, and now we may look to the plot to develop itself.'
And I sighed and shook my head, knowing that the beauty of a
woman is like the beauty of the lightning -- a destructive thing
and a cause of desolation. By the time that I had finished my
reflections both the Queens were on the thrones, for all this
had happened in about six seconds. Once more the unseen trumpets
blared out, and then the Court seated itself, and Queen Sorais
motioned to us to do likewise.

Next from among the crowd whither he had withdrawn stepped forward
our guide, the old gentleman who had towed us ashore, holding
by the hand the girl whom we had seen first and afterwards rescued
from the hippopotamus. Having made obeisance he proceeded to
address the Queens, evidently describing to them the way and
place where we had been found. It was most amusing to watch
the astonishment, not unmixed with fear, reflected upon their
faces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they could not understand
how we had reached the lake and been found floating on it, and
were inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural causes.
Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequent
appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we
had shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there
was something very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history
was frequently interrupted by indignant exclamations from the
little group of white-robed priests and even from the courtiers,
while the two Queens listened with an amazed expression, especially
when our guide pointed to the rifles in our hands as being the
means of destruction. And here, to make matters clear, I may
as well explain at once that the inhabitants of Zu-Vendis are
sun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another the hippopotamus
is sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it, because
at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands -- which
are specially preserved in large lakes up the country -- and
use their hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent
them from considering these animals as sacred to the sun. {Endnote 11}
Now, as ill luck would have it, the particular hippopotami we
had shot were a family of tame animals that were kept in the
mouth of the port and daily fed by priests whose special duty
it was to attend to them. When we shot them I thought that the
brutes were suspiciously tame, and this was, as we afterwards
ascertained, t