drinking-places, and gardens divided by labyrinths of
canals, and embowered in shrubberies that seemed coming into leaf and
flower as we looked, so swift was the process of their growth. These
waterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in every
direction; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafy
screens separating one lane from another till the place was full of
their happy chirruping. Every booth and way-side halting-place was
thronged with these delicate and sprightly people, so friendly, so
gracious, and withal so purposeless.

I began to think we should never reach the town itself, for first my
guide would sit down on a green stream-bank, his feet a-dangle in the
clear water, and bandy wit with a passing boat as though there were
nothing else in the world to think of. And when I dragged him out of
that, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I am
all agape to see it," he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundred
yards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sipping
coloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked him by
the sleeve and said: "Seth, good comrade--was it not so you called your
city just now?--take me to the gates, and I will be grateful to you,"
then on again down a flowery lane, aimless and happy, wasting my time
and his, with placid civility I was led by that simple guide.

Wherever we went the people stared at me, as well they might, as I
walked through them overtopping the tallest by a head or more. The
drinking-cups paused half-way to their mouths; the jests died away upon
their lips; and the blinking eyes of the drinkers shone with a
momentary sparkle of wonder as their minds reeled down those
many-tinted floods to the realms of oblivion they loved.

I heard men whisper one to another, "Who is he?"; "Whence does he
come?"; "Is he a tribute-taker?" as I strolled amongst them, my mind
still so thrilled with doubt and wonder that to me they seemed hardly
more than painted puppets, the vistas of their lovely glades and the
ivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk as
incontinent as the babble of a stream.

Then happily, as I walked along with bent head brooding over the
incredible thing that had happened, my companion's shapely legs gave
out, and with a sigh of fatigue he suggested we should take a skiff
amongst the many lying about upon the margins and sail towards the
town, "For," said he,