e body wherein burned the
great fiery furnace, there stood twelve dwarfs in flowing garments of
pure white. These were high-priests of Zomara. The fierce pigmies,
unknown even to Omar, their prince, seemed a sacred tribe who perhaps had
lived here forgotten and undiscovered for generations. In any case it was
apparent that they never ascended to the land above, but devoted
themselves entirely to the curious rites and ceremonies of this strange
pagan religion.

In the centre of the semi-circle of tiny bead-eyed priests with whitened
faces stood one of great age with flowing white beard that nearly swept
the ground. His figure was exceedingly grotesque, yet he bore himself
with hauteur, and as he stood before a kind of altar erected in front of
a door, that seemed to lead into the body of the gigantic crocodile, he
gave vent in a loud clear voice to the most earnest exhortations. Then,
bathing his face and hands in a golden bowl held by the other priests, in
order, so I afterwards learnt, to wash away the bad impressions of the
world, he thus began an instructive lesson:

"Give ear, ye tender branches, unto the words of your parent stock; bend
to the lessons of instruction and imbibe the maxims of age and
experience! As the ant creepeth not to its labour till led by its elders;
as the young lark soareth not to the sun, but under the shadow of its
mother's wing, so neither doth the child of mortality spring forth to
action unless the parent hand points out its destined labour. But no
labour shall the hand of man appoint unto the people of Mo before the
worship of Zomara, the sacred god of the crocodiles, and of the great
Naya, his handmaiden. Mean are the pursuits of the sons of the earth;
they stretch out their sinews like the patient mule, they persevere in
their chase after trifles, as the camel in the desert beyond the Thousand
Steps. As the leopard springeth upon his prey, so doth man rejoice over
his riches, and bask in the sun of slothfulness like the lion's cub. On
the stream of life float the bodies of the careless and the intemperate
as the carcases of the dead on the waves of the Lake of Sacrifices. As
the birds of prey destroy the carcase so is man devoured by sin. No man
is master over himself, but the Naya is his ruler; and to endeavour to
defeat the purpose of Zomara is madness and folly. O people! pay your
vows to the King of Crocodiles alone, and not to your fetishes, which,
though they be superior in you