September 24, 2025 • 29 mins
Dive into a thrilling adventure as David Innes, a mining heir, funds the creation of the iron mole, an innovative excavating vehicle crafted by his brilliant yet aging friend Abner Perry. During a daring test run, the vehicle goes awry, drilling 500 miles into the Earths crust and emerging into the mysterious inner world of Pellucidar. In this captivating realm, the Earth functions as a hollow shell, with Pellucidar as its vibrant internal surface, teeming with prehistoric creatures from every geological era. Here, the intelligent yet malevolent Mahars, a species of flying reptile, dominate the landscape, enslaving the primitive humans who inhabit it. Captured by the Mahars fierce Sagoth servants, Innes and Perry find themselves amidst other human captives, including the valiant Ghak, the clever Hooja, and the enchanting Dian. Join them on an exhilarating journey through a world of danger, intrigue, and unexpected alliances.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eight of At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. At the
Earth's Core, Chapter eight, the Mahar Temple, the aborigine, apparently uninjured,
climbed quickly into the skiff, and seizing the spear with me,
(00:21):
helped to hold off the infuriated creature. Blood from the
wounded reptile was now crimsoning the waters about us, and
soon from the weakening struggles, it became evident that I
had inflicted a death wound upon it. Presently, its efforts
to reach us ceased entirely, and with a few convulsive movements,
it turned upon its back, quite dead. And then there
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came to me a sudden realization of the predicament in
which I had placed myself. I was entirely within the
power of the savage man whose skiff I had stolen.
Still clinging to the spear, I looked into his face
to find him scrutinizing me intently. And there we stood
for several minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the weapon, the
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while we gazed in stupid wonderment at each other. What
was in his mind I do not know, but in
my own was merely the question as to how soon
the fellow would recommence hostilities. Presently he spoke to me,
but in a tongue which I was unable to translate.
I shook my head in an effort to indicate my
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ignorance of his language, at the same time addressing him
in the bastard tongue that the Sagoths used 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
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would not do that, he said, for you have just
saved my life, And with that he released his hold
upon it and squatted down in the bottom of 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 I came to Pellucidar and
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where from. But it was as impossible for him to
grasp or believe the strange tale. I told him, as
I fear it is for you upon the outer crust
to believe in the existence of the inner world. To him,
it seemed quite ridiculous to imagine that there was another
world far beneath his feet, peopled by being similar to himself,
And he laughed uproariously the more he thought upon it.
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But it was, ever, thus, that which has never come
within the scope of our really pitifully meager world experience
cannot be. Our finite minds cannot grasp that which may
not exist in accordance with the conditions which obtain about
us upon the outside of the insignificant grain of dust
which wends its tiny way among the boulders of the universe,
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the speck of 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
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indeed believe that you were from another world, he said,
For who of Pellucidar could be so ignorant? The mezops
live upon the islands of the seas. In so far
as I ever have heard, no mezop lives elsewhere, and
no others. Then mezops dwell upon islands. But of course
it may be different in other far distant lands. I
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do not know at any rate. In this sea and
those near by it, it is true that only people
of my race inhabit the islands. We are fishermen, though
we be great hunters as well, often going to the
mainland in search of the game that is scarce upon
all but the larger islands. And we are warriors also,
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he added proudly. Even the 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 men of Pellucidar.
It is handed down from father to son among us
that this is so. But we fought so desperately and
slew so many Sagoths, that those of us that were
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captured killed so many Mahars in their own cities, that
at last they learned that it were better to leave
us alone. And later came the time that the Mahars
became too indolent even to catch their own fish, except
for amusement, And then they needed us to supply their wants,
and so a truce was made between the races. Now
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they give us certain things which we are unable to
produce in return for the fish that we catch, and
the Mezops and the Mahars live in peace. The great
ones even come to our islands. It is there, far
from the prying eyes of their own Sagoths, that they
practiced their religious rites in the temples that they have
builded there with our assistance. If you live among us,
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you will doubtless see the manner of their worship, which
is strange, indeed, and most unpleasant for the poor slaves
they bring to take part in it. As Ja talked,
I had an excellent opportunity to inspect him more closely.
He was a huge fellow, standing I should say six
feet six or seven inches, well developed, and of a
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coppery read, not unlike that of our own North American Indian.
Nor were his features dissimilar to theirs. He had the
aquiline nose found among many of the higher tribes, the
prominent cheekbones, and black hair and eyes, but his mouth
and lips were better molded. All in all, Ja was
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an impressive and handsome creature, and he talked well too,
even in the miserable makeshift language we were compelled to use.
During our conversation, Jaw had taken the paddle and was
propelling the skill with vigorous strokes toward a large island
that lay some half mile from the mainland. The skill
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with which he handled his crude and awkward craft elicited
my deepest admiration, since it had been so short a
time before that I had made such pitiful work of it.
As we touched the pretty level beach, jah leapt out
and I followed him. Together, we dragged the skiff far
up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand. We
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must hide our canoes, explained Ja, for the mezops of
Luana are always at war with us and would steal
them if they found them. He nodded toward an island
farther out at sea, and at so great a distance
that it seemed but a blur hanging in the distant sky.
