vicinity, or to the human skulls which grinned from countless niches
in the towering walls.

The priestess led the victim to the altar steps. Again the galleries
above filled with watchers, while from an arched doorway at the
east end of the chamber a procession of females filed slowly into
the room. They wore, like the men, only skins of wild animals
caught about their waists with rawhide belts or chains of gold; but
the black masses of their hair were incrusted with golden headgear
composed of many circular and oval pieces of gold ingeniously held
together to form a metal cap from which depended at each side of
the head, long strings of oval pieces falling to the waist.

The females were more symmetrically proportioned than the males,
their features were much more perfect, the shapes of their heads
and their large, soft, black eyes denoting far greater intelligence
and humanity than was possessed by their lords and masters.

Each priestess bore two golden cups, and as they formed in line
along one side of the altar the men formed opposite them, advancing
and taking each a cup from the female opposite. Then the chant
began once more, and presently from a dark passageway beyond the
altar another female emerged from the cavernous depths beneath the
chamber.

The high priestess, thought Tarzan. She was a young woman with a
rather intelligent and shapely face. Her ornaments were similar
to those worn by her votaries, but much more elaborate, many being
set with diamonds. Her bare arms and legs were almost concealed
by the massive, bejeweled ornaments which covered them, while her