hen the day dawned, rosy and effulgent, I beheld the green shore of
far lands, bright and beautiful, and to me unknown. Up from the sea rose
lordly terraces of verdure, tree-studded, and shewing here and there the
gleaming white roofs and colonnades of strange temples. As we drew
nearer the green shore the bearded man told me of that land, the Land of
Zar, where dwell all the dreams and thoughts of beauty that come to men
once and then are forgotten. And when I looked upon the terraces again I
saw that what he said was true, for among the sights before me were many
things I had once seen through the mists beyond the horizon in the
phosphorescent depths of ocean. There too were forms and fantasies more
splendid than I had ever known; the visions of young poets who died in
want before the world could learn of what they had seen and dreamed. But
we did not set foot upon the sloping meadows of Zar, for it is told that
he who treads them may nevermore return to his native shore.

As the White Ship sailed silently away from the templed terraces of Zar,
we beheld on the distant horizon ahead the spires of a mighty city; and
the bearded man said to me, "This is Thalarion, the City of a Thousand
Wonders, wherein reside all those mysteries that man has striven in vain
to fathom." And I looked again, at closer range, and saw that the city
was greater than any city I had known or dreamed of before. Into the sky
the spires of its temples reached, so that no man might behold their
peaks; and far back beyond the horizon stretched the grim, grey walls,
over which one might spy only a few roofs, weird and ominous, yet
adorned with rich friezes and alluring sculptures. I yearned mightily to
enter this fascinating yet repellent city, and beseeched the bearded man
to land me at the stone pier by the huge carven gate Akariel; but he
gently denied my wish, saying, "Into Thalarion, the City of a Thousand
Wonders, many have passed but none returned. Therein walk only daemons
and mad things that are no longer men, and the streets are white with
the unburied bones of those who have looked upon the eidolon Lathi, that
reigns over the city." So the White Ship sailed on past the walls of
Thalarion, and followed for many days a southward-flying bird, whose
glossy plumage matched the sky out of which it had appeared.

Then came we to a pleasant coast gay with blossoms of every hue, where
as far inland as we could see basked lovely groves and radiant a