“Look! Ca-ta-pha! God has come… Ca-ta-pha… God!” Kotikokura exclaimed.

The men howled: “Ca-ta-pha! Ca-ta-pha! God!”

They rolled upon the ground, struck one another’s back; several turned somersaults.

Weary of their infernal vociferation, I ordered them to stand aside, silent, while I discussed with their spiritual ruler, what means to take against the terrible Queen who violated the customs of the tribe by her refusal to sleep for eight days with the corpse of her chief male concubine, and who desecrated my holy house.

“Kotikokura, how did you disappear? Where have you been, Kotikokura, my friend,—my brother?”

Kotikokura growled and chattered inarticulate sounds. He danced about me, embraced me, kissed my hands, kissed the camel’s nose. His tiara, tilted now to one side, now to the other. A hundred years of civilization had fallen off him like a scab, and he resembled, for the moment, his aboriginal self.

The others, unable to restrain themselves, and besides, seeing Kotikokura’s jubilation, began to dance. They made a large circle about me, and jumped, their legs reaching their chins. Two of them beat the iron kettle and sang hymns to my glory. The parrot screeched from time to time my name, to which they never failed to answer. Exhausted, finally, they dropped upon their hands, growling quietly.

“Who is this Queen, Kotikokura?” I asked, my voice trembling a little.

“Salome.”

I had expected to hear the word, and yet, it almost gave me the vertigo. I grasped Kotikokura’s arm to steady myself.

“Salome wants to be God in place of Ca-ta-pha. She must die.”

“Do you forget, Kotikokura, that she cannot die?”

He scratched his nose violently.

“She is one of us, Kotikokura, whatever she may do.”

He shook his head.

“Yes, yes, Kotikokura. Besides, is not Ca-ta-pha here? Shall not he bring justice? Is he not God?”

“Ca-ta-pha—God always.”

I realized that if I did not act quickly, my enraged people would attack Salome. They must not mar her incomparable perfection!

“Hearken, my people!”

All knelt.

“By the sacred Parrot, let no one touch the Queen! Ca-ta-pha your God, will destroy her himself.”

“Carr-tarr-pharr…” the parrot screeched.

“Ca-ta-pha,” the people echoed.

“Rise and follow me!”

I mounted the camel. Kotikokura preceded me, the rest followed. The women who watched the gate of the city, tall creatures, hipless and breastless, seeing us, threw their spears to the ground, and ran, shrieking: “Ca-ta-phal Ca-ta-pha! Ca-ta-pha!”

As we proceeded, men and women prostrated themselves before us, shouting my name.

When enough had gathered together, I stopped.

“Hearken, ye women! Ca-ta-pha has come to chastise you.”

“We deserve it! We deserve it!”

“You have been unkind and unjust to your men.”

“We have been unkind and unjust.”

“I could no longer endure your ways, and I have come to punish you.”

“Ca-ta-pha will punish us!”

I remained silent for a while. The women sobbed: “Woe is us! Woe is us!”

“But Ca-ta-pha is a kind God.”

“Ca-ta-pha is a kind God.”

“I shall have mercy on you.”

“Ca-ta-pha shall have mercy on us. May his name be praised forever!”

“I shall neither broil you on spits, nor chop your heads off with a hatchet, nor shall I inflict upon you the tortures which you have inflicted upon your men.”

“Ca-ta-pha will not kill us! He will not torture us!”

“Hearken and obey!”

“We hearken and obey.”

“I have created man in my image, and I created woman to be his servant. Have not your High Priests and your elders told you this?”

“Yes! Yes!”

“Therefore man cracks the whip and woman obeys.”

“Man cracks the whip and woman obeys.”

“Deliver unto your men all weapons and kneel before them.”

“We shall deliver unto our men all weapons and kneel before them.”

“The chief of the men shall be the chief of the tribe.”

“He shall be the chief of the tribe.”

“So long as you obey man, and worship me, you shall not perish, neither shall you suffer.”

“Ca-ta-pha is a merciful god.”

“As for your Queen, touch not one hair of her head, but leave her to the wrath and vengeance of Ca-ta-pha and the Holy Camel.”

“We shall leave her to the wrath and vengeance of Ca-ta-pha and the Holy Camel.”

Turning to the men, I said: “Hearken, all ye men! Your High Priest I shall take with me to Heaven.”

“Happy High Priest!”

“Choose the next one in rank among your priests, to be my vicar on earth.”

“We obey, Ca-ta-pha.”

“Take possession of your rights then, O men! Accept your masters, O women! Thus you shall be strong and mighty always, and you shall multiply as the sands of the sea, and conquer all nations. Ca-ta-pha shall watch over you forever.”

The women, taller and stronger than the men, but awed by my words, knelt, and the new masters placed their feet upon their necks, pronouncing pompously: “Slaves!” A man, with large hips, small beardless face, and much bejeweled, waved a fist at his late mistress, who towered over him. Obey! Or you shall feel my lash!”

She bowed her head submissively.

Another, more arrogant still, pulled his woman’s hair, commanding: “Slaughter a lamb for me, and broil it!”

“Master,” she answered, “how is it done?”

“How is it done? Learn! You have lazied long enough.”

“Yes, master.”

“And mind you, if you do not prepare it to suit my teeth, prepare your hide to suit my whip.”

Yes, master.”

Delighted, the men laughed and danced. Children were pushed disdainfully toward the women. “Take care of your brats!”

The latter, weeping, hid their faces in their mothers’ unlovely laps.

“Stop weeping there!”

“Sh-h!” the women repeated, “Your fathers do not like noise.”

Their voices were deep and heavy, and ill-suited for tender consolation. Kotikokura and I rode to the residence of the Queen.

The palace was unguarded. I asked Kotikokura to remain outside, and await my orders.

Salome was sitting upon her throne, in the fantastic garments of savage royalty. She was alone. She had not changed since our meeting in Persia. I bowed and remained silent.

“Ca-ta-pha, you have won!”

“I come to save you from serious discomfiture.”

“I know. I am grateful to you.”

“Your people are enraged at you. You must not remain here another moment.”

“I know. I expected you.”

“You expected me?”

“Yes.”

“You anticipated my thoughts in Persia, but how could you prognosticate my arrival?”

“It is easy to read a man’s thoughts, and to guess his moods.”

“Easy?”

“Of course. And don’t forget that a woman, too, may learn something in India…”

“I do not forget that Salome is incomparable.”

She smiled. “Cartaphilus, too, is incomparable.”

I kissed her hands. “Shall we go?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Kotikokura will come with us.”

“Of course,” she said, a little annoyed.

“Has he been a source of displeasure to you?”

“He was too faithful to you!”

“He is as a brother to me.”

“No brother is half so faithful.”

“Kotikokura,” I called.

He came in.

“Kneel before Salome, she is your mistress while she remains with us.”

He knelt. Salome bade him rise, and gave him her hand to kiss.

“We shall leave by my secret exit, Cartaphilus, which leads to a road unknown even to Kotikokura. Three camels are waiting for us behind a cluster of trees.”

“And my parrot, who has been screeching ‘Carr-tarr-pharr’…ever since I entered the palace?”

“The Sacred Parrot can remain here, to remind the people of Catapha.” She laughed a little sarcastically.

“Is Ca-ta-pha inferior to other gods?” I asked.

“Few in the profession are his superiors,” she answered.