there is calm. I stayed a moment by that battered hulk and said a
prayer for whatever may be immortal of those who were wont to sail it
down the Yann, and I prayed for them to the gods to whom they loved to
pray, to the little lesser gods that bless Belzoond. Then leaving the
hut that I built to those ravenous years I turned my back to the Yann
and entering the forest at evening just as its orchids were opening
their petals to perfume the night came out of it in the morning, and
passed that day along the amethyst gulf by the gap in the blue-grey
mountains. I wondered if Singanee, that mighty elephant-hunter, had
returned again with his spear to his lofty ivory palace or if his doom
had been one with that of Perdóndaris. I saw a merchant at a small
back door selling new sapphires as I passed the palace, then I went on
and came as twilight fell to those small cottages where the elfin
mountains are in sight of the fields we know. And I went to the old
witch that I had seen before and she sat in her parlour with a red
shawl round her shoulders still knitting the golden cloak, and faintly
through one of her windows the elfin mountains shone and I saw again
through another the fields we know.

"Tell me something," I said, "of this strange land!"

"How much do you know?" she said. "Do you know that dreams are
illusion?"

"Of course I do," I said. "Every one knows that."

"Oh no they don't," she said, "the mad don't know it."

"That is true," I said.