d one of them, "it must be elephant-juice! It makes me
so strong!"

We set out, the Lady of Sorrow walking with us, more beautiful than the
sun, and the white leopardess following her. I thought she meant but to
put us in the path across the channels, but I soon found she was going
with us all the way. Then I would have dismounted that she might ride,
but she would not let me.

"I have no burden to carry," she said. "The children and I will walk
together."

It was the loveliest of mornings; the sun shone his brightest, and the
wind blew his sweetest, but they did not comfort the desert, for it had
no water.

We crossed the channels without difficulty, the children gamboling about
Mara all the way, but did not reach the top of the ridge over the bad
burrow until the sun was already in the act of disappearing. Then I made
the Little Ones mount their elephants, for the moon might be late, and I
could not help some anxiety about them.

The Lady of Sorrow now led the way by my side; the elephants
followed--the two that bore the princess in the centre; the leopardess
brought up the rear; and just as we reached the frightful margin, the
moon looked up and showed the shallow basin lying before us untroubled.
Mara stepped into it; not a movement answered her tread or the feet
of my horse. But the moment that the elephants carrying the princess
touched it, the seemingly solid earth began to heave and boil, and the
whole dread brood of the hellish nest was commoved. Monsters uprose on
all sides, every neck at full length, every beak and claw outstretched,
every mouth agape. Long-billed heads, horribly jawed faces, knotty
tentacles innumerable, went out after Lilith. She lay in an agony of
fear, nor dared stir a finger. Whether the hideous things even saw the
children, I doubt; certainly not one of them touched a child; not one
loathly member passed the live rampart of her body-guard, to lay hold of
her.

"Little Ones," I cried, "keep your elephants close about the princess.
Be brave; they will not touch you."

"What will not touch us? We don't know what to be brave at!" they
answered; and I perceived they were unaware of one of the deformities
around them.

"Never mind then," I returned; "only keep close."

They were panoplied in their blindness! Incapacity to see was their
safety. What they could nowise be aware of, could not hurt them.

But the hideous forms I saw that night! Mara was a few paces in front
of me whe