le, for the tongue you talk is very ancient, and as it
chances in my own country it has been my lot to study and to teach
it. It is Greek, but although it is still spoken in the world, how it
reached these mountains I cannot say."

"I will tell you," he answered. "Many generations ago a great conqueror
born of the nation that spoke this tongue fought his way through the
country to the south of us. He was driven back, but a general of his of
another race advanced and crossed the mountains, and overcame the
people of this land, bringing with him his master's language and his own
worship. Here he established his dynasty, and here it remains, for being
ringed in with deserts and with pathless mountain snows, we hold no
converse with the outer world."

"Yes, I know something of that story; the conqueror was named Alexander,
was he not?" I asked.

"He was so named, and the name of the general was Rassen, a native of
a country called Egypt, or so our records tell us. His descendants hold
the throne to this day, and the Khania is of his blood."

"Was the goddess whom he worshipped called Isis?"

"Nay," he answered, "she was called Hes."

"Which," I interrupted, "is but another title for Isis. Tell me, is her
worship continued here? I ask because it is now dead in Egypt, which was
its home."

"There is a temple on the Mountain yonder," he replied indifferently,
"and in it are priests and priestesses who practise some ancient cult.
But the real god of this people now, as long before the day of Rassen
their conqueror, is the fire that dwells in this same Mountain, which
from time to time breaks out and slays them."

"And does a goddess dwell in the fire?" I asked.

Again he searched my face with his cold eyes, then answered--"Stranger
Holly, I know nothing of any goddess. That Mountain is sacred, and to
seek to learn its secrets is to die. Why do you ask such questions?"

"Only because I am curious in the matter of old religions, and seeing
the symbol of Life upon yonder peak, came hither to study yours, of
which indeed a tradition still remains among the learned."

"Then abandon that study, friend Holly, for the road to it runs through
the paws of the death-hounds, and the spears of savages. Nor indeed is
there anything to learn."

"And what, Physician, are the death-hounds?"

"Certain dogs to which, according to our ancient custom, all offenders
against the law or the will of the Khan, are cast to be torn to piece