The upward curve of the surface of Pellucidar was constantly
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revealing the impossible to the surprised eyes of the outer
earthly to see land and water curving upward in the distance,
until it seemed to stand on edge where it melted
into the distant sky, and to feel that seas and
mountains hung suspended directly above one's head, required such a
complete reversal of the perspective and reasoning faculties as almost
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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 wound hither and thither,
much after the manner of the highways of all primitive folk.
But there was one peculiarity about this mezop trail, which
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I was later to find distinguished them from all other
trails that I ever have seen within or without the earth.
It would run on, plain and clear and well defined,
to end suddenly in the midst of a tangle of
matted jungle. Then Ja would turn directly back in its
tracks for a little distance, spring into a tree, climb
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through it to the other side, drop onto a fallen log,
leap over a low bush, and a light, once more
upon a distinct trail, which he would follow back for
a short distance, only to turn directly about and retrace
his steps until after a mile or less this new
pathway ended as suddenly and mysteriously as the former section.
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Then he would pass again across some media which would
reveal no spore to take up the broken thread of
the trail beyond. As the purpose of this remarkable avenue
dawned upon me, I could not but admire the native
shrewdness of the ancient progenitor of the Mezops, who hit
upon this novel plan to throw his enemies from his
track and delay or thwart them in their attempts to
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follow him to his deep buried cities. To you of
the outer Earth, it might seem a slow and tortuous
method of traveling through the jungle, But were you a pellucidar,
you would realize that time is no factor where time
does not exist. So labyrinthine are the windings of these trails,
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so varied, the connecting links, and the distances which one
must retrace one's steps from the path's ends to find them,
that a mezop often reaches man's estate before he 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 consists in familiarizing himself with
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these jungle avenues, and the status of an adult is
largely determined by the number of trails which he can
follow upon his own island. The females never learned them,
since from birth to death they never leave the clearing
in which the village of their nativity is situated, except
that they be taken to mate by a male from
another village, or captured in war by the enemies of
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their tribe. After proceeding through the jungle for what must
have been upward of five miles, we emerged suddenly into
a large clearing, in the exact center of which stood
as strange an appearing village. As one might well imagine,
large trees have been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet
above the ground, and upon the tops of them, spherical
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habitations of woven twigs mud covered had been built. Each
ball like house was surmounted by some manner of carbon image,
which Jah told me indicated the identity of the owner.
Horizontal slits six inches high and two or three feet
wide served to admit light and ventilation. The entrances to
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the house were through small apertures in the bases of
the trees, and thence upward by rude ladders through the
hollow trunks to the rooms above. The houses varied in
size from two to several rooms. The largest that I
entered was divided into two floors and eight apartments. All
about the village, between it and the jungle lay beautifully
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cultivated fields in which the mezops raised such cereals, fruits,
and vegetables as they required. Women and children were working
in these gardens. As we crossed toward the village at
sight of job, they saluted deferentially, but to me they
paid not the slightest attention. Among them, and about the
outer verge of the cultivated area, were many warriors. These
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too saluted Ja by touching the points of their spears
to the ground directly before them. Jaw conducted me to
a large house in the center of the village, the
house with eight rooms, and taken me up into it,
gave me food and drink. There I met his mate,
a comely girl with a nursing baby in her arms.
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Ja told her of how I had saved his life,
and she was thereafter most kind and hospitable toward me,
even permitting me to hold and amuse the tiny bundle
of humanity, whom Jah told me would one day rule
the tribe. For Ja, it seemed, was the chief of
the community. We had eaten and rested, and I had slept,
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much to Jaw's amusement, for it seemed that he seldom,
if ever, did so. And then the red man proposed
that I accompany him to the temple of the Mahars,
which lay not far from his village. We are not
supposed to visit it, he said, but the great ones
cannot hear, and if we keep well out of sight,
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they need never know 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
continue to maintain the amicable relations which exist between the
two races. Otherwise I should like nothing better than to
lead my warriors amongst the hideous creatures and exterminate them.
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Pellucidar would be a better place to live were there
none of them. I wholly concurred in Ja's belief, but
it seemed that it might be a difficult matter to
exterminate the dominant race of Pellucidar. Thus, conversing, we followed
the intricate trail toward the temple, which we came upon
in a small clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar to
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those which must flourished upon the outer crust during the
carboniferous age. Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock,
built in the shape of a rough oval with rounded roof,
in which were several large openings. No doors or windows
were visible in the sides of the structure, nor was
there need of any except one entrance for the slaves, since,
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as Jaw explained, 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 the
Mahars know nothing. Come, and he led me across the
clearing and about the end to a pile of loose
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rock which lay against the foot of the wall. Here
he removed a couple of large boulders, revealing a small
opening which led straight within the building. Or so it seemed,
though as I entered after Ja, I discovered myself in
a narrow place of extreme darkakness. We are within the
outer wall, said JA. It is hollow. Follow me closely.
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The red men groped ahead a few paces, and then
began to ascend a primitive ladder similar to that which
leads from the ground to the upper stories of his house.
We ascended for some forty feet when the interior of
the space between the walls commenced to grow lighter, and
presently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall,
which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior
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of the temple. The lower floor was an enormous tank
of clear water, in which numerous hideous mahars swam lazily
up and down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this
artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men
and women like myself. What are the human beings doing here?
