Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 16, 1921 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

JASON, SON OF JASON, 5 Jadgor of Aphur, scenting the danger, had sought to bind the hern prince to Tamarizian fealty through a marriage with Naia, his sister’s child. To win Naia and overthrow Zollaria’s scheme had been Ja- son’s task. . The introduction of both the motor and firearms enabled him to over- throw the flower of Zollaria’s hosts on a couple of bloody fields. Victory gained and Zollaria forced to cede Mazhur after fifty years of occupation, Croft prevailed upon the nation to accept a democratic form of government, it being at the end of the Emperor Tambhys’s term. As to the Tamarizians themselves, they were a white and well-formed race. Their women held equal place with men. They believed in the spirit and a future life. They had made no small progress in the sciences and arts. They worked metal, gold being as common as iron on Palos, and cop- per next. ' They tempered the latter and used it in innumerable ways. They wove fabrics of great beauty, one being a blend of vege- table fiber and spun gold. They cut and polished jewels. They had a system of ju- diciaries and courts and a medical and surgical knowledge of sorts. They were a fairly moral and naturally modest people. Their clothing was worn for protection and ornamentation, rather - than for any other purpose., It was donned and doffed as the occasion required, with- out comment being aroused. In women it consisted, rich and poor, of a single garment falling to the knee or just below it, cinc- tured about the body and caught over one shoulder by a jeweled or metal boss, leaving the other shoulder, arm, and upper chest exposed. To this ‘was added sandals of leather, metal, or wood, held to the foot by a toe and instep band and lacings run- ning well up the calves. Men of wealth and soldiers generally wore metal casings, jointed to the sandal to permit of motion and extending upward to the knees. Men of caste wore also a soft shirt or chemise beneath a metal cuirass or embroidered tu- nic. Save on formal occasions the serving cl wore either a narrow cincture about the loins or. discarding even it, went frankly nude, Agriculture was highly developed, and they had advanced far in -arehitecture, painting, sculpture. They lavished much time and expense in ‘beautifying their homes. They had well-constructed caravan roads. As Croft had pointed out, he found them an intelligent race waiting, ready to be trained to a wider craft. And among them, in Naia of Aphur, he believed he had found his twin soul. And . he had set about winning her in a fashion such as no other man, I frankly believe, would have dared. He had won her according to his belief and returned to earth, for the dast time, ere he should return and make her his bride. He had told me about it, and he had cast off his earthly body, severing the last tie that held him from his life in Palos. He had died. He had gone back and found his plans disarranged through the actions of Zud, the high priest at Zitra, the capitol city of Hiranur, where he had left Naia waiting his return in the Temple of Ga, the Eternal Mother—the Eternal Woman, in the Zitran pyramid, Zud, moved by Croft’s works and by a story told him by Abbu, a priest who knew Jason’s story, had proclaimed him Mouthpiece of Zitu, thereby raising an insurmountable barrier, as it seemed, between him and Naia, since celebacy was one of the tenets of the Tamarizian priests. And yet Croft had won to her, overcoming all obstacles, even winning a second war, with all Mazzeria egged on, her armies offi- cered by Zollarians in disguise this time, ere he gained the goal of his desire. These things had. been told me inside the last few weeks by No. 27—the man who had been committed to the institution for a dissociation of personality, at which he quietly laughed after he had obtained my ear; because-he wished to gain contact with me, who knew his former story, and win my aid toward the fulfilment of his mis- sion. Only he wasn’t dead, and I knew it as T lay there with the names of men and women of the Palosian world buzzing in my head. He had gone back to them, now that his work: was ended—to Naia, his golden-haired, purple-eyed mate—to Lak- cComiclbool C©