Heart of the World Volume 2

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ...something covered with a silken cloth. For a minute or more we remained silent, contemplating these wonders; then, with a gesture of impatience, Mattai spoke in a whisper, saying: "Let that be done which we have come to do, for now the sacrilege is committed and it is too late for doubts." Speaking thus, he stepped to the altar and lifted the silken cloth that lay over the object which was upon it, revealing the image of a human heart fashioned in bloodstone and veined with arteries of gold. In the centre of this heart appeared a small and shallow hole that had been hollowed in its substance. "This is the tradition," said Mattai, still speaking in a whisper, "that when the two halves of a certain talisman are placed in this hollow, the symbol will open and reveal that which has been set within it since it was fashioned by Cucumatz thousands of years ago, and there is this in favour of the truth of the tale that golden hinges appear upon the sides of the symbol. Now one-half of the talisman has rested here for many generations, till Zibalbay took it with him indeed, when he went out to seek for the other half, and yet the symbol has never opened; still, I am sure that it will open when the whole talisman is set in its place. In this matter, however, there is something more to fear than the vengeance of the gods, for, as I can read well--it is written in those letters that encircle the altar--an ancient tradition tells us that if the symbol be stirred from the place where it has lain for so many ages, the floodgate will roll back and the waters of the lake will pour in upon the city, destroying it and its inhabitants." "Yet the flood-gate cannot roll back when it is not shut, nor can the waters flow...