"Say on, Rathos," answered the prince courteously. "What have you to tell of marvels on foreign seas?"
"The lands at the earth's end, your excellency, are not like ours of Egypt. I have seen isles where the men are like larger monkeys, and have a language no one understands, and build their houses in the trees. Evil demons I doubt not, or else souls sent back to earth from Amenthe, by Osiris, to atone for crimes in monstrous forms, neither human nor beast!"
"I have heard of these creatures," said I. "How far hast thou sailed, O Rathos?"
"To the very edge of the world, my lord of Tyre," he answered quietly. "I was in a ship going to Farther Ind. In sailing round the end of the earth we lost the shore in a dark storm; and when day came we saw only sky and water. All were in consternation to be thus between heaven and sea, and no land to guide our course. To add to our terror, I perceived that we were borne swiftly upon an ocean-current eastward. It increased in velocity, and I soon saw that we must be approaching the verge of the vast and horrid gulf, over which the full ocean plunges, a thousand leagues in breadth, prone into chaos and the regions of the lost spirits of the unburied souls of men! But by the interposition of the god of winds, to whom I vowed a libation and a bale of the richest spices of Bengal, a great storm swept over the sea against us, and before it we fled as with wings, until we came to a great island, under the shelter of which we anchored, rejoicing in our safety."
"Verily, brave Rathos, thou wert in a great peril," I said. "Thinkest thou it was at the world's end?"
"So said the king of the island, and he congratulated us on our escape; saying that few ships, when once upon that downward tide, ever returned again to the top of the earth."
"Thinkest thou the earth is square, Rathos, from what voyages thou hast made?" I asked of the gray-haired captain, whose silvery locks were braided around his head, and covered by a green embroidered bonnet, with a fringed cape falling to his neck.
"Or a triangle, my lord prince; but some say four square, with a burning mountain at each angle."
"Which is thine own opinion, Rathos?" asked the prince, who had been listening to our conversation.
"That it is irregular and jagged, my lord of Egypt, in shape not unlike this fair Isle of Rhoda, at which we are about to land."