They prayed in vain, and offered, without any success, two hundred of their fairest virgins in sacrifice on the altars of Takwantona.

The evil spirit laughed, and answered to them with his destructive thunders.

The earth was shaken and rent asunder; the waters ceased to flow in the rivers, and large streams of fire and burning sulphur rolled down from the mountains, bringing with them terror and death.

How long it lasted none is living to say; and who could?
There stood the bleeding moon; 'twas neither light nor obscurity; how could man divide the time and the seasons?
It may have been only the life of a worm; it may have been the long age of a snake.
"The struggle was fearful, but at last the good Master of Life broke his bonds.

The sun shone again.