is, and bent his head as if in approval. Here then was the alphabet
of the Martial tongue--an alphabet not arbitrary, but actually
produced by the vocal sounds it represented! The elaborate machinery
modifies the rough signs which are traced by the mere aerial
vibrations; but each character is a true physical type, a visual
image, of the spoken sound; the voice, temper, accent, sex, of a
speaker affect the phonograph, and are recognisable in the record. The
instrument wrote, so to speak, different hands under my voice and
under Esmo's; and those who knew him could identify his phonogram, as
my friends my manuscript.

After I had been employed for some time in fixing these forms and the
corresponding sounds in my memory, my host advanced to the window, and
opening it, led me into the interior garden; which, as I had supposed,
was a species of central court around which the house was built.

The construction of the house was at once apparent. It consisted of a
front portion, divided by the gallery of which I have spoken, all the
rooms on one side thereof looking, like the chamber I first entered,
into the outer enclosure; those on the other into the interior garden
or peristyle. Beyond the latter was a single row of chambers opening
upon it, appropriated to the ladies and children of the household. The
court was roofed over with the translucent material of the windows. It
was about 360 feet in length by 300 in width. At either end were
chambers entirely formed of the same material as the roof, in one of
which the various birds and animals employed either in domestic
service or in agriculture, in another the various stores of the
household, were kept. In front of these, two inclined planes of the
same material as the walls of the house led up to the several parts of
the roof. The court was divided by broad concrete paths into four
gardens. In the centre of each was a basin of water and a fountain,
above which was a square opening of some twenty feet in the roof. Each
garden was, so to speak, turfed with minute plants, smaller than daisy
roots, and even more closely covering the soil than English lawn
grass. These were of different colours--emerald, gold, and
purple--arranged in bands. This turf was broken by a number of beds of
all shapes, the crescent, circle, and six-rayed star being apparently
the chief favourites. The smaller of these were severally filled with
one or two flowers; in the larger, flowers of different c