Then they
started, Jeekie accompanying them, and walked a long way through various
halls and passages, bearing first to the left and then to the right
again, till suddenly through some side door they emerged upon a
marvellous scene. The first impressions that reached Alan's mind were
those of a long stretch of water, very black and still and not more than
eighty feet in width. On the hither edge of this canal, seated upon a
raised dais in the midst of a great open space of polished rock, was
the Asika, or so he gathered from her gold breastplate and sparkling
garments, for her fierce and beautiful features were hid beneath an
object familiar enough to him, the yellow, crystal-eyed mask of Little
Bonsa. Arranged in companies about and behind her were hundreds of
people, male and female, clad in hideous costumes to resemble demons,
with masks to match. Some of these masks were semi-human and some of
them bore a likeness to the heads of animals and had horns on them,
while their wearers were adorned with skins and tails. To describe them
in their infinite variety would be impossible; indeed the recollection
that Alan carried away was one of a mediaeval hell as it is occasionally
to be found portrayed upon "Doom pictures" in old churches.
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