Its favourite dainty is an An when it can catch him unawares; and hence the Ana destroy it relentlessly whenever it enters their dominion.

I have heard that when our forefathers first cleared this country, these monsters, and others like them, abounded, and, vril being then undiscovered, many of our race were devoured.

It was impossible to exterminate them wholly till that discovery which constitutes the power and sustains the civilisation of our race.

But after the uses of vril became familiar to us, all creatures inimical to us were soon annihilated.

Still, once a-year or so, one of these enormous creatures wanders from the unreclaimed and savage districts beyond, and within my memory one has seized upon a young Gy who was bathing in this very lake.