and on its floors lie
furs from Baltic shores.

'In adjoining chambers are stored the wonted food of the hardy
Northern men, and the strong wine of the North, pale but terrible.
Therein the King receives barbarian princes from the frigid lands.
Thence the slaves bear him swiftly to the Audience Chamber of
Embassies from the East, where the walls are of turquoise, studded
with the rubies of Ceylon, where the gods are the gods of the East,
where all the hangings have been devised in the gorgeous heart of Ind,
and where all the carvings have been wrought with the cunning of the
isles. Here, if a caravan hath chanced to have come in from Ind or
from Cathay, it is the King's wont to converse awhile with Moguls or
Mandarins, for from the East come the arts and knowledge of the world,
and the converse of their people is polite. Thus Nehemoth passes on
through the other Audience Chambers and receives, perhaps, some
Sheikhs of the Arab folk who have crossed the great desert from the
West, or receives an embassy sent to do him homage from the shy
jungle people to the South. And all the while the slaves with the
ringing palanquin run westwards, following the sun, and ever the sun
shines straight into the chamber where Nehemoth sits, and all the
while the music from one or other of his bands of musicians comes
tinkling to his ears. But when the middle of the day draws near, the
slaves run to the cool groves that lie along the verandahs on the
northern side of the palace, forsaking the sun, and as the heat
overcomes the genius of the musicians, one by one their hands fall
from their instruments, till at last all melody ceases. At this
moment Nehemoth falls asleep, and the slaves put the palanquin down
and lie down beside it. At this hour the city becomes quite still,
and the palace of Nehemoth and the tombs of the Pharaohs of old face
to the sunlight, all alike in silence. Even the jewellers in the
market-place, selling gems to princes, cease from their bargaining
and cease to sing; for in Babbulkund the vendor of rubies sings the
song of the ruby, and the vendor of sapphires sings the song of the
sapphire, and each stone hath its song, so that a man, by his song,
proclaims and makes known his wares.

'But all these sounds cease at the meridian hour, the jewellers in
the market-place lie down in what shadow they can find, and the
princes go back to the cool places in their palaces, and a great
hush in the gleaming air hang