In such a manner I reached an awaiting train, and, taking up within it
a position of retiring modesty, I definitely committed myself to the
undertaking.

At the next tarrying place there entered a barbarian of high-class
appearance, and being by this time less assured of my competence in
the matter unaided, both on account of the multiplicity of evil omens
on every side, and the perverse impulses of the guiding demon, whereby
at sudden angles certain of my organs had the emotion of being left
irrevocably behind and others of being snatched relentlessly forward,
I approached him courteously.

"Behold," I said, "many thousand li of water, both fresh and bitter,
flow between the one who is addressing you and his native town of
Yuen-ping, where the tablets at the street corners are as familiar to
him as the lines of his own unshapely hands; for, as it is truly said,
'Does the starling know the lotus roots, or the pomfret read its way
by the signs among the upper branches of the pines?' Out of the
necessities of his ignorance and your own overwhelming condescension
enlighten him, therefore, whether the destination of this fire-chariot
by any chance corresponds with the inscribed name upon his talisman?"

Thus adjured, the stranger benevolently turned himself to the detail,
and upon consulting a book of symbols he expressed himself to this
wise: that after a sufficient interval I should come into a certain
station, called in part after the title of the enlightened ruler of
this Island, and there abandoning the train which was carrying us, I
should enter another which would bring me out of the Beneath Parts and
presently into the midst of that Palace which I sought. This advice
seemed good, for a reasonable connection might be supposed to exist