away and hid among the hills that skirt the land of Amoz. And
there these Sagoths found me and made me captive."

"What will they do with you?" I asked. "Where are they taking us?"

Again she looked her incredulity.

"I can almost believe that you are of another world," she said,
"for otherwise such ignorance were inexplicable. Do you really
mean that you do not know that the Sagoths are the creatures of
the Mahars--the mighty Mahars who think they own Pellucidar and all
that walks or grows upon its surface, or creeps or burrows beneath,
or swims within its lakes and oceans, or flies through its air? Next
you will be telling me that you never before heard of the Mahars!"

I was loath to do it, and further incur her scorn; but there was
no alternative if I were to absorb knowledge, so I made a clean
breast of my pitiful ignorance as to the mighty Mahars. She was
shocked. But she did her very best to enlighten me, though much
that she said was as Greek would have been to her. She described
the Mahars largely by comparisons. In this way they were like unto
thipdars, in that to the hairless lidi.

About all I gleaned of them was that they were quite hideous, had
wings, and webbed feet; lived in cities built beneath the ground;
could swim under water for great distances, and were very, very
wise. The Sagoths were their weapons of offense and defense, and
the races like herself were their hands and feet--they were the
slaves and servants who did all the manual labor. The Mahars were
the heads--the brains--of the inner world. I longed to see this