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I asked, Wait, and you shall see, replied Ja. They
are to take a leading part in the ceremonies which
will follow the advent of the Queen. You may be
thankful that you were not upon the same side of
the wall as they. Scarcely had he spoken, than we
heard a great fluttering of wings above, and a moment
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later a long procession of the frightful reptiles of Pellucidar
winged slowly and majestically through the large central opening in
the roof, and circled in stately manner about the temple.
There were several mahars, first, and then at least twenty,
all inspiring pterodactyls thhyptars they are called within Pellucidar. Behind
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these came the Queen, flanked by other thyptars, as she
had been when she entered the amphitheater at Phutra. Three times.
They wheeled about the interior of the oval chamber to
settle finely upon the damp, cold boulders that fringe the
outer edge of the pool. In the center of one side,
the largest rock was reserved for the queen, and here
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she took her place, surrounded by her terrible guard, all day. Quiet.
For several minutes after settling to their places, one might
have imagined them in silent prayer. The poor slaves upon
the diminutive islands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes.
The men, for the most part, stood erect and stately
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with folded arms, awaiting their doom, but the women and
children clung to one another, hiding behind the mails. They
are a noble looking race, these cave men of Pellucidar,
and if our progenitors were as they, the human race
of the outer crust has deteriorated rather than improved. With
the march of ages. All they lack is opportunity. We
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have opportunity and little else. Now the queen moved. She
raised her ugly head, looking about. Then very slowly she
crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselessly
into the water. Up and down the long tank she swam,
turning it ends, as you have seen captive seals turn
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in their tiny tanks, turning upon their backs, and diving
below the surface. Nearer and nearer to the island she came,
until at last she remained at rest before the largest
which was directly opposite her throne. Raising her hideous head
from the water, she fixed her great round eyes upon
the slaves. They were fat and sleek, for they had
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been brought from a distant mahar city, where human beings
are kept in droves and bred and fattened as we
breed and fattened beef cattle. The queen fixed her gaze
upon a plump young maiden. Her victim tried to turn away,
hiding her face in her hands and kneading behind a woman,
But the reptile, with unblinking eyes, stared on with such
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fixity that I could have sworn. Her vision penetrated the
woman and the girl's arms to reach at last the
very center of her. Slowly, the reptile's head commenced to
move to and fro, but the eyes never ceased to
bore toward the frightened girl. And then the victim responded.
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She turned wide, fear haunted eyes toward the mahar queen.
Slowly she rose to her feet, and then, as though
dragged by some unseen power, she moved, as one in
a trance, straight toward the reptile, her glassy eyes fixed
upon those of her captor. To the water's edge she came,
nor did she even pause, but stepped into the shadows
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beside the little island. On she moved toward the mahar,
who now slowly retreated as though leaving her victim on
The water rose to the girl's knees, and still she advanced,
chained by that clammy eye. Now the water was at
her waist, now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island
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looked on in horror, helpless to avert her doom, in
which they saw a forecast of their own. The Mahar
sank now till only the long upper bill and eyes
were exposed above the surface of the water, and the
girl had advanced until the end of that repulsive beak
was but an inch or two from her face, Her
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horror filled eyes riveted upon those of the reptile. Now
the water passed above the girl's mouth and nose, her
eyes and forehead all that showed. Yet still she walked
on after the retreating mahar. The queen's head slowly disappeared
beneath the surface, and after it went the eyes of
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her victim. Only a slow ripple widened toward the shores
to mark where the two had vanished. For a time,
all was silence within the temple. The slaves were motionless
in terror. The Mahars watched the surface of the water
for the reappearance of their queen, and presently, at one
end of the tank, her head rose slowly in to view.
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She was backing toward the surface, her eyes fixed before her,
as they had been when she dragged the helpless girl
to her doom. And then, to my utter amazement, I
saw the forehead and eyes of the maiden come slowly
out of the depths, following the gaze of the reptile,
just as when she had disappeared beneath the surface. On
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and on came the girl until she stood in water
that reached barely to her knees. And though she had
been beneath the surface sufficient time to have drowned her
thrice over, there was no indication other than her dripping
hair and glistening body that she had been submerged at all.
Again and again, the Queen led the girl into the
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depths and out again, until the uncanny weirdness of the
thing got on my nerves so that I could have
leapt into the tank to the child's rescue, had I
not taken a firm hold of myself. Once they were
below much longer than usual, and when they came to
the surface, I was horrified to see that one of
the girl's arms was gone, gnawed completely off at the shoulder.
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But the poor thing gave no indication of realizing pain.
Only the horror in her set eyes seemed intensified. The
next time they appeared, the other arm was gone, and
then the breasts, and then a part of the face.
It was awful. The poor creatures on the islands, awaiting
their fate, tried to cover their eyes with their hands
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to hide their fearful sight. But now I saw that
they too were under the hypnotic spell of the reptiles,
so that they could only crouch in terror, with their
eyes fixed upon the terrible thing that was transpiring before them. Finally,
the Queen was under much longer than ever before, and
when she rose, she came alone and swam sleepily toward
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her boulder. The moment she mounted it seemed to be
the signal for the other Mahars to enter the tank,
and then commenced upon a larger scale, a repetition of
the uncanny performance through which the Queen had led her victim.
Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars,
they being the weakest and most tender, and when they
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had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of them
devouring two and three of the slaves. There were only
a score of full grown men left, and I thought,
for some reason these were to be spared. But such
was far from the case, for as the last Mahar
crawled to a rock, the Queen's diptars darted into the air,
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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 the beast of prey, tearing, rending,
and gulping its meat. But at that it was less
horrible than the uncanny method of the Mahars. By the
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time the Thipdars had disposed of the last of the slaves,
the Mahars were all asleep upon their rocks, and a
moment later the great pterodactyls swung back to their posts
beside the queen, and themselves dropped into slumber. I thought
the Mahars seldom, if ever slept, I said to Jah,
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they do many things in this temple which they do
not do elsewhere. He replied, the Mahars of Phutra are
not supposed to eat human flesh. Yet slaves are brought
here by thousands, and almost always you will find Mahars
on hand to consume them. I imagine that they do
not bring their sagoths here because they are ashamed of
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the practice, which is supposed to obtain only among the
least advanced of their race. But I would wager my
canoe against a broken paddle that there is no Mahar
but eats human flesh. Whenever she can get it. Why
should they object to eating human flesh? I asked, If
it is true that they look upon us as lower animals,
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it is not because they consider us their equals that
they are supposed to look with abhorrence upon those who
eat our flesh. Replied Ja, it is merely that we
are warm blooded animals. They would not think of eating
the meat of a thag, which we consider such a delicacy,
any more than I would think of eating a snake.
As a matter of fact, it is difficult to explain
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just why this sentiment should exist among them. I wonder
if they left a single victim, I remarked, leaning far
out of the opening in the rocky wall to inspect
the temple better. Directly below me, the water leaped the
very side of the wall, there being a break in
the boulders at this point, as there was at several
other places about the side of the temple. My hands
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were resting upon a small piece of granite which formed
a part of the wall, and all my weight upon
it proved too much for it. It slipped and I
lunged forward. There was nothing to save myself, and I
plunged headforemost into the water below. Fortunately, the tank was
deep at this point, and I suffered no injury from
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the fall. But as I was rising to the surface,
my mind filled with the horrors of my position, as
I thought of the terrible doom which awaited me the
moment the eyes of the reptiles fell upon the creature
that had disturbed their slumber. As long as I could,
I remained beneath the surface, swimming rapidly in the direction
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of the islands, that I might prolong my life to
the utmost. At last, I was forced to rise for air,
and as I cast a terrified glance in the direction
of the Mahars and the Thipdars, I was almost stunned
to see that not a single one remained upon the
rocks where I had last seen them, Nor as I
searched the temple with my eyes, could I discern any
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within it. For a moment, I was puzzled to account
for the thing, until I realized that the reptiles, being deaf,
could not have been disturbed by the noise my body
made when it hit the water, and that as there
is no such thing as time within Pellucidar, there was
no telling how long I had been beneath the surface.
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It was a difficult thing to attempt to figure out
by earthly standards this matter of elapsed time. But when
I set myself to it, I began to realize that
I might have been submerged a second, or a month,
or not at all. You have no conception of the
strange contradictions and impossibilities which arise when all methods of
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measuring time as we know them upon Earth are non existent.
I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which
has saved me for the moment when the memory of
the hypnotic powers of the Mahars filled me with apprehension
lest they be practicing their uncanny art upon me, to
the end that I merely imagined that I was alone
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in the temple. 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 was
trembling like a leaf. You cannot imagine the awful horror
which even the simple thought of the repulse of Mahars
of Pellucidar induces in the human mind, And to feel
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that you were in their power, that they are crawling,
slimy and abhorrent to drag you down beneath the waters
and devour you, it is frightful. But they did not come,
and at last I came to the conclusion that I
was indeed alone within the temple. How long I should
be alone was the next question to assail me, as
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I swam frantically about once more in search of a
means to escape. Several times I called to Ja, but
he must have left after I tumbled into the tank,
for I received no response to my cries. Doubtless he
had felt as certain of my doom when he saw
me topple from our hiding place as I had, and
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lest he too should be discovered, had hastened from the
temple and back to his village. I knew that there
must be some entrance to the building beside the doorways
in the roof, for it did not seem reasonable to
believe that the thousands of slaves which are brought here
to feed the Mahars the human flesh they craved, would
all be carried through the air. And so I continued
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my search until at last it was rewarded by the
discovery of several loose granite blocks in the masonry at
one end of the temple. A little effort proved sufficient
to dislodge enough of these stones to permit me to
crawl through into the clearing, and a moment later I
had scurried across the intervening space to the dense jungle beyond.
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Here I sank, panting and trembling, upon the matted grasses
beneath the giant trees. For I felt that I had
escaped from the grinning fangs of death, out of the
depths of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay hidden in
this island jungle, there could be none so fearsome as
those which I had just escaped. I knew that I
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could meet death bravely enough, if it but came in
the form of some familiar beast or man, anything other
than the hideous and uncanny Mahars. End of Chapter eight
Chapter eight of At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. At the
Earth's Core, Chapter eight, the Mahar Temple, the aborigine, apparently uninjured,
climbed quickly into the skiff, and seizing the spear with me,
(00:21):
helped to hold off the infuriated creature. Blood from the
wounded reptile was now crimsoning the waters about us, and
soon from the weakening struggles, it became evident that I
had inflicted a death wound upon it. Presently, its efforts
to reach us ceased entirely, and with a few convulsive movements,
it turned upon its back, quite dead. And then there
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came to me a sudden realization of the predicament in
which I had placed myself. I was entirely within the
power of the savage man whose skiff I had stolen.
