“Oh, no, no,” he pleaded fervently; “let the dream go on. Please, please do.”
“The High Ji-jimmy is perhaps weary with his magic journey,” said the Captain, noticing the blundering walk of the learned gentleman; “and we are yet very far from the Great Temple, where today the Kings make sacrifice.”
He stopped at the gate of a great enclosure. It seemed to be a sort of park, for trees showed high above its brazen wall.
The party waited, and almost at once the Captain came back with one of the hairy elephants and begged them to mount.
This they did.
It was a glorious ride. The elephant at the Zoo—to ride on him is also glorious, but he goes such a very little way, and then he goes back again, which is always dull. But this great hairy beast went on and on and on along streets and through squares and gardens. It was a glorious city; almost everything was built of marble, red, or white, or black. Every now and then the party crossed a bridge.
It was not till they had climbed to the hill which is the centre of the town that they saw that the whole city was divided into twenty circles, alternately land and water, and over each of the water circles were the bridges by which they had come.
And now they were in a great square. A vast building filled up one side of it; it was overlaid with gold, and had a dome of silver. The rest of the buildings round the square were of oricalchum. And it looked more splendid than you can possibly imagine, standing up bold and shining in the sunlight.
“You would like a bath,” said the Captain, as the hairy elephant went clumsily down on his knees. “It’s customary, you know, before entering the Presence. We have baths for men, women, horses, and cattle. The High Class Baths are here. Our Father Poseidon gave us a spring of hot water and one of cold.”
The children had never before bathed in baths of gold.