them by irrefutable omens that neither the day nor the hour was
suitable for the venture, I have already written. It is enough to assert
that a similar want of prudence was maintained on every occasion, and,
as a result, when actually within sight of the walls of this city, we
were involved for upwards of an hour in a very evilly-arranged yellow
darkness, which, had we but delayed for a day, as I strenuously advised
those in authority after consulting the Sacred Flat and Round Sticks, we
should certainly have avoided.

Concerning the real nature of the devices by which the ships are
propelled at sea and the carriages on land, I must still unroll a blank
mind until I can secretly, and without undue hazard, examine them more
closely. If, as you maintain, it is the work of captive demons hidden
away among their most inside parts, it must be admitted that these
usually intractable beings are admirably trained and controlled, and
I am wide-headed enough to think that in this respect we
might--not-withstanding our nine thousand years of civilised
refinement--learn something of the methods of these barbarians. The
secret, however, is jealously guarded, and they deny the existence of
any supernatural forces; but their protests may be ignored, for there
is undoubtedly a powerful demon used in a similar way by some of the
boldest of them, although its employment is unlawful. A certain kind of
chariot is used for the occupation of this demon, and those who wish
to invoke it conceal their faces within masks of terrifying design, and
cover their hands and bodies with specially prepared garments, without
which it would be fatal to encounter these very powerful spirits.
While yet among the habitations of men, and in crowded places, they are
constrained to use less powerful demons, which are lawful, but when
they reach the unfrequented paths they throw aside all restraint, and,
calling to their aid the forbidden spirit (which they do by secret
movements of the hands), they are carried forward by its agency at a
speed unattainable by merely human means. By day the demon looks forth
from three white eyes, which at night have a penetrating brilliance
equal to the fiercest glances of the Sacred Dragon in anger. If any
person incautiously stands in its way it utters a warning cry of
intolerable rage, and should the presumptuous one neglect to escape to
the roadside and there prostrate himself reverentially before it, it
seizes him by the bo