But Maqueda only shrugged her shoulders, causing the silver trimmings on her dress to tinkle.
"I have told you the ancient prophecy," she answered, "and for the rest words are not deeds.

If the foul fiend, Harmac, goes I think that the Fung will follow him.

Otherwise, why do they make sacrifice to Earthquake as the evil god they have to fear?
And when some five centuries ago, such an earthquake shook down part of the secret city in the bowels of the mountains that I will show to you afterwards, why did they fly from Mur and take up their abode in the plain, as they said, to protect the god ?" "I do not know," answered Oliver.

"If our brother were here, he whom the Fung have captured, he might know, being learned in the ways of idol-worshipping, savage peoples." "Alas! O Son of Orme," she said, "thanks to that traitor whom but now we have condemned, he is not here and, perhaps, could tell us nothing if he were.

At least, the saying runs as I have spoken it, and for many generations, because of it, we Abati have desired to destroy the idol of the Fung to which so many of us have been offered in sacrifice through the jaws of their sacred lions.