to-day) to come, after the dusk has fallen, and sit by the lake alone, and at this hour eight hundred slaves go down by steps through caverns into vaults beneath the lake.  Four hundred of them carrying purple lights march one behind the other, from east to west, and four hundred carrying green lights march one behind the other, from west to east.  The two lines cross and re-cross each other in and out as the slaves go round and round, and the fearful fish flash up and down and to and fro.’

But upon that traveller speaking night descended, solemn and cold, and we wrapped ourselves in our blankets and lay down upon the sand in the sight of the astral sisters of Babbulkund.  And all that night the desert said many things, softly and in a whisper, but I knew not what he said.  Only the sand knew and arose and was troubled and lay down again, and the wind knew.  Then, as the hours of the night went by, these two discovered the foot-tracks wherewith we had disturbed the holy desert, and they troubled over them and covered them up; and then the wind lay down and the sand rested.  Then the wind rose again and the sand danced.  This they did many times.  And all the while the desert whispered what I shall not know.

Then I slept awhile and awoke just before sunrise, very cold.  Suddenly the sun leapt up and flamed upon our faces; we all threw off our blankets and stood up.  Then we took food, and afterwards started southwards, and in the heat of the day rested, and afterwards pushed on again.  And all the while the desert remained the same, like a dream that will not cease to trouble a tired sleeper.

And often travellers passed us in the desert, coming from the City of Marvel, and there was a light and a glory in their eyes from having seen Babbulkund.  That evening, at sunset, another traveller neared us, and we hailed him, saying: 

’Wilt thou eat and drink with us, seeing that all men are brothers in the desert?’

And he descended from his camel and sat by us and said: 

’When morning shines on the colossus Neb and Neb speaks, at once the musicians of King Nehemoth in Babbulkund awake.

’At first their fingers wander over their golden harps, or they stroke idly their violins.  Clearer and clearer the note of each instrument ascends like larks arising from the dew, till suddenly they all blend together and a new melody is born.  Thus, every morning, the musicians of King Nehemoth make a new marvel in the City of Marvel; for these are no common musicians, but masters of melody, raided by conquest long since, and carried away in ships from the Isles of Song.  And, at the sound of the music, Nehemoth awakes in the eastern chamber of his palace, which is carved in the form of a great crescent, four miles long, on the northern side of the city.  Full in the windows of its eastern chamber the sun rises, and full in the windows of its western chamber the sun sets.