nd the wonder of the eyes is that they are to-day in the
same sockets wherein they glowed when first the world began, only the
marble that covered them has been carven away and the light of day let
in and the sight of the envious stars. Larger than a lion is the dog
Voth beside him; every hair is carven upon the back of Voth, his war
hackles are erected and his teeth are bared. All the Nehemoths have
worshipped the god Annolith, but all their people pray to the dog
Voth, for the law of the land is that none but a Nehemoth may worship
the god Annolith. The marvel at the southern gate is the marvel of the
jungle, for he comes with all his wild untravelled sea of darkness and
trees and tigers and sunward-aspiring orchids right through a marble
gate in the city wall and enters the city, and there widens and holds
a space in its midst of many miles across. Moreover, he is older than
the City of Marvel, for he dwelt long since in one of the valleys
of the mountain which Nehemoth, first of Pharaohs, carved into
Babbulkund.

'Now the opal alcove in which the King sits at evening by the lake
stands at the edge of the jungle, and the climbing orchids of the
jungle have long since crept from their homes through clefts of the
opal alcove, lured by the lights of the lake, and now bloom there
exultingly. Near to this alcove are the hareems of Nehemoth.

'The King hath four hareems--one for the stalwart women from the
mountains to the north, one for the dark and furtive jungle women, one
for the desert women that have wandering souls and pine in Babbulkund,
and one for the princesses of his own kith, whose brown cheeks blush
with the blood of ancient Pharaohs and who exult with Babbulkund in
her surpassing beauty, and who know nought of the desert or the jungle
or the bleak hills to the north. Quite unadorned and clad in simple
garments go all the kith of Nehemoth, for they know well that he grows
weary of pomp. Unadorned all save one, the Princess Linderith, who
weareth Ong Zwarba and the three lesser gems of the sea. Such a
stone is Ong Zwarba that there are none like it even in the turban of
Nehemoth nor in all the sanctuaries of the sea. The same god that made
Linderith made long ago Ong Zwarba; she and Ong Zwarba shine together
with one light, and beside this marvellous stone gleam the three
lesser ones of the sea.

'Now when the King sitteth in his opal alcove by the sacred lake with
the orchids blooming around him all sounds