Argosy, Vol. 1 (1882) — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

. BEYOND THE GREAT SOUTH WALL. was reproduced with a skill most mar- velous. The horrid foot webs with claws aspread were there; the long low- ering neck; the malignant head fiend- ishly erect; the saw-like, serrated tail; the horrible dewlap ; the filthy bloatings of the carcass; the thick legs, with bunches of muscle staring harshly out of the stone fore arms. | Below were inscriptions in the famil- iar symbol. Far up in the fiercely poised head were eyes that glinted evilly—eyes that licked up into themselves all the poor light of the dim vault and concentrated it into two glistening points of wicked- ness. They seemed to follow us with such poignancy that we shuddered. But the greater wonder and the heavier horror lay not in this foul 1m- age, terrible though it was-in its lifelike imitation. Circling round the’ throned idol— symbol of the most loathsome worship, as I suppose, and the cruelest that the world has ever seen—was a ring of brown and shriveled objects. They were cloaked with rotting garments, and lean with the waste of centuries. They were mummified by time, but in the undying cold, undecayed. It was the last worship of the priests of Cay, overwhelmed in the sanctuary, defying the long drawn death of numb- ing famine in the presence of their god. . We two drew very near together, and I laid my hand upon Gerry’s shoulder for mere support of a warm and sentient - body. The fog of our startled breath- ings went up steamingly in the air. It smoked like incense before a yet sacred shrine of evil. We gasped as those who seek fresh air in a stuffy atmosphere, and at the same time huddled to each other for warmth. Never in any other condition of heat or cold do I remember to have experienced a freezingly hot oppres- sion. There were thirty of these poor hap- less souls; all were face to earth, with PON III garments hanging about them by mere stillness of pose. | Their hands were yellow and claw- like, and were spread abroad upon the pavement. Their faces were swathed in brown hoods, that covered their fea- tures utterly. Their bony, shrunken outlines showed haggard through the musty rags that clothed them. We looked questioningly in each other’s eyes before we laid hands upon the rigid kneeling form nearest us. We raised the low laid face from the floor and turned it towards the scanty light. The wrinkled features were drawn and crisp with the dryness of a hundred frozen years; the deep sunk eyes were _ blurred—the smoothhess of the pupils dulled to roughness by the shrinking of the temporal muscles and nerves. As we moved the head, a tooth or two clattered on the floor from the dried, ‘fleshless gums, and gleamed white against the dust. The arms, set stiffly in their parchmenty skin, flopped help- lessly abroad as we raised the body from its crouching position. The joints were tense as the bones. The whole body moved as one solid piece, as if it had been run into an invisible mold. Across the drawn forehead was a white band, and on it was broadly sealed the similitude of the great Beast. On the floor in patches remained a few rags of the rotten clothing. silently we gazed on this luckless remnant of a long forgotten religion and race; then the ghastliness of the thing crowded upon our nerves fear- somely. Reverently we placed the poor gaunt body in its original position, and turned hastily to the door. We shivered as we gained the portico, and I passed the flask to Gerry. At the moment he gulped at the spirit the rope came flapping and uncoiling down the ice hill opposite, and slipped up almost to our feet. I sprang forward to catch it up, and began briskly to knot a running loop at the end of it. Gerry eyed me with ap- proval. CONNEC AOOIK eo