Adventure Books
08 - At The Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs
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- Duration:
- 27m
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Imagine a place where you can discover thousands of captivating audiobooks, immerse yourself in tranquil sounds for sleep and meditation, and explore timeless stories and lectures that expand your mind and enrich your soul. At Solga Media dot com, we believe in the power of stories to transform lives. Whether you're a lifelong learner, a parent seeking bedtime stories for your children, or someone looking to unwind after a long day, we have something just for you. We invite you to try Solga Media free for one month. Explore our extensive collection and find the perfect audio content that resonates with you. Join our community of passionate listeners and unlock a world of knowledge, relaxation, and inspiration. Get Solga Media dot com today and start your free trial. That's S-O-L-G-O-O-D-M-E-D-I-A dot com. Chapter 8 - The Mayhar Temple The aborigine apparently uninjured, climbed quickly into the skiff and seizing the spear with me 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 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 some several minutes, each clinging tenaciously to the weapon 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 ignorance of his language. At the same time addressing him in the bastard tongue that the seagoths used to converse with the human slaves of the Mayars. 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." 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 Palucidar, and 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, people by being similar to himself, and he laughed up roriously the more he thought upon it. 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. 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 meazup, and that his name was Jaw. "Who are the meazups?" 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 a Palucidar could be so ignorant." The meazups live upon the islands of the seas. In so far as I have ever heard, no meazup lives elsewhere, and no others than meazups dwell upon the islands. But of course it may be different in other far distant lands. I do not know. At any rate, in this sea, and those nearby, 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," he added proudly. Even the seagoths of the meaars fear us. Once when Palucidar was young, the seagoths were one to capture us for slaves as they do the other men of Palucidar. It is handed down from father to son among us that this is so. But we fought so desperately and slew so many seagoths, and those of us that were captured killed so many meaars in their own cities, that at last they learned that were better to leave us alone, and later came the time that the meaars 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 they give us certain things which we are unable to produce in return for the fish that we catch, and the measups and the meaars live in peace. The great ones even come to our islands. It is there far from the prying eyes of their own seagoths that they practice their religious rites in the temples they have built it there with our assistance. If you live among us 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 Jha 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 coppery red 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 Jha was an impressive and handsome creature, and he talked well too. Even in the miserable makeshift language we were compelled to use. During our conversation Jha had taken the paddle and was propelling the skiff with vigorous strokes toward a large island that lay some half-mile from the mainland. The skill 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, Jha leaped out and I followed him. Together we dragged the skiff far up into the bushes that grew beyond the sand. We must hide our canoes, explain Jha, for the mesops 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 it so great a distance that it seemed but a blur hanging in the distant sky. The upward curve of the surface of Palucidar was constantly 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 perceptive and reasoning faculties as almost to stupefy one. No sooner had we hidden the canoe than Jha 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 mesop trail which I was later defined to distinguish them from all other trails that I have ever 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 Jha would turn directly back in his tracks for a little distance, spring into a tree, climb through it to the other side, drop onto a fallen log, leap over a low bush, and alight 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. Then he would pass again across some media which would reveal no spore to take up the broken threat 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 mesops who hid upon this novel plan to throw his enemies from his track and delay or thwart them in their attempts to 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 of Palucidar you would realize that time is no factor where time does not exist. Selabrinthian are the windings of these trails, so varied the connecting links and the distances which one must retrace one steps from the path zens to find them, that a mesop 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 mesop consists in familiarizing himself with 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 learn 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 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 a strange and appearing village, as one might well imagine. Large trees had been chopped down fifteen or twenty feet above the ground, and upon the tops of them spherical habitations of woven twigs mud-covered had been built. Each ball-like house was surmounted by some manner of carbon image, which Jaw told me indicated the identity of the owner. Horizontal slits six inches high and two or three feet wide serve to admit light and ventilation. The entrances to the house were through small apertures in the bases of the trees and then supplered 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 cultivated fields in which the mesops 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 Jaw they saluted differentially, but to me they paid not the slightest attention. Among them and about the outer verge of the cultivated area were many warriors. These two saluted Jaw, 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 taking me up into it gave me food and drink. There I met his mate, a cumbly girl with a nursing baby in her arms. Jaw 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 Jaw told me would one day rule the tribe, for Jaw it seemed was the chief of the community. We had eaten and rested, and I had slept, 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 Mayhars, 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 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. Palucidar would be a better place to live were there none of them. I wholly concurred in Jaw's belief, but it seemed that it might be a difficult matter to exterminate the dominant race of Palucidar. Thus conversing, we followed the intricate trail toward the temple, which we came upon in a small clearing surrounded by enormous trees similar to those which must have flourished upon the outer crust during the Carboniferous Age. Here was a mighty temple of Hyun 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 a need of any, except one entrance for the slaves, since, as Jaw explained, the Mayhars flew to and from their place of ceremonial, entering and leaving the buildings by means of the apertures in the roof. But, at a Jaw, there