And Talib and his party go on still farther, and find “the City of Brass,” a weird, mysterious, lost city, in a desolate land; silent, and all its people dead; a city once of high civilization, with mighty, brazen walls and vast machinery and great mysteries; a city whose inhabitants had perished suddenly in some great calamity.  And on the walls were tablets, and on one of them were inscribed these solemn words: 

“’Where are the kings and the peoples of the earth?  They have quitted that which they have built and peopled.  And in the grave they are pledged for their past actions.  There, after destruction, they have become putrid corpses.  Where are the troops?  They repelled not nor profited.  And where is that which they collected and boarded?  The decree of the Lord of the Throne surprised them.  Neither riches nor refuge saved them from it.’

“And they saw the merchants dead in their shops; their skins were dried, and their bones were carious, and they had become examples to him who would be admonished.”

Everywhere were the dead, “lying upon skins, and appearing almost as if they would speak.”

Their death seems to have been due to a long period of terrible heat and drought.

On a couch was a damsel more beautiful than all the daughters of Adam; she was embalmed, so as to preserve all her charms.  Her eyes were of glass, filled with quick

{p. 274}

silver, which seemed to follow the beholder’s every motion.  Near her was a tablet of gold, on which was inscribed: 

“In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful.... the Lord of lords, the Cause of causes; the Everlasting, the Eternal. . . .  Where are the kings of the regions of the earth” Where are the Amalekites?  Where are the mighty monarchs?  The mansions are void of their presence, and they have quitted their families and homes.  Where are the kings of the foreigners and the Arabs?  They have all died and become rotten bones.  Where are the lords of high degree?  They have all died.  Where are Korah and Haman?  Where is Sheddad, the son of Add?  Where are Canaan and Pharaoh?  God hath cut them off, and it is he who cutteth short the lives of mankind, and he hath made the mansions to be void for their presence. . . .  I am Tadmor, the daughter of the king of the Amalekites, of those who ruled the countries with equity:  I possessed what none of the kings possessed,” (i. e., in extent of dominion,) “and ruled with justice, and acted impartially toward my subjects; I gave and bestowed; and I lived a longtime in the enjoyment of happiness and an easy life, and emancipated both female and male slaves.  Thus I did until the summoner of death came, and disasters occurred before me.  And the cause was this:  Seven years in succession came upon us, during which no water descended on us from heaven, nor did any grass grow for us on the face of the earth.  So we ate what food we had in our dwellings, and after