“How came the end?”

“It was a curse upon us—­curse because we made mock of the Sun.  The sacred fire died out on our altars, while recreant priests slept, and so there came upon the nation a breath of pestilence from the sky which swept away the people as if by fire.  It has been told to me that our dead lay everywhere; that whole villages were destroyed in a single night; that those who survived wandered in the woods foodless, until only a pitiful remnant of those who were once so powerful lived in that tainted air, poisoned by decaying bodies.  Then the surviving slaves banded themselves together, fell upon their wandering masters, driving and killing, until the few who were left drew together on the banks of the great river.  Here, by lighting the sacred fire again, they made peace and were saved.  It was there I was born.”

I fail utterly to picture the true solemnity of the scene, as the aged priest, white-haired and evil-eyed, slowly mumbled it forth in his broken, halting French, leaning with his back against the rough stones of the great altar, on the summit of which flamed the sacred fire he had passed his life in guarding.  ’T was like a voice speaking from a forgotten past, which looked forth from sunken eyes, and became visible in snow-white hair.  A grave yawned to give me a glimpse of all which that grave contained—­the hopes, the struggles, the death of a once powerful tribe.  Yet it all stands forth perfectly clear to my memory as I write—­the vast black chamber lying in shadow and flame; the dark figure of the bulky Puritan outstretched upon the stones at our feet; the ghastly, corpse-like face of the savage old priest, whose eyes gleamed so fiercely, as he dreamed once again of the vanished glories of his race.

“But the woman who now rules over you?” I questioned, waiting vainly for him to resume.  “Is she not white?”

He did not answer; apparently he did not hear.

“I ask regarding Queen Naladi—­is she also of your people?”

“We are alike children of the Sun,” he responded, his tone more sullen.  “She is of the Sun and was sent to rule; sent by the Sun to lead us once again unto our own.”

“She told you this?”

“We know it by signs, by the prophecy of our fathers; we were long looking for her coming; she was promised us by the Sun.  In the hour of deepest need, a woman fair of face with hair of reddish gold, a goddess in earthly form, was to be sent to guide us.  She came out of the mystery, and we wait her will.”

“Then she is not of your race?”

“I have answered—­she came to our people from the Sun.”