Still clinging to the spear, I looked into his face
to find him scrutinizing me intently. And there we stood
for several minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the weapon, the
(01:05):
while we gazed in stupid wonderment at each other. What
was in his mind I do not know, but in
my own was merely the question as to how soon
the fellow would recommence hostilities. Presently he spoke to me,
but in a tongue which I was unable to translate.
I shook my head in an effort to indicate my
(01:26):
ignorance of his language, at the same time addressing him
in the bastard tongue that the Sagoths used 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
(01:47):
would not do that, he said, for you have just
saved my life, And with that he released his hold
upon it and squatted down in the bottom of 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 I came to Pellucidar and
(02:09):
where from. But it was as impossible for him to
grasp or believe the strange tale. I told him, as
I fear it is for you upon the outer crust
to believe in the existence of the inner world. To him,
it seemed quite ridiculous to imagine that there was another
world far beneath his feet, peopled by being similar to himself,
And he laughed uproariously the more he thought upon it.
(02:33):
But it was, ever, thus, that which has never come
within the scope of our really pitifully meager world experience
cannot be. Our finite minds cannot grasp that which may
not exist in accordance with the conditions which obtain about
us upon the outside of the insignificant grain of dust
which wends its tiny way among the boulders of the universe,
(02:55):
the speck of 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
(03:15):
indeed believe that you were from another world, he said,
For who of Pellucidar could be so ignorant? The mezops
live upon the islands of the seas. In so far
as I ever have heard, no mezop lives elsewhere, and
no others. Then mezops dwell upon islands. But of course
it may be different in other far distant lands. I
(03:38):
do not know at any rate. In this sea and
those near by it, it is true that only people
of my race inhabit the islands. We are fishermen, though
we be great hunters as well, often going to the
mainland in search of the game that is scarce upon
all but the larger islands. And we are warriors also,
(03:58):
he added proudly. Even the 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 men of Pellucidar.
It is handed down from father to son among us
that this is so. But we fought so desperately and
slew so many Sagoths, that those of us that were
(04:20):
captured killed so many Mahars in their own cities, that
at last they learned that it were better to leave
us alone. And later came the time that the Mahars
became too indolent even to catch their own fish, except
for amusement, And then they needed us to supply their wants,
and so a truce was made between the races. Now
(04:40):
they give us certain things which we are unable to
produce in return for the fish that we catch, and
the Mezops and the Mahars live in peace. The great
ones even come to our islands. It is there, far
from the prying eyes of their own Sagoths, that they
practiced their religious rites in the temples that they have
builded there with our assistance. If you live among us,
(05:04):
you will doubtless see the manner of their worship, which
is strange, indeed, and most unpleasant for the poor slaves
they bring to take part in it. As Ja talked,
I had an excellent opportunity to inspect him more closely.
He was a huge fellow, standing I should say six
feet six or seven inches, well developed, and of a
(05:26):
coppery read, not unlike that of our own North American Indian.
Nor were his features dissimilar to theirs. He had the
aquiline nose found among many of the higher tribes, the
prominent cheekbones, and black hair and eyes, but his mouth
and lips were better molded. All in all, Ja was
(05:47):
an impressive and handsome creature, and he talked well too,
even in the miserable makeshift language we were compelled to use.
During our conversation, Jaw had taken the paddle and was
propelling the skill with vigorous strokes toward a large island
that lay some half mile from the mainland. The skill
(06:07):
with which he handled his crude and awkward craft elicited
my deepest admiration, since it had been so short a
time before that I had made such pitiful work of it.
As we touched the pretty level beach, jah leapt out
and I followed him. Together, we dragged the skiff far
up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand. We
(06:29):
must hide our canoes, explained Ja, for the mezops of
Luana are always at war with us and would steal
them if they found them. He nodded toward an island
farther out at sea, and at so great a distance
that it seemed but a blur hanging in the distant sky.
The upward curve of the surface of Pellucidar was constantly
(06:49):
revealing the impossible to the surprised eyes of the outer
earthly to see land and water curving upward in the distance,
until it seemed to stand on edge where it melted
into the distant sky, and to feel that seas and
mountains hung suspended directly above one's head, required such a
complete reversal of the perspective and reasoning faculties as almost
(07:13):
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 wound hither and thither,
much after the manner of the highways of all primitive folk.
But there was one peculiarity about this mezop trail, which
(07:33):
I was later to find distinguished them from all other
trails that I ever have seen within or without the earth.
It would run on, plain and clear and well defined,
to end suddenly in the midst of a tangle of
matted jungle. Then Ja would turn directly back in its
tracks for a little distance, spring into a tree, climb
(07:54):
through it to the other side, drop onto a fallen log,
leap over a low bush, and a light, once more
upon a distinct trail, which he would follow back for
a short distance, only to turn directly about and retrace
his steps until after a mile or less this new
pathway ended as suddenly and mysteriously as the former section.
