marvel anew. Just now Nehemoth awakes, the slaves
leap to their feet and bear the palanquin to the outer side of the
great crescent palace between the south and the west, to behold the
sun again. The palanquin, with its ringing bells, goes round once
more; the voices of the jewellers sing again in the market-place
the song of the emerald, the song of the sapphire; men talk on the
housetops, beggars wail in the streets, the musicians bend to their
work, all the sounds blend together into one murmur, the voice of
Babbulkund speaking at evening. Lower and lower sinks the sun, till
Nehemoth, following it, comes with his panting slaves to the great
purple garden of which surely thine own country has its songs, from
wherever thou art come.

'There he alights from his palanquin and goes up to a throne of ivory
set in the garden's midst, facing full westwards, and sits there
alone, long regarding the sunlight until it is quite gone. At this
hour trouble comes into the face of Nehemoth. Men have heard him
muttering at the time of sunset: 'Even I too, even I too.' Thus do
King Nehemoth and the sun make their glorious ambits about Babbulkund.

'A little later, when the stars come out to envy the beauty of the
City of Marvel, the King walks to another part of the garden and sits
in an alcove of opal all alone by the marge of the sacred lake. This
is the lake whose shores and floors are of glass, which is lit
from beneath by slaves with purple lights and with green lights
intermingling, and is one of the seven wonders of Babbulkund. Three of
the wonders are in the city's midst and four are at her gates. There
is the lake, of which I tell thee, and the purple garden of which I
have told thee and which is a wonder even to the stars, and there is
Ong Zwarba, of which I shall tell thee also. And the wonders at the
gates are these. At the eastern gate Neb. And at the northern gate
the wonder of the river and the arches, for the River of Myth, which
becomes one with the Waters of Fable in the desert outside the city,
floats under a gate of pure gold, rejoicing, and under many arches
fantastically carven that are one with either bank. The marvel at the
western gate is the marvel of Annolith and the dog Voth. Annolith sits
outside the western gate facing towards the city. He is higher than
any of the towers or palaces, for his head was carved from the summit
of the old hill; he hath two eyes of sapphire wherewith he regards
Babbulkund, a