In the Egyptian and Jewish religions, three vestal virgins guard the ark, typical of the Immaculate conception—in that the ark contains an aerolite, or Heaven-born stone. In Greek mythology, the three graces guard the sacred urn. The name Suravia signified the sun-way, or river of light; Alcyesta, the ark, chest, or urn floating on the celestial river; while Mineola, personated the divine soul-mind liberated in the ark. The flint-headed arrow is a phallic symbol of thought, and when the Monbas shot arrows over water it was to destroy their unseen enemies; the lake, to them, representing mind. The passage of the sun out of the watery sign in the Spring equinox was the festival Kerœcia and her people were celebrating. CHAPTER SIX THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE THEIR SEVERAL DIFFERENCES It was Jupiter’s Day (Thursday), and Akaza wore a scarlet robe of silk, with embroidered bands, having the twelve signs of the zodiac worked out in neutral tones of brown and green. On his head was a scarlet liberty-cap with the sign of Jupiter on the forehead and his long hair and beard had been curled into nine parts, typical of the nine phases of initiation which he had passed. He wore a sapphire ring on the middle finger of his right hand, and his breastplate was of emeralds, set in silver. With a single tamane and a guide, Akaza followed the course of the Merced River and reveled in the luxuriant vegetation which changes in character and development according to locality. Near the falls were dense growths of alder, willow and spruce, and in the upper valley were sugar-pine and yellow and bastard cedar in abundance. The Balm of Gilead, poplar and black oak haunted the swampy places where snowy pond-lilies rode in imperious fashion over the moisture. There was a wilderness of sparkling mosses thriving in the spray of waterfall and cascade. Back in cool, shady greeneries, were an infinite variety of ferns, ranging from tall bracken to feathery maidenhair clinging to the eerie crevices high up on the sky line. Maple, laurel, and manzanita with dainty bell-shaped blossoms colored like a baby’s palm, had as companion another member of the buck-thorn family, the white lilac. And these seemed intent upon concealing the basis of the different falls. Here, also, was the madrono, “the harlequin of the woods,” in buff and red bark, in a chronic state of dishabille. But who would find fault with the toilet process which changes the older, darker bark for the delicate cream-colored covering which lies underneath? A noisy, chattering bluejay, the scandal-monger of the bird family, protested vigorously against the incursion of this venerable old man. Vociferous and argumentative, the feathered opponent grew tired of useless opposition, and, as a practical joke, concealed itself in the clump of leaves and screamed like a hawk near where a flock of small birds were enjoying themselves in their own fashion.