(08:14):
Then he would pass again across some media which would
reveal no spore to take up the broken thread of
the trail beyond. As the purpose of this remarkable avenue
dawned upon me, I could not but admire the native
shrewdness of the ancient progenitor of the Mezops, who hit
upon this novel plan to throw his enemies from his
track and delay or thwart them in their attempts to
(08:37):
follow him to his deep buried cities. To you of
the outer Earth, it might seem a slow and tortuous
method of traveling through the jungle, But were you a pellucidar,
you would realize that time is no factor where time
does not exist. So labyrinthine are the windings of these trails,
(08:58):
so varied, the connecting links, and the distances which one
must retrace one's steps from the path's ends to find them,
that a mezop often reaches man's estate before he 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 consists in familiarizing himself with
(09:20):
these jungle avenues, and the status of an adult is
largely determined by the number of trails which he can
follow upon his own island. The females never learned them,
since from birth to death they never leave the clearing
in which the village of their nativity is situated, except
that they be taken to mate by a male from
another village, or captured in war by the enemies of
(09:42):
their tribe. After proceeding through the jungle for what must
have been upward of five miles, we emerged suddenly into
a large clearing, in the exact center of which stood
as strange an appearing village. As one might well imagine,
large trees have been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet
above the ground, and upon the tops of them, spherical
(10:05):
habitations of woven twigs mud covered had been built. Each
ball like house was surmounted by some manner of carbon image,
which Jah told me indicated the identity of the owner.
Horizontal slits six inches high and two or three feet
wide served to admit light and ventilation. The entrances to
(10:27):
the house were through small apertures in the bases of
the trees, and thence upward by rude ladders through the
hollow trunks to the rooms above. The houses varied in
size from two to several rooms. The largest that I
entered was divided into two floors and eight apartments. All
about the village, between it and the jungle lay beautifully
(10:49):
cultivated fields in which the mezops raised such cereals, fruits,
and vegetables as they required. Women and children were working
in these gardens. As we crossed toward the village at
sight of job, they saluted deferentially, but to me they
paid not the slightest attention. Among them, and about the
outer verge of the cultivated area, were many warriors. These
(11:12):
too saluted Ja by touching the points of their spears
to the ground directly before them. Jaw conducted me to
a large house in the center of the village, the
house with eight rooms, and taken me up into it,
gave me food and drink. There I met his mate,
a comely girl with a nursing baby in her arms.
(11:33):
Ja told her of how I had saved his life,
and she was thereafter most kind and hospitable toward me,
even permitting me to hold and amuse the tiny bundle
of humanity, whom Jah told me would one day rule
the tribe. For Ja, it seemed, was the chief of
the community. We had eaten and rested, and I had slept,
(11:54):
much to Jaw's amusement, for it seemed that he seldom,
if ever, did so. And then the red man proposed
that I accompany him to the temple of the Mahars,
which lay not far from his village. We are not
supposed to visit it, he said, but the great ones
cannot hear, and if we keep well out of sight,
(12:15):
they need never know 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
continue to maintain the amicable relations which exist between the
two races. Otherwise I should like nothing better than to
lead my warriors amongst the hideous creatures and exterminate them.
(12:36):
Pellucidar would be a better place to live were there
none of them. I wholly concurred in Ja's belief, but
it seemed that it might be a difficult matter to
exterminate the dominant race of Pellucidar. Thus, conversing, we followed
the intricate trail toward the temple, which we came upon
in a small clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar to
(12:59):
those which must flourished upon the outer crust during the
carboniferous age. Here was a mighty temple of hewn rock,
built in the shape of a rough oval with rounded roof,
in which were several large openings. No doors or windows
were visible in the sides of the structure, nor was
there need of any except one entrance for the slaves, since,
(13:22):
as Jaw explained, 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 the
Mahars know nothing. Come, and he led me across the
clearing and about the end to a pile of loose
(13:44):
rock which lay against the foot of the wall. Here
he removed a couple of large boulders, revealing a small
opening which led straight within the building. Or so it seemed,
though as I entered after Ja, I discovered myself in
a narrow place of extreme darkakness. We are within the
outer wall, said JA. It is hollow. Follow me closely.
(14:07):
The red men groped ahead a few paces, and then
began to ascend a primitive ladder similar to that which
leads from the ground to the upper stories of his house.
We ascended for some forty feet when the interior of
the space between the walls commenced to grow lighter, and
presently we came opposite an opening in the inner wall,
which gave us an unobstructed view of the entire interior
(14:31):
of the temple. The lower floor was an enormous tank
of clear water, in which numerous hideous mahars swam lazily
up and down. Artificial islands of granite rock dotted this
artificial sea, and upon several of them I saw men
and women like myself. What are the human beings doing here?
(14:52):
I asked, Wait, and you shall see, replied Ja. They
are to take a leading part in the ceremonies which
will follow the advent of the Queen. You may be
thankful that you were not upon the same side of
the wall as they. Scarcely had he spoken, than we
heard a great fluttering of wings above, and a moment
(15:13):
later a long procession of the frightful reptiles of Pellucidar
winged slowly and majestically through the large central opening in
the roof, and circled in stately manner about the temple.
