pulled her golden
heart out, tore her white limbs one from the other, and swallowed her
piecemeal before my very eyes! Then up in wrath I jumped and yelled at
him till the woods echoed, but too late to stay his sacrilege.

By this time the sun was bathing everything in splendour, and turning
away from the wonders about me, I set off at best pace along the
well-trodden path which led without turning to the west coast village
where the canoes were.

It proved far closer than expected. As a matter of fact the forest in
this direction grew right down to the water's edge; the salt-loving
trees actually overhanging the waves--one of the pleasantest sights in
nature--and thus I came right out on top of the hamlet before there had
been an indication of its presence. It occupied two sides of a pretty
little bay, the third side being flat land given over to the
cultivation of an enormous species of gourd whose characteristic yellow
flowers and green, succulent leaves were discernible even at this
distance.

I branched off along the edge of the surf and down a dainty little
flowery path, noticing meanwhile how the whole bay was filled by
hundreds of empty canoes, while scores of others were drawn up on the
strand, and then the first thing I chanced upon was a group of
people--youthful, of course, with the eternal Martian bloom--and in the
splendid simplicity of almost complete nakedness. My first idea was
that they were bathing, and fixing my eyes on the tree-tops with great
propriety, I gave a warning cough. At that sound instead of getting to
cover, or clothes, all started up and stood staring for a time like a
herd of startled cattle. It was highly embarrassing; they were right
in the path, a round dozen of them, naked and so little ashamed that
when I edged away modestly they began to run after me. And the farther
they came forward the more I retired, till we were playing a kind of
game of hide-and-seek round the tree-stems. In the middle of it my heel
caught in a root and down I went very hard and very ignominiously,
whereon those laughing, light-hearted folk rushed in, and with smiles
and jests helped me to my feet.

"Was I the traveller who had come from Seth?"

"Yes."

"Oh, then that was well. They had heard such a traveller was on the
road, and had come a little way down the path, as far as might be
without fatigue, to meet him."

"Would I eat with them?" these amiable strangers asked, pushing their
soft