’When it was noon they opened the gate, and as we entered in the people came crowding out of the houses to look at us, and a crier went round the city crying through a shell.  We stood in the market-place, and the negroes uncorded the bales of figured cloths and opened the carved chests of sycamore.  And when they had ended their task, the merchants set forth their strange wares, the waxed linen from Egypt and the painted linen from the country of the Ethiops, the purple sponges from Tyre and the blue hangings from Sidon, the cups of cold amber and the fine vessels of glass and the curious vessels of burnt clay.  From the roof of a house a company of women watched us.  One of them wore a mask of gilded leather.

’And on the first day the priests came and bartered with us, and on the second day came the nobles, and on the third day came the craftsmen and the slaves.  And this is their custom with all merchants as long as they tarry in the city.

’And we tarried for a moon, and when the moon was waning, I wearied and wandered away through the streets of the city and came to the garden of its god.  The priests in their yellow robes moved silently through the green trees, and on a pavement of black marble stood the rose-red house in which the god had his dwelling.  Its doors were of powdered lacquer, and bulls and peacocks were wrought on them in raised and polished gold.  The tilted roof was of sea-green porcelain, and the jutting eaves were festooned with little bells.  When the white doves flew past, they struck the bells with their wings and made them tinkle.

’In front of the temple was a pool of clear water paved with veined onyx.  I lay down beside it, and with my pale fingers I touched the broad leaves.  One of the priests came towards me and stood behind me.  He had sandals on his feet, one of soft serpent-skin and the other of birds’ plumage.  On his head was a mitre of black felt decorated with silver crescents.  Seven yellows were woven into his robe, and his frizzed hair was stained with antimony.

’After a little while he spake to me, and asked me my desire.

’I told him that my desire was to see the god.’—­The Fisherman and His Soul.

THE BLACKMAILING OF THE EMPEROR

’As soon as the man was dead the Emperor turned to me, and when he had wiped away the bright sweat from his brow with a little napkin of purfled and purple silk, he said to me, “Art thou a prophet, that I may not harm thee, or the son of a prophet, that I can do thee no hurt?  I pray thee leave my city to-night, for while thou art in it I am no longer its lord.”

’And I answered him, “I will go for half of thy treasure.  Give me half of thy treasure, and I will go away.”

’He took me by the hand, and led me out into the garden.  When the captain of the guard saw me, he wondered.  When the eunuchs saw me, their knees shook and they fell upon the ground in fear.