Go then to him--unafraid." Cherkis?
There was a familiar sound to that.

Cherkis?
Of course--it was the name of Xerxes, the Persian Conqueror, corrupted by time into this--Cherkis.

And Iskander?
Equally, of course--Alexander.

Ventnor had been right.
"Yuruk," I demanded directly, "is she whom you call goddess--Norhala--of the people of Cherkis ?" "Long ago," he answered; "long, long ago there was trouble in their city, even in the great dwelling place of Cherkis.

I fled with her who was the mother of the goddess.