ng to think of; for aught he knew, the eremite, availing
himself of the gloom, might be bristling all over with javelin points.

At last, the silence was broken.

"What see you, mortal?"

"Chiefly darkness," said Yoomy, wondering at the audacity of the
question.

"I dwell in it. But what else see you, mortal?"

"The dim gleaming of thy gorget."

"But that is not me. What else dost thou see?"

"Nothing."

"Then thou hast found me out, and seen all! Descend."

And with that, the passage-way opened, and groping through the
twilight, Yoomy obeyed the mandate, and retreated; full of vexation at
his enigmatical reception.

On his alighting, Mohi inquired whether the hermit was not a wonderful
personage.

But thinking some sage waggery lurked in the question; and at present
too indignant to enter into details, the minstrel made some impatient
reply; and winding through a defile, the party resumed its journey.

Straggling behind, to survey the strange plants and flowers in his
path, Yoomy became so absorbed, as almost to forget the scene in the
pagoda; yet every moment expected to be nearing the stately abode of
the Pontiff.

But suddenly, the scene around grew familiar; the path seemed that
which had been followed just after leaving the canoes; and at length,
the place of debarkation was in sight.

Surprised that the object of our visit should have been thus
abandoned, the minstrel ran forward, and sought an explanation.

Whereupon, Mohi lifted his hands in amazement; exclaiming at the
blindness of the eyes, which had beheld the supreme Pontiff of
Maramma, without knowing it.

The old hermit was no other than the dread Hivohitee; the pagoda, the
inmost oracle of the isle.

CHAPTER XIII
Babbalanja Endeavors To Explain The Mystery

This Great Mogul of a personage, then; this woundy Aliasuerus; this
man of men; this same Hivohitee, whose name rumbled among the
mountains like a peal of thunder, had been seen face to face, and
taken for naught, but a bearded old hermit, or at best, some equivocal
conjuror.

So great was his wonderment at the time, that Yoomy could not avoid
expressing it in words.

Whereupon thus discoursed Babbalanja:

"Gentle Yoomy, be not astounded, that Hivohitee is so far behind your
previous conceptions. The shadows of things are greater than
themselves; and the more exaggerated the shadow, the more unlike to
the substance."

"But knowing now, what manner of person Hivohi