d. I blushed with shame for them, and for her, and could not
help replying angrily: "Zee, either you mock me, which, as your father's
guest, misbecomes you, or the words you utter are improper for a maiden
Gy to address even to an An of her own race, if he has not wooed her
with the consent of her parents. How much more improper to address them
to a Tish, who has never presumed to solicit your affections, and who
can never regard you with other sentiments than those of reverence and
awe!"

Aph-Lin made me a covert sing of approbation, but said nothing. "Be not
so cruel!" exclaimed Zee, still in sonorous accents. "Can love command
itself where it is truly felt? Do you suppose that a maiden Gy will
conceal a sentiment that it elevates her to feel? What a country you
must have come from!"

Here Aph-Lin gently interposed, saying, "Among the Tish-a the rights of
your sex do not appear to be established, and at all events my guest may
converse with you more freely if unchecked by the presence of others."

To this remark Zee made no reply, but, darting on me a tender
reproachful glance, agitated her wings and fled homeward.

"I had counted, at least, on some aid from my host," I said bitterly,
"in the perils to which his own daughter exposes me."

"I gave you the best aid I could. To contradict a Gy in her love affairs
is to confirm her purpose. She allows no counsel to come between her and
her affections."

Chapter XXIV.

On alighting from the air-boat, a child accosted Aph-Lin in the hall
with a request that he would be present at the funeral obsequies of a
relation who had recently departed from that nether world.

Now, I had never seen a burial-place or cemetery amongst this people,
and, glad to seize even so melancholy an occasion to defer an encounter
with Zee, I asked Aph-Lin if I might be permitted to witness with him
the interment of his relation; unless, indeed, it were regarded as one
of those sacred ceremonies to which a stranger to their race might not
be admitted.

"The departure of an An to a happier world," answered my host, "when, as
in the case of my kinsman, he has lived so long in this as to have lost
pleasure in it, is rather a cheerful though quiet festival than a sacred
ceremony, and you may accompany me if you will."

Preceded by the child-messenger, we walked up the main street to a house
at some little distance, and, entering the hall, were conducted to a
room on the ground floor, wh