He shook his head.
"In Papua," I explained, "there is a wide-spread and immeasurably old tradition that 'imprisoned under the hills' is a race of giants who once ruled this region 'when it stretched from sun to sun before the moon god drew the waters over it'-- I quote from the legend.

Not only in Papua but throughout Malaysia you find this story.

And, so the tradition runs, these people--the Chamats--will one day break through the hills and rule the world; 'make over the world' is the literal translation of the constant phrase in the tale.

It was Herbert Spencer who pointed out that there is a basis of fact in every myth and legend of man.

It is possible that these survivors I am discussing form Spencer's fact basis for the Malaysian legend.[1] "This much is sure--the moon door, which is clearly operated by the action of moon rays upon some unknown element or combination and the crystals through which the moon rays pour down upon the pool their prismatic columns, are humanly made mechanisms.