Angels and Women (1924)

GREATER CHANGE 107
men, who attend the great serpent, and
offer the sacrifice upon which he and his
brood are fed every day at noon."
I cast another timid glance at the procession.
Their proud, cruel and unrelenting
faces occasionally turned toward a line of
naked men, who tottered after them with
feet hampered by heavy chains and hands
bound behind their backs; their heads were
bowed; their mournful wail betokened fear
and despair.
"These," said Minerva, "are victims about
to be slain at the Lake of Serpents, receiving
punishment perchance for some slight
offense to our masters, or without pretext
sacrificed in malignant wantonness to satisfy
the clamor of the superstitious and imbruted
crowd."
Appalled at the sight of such monstrous
cruelty, I arose in great fear, and hastened
to the solitude of my own apartment lest I
should witness some other horror.
Toward evening I was aroused by the