eres, where the Great God dwells. The King looked
down, and his castles and pleasure-houses appeared to him like hills
of earth and heaps of straw. And there the King remained for some
decades and thought no more of his kingdom.

Then the magician again invited the King to go traveling with him once
more. And in the place to which they came there was to be seen neither
sun nor moon above, nor rivers or sea below. The King's dazzled eyes
could not see the radiant shapes which showed themselves; the King's
dulled ears could not hear the sounds which played about them. It
seemed as though his body were dissolving in confusion; his thoughts
began to stray, and consciousness threatened to leave him. So he
begged the magician to return. The magician put his spell upon him,
and it seemed to the King as though he were falling into empty space.

When he regained consciousness, he was sitting at the same place where
he had been sitting when the magician had asked him to travel with him
for the first time. The servants waiting on him were the same, and
when he looked down, his goblet was not yet empty, and his food had
not yet grown cold.

The King asked what had happened. And the servants answered, "The King
sat for a space in silence." Whereupon the King was quite bereft of
reason, and it was three months before he regained his right mind.
Then he questioned the magician. The magician said: "I was traveling
with you in the spirit, O King! What need was there for the body to go
along? And the place in which we stayed at that time was no less real
than your own castle and your own gardens. But you are used only to
permanent conditions, therefore visions which dissolve so suddenly
appear strange to you."

The King was content with the explanation. He gave no further thought
to the business of government and took no more interest in his
servants, but resolved to travel afar. So he had the eight famous
steeds harnessed, and accompanied by a few faithful retainers, drove a
thousand miles away. There he came to the country of the great
hunters. The great hunters brought the King the blood of the white
brant to drink, and washed his feet in the milk of mares and cows.
When the King and his followers had quenched their thirst, they drove
on and camped for the night on the slope of the Kunlun Mountain, south
of the Red River. The next day they climbed to the peak of Kunlun
Mountain and gazed at the castle of the Lord of the Yellow Ear