al and privileged travellers were alone permitted to harness the
god, and by command of the king we were to enter Calnogor by means of
the sacred courier.

The route to the temple led through a different part of the city than
that traversed by us when going to the governor's palace. We had
leisure to observe more particularly the architecture and the
appearance of the streets through which we passed. The roadway
everywhere was one solid block of white marble, and emporiums and
dwellings were built of the same material.

"You seem to have sculptured the city out of a mountain of white
marble," I said to the governor, who rode his bockhockid alongside
mine.

"That is, indeed, the fact," replied the governor. "The entire city
has been laboriously hewn from an immense mountain."

"Then in building your houses, you laid the foundation with the roof,
and built them downward until you arrived at the level of the street,"
I said.

"That is precisely so," said he. "Our streets are simply ornamental
chasms cut in the solid rock. Both roadway and building are composed
of the same stone. One stone has built the entire city."

I was surprised at the idea of the stupendous labor involved in
carving a city containing half a million of inhabitants, but,
considering that a man could easily lift a block of stone weighing
half a ton in the outer sphere, I saw that even so prodigious a task
as chiselling Kioram might well be accomplished. It was a new
sensation to bound on a bockhockid over the smoothly carved pavement,
where once stood the mighty heart of a mountain of stone. All the
buildings along the route were wonderfully sculptured. There seemed no
end to the floriated mouldings, pillars and other decorations in
relief, wrought in a strange order of art that was most captivating.

As for ourselves, we must have presented an interesting procession.
Our Viking helmets of polished brass gleamed in the sunlight like
gold. The emblazoned bear thereon was a symbol to the Atvatabarese of
a species of divinity that protected us as beings of another world.

We arrived at the temple of the sacred locomotive, and were received
by the winged priests in charge. Dismounting amid the sound of music,
a procession was formed, the priests leading the way along a wide
hallway that terminated in the temple of the god.

The god Rakamadeva was a glorious sight. On a causeway of marble
flanked with steps on either side stood that object of magni