Chapter XVIII: We Argue with the High Priestess

Well, it was all over, and we had no chance to demur or make any protest. The members of the Tribune gathered their robes about them and walked away, and then the tiers of seats began to empty, without haste and in an orderly, circumspect manner.

Curious looks were cast at us, but I could read neither pity nor abhorrence in any countenance. We were wholly outside the lives of this strange race, and they accepted our fate as a matter of course.

The officer who had brought us here now turned and said:

“You have been tried and judged, strangers. You have heard the verdict of the just Tribunal. Follow me.”

Of course we tagged along after him; there was nothing else to be done. We now headed straight for the city, and that especial part of it situated at the south end of the valley. The people, returning to their dwellings, avoided interfering with us. While within earshot they did not discuss us or our unhappy destiny. Through centuries they have been taught consideration for others, nor did they forget the lesson even in their conduct toward strangers and condemned criminals.

Our glimpses of the residences we passed filled us with wonder and admiration. Highly polished marble, ornate and artistic carvings, exquisite tropical shrubbery, closely mowed lawns, fountains, cornices and ornaments of wrought gold were everywhere visible. The approaches to some of the finer dwellings were paved with layers of golden sheets, riveted together and in some instances bordered with fine rubies and other gems. Gold seemed the most abundant metal the Tcha possessed, and they had a secret way of hardening it that rendered it as durable as steel, without impairing its beauty.

Approaching nearer and nearer to the south wall of the mountain enclosing the valley, we at last reached the most impressive and extensive building of all—the Temple of the Sun. Ample grounds surrounded the huge, majestic pile, enclosed by marble walls ten feet in height, which were supplemented by a six-foot ornamental railing of elaborately worked gold. The entrance gates were likewise of gold, and bore in the center of each a highly polished representation of the sun shedding its rays in every direction.

News of our coming had evidently preceded us, for the great gates at once swung inward to receive us and a group of tall priests, most of them advanced in years, stood ready to admit the devoted band of prisoners to the sacred precincts. The official did not pass the gates. He reverently removed his casque and said:

“Holy fathers, to your keeping I confide the condemned. They now belong to our mother, the divine and adorable High Priestess of our god, the Sun.” Then, turning to us he continued in an earnest tone: “Destiny directs all human life. You are brave men, strangers, and are prepared to well fulfill the decree of Destiny. Being on the threshold of the great Hereafter, I give you greetings and good wishes. May your journey be peaceful and swift.”

Without awaiting our thanks for this doleful farewell he turned and departed, while with small ado we were marched through the gates and allowed to hear them swing shut behind us, the ring of their golden bars sounding like a knell in my ears. According to the best calculations of the Tcha we were never to pass this barrier again, either alive or dead.

Directly facing the gates was the great temple, entered by a broad flight of steps and composed of four walls, roofless and open to the rays of the Sun. Entirely separated from this main building were two others of smaller dimensions but much more elaborate. That at the right had a separate enclosure and was connected with the temple by a peristyle; the other, toward which we were directed, stood alone.

This, we found, was the palace of the High Priest and the residence of the numerous priests of the sun. The leaders of the reception committee were diverse. One was a wild-eyed, ascetic looking fellow who glared at us but kept silent; the other proved a kindly-faced man who treated us with marked respect.

After giving us a cool and refreshing beverage to drink—it reminded me of lemonade—we were taken to the presence of the High Priest, a doddering, withered old individual who seemed to have lived far beyond his allotted time and was drowsing contentedly when we disturbed him. He woke up to stare at us a moment, then waved us away, saying to our escort:

“They belong to the great god, the Sun. Cherish them; treat them tenderly, as befits those to be prepared for the sacrifice.”

At the moment we were inclined to resent this. None of us, I am sure, had any desire to become a sacrificial offering. But as we left the High Priest, who had fallen asleep again even before he had finished speaking, Chaka congratulated us on our good fortune.

“Had we been deemed unworthy of their great god,” he explained in English, “they would have killed us at sundown to-night, murdering us in cold blood and tossing our carcasses to the beasts. Sacrificial offerings are reserved for special occasions and are often prepared for weeks in advance, being cherished and fattened that they may become the more acceptable to the god. Therefore this order means we shall gain time to plan an escape. That may not be impossible, my friends, after all; and, in any event, time has its value.”

Afterward the atkayma told us that had not the High Priest been in his dotage he assuredly would not have accepted our blacks for sacrifice. The Mexican might pass, perhaps, as his skin was not unlike the color of that of the Itzaex; but the Sun-god might not like black sacrifices. The event, however, proved that Chaka was wrong in this conclusion.

