oing, and the fellow,
instead of answering me, pointed at my legs, and set all the other
monkeys laughing. So I boxed his ears, and he tumbled down.'

'They all do so here, if you box their ears,' said the Amal
meditatively, as if he had bit upon a great inductive law.

'Ah,' said Pelagia, looking up with her most winning smile, 'they are
not such giants as you, who make a poor little woman feel like a gazelle
in a lion's paw!'

'Well--it struck me that, as I spoke in Gothic, the boy might not
have understood me, being a Greek. So I walked in at the door, to save
questions, and see for myself. And there a fellow held out his hand--I
suppose for money, So I gave him two or three gold pieces, and a box
on the ear, at which he tumbled down, of course, but seemed very well
satisfied. So I walked in.'

'And what did you see?'

'A great hall, large enough for a thousand heroes, full of these
Egyptian rascals scribbling with pencils on tablets. And at the farther
end of it the most beautiful woman I ever saw--with right fair hair
and blue eyes, talking, talking--I could not understand it; but the
donkey-riders seemed to think it very fine; for they went on looking
first at her, and then at their tablets, gaping like frogs in drought.
And, certainly, she looked as fair as the sun, and talked like an
Alruna-wife. Not that I knew what it was about, but one can see somehow,
you know.--So I fell asleep; and when I woke, and came out, I met some
one who understood me, and he told me that it was the famous maiden, the
great philosopher. And that's what I know about philosophy.'

'She was very much wasted then, on such soft-handed starvelings. Why
don't she marry some hero?'

'Because there are none here to marry,' said Pelagia; 'except some who
are fast netted, I fancy, already.'

'But what do they talk about, and tell people to do, these philosophers,
Pelagia?'

'Oh, they don't tell any one to do anything--at least, if they do,
nobody ever does it, as far as I can see; but they talk about suns and
stars, and right and wrong, and ghosts and spirits, and that sort of
thing; and about not enjoying oneself too much. Not that I ever saw that
they were any happier than any one else.'

'She must have been an Alruna-maiden,' said Wulf, half to himself.

'She is a very conceited creature, and I hate her,' said Pelagia.

'I believe you,' said Wulf.

'What is an Alruna-maiden?' asked one of the girls.

'Something as like you