and stamp" 129

He felt a sudden darkness above his head, and a cold terror
crept over his skin 132

With sticks and staves and flaring torches they turned on the
fierce birds that came sweeping and swirling out of the dark 189

"What is it, brother? Why do you crouch and stare?" 218

"For there stood as if frozen in the moonlight the monstrous
silver-haired Meermuts of Mulgarmeerez, guarding the
enchanted orchards of Tishnar" 224

They feasted on fruits they never before had tasted nor
knew to grow on earth 232

A Mulgar of a presence and a strangeness, who was without
doubt of the Kingdom of Assasimmon 274

THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS

[Illustration]

CHAPTER I

On the borders of the Forest of Munza-mulgar lived once an old grey
fruit-monkey of the name of Mutt-matutta. She had three sons, the eldest
Thumma, the next Thimbulla, and the youngest, who was a Nizza-neela,
Ummanodda. And they called each other for short, Thumb, Thimble, and
Nod. The rickety, tumble-down old wooden hut in which they lived had
been built 319 Munza years before by a traveller, a Portugall or
Portingal, lost in the forest 22,997 leagues from home. After he was
dead, there came scrambling along on his fours one peaceful evening a
Mulgar (or, as we say in English, a monkey) named Zebbah. At first sight
of the hut he held his head on one side awhile, and stood quite still,
listening, his broad-nosed face lit up in the blaze of the setting sun.
He then hobbled a little nearer, and peeped into the hut. Whereupon he
hobbled away a little, but soon came back and peeped again. At last he
ventured near, and, pushing back the tangle of creepers and matted
grasses, groped through the door and went in. And there, in a dark
corner, lay the Portingal's little heap of bones.

The hut was dry as tinder. It had in it a broken fire-stone, a kind of
chest or cupboard, a table, and a stool, both rough and insect-bitten,
but still strong. Zebbah sniffed and grunted, and pushed and peered
about. And he found all manner of strange and precious stuff half buried
in the hut--pots for Subbub; pestles and basins for Manaka-cake, etc.;
three bags of great beads, clear, blue, and emerald; an old rusty
musk