ink
that while we breed such as they, the Black Ones shall not rest easy.
Listen now, outlander, to the story of the Black Ones and the Caves of
Darkness, of how the Ancient Ones brought the Folk up from the slime of
a long dried sea and made them great, and of how the Ancient Ones at
last went down to their destruction."

_CHAPTER FOUR_

_The Defeat of the Ancient Ones_

"In the days before the lands of the outer world were born of the sea,
before even the Land of the Sun (Mu) and the Land of the Sea (Atlantis)
arose from molten rock and sand, there was land here in the far south. A
sere land of rock plains, and swamps where slimy life mated, lived and
died.

"Then came the Ancient Ones from beyond the stars. Their race was
already older than this earth. Their wise men had watched its
birth-rending from the sun. And when their world perished, taking most
of their blood into nothingness, a handful fled hither.

"But when they climbed from their space ship it was into hell. For they
had gained, in place of their loved home, bare rock and stinking slime.

"They blasted out this Tav and entered into it with the treasures of
their flying ships and also certain living creatures captured in the
swamps. From these, they produced the Folk, the Gibi, the Tand, and the
land-tending Eron.

"Among these, the Folk were eager for wisdom and climbed high. But still
the learning of the Ancient Ones remained beyond their grasp.

"During the eons the Ancient Ones dwelt within their protecting wall of
haze the outer world changed. Cold came to the north and south; the Land
of Sun and the Land of Sea arose to bear the foot of true man. On their
mirrors of seeing the Ancient Ones watched man-life spread across the
world. They had the power of prolonging life, but still the race was
dying. From without must come new blood. So certain men were summoned
from the Land of the Sun. Then the race flourished for a space.

"The Ancient Ones decided to leave Tav for the outer world. But the sea
swallowed the Land of Sun. Again, in the time of the Land of Sea, the
stock within Tav was replenished and the Ancient Ones prepared for
exodus; again the sea cheated them.

"Those men left in the outer world reverted to savagery. Since the
Ancient Ones would not mingle their blood with that of almost beasts,
they built the haze wall stronger and remained. But a handful of them
were attracted by the forbidden, and secretly they summoned the