Edgar Rice Burroughs

Pellucidar Edgar Rice Burroughs

We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry told me all that had befallenhim since I had departed for the outer crust. It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left Dian behind, andthat I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told them that I was of anotherworld and that I had tired of this and of its inhabitants. To Dian he had explained that I had a mate in the world to which I was returning; that Ihad never intended taking Dian the Beautiful back with me; and that she had seen the lastof me. Shortly afterward Dian had disappeared from the camp, nor had Perry seen or heardaught of her since. He had no conception of the time that had elapsed since I had departed, but guessedthat many years had dragged their slow way into the past. Hooja, too, had disappeared very soon after Dian had left. The Sarians, under Ghak theHairy One, and the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian's brother, had fallen outover my supposed defection, for Ghak would not believe that I had thus treacherouslydeceived and deserted them. The result had been that these two powerful tribes had fallen upon one another withthe new weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of thenew federation took sides with the original disputants or set up petty revolutions of theirown. The result was the total demolition of the work we had so well started. Taking advantage of the tribal war, the Mahars had gathered their Sagoths in force andfallen upon one tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc among themand reducing them for the most part to as pitiable a state of terror as that from which wehad raised them. Alone of all the once-mighty federation the Sarians and the Amozites with a few othertribes continued to maintain their defiance of the Mahars; but these tribes were stilldivided among themselves, nor had it seemed at all probable to Perry when he had lastbeen among them that any attempt at re-amalgamation would be made.