to restrain them they at once leaped the boundary line and gave as much rein to their desires and appetites as hyenas and tigers. And in some natures the moral sense was only kept alive by fear—fear of offending some despotic invisible force that pervaded the Universe, and whose chief and most terrible attribute was not so much creative as destructive power. Thus Sah-Lûma again on the theology of Al-Kyris:
"To propitiate and pacify an unseen Supreme
Destroyer is the aim of all religions,—and it is for
this reason we add to our worship of the Sun that
of the White Serpent, Nagâya the Mediator. Nagâya
is the favorite object of the people's adoration;—they
may forget to pay their vows to the Sun, but never
to Nagâya, who is looked upon as the emblem of
Eternal Wisdom, the only pleader whose persuasions
avail to soften the tyrannic humor of the Invincible
Devourer of all things. We know how men hate
Wisdom and cannot endure to be instructed; yet
they prostrate themselves in abject crowds before
Wisdom's symbol every day in the Sacred
Temple yonder,—though I much doubt whether
such constant devotional attendance is not more
for the sake of Lysia, than the Deified Worm!"
Lysia, High Priestess of Nagâya, was the charmer
of the God of Al-Kyris, charmer of the serpent and
of the hearts of men. "The hot passion of love is
to her a toy, clasped and unclasped so!—in the pink
hollow of her hand; and so long as she retains the
