and stumbled over a loose
stone.

The people in the streets kept crowding round them as they went along,
but the Captain always dispersed the crowd before it grew uncomfortably
thick by saying--

'Children of the Sun God and their High Priest--come to bless the City.'

And then the people would draw back with a low murmur that sounded like
a suppressed cheer.

Many of the buildings were covered with gold, but the gold on the bigger
buildings was of a different colour, and they had sorts of steeples of
burnished silver rising above them.

'Are all these houses real gold?' asked Jane.

'The temples are covered with gold, of course,' answered the Captain,
'but the houses are only oricalchum. It's not quite so expensive.'

The learned gentleman, now very pale, stumbled along in a dazed way,
repeating:

'Oricalchum--oricalchum.'

'Don't be frightened,' said Anthea; 'we can get home in a minute, just
by holding up the charm. Would you rather go back now? We could easily
come some other day without you.'

'Oh, no, no,' he pleaded fervently; 'let the dream go on. Please, please
do.'

'The High Ji-jimmy is perhaps weary with his magic journey,' said the
Captain, noticing the blundering walk of the learned gentleman; 'and
we are yet very far from the Great Temple, where today the Kings make
sacrifice.'

He stopped at the gate of a great enclosure. It seemed to be a sort of
park, for trees showed high above its brazen wall.

The party waited, and almost at once the Captain came back with one of
the hairy elephants and begged them to mount.

This they did.

It was a glorious ride. The elephant at the Zoo--to ride on him is also
glorious, but he goes such a very little way, and then he goes back
again, which is always dull. But this great hairy beast went on and on
and on along streets and through squares and gardens. It was a glorious
city; almost everything was built of marble, red, or white, or black.
Every now and then the party crossed a bridge.

It was not till they had climbed to the hill which is the centre of the
town that they saw that the whole city was divided into twenty circles,
alternately land and water, and over each of the water circles were the
bridges by which they had come.

And now they were in a great square. A vast building filled up one side
of it; it was overlaid with gold, and had a dome of silver. The rest of
the buildings round the square were of oricalchum. And it looked more
spl