"Nay, I know not," I said; "it seems that the world is very old."

"Old? Yes, it is old indeed. Time after time have nations, ay, and rich
and strong nations, learned in the arts, been and passed away and
been forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This is but one of
several; for Time eats up the works of man, unless, indeed, he digs in
caves like the people of Kôr, and then mayhap the sea swallows them, or
the earthquake shakes them in. Who knows what hath been on the earth, or
what shall be? There is no new thing under the sun, as the wise Hebrew
wrote long ago. Yet were not these people utterly destroyed, as I think.
Some few remained in the other cities, for their cities were many. But
the barbarians from the south, or perchance my people, the Arabs,
came down upon them, and took their women to wife, and the race of the
Amahagger that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of Kôr, and
behold it dwelleth in the tombs with its fathers' bones.[*] But I know
not: who can know? My arts cannot pierce so far into the blackness of
Time's night. A great people were they. They conquered till none were
left to conquer, and then they dwelt at ease within their rocky mountain
walls, with their man servants and their maid servants, their minstrels,
their sculptors, and their concubines, and traded and quarrelled, and
ate and hunted and slept and made merry till their time came. But come,
I will show thee the great pit beneath the cave whereof the writing
speaks. Never shall thine eyes witness such another sight."

[*] The name of the race Ama-hagger would seem to indicate a
curious mingling of races such as might easily have occurred
in the neighbourhood of the Zambesi. The prefix "Ama" is
common to the Zulu and kindred races, and signifies
"people," while "hagger" is an Arabic word meaning a stone.
--Editor.