We were now treated with great respect by the priests, even the wild-eyed one being willing to “cherish” the victims. Having been formally dedicated to their god our persons were sacred and our comfort and welfare the objects of much solicitude. If one of us expressed a desire it was at once granted, and we were surrounded by every luxury the luxurious palace afforded. In effect we became autocrats, commanding the priests at will. One thing only was denied us—permission to leave the temple enclosure.

For four dreary days we lived this sybaritic life; they were dreary because we had little to do but to eat and sleep and take life easy. Of course we talked over our delicate position and sought to evolve some plan of escape, but without the precious outfit that had been taken from us we were practically helpless.

All the Vale of Tcha was under the supreme rule of the High Priestess of the Sun, an hereditary title that had been handed down from mother to daughter for thousands of years—how many thousands we as yet were unable to learn. The High Priestess was attended by fifty Virgins between the ages of fifteen and thirty. Having served to the latter age they were released, sent back to their homes and permitted to marry. The daughters of these original Virgins of the Sun were entitled to succeed their mothers, in time; if there were not enough of them choice was made of young girls from the noblest families of the nation.

Next in rank came the High Priest, who was supported by fifty priests. These last, however, held their positions for life, and their ranks were filled from time to time by the most intelligent and deserving of the young men of Tcha. But so arduous were the duties of the priesthood that there was no time to fuss over civil affairs and the administration of the laws; so a Tribunal was selected by the High Priestess, the members of which served during their natural lives, directing all the minor affairs of the nation.

The Tcha believed but in one god, the Sun, from whence they considered they derived all the good things of life. They were communists to an extent, although divided into castes. The manufacturers’ guild was the most important of all, after the priesthood and the nobility, the latter being a luxurious class consisting of relatives of the priestesses and their subsequent children, but who constituted the scientific and literary class as well. The manufacturers’ guild included goldsmiths, weavers, millers and bakers, and all those who produced goods or wares from raw material. Next came the agriculturists, then the miners, and finally the builders.

Every inhabitant of the Vale of Tcha belonged to one or another of them castes and was supposed to keep busy, a drone being despised by all. Everything produced went into the public warehouses and from there was distributed to each family according to its requirements.

On the afternoon of the fourth day of our imprisonment a message came to us that the High Priestess desired to see the “sacrificial devotees.” The priests at once bustled about and brought us fresh togas and our white duck suits, which we wore under the robes. We were washed and brushed like schoolboys and given endless advice as to our conduct in the presence of “the Divine and Supreme Ama”.

“Ama” meant in the Maya tongue “mother”. If the High Priestess had any other name we never heard it.

When we had been properly fixed up and inspected by the wild-eyed one, who had authority under the senile High Priest, we were ushered past the great temple to the gates of the enclosure beyond. Here the priests turned us over to the care of six beautiful damsels whose tunics bore the device of the flaming sun. They were in no way embarrassed by the care of nine men of a strange race. Indeed, they regarded us impersonally as sacrifices intended in the near future to propitiate their god.

Demurely they led us along flower-bordered walks; into the main entrance of the magnificent palace of the Priestesses, through a lofty hall and out by a rear entrance, down a long pergola shaded by climbing roses, past a garden resplendent with rare and gorgeous blooms, and finally into a roomy pavilion that stood almost at the edge of the cliff that towered above the city.

The pillars, roof and floor of the pavilion were of pure white marble. In the center was a fountain that sent its cooling sprays far into the air. Beyond the fountain we found the floor strewn with exquisite rugs and downy cushions while in the rear of this spacious retreat was a golden divan upon which reclined the High Priestess, Supreme Ruler of the Vale of Tcha.

How shall I describe Ama to you? Shall I say she was the embodiment of grace and beauty, that her figure was tall and supple, her hair a golden bronze, her eyes turquoise and her lips budded like a rose? All that seems stale and flat in depicting Ama.

To our amazement this redoubtable High Priestess, in whose hands reposed all power, was a mere child, scarcely more than seventeen years of age.

No daintier, fairer, sweeter girl could be imagined. Reared from the cradle to occupy this exalted position, she was a real queen, regal alike in bearing, in natural attributes, in education and in person. Never had she known a wish unfulfilled, never a command thwarted. She had succeeded her mother at twelve years of age, and her omnipotence among the Tcha was accepted by the girl without a thought that she owed all to the accident of birth.

