I dashed aside their cups, and flowers; still rang the vale with Yillah!

“Taji! did I know her fate, naught would I now disclose; my heralds pledged their queen to naught.  Thou but comest here to supplant thy mourner’s night-shade, with marriage roses.  Damsels! give him wreaths; crowd round him; press him with your cups!”

Once more I spilled their wine, and tore their garlands.  Is not that, the evil eye that long ago did haunt me? and thou, the Hautia who hast followed me, and wooed, and mocked, and tempted me, through all this long, long voyage?  I swear! thou knowest all.”

“I am Hautia.  Thou hast come at last.  Crown him with your flowers!  Drown him in your wine!  To all questions, Taji!  I am mute.—­Away!—­ damsels dance; reel round him; round and round!”

Then, their feet made music on the rippling grass, like thousand leaves of lilies on a lake.  And, gliding nearer, Hautia welcomed Media; and said, “Your comrade here is sad:—­be ye gay.  Ho, wine!—­I pledge ye, guests!”

Then, marking all, I thought to seem what I was not, that I might learn at last the thing I sought.

So, three cups in hand I held; drank wine, and laughed; and half-way met Queen Hautia’s blandishments.

CHAPTER LXXXIX They Enter The Bower Of Hautia

Conducted to the arbor, from which the queen had emerged, we came to a sweet-brier bower within; and reclined upon odorous mats.

Then, in citron cups, sherbet of tamarinds was offered to Media, Mohi, Yoomy; to me, a nautilus shell, brimmed with a light-like fluid, that welled, and welled like a fount.

“Quaff, Taji, quaff! every drop drowns a thought!”

Like a blood-freshet, it ran through my veins.

A philter?—­How Hautia burned before me!  Glorious queen! with all the radiance, lighting up the equatorial night.

“Thou art most magical, oh queen! about thee a thousand constellations cluster.”

“They blaze to burn,” whispered Mohi.

“I see ten million Hautias!—­all space reflects her, as a mirror.”

Then, in reels, the damsels once more mazed, the blossoms shaking from their brows; till Hautia, glided near; arms lustrous as rainbows:  chanting some wild invocation.

My soul ebbed out; Yillah there was none! but as I turned round open-armed, Hautia vanished.

“She is deeper than the sea,” said Media.

“Her bow is bent,” said Yoomy.

“I could tell wonders of Hautia and her damsels,” said Mohi.

“What wonders?”

“Listen; and in his own words will I recount the adventure of the youth Ozonna.  It will show thee, Taji, that the maidens of Hautia are all Yillahs, held captive, unknown to themselves; and that Hautia, their enchantress, is the most treacherous of queens.