"Now if there stand one prophet here that hath the ear of those too splendid gods that stride above the glories of the orient sky, tell them that there is on earth one King in the land called Zarkandhu to the south of the opal mountains, who would fain tarry among the many gardens of earth, and would leave to other men the splendours that the gods shall give the dead above the twilight² that surrounds the stars."

 

Then spake Yamen, prophet of the Temple of Obin that stands on the shores of a great lake, facing east. Yamen said: "I pray oft to the gods who sit above the twilight behind the east. When the clouds are heavy and red at sunset, or when there is boding³ of thunder or eclipse, then I pray not, lest my prayers be scattered⁴ and beaten earthward. But when the sun sets in a tranquil⁵ sky, pale green or azure⁶, and the light of his farewells stays long upon lonely hills, then I send forth⁷ my prayers to flutter upward to gods that are surely smiling, and the gods hear my prayers. But, O King, boons⁸ sought out of due time from the gods are never wholly to be desired, and, if They should grant to thee to tarry on the earth, old age would trouble thee with burdens more and more till thou wouldst become the driven slave of the hours in

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