other than the grotesque and knotted men of her clan. With one of
these she must mate sooner or later that the direct line of high
priestesses might not be broken, unless Fate should bring other men
to Opar. Before Tarzan came upon his first visit, La had had no
thought that such men as he existed, for she knew only her hideous
little priests and the bulls of the tribe of great anthropoids
that had dwelt from time immemorial in and about Opar, until they
had come to be looked upon almost as equals by the Oparians. Among
the legends of Opar were tales of godlike men of the olden time
and of black men who had come more recently; but these latter had
been enemies who killed and robbed. And, too, these legends always
held forth the hope that some day that nameless continent from
which their race had sprung, would rise once more out of the sea and
with slaves at the long sweeps would send her carven, gold-picked
galleys forth to succor the long-exiled colonists.

The coming of Tarzan had aroused within La's breast the wild hope
that at last the fulfillment of this ancient prophecy was at hand;
but more strongly still had it aroused the hot fires of love in
a heart that never otherwise would have known the meaning of that
all-consuming passion, for such a wondrous creature as La could never
have felt love for any of the repulsive priests of Opar. Custom,
duty and religious zeal might have commanded the union; but there
could have been no love on La's part. She had grown to young
womanhood a cold and heartless creature, daughter of a thousand
other cold, heartless, beautiful women who had never known love.
And so when love came to her it liberated all the pent passions of
a thousand generations, transforming La into a pulsing, throbbing
volcano of desire, and with desire thwarted this great force of
love and gentleness and sacrifice was transmuted by its own fires