A murmur of disapprobation arose from the far end of the amphitheatre, that swelled gradually to a roar.

The people had been thankful to accept Juanna's message of peace, but, brutalised as they were by the continual sight of bloodshed, they were not willing to dispense with their carnivals of human sacrifice.

A Roman audience gathered to witness a gladiatorial show, to find themselves treated instead to a donkey-race and a cock-fight, could scarcely have shown more fury.
"Bring out the women! Let the victims be offered up to Jal as of old," the multitude yelled in their rage, and ten minutes or more elapsed before they could be quieted.
Then Nam addressed them cunningly.
"People of the Mist," he said, "the gods have given us a new law, a law of the sacrifice of oxen and goats in the place of men and maids, and ye yourselves have welcomed that law.

No longer shall the blood of victims flow to Jal beneath the white rays of the moon while the chant of his servants goes up to heaven.

Nay, henceforth this holy place must be a shambles for the kine.