seated herself unconcernedly at the foot of my bed, while her
father took his place on a divan a few feet distant.

"But what part of the world do you come from?" asked my host, "that we
should appear so strange to you and you to us? I have seen individual
specimens of nearly all the races differing from our own, except the
primeval savages who dwell in the most desolate and remote recesses of
uncultivated nature, unacquainted with other light than that they obtain
from volcanic fires, and contented to grope their way in the dark, as do
many creeping, crawling and flying things. But certainly you cannot be a
member of those barbarous tribes, nor, on the other hand, do you seem to
belong to any civilised people."

I was somewhat nettled at this last observation, and replied that I had
the honour to belong to one of the most civilised nations of the earth;
and that, so far as light was concerned, while I admired the ingenuity
and disregard of expense with which my host and his fellow-citizens had
contrived to illumine the regions unpenetrated by the rays of the sun,
yet I could not conceive how any who had once beheld the orbs of heaven
could compare to their lustre the artificial lights invented by the
necessities of man. But my host said he had seen specimens of most of
the races differing from his own, save the wretched barbarians he had
mentioned. Now, was it possible that he had never been on the surface
of the earth, or could he only be referring to communities buried within
its entrails?

My host was for some moments silent; his countenance showed a degree of
surprise which the people of that race very rarely manifest under any
circumstances, howsoever extraordinary. But Zee was more intelligent,
and exclaimed, "So you see, my father, that there is truth in the old
tradition; there always is truth in every tradition commonly believed in
all times and by all tribes."

"Zee," said my host mildly, "you belong to the College of Sages, and
ought to be wiser than I am; but, as chief of the Light-preserving
Council, it is my duty to take nothing for granted till it is proved to
the evidence of my own senses." Then, turning to me, he asked me several
questions about the surface of the earth and the heavenly bodies; upon
which, though I answered him to the best of my knowledge, my answers
seemed not to satisfy nor convince him. He shook his head quietly, and,
changing the subject rather abruptly, asked how I had come dow