There were several mahars, first, and then at least twenty,
all inspiring pterodactyls thhyptars they are called within Pellucidar. Behind
(15:34):
these came the Queen, flanked by other thyptars, as she
had been when she entered the amphitheater at Phutra. Three times.
They wheeled about the interior of the oval chamber to
settle finely upon the damp, cold boulders that fringe the
outer edge of the pool. In the center of one side,
the largest rock was reserved for the queen, and here
(15:57):
she took her place, surrounded by her terrible guard, all day. Quiet.
For several minutes after settling to their places, one might
have imagined them in silent prayer. The poor slaves upon
the diminutive islands watched the horrid creatures with wide eyes.
The men, for the most part, stood erect and stately
(16:19):
with folded arms, awaiting their doom, but the women and
children clung to one another, hiding behind the mails. They
are a noble looking race, these cave men of Pellucidar,
and if our progenitors were as they, the human race
of the outer crust has deteriorated rather than improved. With
the march of ages. All they lack is opportunity. We
(16:44):
have opportunity and little else. Now the queen moved. She
raised her ugly head, looking about. Then very slowly she
crawled to the edge of her throne and slid noiselessly
into the water. Up and down the long tank she swam,
turning it ends, as you have seen captive seals turn
(17:05):
in their tiny tanks, turning upon their backs, and diving
below the surface. Nearer and nearer to the island she came,
until at last she remained at rest before the largest
which was directly opposite her throne. Raising her hideous head
from the water, she fixed her great round eyes upon
the slaves. They were fat and sleek, for they had
(17:29):
been brought from a distant mahar city, where human beings
are kept in droves and bred and fattened as we
breed and fattened beef cattle. The queen fixed her gaze
upon a plump young maiden. Her victim tried to turn away,
hiding her face in her hands and kneading behind a woman,
But the reptile, with unblinking eyes, stared on with such
(17:51):
fixity that I could have sworn. Her vision penetrated the
woman and the girl's arms to reach at last the
very center of her. Slowly, the reptile's head commenced to
move to and fro, but the eyes never ceased to
bore toward the frightened girl. And then the victim responded.
(18:12):
She turned wide, fear haunted eyes toward the mahar queen.
Slowly she rose to her feet, and then, as though
dragged by some unseen power, she moved, as one in
a trance, straight toward the reptile, her glassy eyes fixed
upon those of her captor. To the water's edge she came,
nor did she even pause, but stepped into the shadows
(18:35):
beside the little island. On she moved toward the mahar,
who now slowly retreated as though leaving her victim on
The water rose to the girl's knees, and still she advanced,
chained by that clammy eye. Now the water was at
her waist, now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island
(18:56):
looked on in horror, helpless to avert her doom, in
which they saw a forecast of their own. The Mahar
sank now till only the long upper bill and eyes
were exposed above the surface of the water, and the
girl had advanced until the end of that repulsive beak
was but an inch or two from her face, Her
(19:17):
horror filled eyes riveted upon those of the reptile. Now
the water passed above the girl's mouth and nose, her
eyes and forehead all that showed. Yet still she walked
on after the retreating mahar. The queen's head slowly disappeared
beneath the surface, and after it went the eyes of
(19:37):
her victim. Only a slow ripple widened toward the shores
to mark where the two had vanished. For a time,
all was silence within the temple. The slaves were motionless
in terror. The Mahars watched the surface of the water
for the reappearance of their queen, and presently, at one
end of the tank, her head rose slowly in to view.
(20:01):
She was backing toward the surface, her eyes fixed before her,
as they had been when she dragged the helpless girl
to her doom. And then, to my utter amazement, I
saw the forehead and eyes of the maiden come slowly
out of the depths, following the gaze of the reptile,
just as when she had disappeared beneath the surface. On
(20:23):
and on came the girl until she stood in water
that reached barely to her knees. And though she had
been beneath the surface sufficient time to have drowned her
thrice over, there was no indication other than her dripping
hair and glistening body that she had been submerged at all.
Again and again, the Queen led the girl into the
(20:45):
depths and out again, until the uncanny weirdness of the
thing got on my nerves so that I could have
leapt into the tank to the child's rescue, had I
not taken a firm hold of myself. Once they were
below much longer than usual, and when they came to
the surface, I was horrified to see that one of
the girl's arms was gone, gnawed completely off at the shoulder.
(21:09):
But the poor thing gave no indication of realizing pain.
Only the horror in her set eyes seemed intensified. The
next time they appeared, the other arm was gone, and
then the breasts, and then a part of the face.
It was awful. The poor creatures on the islands, awaiting
their fate, tried to cover their eyes with their hands
(21:31):
to hide their fearful sight. But now I saw that
they too were under the hypnotic spell of the reptiles,
so that they could only crouch in terror, with their
eyes fixed upon the terrible thing that was transpiring before them. Finally,
the Queen was under much longer than ever before, and
when she rose, she came alone and swam sleepily toward
(21:55):
her boulder. The moment she mounted it seemed to be
the signal for the other Mahars to enter the tank,
and then commenced upon a larger scale, a repetition of
the uncanny performance through which the Queen had led her victim.
