And, although it is hard to believe, I have learned that this is
so, for I have lived here among them for sixty years in the palace
of their king.
"They brought me, as they brought you, directly to the palace. The
Arabian chief was taken elsewhere. I never knew what became of him.
Ago XXV was king then. I have seen many kings since that day. He
was a terrible man; but then, they are all terrible."
"What is the matter with them?" asked the girl.
"They are a race of maniacs," replied the old woman. "Had you not
guessed it? Among them are excellent craftsmen and good farmers
and a certain amount of law and order, such as it is.
"They reverence all birds, but the parrot is their chief deity.
There is one who is held here in the palace in a very beautiful
apartment. He is their god of gods. He is a very old bird. If what
Ago told me when I came is true, he must be nearly three hundred
years old by now. Their religious rites are revolting in the
extreme, and I believe that it may be the practice of these rites
through ages that has brought the race to its present condition of
imbecility.
"And yet, as I said, they are not without some redeeming qualities.
If legend may be credited, their forebears--a little handful of
men and women who came from somewhere out of the north and became
lost in the wilderness of central Africa--found here only a barren
desert valley.
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