Diamonds were found in great numbers about half-way between Ra-bydus and the mountains; and, as Ned had seen for himself, their gold-mine yielded them so plentiful a supply that the most ordinary utensils were fashioned from it. On the plains, which were well watered, dense herds of game roamed about. Ra-bydus was the only city of importance, although there were several villages scattered over the country. Queen Isori could call out an army of over a hundred thousand trained amazons. This, however, comprised the bulk of the female population; on ordinary occasions only the young warriors were kept constantly in arms. These seldom exceeded ten thousand, who were spread throughout the country in regiments. The training of these young amazons was exceedingly hard. From their birth they were constantly exercised like Spartans, until they reached the age of sixteen. From that age to twenty-five they were constantly in harness, and kept single. After this age they were allowed to marry and settle down. Pylea and her regiment were about the same age, having been enrolled together four years previously. They were then nineteen years of age, and had six years still before them of active service and enforced celibacy. Ned asked how the population had been kept within limits all these centuries, and was horrified at the reply. All decrepit and sickly children of both sexes were destroyed at birth. Every five years a census was taken, and judges sent round to weed out the surplus population. The victims were selected by the judges appointed, and ruthlessly destroyed by accompanying executioners. These executioners were appointed from the men, who found their opportunity then of indulging in their natural instinct of cruelty. Old age, on the male side, was no more respected than childhood, although the women were exempted from this wholesale massacre. When the husbands became shattered with their vices, they were strangled. When they grew too obnoxious to live with any longer, they were at once made into mummies. The women were the judges and sole arbitresses of their fate. There were no divorces in this wise and loveless community. If a woman wished to be released from one husband, she made herself a widow, and picked out a younger mate. As Pylea had remarked, they did not expect too much from the poor things, so completely at their discretion. They persuaded them to drink, eat, and smoke as they liked, until they were tired of them, then they gave the final wrench to their rope, and ended that domestic worry. It was a paradise for the fair sex, according to the modern ideas of the new womanhood. Also the ceremony of the mummy-case being drawn round the feasting halls was no empty or obsolete sign to the men. "Eat, drink, and enjoy yourselves, for tomorrow you die," was grimly significant to these degraded wretches.