I wouldn't have missed
this for a world."
Suddenly the two priests began to pirouette, and as they whirled more and
more rapidly, their huge glowing eyes made phosphorescent circles in the
gloom like those that had so alarmed and fascinated us in the cavern.
They gyrated round the ring of worshipers with accelerated speed, and all
those poor creatures fell under the fascination and drooped with heads to
the ground. Now for the first time I caught sight of an oblong object
rising a couple of feet above the ground in the center of the circle. I
was wondering what it might be when the spinning priests, who had
gradually drawn closer to the ring of worshipers, dived into the circle,
and, catching each a native in his arms, ran with their captives to the
curious object that I have just described.
"It's a sacrificial stone!" exclaimed Edmund. "They're going to kill them
as an offering to the earth and her child the moon."
I was frozen with horror at the sight, but just as the second priest
reached the altar, where the first victim had already been pinned with
the sharp point of the sacrificial staff, his captive, suddenly
recovering his senses, and terrified by the awful fate confronting him,
uttered a cry, wrenched himself loose, and, running like the wind, leaped
over the circle and disappeared in the darkness.
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