"
We turned ourselves, and there, about ten miles away, perceived a
flat-roofed town of considerable, though not of very great size. Its
position was good, for it was set upon a large island that stood a
hundred feet or more above the level of the plain, the river dividing
into two branches at the foot of it, and, as we discovered afterwards,
uniting again beyond.
The vast mound upon which this city was built had the appearance of
being artificial, but very possibly the soil whereof it was formed
had been washed up in past ages during times of flood, so that from
a mudbank in the centre of the broad river it grew by degrees to its
present proportions. With the exception of a columned and towered
edifice that crowned the city and seemed to be encircled by gardens, we
could see no great buildings in the place.
"How is the city named?" asked Leo of Simbri.
"Kaloon," he answered, "as was all this land even when my fore-fathers,
the conquerors, marched across the mountains and took it more than two
thousand years ago. They kept the ancient title, but the territory
of the Mountain they called Hes, because they said that the loop upon
yonder peak was the symbol of a goddess of this name whom their general
worshipped."
"Priestesses still live there, do they not?" said Leo, trying in his
turn to extract the truth.
"Yes, and priests also.
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