As we stood before her the mighty priestess sat up and examined us with undisguised interest. First she deliberately stared at Paul, until his eyes fell and a deep blush suffused his face. Then Chaka was observed, with evidences of lively approval. Indeed, the youthful atkayma looked very handsome in his haughty, dignified pose, and his brown eyes met those of Ama quite frankly. When she turned to me I bowed and smiled. She was only a girl; why should I fear her? Yet for some reason we had all forgotten entirely our instructions to prostrate ourselves most humbly before the Supreme Ruler. We felt more like treating her as we would an American girl.

One by one she silently scrutinized us all. Then, lying back on her cushions, she waved her hands and said:

“Be seated, thou consecrated ones, thou who art sacred to our Lord the Sun. Let us converse together,” she added, graciously.

We squatted on the rugs, arranging ourselves as comfortably as possible, and the attendant Virgins followed suit. When we were seated Ama said:

“Are you contented? Have you any request to make?”

“One, your Highness,” ventured Paul, earnestly.

“Speak, then.”

“Your god,” said he, “is not the God of our fathers. We do not wish to be sacrificed to a strange god. Coming as friends and without evil intent to your country, we have been deprived of our liberty and consecrated to a god we do not worship. The action of the Tcha has been unjust and unkind. We desire to be set free and allowed to return to our own people.”

Ama seemed disturbed by this statement. She sat up again, resting an elbow upon her knee and her chin upon the palm of her hand, listening carefully.

“Alas,” she said in reply, “your protest comes all too late. The decree has passed the Tribunal. The High Priest has accepted you as worthy sacrifices. Already are you consecrated to the Divine Sun, whose majesty would be outraged if robbed of his offerings.”

“Haven’t we anything to say about our own fate?” I asked indignantly.

“Oh, no, indeed!” she responded, smiling bewitchingly. “When one breaks the laws of a country he loses his individual right to direct his fate. Is it not so in the land from whence you came?”

“How are outsiders to know your laws, when you seclude yourselves from all the rest of mankind?” inquired Joe.

“If we seclude ourselves, it is evidence we do not desire intrusion,” she answered.

We began to admit to ourselves it would not be easy to influence this fair young girl. She had been taught to conserve the traditions of her people; her ethics of law were fairly sound.

For a time she appeared to be absorbed in thought. Then she said abruptly:

“Tell me of your own country. You differ from and are superior to others who, at times, have come here to disturb us. Most of them, I am told, for it was all before my time, were found to be unworthy to be dedicated to the sacrifice. But you, it seems, have learned to fly as the birds fly, and you bear strange and death-dealing weapons. You clothe yourselves with many hitherto unknown devices, and in your chests are many things the use of which we are ignorant.”

This speech gave Allerton an idea.

“The countries of the outside world,” he answered, “are of vast extent and throng with millions of people. These teach to one another the knowledge they acquire and the scientific discoveries they make. Therefore they progress much more rapidly than any secluded people, such as the Tcha, can hope to do. Forgive me for saying it, your Highness, but your people are ignorant of many things. They are far behind other nations in arts, sciences and inventions, and very insignificant when compared with the people from whom we came.”

“In other words,” I explained, “you are way behind the procession, Ama—chasing the times, so to speak.”

She listened, and regarded us thoughtfully.

“The Tcha is the greatest nation in all the world!” she declared, with queenly pride.

“It is far from that, your Highness,” replied Allerton. “If you ventured outside this puny circle of rocks your nation would soon be swallowed up by the great world and practically annihilated. Because we are nine helpless travelers you seize and destroy us. In the outside world your entire population would appear meaner and more helpless than we nine are among you here.”

She suddenly sprang up with flashing eyes and stamped her foot angrily upon the rug, like a pettish school-girl.

“How dare you come here and lie to me?” she cried with spirit. “How dare you malign my people, the mighty Tcha, to their Supreme Ruler, the Priestess of the Sun? Begone, outcasts that you are! begone and leave me to forget the shame you have thrust upon me!”

We went away, of course. There wasn’t time to argue the proposition, and I feared Paul had made a sad mistake. Archie was sorry, too, for I had noticed he was holding the hand of a pretty priestess who sat next him.

But there was a satisfied look on Allerton’s face, and as the Virgins thrust us out of their enclosure into the arms of the priests awaiting us he said in English:

“That shot told, all right, and soon she will want to know more about the outside world. Don’t be despondent, boys; I’ve an idea we may win out yet.”