is coming near, either of the sand, or me. And then the sun rose behind
him, and he looked up, and lo! it was reflected from the wall of a city
before him, which resembled another sun of hope rising in the west to
cheer him. And he rubbed his eyes, and looked again, saying to himself:
Is it a delusion of the desert, to mock me as I perish, or is it really
a true city? And he said again: Ha! it is a real city. And his ebbing
strength came back to him with a flood of joy. And he stooped, and took
up a little sand, and turned, and threw it back, exclaiming: Out upon
thee, abode of death![6] Now, then, I have beaten thee, and thy victim
will after all escape. And he hurried on towards the city, half afraid
to take his eyes away from it for a single instant, lest it should
disappear.

[6] Still the name of Marwar.

So as he drew near it, he saw a crowd upon its wall. And when he was
distant from it but a little way, suddenly its great gate's mouth was
thrown open, and a stream of people shot from it like a long tongue, and
rapidly came towards him, so that he said to himself: Ha! then, as it
seems, I am expected by the citizens of this delightful city, who are as
eager to come to me as I am to get to them. And they came closer,
clamouring and buzzing as it were like bees; and he looked and lo! they
were all women, and there was not a man among them all. And as he
wondered, they ran up, and reached him, and threw themselves upon him
like a wave of the sea, laughing and crying, and drowning him in their
embraces: and they took him as it were captive, and swept him away
towards the city, all talking at once, and deafening him with their
joyful exclamations, paying not the least attention to anything that he
tried to say. And Aja let himself go, carried away by all those women
like a leaf in a rushing stream. And he said to himself, in