If those two scalps be Erie, then where the Cat-People creep their Sorcerer will be found." "Amochol," I repeated under my breath.

And shivered.
For, deep in the secret shadows of that dreadful place where this vile hag, Catharine Montour, ruled it in Catharines-town, dwelt also all that now remained of the Cat-Nation--Eries--People of the Cat--a dozen, it was rumoured, scarcely more--and demons all, serving that horrid warlock, Amochol, the Sorcerer of the Senecas.
What dreadful rites this red priest and his Eries practiced there, none knew, unless it were true that the False Faces knew.

But rumour whispered with a thousand tongues of horrors viewless, nameless, inconceivable; and that far to the westward Biskoonah yawned, so close indeed to the world's surface that the waters boiling deep in hell burst into burning fountains in the magic garden where the red priest made his sorcery, alone.
These things I had heard, but vaguely, here and there--a word perhaps at Johnson Hall, a whisper at Fort Johnson, rumours discussed at Guy Park and Schenectady when I was young.

But ever the same horror of it filled me, though I believed it not, knowing full well there were no witches, sorcerers, or warlocks in the world; yet, in my soul disturbed concerning what might pass deep in the shadows of that viewless Empire.
"Mayaro," I said seriously, "do you go instantly to the fort and view those scalps." "Were the braids fastened at the roots with tree-cat claws ?" "Aye!" "No need to view them, then, Loskiel." "Are they truly Erie ?" "Cats!" He spat the word from his lips and his eyes blazed.
"And--Amochol!" I asked unsteadily.
"The Cat People creep with the Seneca high priest, mewing under the moon." "Then--he is surely here ?" "Aye, Loskiel." "God!" said I, now all a-quiver; "only to slay him! Only to end this demon-thing, this poison spawn of the Woman-Toad! Only to glimpse his scarlet rags fairly along my rifle sight!" "No bullets touch him." "That is nonsense, Mayaro----" "No, Loskiel." "I tell you he is human! There are no sorcerers on earth.

There never were--except the Witch of Endor----" "I never heard of her.