air with the gay flowers and
singing birds only made it sadder. They seemed a mockery.

[Illustration: "Miles away in the river lay the _Zlotuhb_, a white
speck on the water."]

We have encamped for the night, and I can write no more. Countless
flying insects gather about us with a hateful buzz, and bite us beyond
endurance. They are a pest thrice accursed.

I tell Nofuhl his fine theory concerning the extinction of the Yahnkis
is a good tale for those who have never been here.

No man without a leather skin could survive a second night.

_18th May_

Poor Ja-khaz is worse than sick.

He had an encounter last night with a strange animal, and his defeat
was ignoble. The animal, a pretty thing, much like a kitten, was
hovering near when Ja-khaz, with rare courage and agility, threw
himself upon it.

And then what happened none of us can state with precision. We know we
held our noses and fled. And Ja-khaz! No words can fit him. He carries
with him an odor to devastate a province. We had to leave him ashore
and send him fresh raiment.

This is, verily, a land of surprises.

Our hands and faces still smart from the biting insects, and the perfume
of the odorous kitten promises to be ever with us.

Nofuhl is happy. We have discovered hundreds of metal blocks, the
poorest of which he asserts would be the gem of a museum. They were
found by Fattan-laiz-eh in the basement of a high building, all laid
carefully away upon iron shelves. The flood of light they throw upon
the manners and customs of this ludicrous people renders them of
priceless value to historians.

I harbor a suspicion that it causes Nofuhl some pleasure to sit upon
the cool deck of the _Zlotuhb_ and watch Bhoz-ja-khaz walking to and
fro upon the ruins of a distant wharf.

_19th May_

The air is cooler. Grip-til-lah thinks a storm is brewing.

Even Nofuhl is puzzled over the wooden image we brought aboard
yesterday. It is well preserved, with the barbaric coloring still
fresh upon it. They found it standing upright in a little shop.

[Illustration: The Wooden God.]

How these idols were worshipped, and why they are found in little
shops and never in the great temples is a mystery. It has a diadem of
feathers on the head, and as we sat smoking upon the deck this evening
I remarked to Nofuhl that it might be the portrait of some Mehrikan
noble. Whereupon he said they had no nobles.

"But the Mehrikans of gentle blood,"