hat I shall not know.

Then I slept awhile and awoke just before sunrise, very cold.
Suddenly the sun leapt up and flamed upon our faces; we all threw
off our blankets and stood up. Then we took food, and afterwards
started southwards, and in the heat of the day rested, and
afterwards pushed on again. And all the while the desert remained
the same, like a dream that will not cease to trouble a tired
sleeper.

And often travellers passed us in the desert, coming from the City
of Marvel, and there was a light and a glory in their eyes from
having seen Babbulkund.

That evening, at sunset, another traveller neared us, and we hailed
him, saying:

'Wilt thou eat and drink with us, seeing that all men are brothers
in the desert?'

And he descended from his camel and sat by us and said:

'When morning shines on the colossus Neb and Neb speaks, at once the
musicians of King Nehemoth in Babbulkund awake.

'At first their fingers wander over their golden harps, or they
stroke idly their violins. Clearer and clearer the note of each
instrument ascends like larks arising from the dew, till suddenly
they all blend together and a new melody is born. Thus, every
morning, the musicians of King Nehemoth make a new marvel in the
City of Marvel; for these are no common musicians, but masters of
melody, raided by conquest long since, and carried away in ships
from the Isles of Song. And, at the sound of the music, Nehemoth
awakes in the eastern chamber of his palace, which is carved in the
form of a great crescent, four miles long, on the northern side of
the city. Full in the windows of its eastern chamber the sun rises,
and full in the windows of its western chamber the sun sets.

'When Nehemoth awakes he summons slaves who bring a palanquin with
bells, which the King enters, having lightly robed. Then the slaves
run and bear him to the onyx Chamber of the Bath, with the sound of
small bells ringing as they run. And when Nehemoth emerges thence,
bathed and anointed, the slaves run on with their ringing palanquin
and bear him to the Orient Chamber of Banquets, where the King takes
the first meal of the day. Thence, through the great white corridor
whose windows all face sunwards, Nehemoth, in his palanquin, passes
on to the Audience Chamber of Embassies from the North, which is all
decked with Northern wares.

'All about it are ornaments of amber from the North and carven
chalices of the dark brown Northern crystal,