Lu-don led them to the
largest of the altar courts.
Taking his place behind the western altar he motioned Ko-tan to a
place upon the platform at the left hand of the altar and directed
Tarzan to a similar place at the right.
As Tarzan ascended the platform his eyes narrowed angrily at the
sight which met them. The basin hollowed in the top of the altar was
filled with water in which floated the naked corpse of a new-born
babe. "What means this?" he cried angrily, turning upon Lu-don.
The latter smiled malevolently. "That you do not know," he replied,
"is but added evidence of the falsity of your claim. He who poses
as the son of god did not know that as the last rays of the setting
sun flood the eastern altar of the temple the lifeblood of an adult
reddens the white stone for the edification of Jad-ben-Otho, and
that when the sun rises again from the body of its maker it looks
first upon this western altar and rejoices in the death of a
new-born babe each day, the ghost of which accompanies it across
the heavens by day as the ghost of the adult returns with it to
Jad-ben-Otho at night.
"Even the little children of the Ho-don know these things, while
he who claims to be the son of Jad-ben-Otho knows them not; and if
this proof be not enough, there is more. Come, Waz-don," he cried,
pointing to a tall slave who stood with a group of other blacks
and priests on the temple floor at the left of the altar.
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