and a large market-place, which they crossed as they ascended the hill,
and where, as they afterwards discovered, this people carried on their
trade, if trade it could be called, for they had no money, and conducted
all transactions like other savages, upon a principle of barter.

As they went Leonard took note of these things, which, to his mind,
showed clearly that the inhabitants of this city were the degenerate
inheritors of some ancient and forgotten civilisation. Their
fortifications, stone-built houses, drinking-shops, and markets
indicated this, just as their rude system of theology, with its
divinities of Light and Darkness, or of Death and Life, each springing
from the other, engaged in an eternal struggle, and yet one, was
probably the survival of some elaborate nature-myth of the early world.

But nothing struck him so much as the appearance of the people. In size
they were almost giants, a peculiarity which was shared by the
women, some of whom measured six feet in height. In common with other
uncivilised races most of these women were little except a girdle and a
goat-skin cloak that hung loosely upon their shoulders, displaying their
magnificent proportions somewhat freely. They were much handsomer than
the men, having splendid solemn eyes, very white teeth, and a remarkable
dignity of gait. Their faces, however, wore the same sombre look as
those of their husbands and brothers, and they did not chatter after
the manner of their sex, but contented themselves with pointing out the
peculiarities of the strangers in a few brief words to their children or
to one another.

After crossing the market-place the party came to a long and gentle
ascent, which terminated at a wall surrounding the lower of the two
great buildings that they had seen from the plain. Passing its gates