of his pavilion with the gold tassels, and there we talked for awhile, he telling me that he was taking merchandise to Perdondaris, and that he would take back to fair Belzoond things appertaining to the affairs of the sea.  Then, as I watched through the pavilion’s opening the brilliant birds and butterflies that crossed and recrossed over the river, I fell asleep, and dreamed that I was a monarch entering his capital underneath arches of flags, and all the musicians of the world were there, playing melodiously their instruments; but no one cheered.

In the afternoon, as the day grew cooler again, I awoke and found the captain buckling on his scimitar, which he had taken off him while he rested.

And now we were approaching the wide court of Astahahn, which opens upon the river.  Strange boats of antique design were chained there to the steps.  As we neared it we saw the open marble court, on three sides of which stood the city fronting on colonnades.  And in the court and along the colonnades the people of that city walked with solemnity and care according to the rites of ancient ceremony.  All in that city was of ancient device; the carving on the houses, which, when age had broken it, remained unrepaired, was of the remotest times, and everywhere were represented in stone beasts that have long since passed away from Earth—­the dragon, the griffin, and the hippogriffin, and the different species of gargoyle.  Nothing was to be found, whether material or custom, that was new in Astahahn.  Now they took no notice at all of us as we went by, but continued their processions and ceremonies in the ancient city, and the sailors, knowing their custom, took no notice of them.  But I called, as we came near, to one who stood beside the water’s edge, asking him what men did in Astahahn and what their merchandise was, and with whom they traded.  He said, ’Here we have fettered and manacled Time, who would otherwise slay the gods.’

I asked him what gods they worshipped in that city, and he said, ’All those gods whom Time has not yet slain.’  Then he turned from me and would say no more, but busied himself in behaving in accordance with ancient custom.  And so, according to the will of Yann, we drifted onwards and left Astahahn.

The river widened below Astahahn, and we found in greater quantities such birds as prey on fishes.  And they were very wonderful in their plumage, and they came not out of the jungle, but flew, with their long necks stretched out before them, and their legs lying on the wind behind, straight up the river over the mid-stream.

And now the evening began to gather in.  A thick white mist had appeared over the river, and was softly rising higher.  It clutched at the trees with long impalpable arms, it rose higher and higher, chilling the air; and white shapes moved away into the jungle as though the ghosts of shipwrecked mariners were searching stealthily in the darkness for the spirits of evil that long ago had wrecked them on the Yann.