e are our usual representative,' he answered rather sulkily. 'Come
on, for we have to call on Messrs. Apples, the famous advertisers.'

'Why?' said I.

'Can you ask?' he replied. 'Can aught be more interesting than an
advertiser?'

'_I_ call it log rolling,' I answered; but he was silent.

He went at a great pace, and presently, in a somewhat sordid street,
pointed his finger silently to an object over a door.

_It was the carven head of an Ethiopian!_

This new confirmation of the prophecy gave me quite a turn, especially
when I read the characters inscribed beneath--

TRY OUR FINE NEGRO'S HEAD!

'Here dwells the sorcerer, even Asher,' said Pellmelli, and began to
crawl upstairs on his hands and knees.

'Why do you do that?' I asked, determined, if I must follow Pellmelli,
at all events not to follow his example.

'It is the manner of the tribe of Interviewers, my daughter. Ours is a
blessed task, yet must we feign humility, or the savage people kick us
and drive us forth with our garments rent.'

He now humbly tapped at a door, and a strange voice cried,

'_Entrez!_'

Pellmelli (whose Russian is his strong point) paused in doubt, but I
explained that the word was French for 'come in.'

He crawled in on his stomach, while I followed him erect, and we found
ourselves before a strange kind of tent. It had four posts, and a
broidered veil was drawn all round it.

Within the veil the sorcerer was concealed, and he asked in a gruff
tone,

'Wadyerwant?'

Pellmelli explained that he had come to receive a brief personal
statement for the Budget.

The Voice replied, without hesitation, 'The Centuries and the AEons
pass, and I too make the pass. _Je saute la coupe_,' he added, in a
foreign tongue. 'While thy race wore naught but a little blue paint, I
dwelt among the forgotten peoples. The Red Sea knows me, and the Nile
has turned scarlet at my words. I am Khoot Hoomi, I am also the Chela
of the Mountain!'

'Now it is my turn to ask _you_ a few easy questions.

'Who sitteth on the throne of Hokey, Pokey, Winky Wum, the Monarch of
the Anthropophagi?

'Have the Jews yet come to their land, or have the owners of the land
gone to the Jews?

'Doth Darius the Mede yet rule, or hath his kingdom passed to the
Bassarids?'

As Pellmelli was utterly floored by these inquiries (which indicated
that the sorcerer had been for a considerable time out of the range of
the daily papers), I answ