Afterwards they were carried to the places where the gems were found, stuck about in the clay, like plums in a pudding, though none ever sought them now.

But all these things interested the Asika not at all.
"What is the good of gold," she asked of Alan, "except to make things of, or the bright stones except to play with?
What is the good of anything except food to eat and power and wisdom that can open the secret doors of knowledge, of things seen and things unseen, and love that brings the lover joy and forgetfulness of self and takes away the awful loneliness of the soul, if only for a little while ?" Not wishing to drift into discussion on the matter of love, Alan asked the priestess to define her "soul," whence it came and whither she believed it to be going.
"My soul is I, Vernoon," she answered, "and already very, very old.

Thus it has ruled amongst this people for thousands of years." "How is that ?" he asked, "seeing that the Asika dies ?" "Oh! no, Vernoon, she does not die; she only changes.

The old body dies, the spirit enters into another body which is waiting.

Thus until I was fourteen I was but a common girl, the daughter of a headman of that village yonder, at least so they tell me, for of this time I have no memory.