Never had he seen so much gold before.
"You are rich here, Lady," he said, gazing at the piles astonished.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Yes, as I have heard that some people count
wealth. These are the offerings brought to our gods from the beginning;
also all the gold found in the mountains belongs to the gods, and there
is much of it there. The gift I sent to you was taken from this heap,
but in truth it is but a poor gift, seeing that although this stuff is
bright and serves for cups and other things, it has no use at all and
is only offered to the gods because it is harder to come by than other
metals. Look, these are prettier than the gold," and from a stone table
she picked up at hazard a long necklace of large, uncut stones, red and
white in colour and set alternatively, that Alan judged to be crystals
and spinels.
"Take it," she said, "and examine it at your leisure. It is very old.
For hundreds of years no more of these necklaces have been made," and
with a careless movement she threw the chain over his head so that it
hung upon his shoulders.
Alan thanked her, then remembered that the man called Mungana, who was
the husband, real or official, of this priestess, had been somewhat
similarly adorned, and shivered a little as though at a presage of
advancing fate.
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