And I knew,
then, that from the pinnacle of civilization which we of Earth had
reached, naught lay before us but this.

Music everywhere throughout the festival. And movement. As we floated
out of the canal, passing slowly along one of the broader waterways,
boats and barges slipped past us. Barges crowded with revelers. And the
small boats, generally with but a man and a girl--fugitive couples with
the holiday spirit upon them, seeking the shadowed nooks of islands for
their love-making.

In one lagoon we came upon such a boat. The man in it--a gay youth in
red and black motley, with the mask fallen from his laughing, perspiring
face--was in its stern, manipulating it with a long, thin paddle. The
girl was lying face down on cushions in its prow. She was facing
forward, with her long white hair tumbling about her. Around the boat
were clustered a number of other boats. Each was small, with only a man
in it. A ring of boats, besieging the girl. Our barge paused to watch. A
boat would dash forward, its occupant standing up to thrust it on. But
the girl, swung to meet it by the efforts of her escort, would turn her
cylinder of _alcholite_[19] upon the attacker. Befuddled, her adversary
would retreat; or another, momentarily drunk, would fall into the water
to be sobered.

[Footnote 19: A scent or perfume, highly intoxicating.]

All with gay shouts of laughter; until at last the couple were
victorious and scurried away to their island.

We passed on. There were mimic battles often on the islands. A hidden
couple found out and dragged back. A lone man attacked and pelted with
flowers by a band of marauding girls. A diving platform at one end of an
oval lagoon. Girls mounting it to dive into the red-shimmering water,
where waiting youths were swimming, and by their prowess in downing
other contenders would seize upon the girls and carry them off to where
a barge was loading its passengers for the main island.

To this main island we came at last. It was heavily wooded, and indented
with shallow, placid waterways. In one of them we landed; and amid a
sudden quiet and awe at the presence of Tarrano, we went ashore. Georg
walking with Maida; Tarrano forcing Elza to hold his arm; and I, beside
Elza until Tarrano sternly bade me walk behind.

We were masked, but the revelers knew us. Amid the throng with which the
island was packed, we moved slowly forward toward a gay pavilion which
was in the center of the grove. Music