is an entrance near the base of which, even the Mayhars, know nothing. Come! And he led me across the clearing, and about the end to a pile of loose 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 Jaw I discovered myself in a narrow place of extreme darkness. We are within the outer wall, said Jaw. It is hollow. Follow me closely. The red man 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 of the temple. The lower floor was an enormous tank of clear water in which numerous hideous Mayhars 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?" I asked. "Wait, and you shall see," replied Jaw. "They are to take part in the ceremonies which will follow the advent of the Queen. You may be thankful that you are not upon the same side of the wall as they." Scarcely had he spoken, then we heard a great fluttering of wings above, and a moment later a long procession of the frightful reptiles of Palucidar winged slowly and majestically through the large central opening in the roof and circled in stately manner about the temple. There were several Mayhars first, and then at least twenty awe-inspiring pterodactyls, Thiptars there called within Palucidar. Behind these came the Queen, flanked by other Thiptars, as she had been when she entered the amphitheater at Futra. Three times they wheeled about the interior of the oval chamber to settle finally upon the damp, cold boulders that fringed the outer edge of the pool. In the center of one side the largest rock was reserved for the Queen, and here she took her place surrounded by her terrible guard. All lay 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 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 cavemen of Palucidar, and if our progenitors were as they, the human race of the outer crust has deteriorated rather than improved with the march of the ages. All they lack is opportunity. We 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 at the ends as you have seen captive seals turn 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 been brought from a distant Mayhar city where human beings are kept in droves and bred and fattened as we breed in fat and 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 kneeling behind a woman, but the reptile with unblinking eyes stared on with such 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 brain. 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. She turned wide, fear-haunted eyes toward the Mayhar 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 shallows beside the little island. On she moved toward the Mayhar, who now slowly retreated, as 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 was at her waist, now her armpits. Her fellows upon the island looked on in her, helpless to avert her doom in which they saw a forecast of their own. The Mayhar 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 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 she still walked on after the retreating Mayhar. The queen's head slowly disappeared beneath the surface, and after it went the eyes of her victim, only a slow ripple widened toward the shores to mark where the two vanished. For a time all was silence within the temple. The slaves were motionless in terror. The Mayhar's watched the surface of the water for the reappearance of their queen, and presently at one end of the tank her head rose slowly into view. 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 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 depths and out again, until the uncanny weirdness of the thing got on my nerves so that I could have leaped into the tank to the child's rescue had I not taken a firm hold of myself. Once they were below the surface 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. Nod completely off at the shoulder, 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 to hide the 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 arose she came alone, and swam sleepily toward her boulder. The moment she mounted it seemed to be a signal for the other Mayhars 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 felt prey to the Mayhars, they being the weakest and most tender, and when they had satisfied their appetite for human flesh, some of them devouring two or three of the slaves. There were only a score of full-grown men left, and I thought that for some reason these were to be spared, but such was far from the case. For as the last Mayhar crawled to her rock the queen's thipdars darted into the air, 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 Mayhars. By the time the thipdars had disposed of the last of the slaves the Mayhars 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 Mayhars seldom if ever slept, I said to Jha. They do many things in this temple which they do not do elsewhere, he replied. The Mayhars of Futra are not supposed to eat human flesh, yet slaves are brought here by the thousands, and almost always you will find the Mayhars on hand to consume them. I imagined that they do not bring their segoths here, because they are ashamed of 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 Mayhar 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. It is not because they consider us their equals that they are supposed to look with abhorrence upon those who eat our flesh, replied Jha. It is merely that we are warm-blooded animals. They would not think of eating the meat of a fag, 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 just why the 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 lapped 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 were rusting upon a small piece of granite which formed 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 head foremost into the water below. Fortunately the tank was deep at this point, and I suffered no injury from 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 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 Mayhars and the Thiptars, 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 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 Palucidar there was no telling how long I had been beneath the surface. 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 measuring time as we know them upon the earth are non-existent. I was about to congratulate myself upon the miracle which had saved me for the moment, when the memory of the hypnotic powers of the Mayhars filled me with apprehension, lest they be practicing their uncanny art upon me to the end that I merely imagine that I was alone 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 repulsive Mayhars of Palucidar induces in the human mind, and to feel that you are in their power, that they are crawling, slimy, 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 I swam frantically about once more in search of a means to escape. Several times I called to Jha, but he must have left after I tumbled into the tank where I received no response to my cries. Outless he had felt as certain of my doom when he saw me topple from our hiding-place as I had, and 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 were brought here to feed the Mayhars, the human flesh they craved, would all be carried through the air, and so I continued my search until it 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. Here I sank, panting and trembling upon the matted grasses beneath the giant trees. However I felt that I had escaped from the grinning fangs of death out of the depths of my own grave. Whatever dangers lay in this island jungle there could be none so fearsome as those which I had just escaped. I knew that I could meet death bravely enough if it came in the form of some familiar beast or man. Anything other than the hideous and uncanny Mayhars.