any of it in advance, will you?" NOON. Ama-Hotu, Lord of Day, glared fiercely down upon Huac the Star's empty shrine and the drying corpse of Corya, the many-taloned Earth Serpent. Old Sifa, last devotee of the (Continued on page 90)