The End . -LCB- Man with rock : p186.jpg -RCB- It was on a strange sight that the king and Ricardo looked down from the Flying Horse . Beneath them lay the City of Manoa , filling with its golden battlements and temples a hollow of the mountains . Here were palaces all carved over with faces of men and beasts , and with twisted patterns of serpents . The city walls were built of huge square stones , and among the groves towered pyramids , on which the people did service to their gods . From every temple top came the roar of beaten drums , great drums of serpentskin . But , in the centre of the chief square of the town , was gathered a wild crowd of men in shining copper armour and helmets of gold and glittering dresses of feathers . Among them ran about priests with hideous masks , crying them on to besiege and break down the royal palace . From the battlements of the palace the king 's guardsmen were firing arrows and throwing spears . The mob shot arrows back , some of them tipped with lighted straw , to burn the palace down . But , in the very centre of the square , was a clear space of ground , on which fell the shadow of a tall column of red stone , all carved with serpents and faces of gods . Beside it stood a figure horrible to see : a man clothed in serpent skins , whose face was the grinning face of a skull ; but the skull was shining black and red in patches , and a long white beard flowed from beneath it . This man , mounted on a kind of altar of red stone , waved his hand and yelled , and seemed to point to the shadow of the column which fell across the square . The people were so furious and so eager that they did not , at first , notice King Prigio as he slowly descended . But at last the eyes within the skull looked up and saw him , and then the man gave a great cry , rent his glittering dress of serpentskin , and held up his hands . Then all the multitude looked up , and seeing the Flying Horse , let their weapons fall ; and the man of the skull tore it from his face , and knelt before King Prigio , with his head in the dust . `` Thou hast come , oh , Pachacamac , as is foretold in the prophecy of the Cord of the Venerable Knots ! Thou hast come , but behold the shadow of the stone ! Thou art too late , oh Lord of the Earth and the Sea ! '' Then he pointed to the shadow , which , naturally , was growing shorter , as the sun drew near mid-day .
He spoke in the language of the ancient Incas of Peru , which XXXXX course Prigio knew very well ; and he also knew that Pachacamac was the god of that people .
Among Beneath From as before in near of that to