eavenward faces of the orchids that, clambering
from the darkness, behold the sun. I could love Babbulkund with a
great love, yet am I the servant of the Lord the God of my people,
and the King hath sinned unto the abomination Annolith, and the people
lust exceedingly for Voth. Alas for thee, Babbulkund, alas that I may
not even now turn back, for to-morrow I must prophesy against thee
and cry out against thee, Babbulkund. But ye travellers that have
entreated me hospitably, rise and pass on with your camels, for I can
tarry no longer, and I go to do the work on Babbulkund of the Lord the
God of my people. Go now and see the beauty of Babbulkund before I cry
out against her, and then flee swiftly northwards.'

A smouldering fragment fell in upon our camp fire and sent a strange
light into the eyes of the man in rags. He rose at once, and his
tattered cloak swirled up with him like a great wing; he said no more,
but turned round from us instantly southwards, and strode away into
the darkness towards Babbulkund. Then a hush fell upon our encampment,
and the smell of the tobacco of those lands arose. When the last flame
died down in our camp fire I fell asleep, but my rest was troubled by
shifting dreams of doom.

Morning came, and our guides told us that we should come to the city
ere nightfall. Again we passed southwards through the changeless
desert; sometimes we met travellers coming from Babbulkund, with the
beauty of its marvels still fresh in their eyes.

When we encamped near the middle of the day we saw a great number of
people on foot coming towards us running, from the southwards. These
we hailed when they were come near, saying, 'What of Babbulkund?'

They answered: 'We are not of the race of the people of Babbulkund,
but were captured in youth and taken away from the hills that are to
the northward. Now we have all seen in visions of the stillness the
Lord the God of our people calling to us from His hills, and therefore
we all flee northward. But in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been
troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams of doom, and none may
interpret what the dreams portend. Now this is the dream that King
Nehemoth dreamed on the first night of his dreaming. He saw move
through the stillness a bird all black, and beneath the beatings of
his wings Babbulkund gloomed and darkened; and after him flew a bird
all white, beneath the beatings of whose wings Babbulkund gleamed and
shone; and there flew by f