people on foot coming towards us running, from the southwards. These
we hailed when they were come near, saying, 'What of Babbulkund?'

They answered: 'We are not of the race of the people of Babbulkund,
but were captured in youth and taken away from the hills that are to
the northward. Now we have all seen in visions of the stillness the
Lord the God of our people calling to us from His hills, and therefore
we all flee northward. But in Babbulkund King Nehemoth hath been
troubled in the nights by unkingly dreams of doom, and none may
interpret what the dreams portend. Now this is the dream that King
Nehemoth dreamed on the first night of his dreaming. He saw move
through the stillness a bird all black, and beneath the beatings of
his wings Babbulkund gloomed and darkened; and after him flew a bird
all white, beneath the beatings of whose wings Babbulkund gleamed and
shone; and there flew by four more birds alternately black and white.
And, as the black ones passed Babbulkund darkened, and when the white
ones appeared her streets and houses shone. But after the sixth bird
there came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her place, and there
was only the empty desert where she had stood, and the rivers Oonrana
and Plegáthanees mourning alone. Next morning all the prophets of the
King gathered before their abominations and questioned them of the
dream, and the abominations spake not. But when the second night
stepped down from the halls of God, dowered with many stars, King
Nehemoth dreamed again; and in this dream King Nehemoth saw four birds
only, black and white alternately as before. And Babbulkund darkened
again as the black ones passed, and shone when the white came by; only
after the four birds came no more, and Babbulkund vanished from her
place, leaving only the forgetful desert and the mourning rivers.

'Still the abominations spake not, and none could interpret the dream.