ay," replied the black, "to learn if either lacked
the courage to follow where Om-at led. It is here that the young
warriors of Es-sat come to prove their courage. And yet, though we are
born and raised upon cliff sides, it is considered no disgrace to admit
that Pastar-ul-ved, the Father of Mountains, has defeated us, for of
those who try it only a few succeed--the bones of the others lie at the
feet of Pastar-ul-ved."

Ta-den laughed. "I would not care to come this way often," he said.

"No," replied Om-at; "but it has shortened our journey by at least a
full day. So much the sooner shall Tarzan look upon the Valley of
Jad-ben-Otho. Come!" and he led the way upward along the shoulder of
Pastar-ul-ved until there lay spread below them a scene of mystery and
of beauty--a green valley girt by towering cliffs of marble
whiteness--a green valley dotted by deep blue lakes and crossed by the
blue trail of a winding river. In the center a city of the whiteness of
the marble cliffs--a city which even at so great a distance evidenced a
strange, yet artistic architecture. Outside the city there were visible
about the valley isolated groups of buildings--sometimes one, again two
and three and four in a cluster--but always of the same glaring
whiteness, and always in some fantastic form.

About the valley the cliffs were occasionally cleft by deep gorges,
verdure filled, giving the appearance of green rivers rioting downward
toward a central sea of green.

"Jad Pele ul Jad-ben-Otho," murmured Tarzan in the tongue of the
pithecanthropi; "The Valley of the Great God--it is beautiful!"

"Here, in A-lur, lives Ko-tan, the king, ruler over all Pal-ul-don,"
said Ta-den.

"And here in these gorges live the Waz-don," exclaimed Om-at, "who do
not acknowledge that Ko-tan is the ruler over all the Land-of-man."

Ta-den smiled and shrugged. "We will not quarrel, you and I," he said
to Om-at, "over that which all the ages have not proved sufficient time
in which to reconcile the Ho-don and Waz-don; but let me whisper to you
a secret, Om-at. The Ho-don live together in greater or less peace
under one ruler so that when danger threatens them they face the enemy
with many warriors, for every fighting Ho-don of Pal-ul-don is there.
But you Waz-don, how is it with you? You have a dozen kings who fight
not only with the Ho-don but with one another. When one of your tribes
goes forth upon the fighting trail, even against the Ho-don, it must
l