The Valley of the Mountain Goddess

Deep in the tropical woods in the Western Ghats, the South Indian Mountain range, and close to the giant lake is the Valley of the Mountain Goddess. Surrounded by tall sheer cliffs, the valley is the abode of the fierce goddess of the tribes. Nobody, not even animals, would go any where near the valley. Elephants, however, are the lieutenants of the double headed, four armed blood-thirsty goddess to whom men and women used to be sacrificed. Sabu and Rajan, both twelve, while picnicking on a raft on the lake, are caught in a thunder storm and lose their way. They land near the dreaded valley. To save themselves from a herd of wild elephants, they climb up a small tree. The elephants smell their presence and attack the tree. They go down the sheer cliff face supporting themselves on a climber and finally find themselves to be prisoners in the valley steeped in legends and superstitions. They frantically search for a way out but cannot find any. During their wanderings in the valley they come across many strange and frightening sights like heaps of skulls and bones, a skeleton lying full length on a rock, and a cave cut into the cliff face and closed and padlocked. Now they dread the arrival of jungle thieves more than the fierce goddess herself. After a few weeks the jungle thieves arrive. The two boys hide themselves in a tree. It is too late when they realize that the four men were a search party looking for them and not a batch of robbers! They struggle to survive by trapping birds, stoning down rabbits and catching fish from the stream that ran through the valley. The two boys devise an ingenious method to escape from the valley. They make a long rope and tie it to the bough of a tall tree.