Only the women and children fell prey to the Mahars,
they being the weakest and most tender, and when they
(22:16):
had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of them
devouring two and three of the slaves. There were only
a score of full grown men left, and I thought,
for some reason these were to be spared. But such
was far from the case, for as the last Mahar
crawled to a rock, the Queen's diptars darted into the air,
(22:37):
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 the beast of prey, tearing, rending,
and gulping its meat. But at that it was less
horrible than the uncanny method of the Mahars. By the
(22:59):
time the Thipdars had disposed of the last of the slaves,
the Mahars were all asleep upon their rocks, and a
moment later the great pterodactyls swung back to their posts
beside the queen, and themselves dropped into slumber. I thought
the Mahars seldom, if ever slept, I said to Jah,
(23:21):
they do many things in this temple which they do
not do elsewhere. He replied, the Mahars of Phutra are
not supposed to eat human flesh. Yet slaves are brought
here by thousands, and almost always you will find Mahars
on hand to consume them. I imagine that they do
not bring their sagoths here because they are ashamed of
(23:42):
the practice, which is supposed to obtain only among the
least advanced of their race. But I would wager my
canoe against a broken paddle that there is no Mahar
but eats human flesh. Whenever she can get it. Why
should they object to eating human flesh? I asked, If
it is true that they look upon us as lower animals,
(24:05):
it is not because they consider us their equals that
they are supposed to look with abhorrence upon those who
eat our flesh. Replied Ja, it is merely that we
are warm blooded animals. They would not think of eating
the meat of a thag, which we consider such a delicacy,
any more than I would think of eating a snake.
As a matter of fact, it is difficult to explain
(24:27):
just why this sentiment should exist among them. I wonder
if they left a single victim, I remarked, leaning far
out of the opening in the rocky wall to inspect
the temple better. Directly below me, the water leaped the
very side of the wall, there being a break in
the boulders at this point, as there was at several
other places about the side of the temple. My hands
(24:50):
were resting upon a small piece of granite which formed
a part of the wall, and all my weight upon
it proved too much for it. It slipped and I
lunged forward. There was nothing to save myself, and I
plunged headforemost into the water below. Fortunately, the tank was
deep at this point, and I suffered no injury from
(25:10):
the fall. But as I was rising to the surface,
my mind filled with the horrors of my position, as
I thought of the terrible doom which awaited me the
moment the eyes of the reptiles fell upon the creature
that had disturbed their slumber. As long as I could,
I remained beneath the surface, swimming rapidly in the direction
(25:30):
of the islands, that I might prolong my life to
the utmost. At last, I was forced to rise for air,
and as I cast a terrified glance in the direction
of the Mahars and the Thipdars, I was almost stunned
to see that not a single one remained upon the
rocks where I had last seen them, Nor as I
searched the temple with my eyes, could I discern any
(25:51):
within it. For a moment, I was puzzled to account
for the thing, until I realized that the reptiles, being deaf,
could not have been disturbed by the noise my body
made when it hit the water, and that as there
is no such thing as time within Pellucidar, there was
no telling how long I had been beneath the surface.
(26:11):
It was a difficult thing to attempt to figure out
by earthly standards this matter of elapsed time. But when
I set myself to it, I began to realize that
I might have been submerged a second, or a month,
or not at all. You have no conception of the
strange contradictions and impossibilities which arise when all methods of
(26:33):
measuring time as we know them upon Earth are non existent.
I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which
has saved me for the moment when the memory of
the hypnotic powers of the Mahars filled me with apprehension
lest they be practicing their uncanny art upon me, to
the end that I merely imagined that I was alone
(26:54):
in the temple. 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 was
trembling like a leaf. You cannot imagine the awful horror
which even the simple thought of the repulse of Mahars
of Pellucidar induces in the human mind, And to feel
(27:14):
that you were in their power, that they are crawling,
slimy and abhorrent to drag you down beneath the waters
and devour you, it is frightful. But they did not come,
and at last I came to the conclusion that I
was indeed alone within the temple. How long I should
be alone was the next question to assail me, as
(27:37):
I swam frantically about once more in search of a
means to escape. Several times I called to Ja, but
he must have left after I tumbled into the tank,
for I received no response to my cries. Doubtless he
had felt as certain of my doom when he saw
me topple from our hiding place as I had, and
(27:57):
lest he too should be discovered, had hastened from the
temple and back to his village. I knew that there
must be some entrance to the building beside the doorways
in the roof, for it did not seem reasonable to
believe that the thousands of slaves which are brought here
to feed the Mahars the human flesh they craved, would
all be carried through the air. And so I continued
(28:19):
my search until at last it was rewarded by the
discovery of several loose granite blocks in the masonry at
one end of the temple. A little effort proved sufficient
to dislodge enough of these stones to permit me to
crawl through into the clearing, and a moment later I
had scurried across the intervening space to the dense jungle beyond.
(28:41):
Here I sank, panting and trembling, upon the matted grasses
beneath the giant trees. For I felt that I had
escaped from the grinning fangs of death, out of the
depths of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay hidden in
this island jungle, there could be none so fearsome as
those which I had just escaped. I knew that I
(29:01):
could meet death bravely enough, if it but came in
the form of some familiar beast or man, anything other
than the hideous and uncanny Mahars. End of Chapter eight
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