e could frequently make out what
was meant by the ring of the sentence. It is on this account
that the language lends itself so well to poetical declamation,
of which these remarkable people are very fond. The Zu-Vendi
alphabet seems, Sir henry says, to be derived, like every other
known system of letters, from a Phoenician source, and therefore
more remotely still from the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
Whether this is a fact I cannot say, not being learned in such
matters. All I know about it is that their alphabet consists
of twenty-two characters, of which a few, notably B, E, and O,
are not very unlike our own. The whole affair is, however, clumsy
and puzzling. {Endnote 13} But as the people of Zu-Vendi are
not given to the writing of novels, or of anything except business
documents and records of the briefest character, it answers their
purpose well enough.

CHAPTER XIV
THE FLOWER TEMPLE

It was half-past eight by my watch when I woke on the morning
following our arrival at Milosis, having slept almost exactly
twelve hours, and I must say that I did indeed feel better.
Ah, what a blessed thing is sleep! and what a difference twelve
hours of it or so makes to us after days and nights of toil and
danger. It is like going to bed one man and getting up another.

I sat up upon my silken couch -- never had I slept upon such
a bed before -- and the first thing that I saw was Good's eyeglass
fixed on me from the recesses of his silken couch. There was
nothing else of him to be seen except his eyeglass, but I knew
from the look of it that he was awake, and waiting till I woke
up to begin.

'I say, Quatermain,' he commenced sure enough, 'did you observe
her skin? It is as smooth as the back of an ivory hairbrush.'

'Now look here, Good,' I remonstrated, when there came a sound
at the curtain, which, on being drawn, admitted a functionary,
who signified by signs that he was there to lead us to the bath.
We gladly consented, and were conducted to a delightful marble
chamber, with a pool of running crystal water in the centre of
it, into which we gaily plunged. When we had bathed, we returned
to our apartment and dressed, and then went into the central
room where we had supped on the previous evening, to find a morning
meal already prepared for us, and a capital meal it was, though
I should be puzzled to describe the dishes. After breakfast
we lounged round and admired the tapestries and carpet