The trail over which Ta-den and Om-at led and which scarcely could be dignified even by the name of trail was suited more to mountain sheep, monkeys, or birds than to man; but the three that followed it were trained to ways which no ordinary man might essay.Now, upon the lower slopes, it led through dense forests where the ground was so matted with fallen trees and over-rioting vines and brush that the way held always to the swaying branches high above the tangle; again it skirted yawning gorges whose slippery-faced rocks gave but momentary foothold even to the bare feet that lightly touched them as the three leaped chamois-like from one precarious foothold to the next.Dizzy and terrifying was the way that Om-at chose across the summit as he led them around the shoulder of a towering crag that rose a sheer two thousand feet of perpendicular rock above a tumbling river.And when at last they stood upon comparatively level ground again Om-at turned and looked at them both intently and especially at Tarzan of the Apes.
"You will both do," he said."You are fit companions for Om-at, the Waz-don."
"What do you mean?" asked Tarzan.
"I brought you this way," replied the black, "to learn if either lacked the courage to follow where Om-at led.It is here that the young warriors of Es-sat come to prove their courage.And yet, though we are born and raised upon cliff sides, it is considered no disgrace to admit that Pastar-ul-ved, the Father of Mountains, has defeated us, for of those who try it only a few succeed--the bones of the others lie at the feet of Pastar-ul-ved."
Ta-den laughed."I would not care to come this way often," he said.
"No," replied Om-at; "but it has shortened our journey by at least a full day.So much the sooner shall Tarzan look upon the Valley of Jad-ben-Otho.Come!" and he led the way upward along the shoulder of Pastar-ul-ved until there lay spread below them a scene of mystery and of beauty--a green valley girt by towering cliffs of marble whiteness--a green valley dotted by deep blue lakes and crossed by the blue trail of a winding river.In the center a city of the whiteness of the marble cliffs--a city which even at so great a distance evidenced a strange, yet artistic architecture.Outside the city there were visible about the valley isolated groups of buildings--sometimes one, again two and three and four in a cluster--but always of the same glaring whiteness, and always in some fantastic form.
About the valley the cliffs were occasionally cleft by deep gorges, verdure filled, giving the appearance of green rivers rioting downward toward a central sea of green.
"Jad Pele ul Jad-ben-Otho," murmured Tarzan in the tongue of the pithecanthropi; "The Valley of the Great God--it is beautiful!"
"Here, in A-lur, lives Ko-tan, the king, ruler over all Pal-ul-don," said Ta-den.
"And here in these gorges live the Waz-don," exclaimed Om-at, "who do not acknowledge that Ko-tan is the ruler over all the Land-of-man."