illumined his face as he thus announced with proud emphasis his
own title and claim to distinction. "The brotherhood of poets," he
continued laughingly--"is a mystic and doubtful tie that hath oft
been questioned,--but provided they do not, like ill-conditioned
wolves, fight each other out of the arena, there should be joy in
the relationship". Here, turning full upon the crowd, he lifted
his rich, melodious voice to higher and more ringing tones:

"It is like you, O hasty and misjudging Kyrisians, that finding a
harmless wanderer from far off lands, present at the pageant of
the Midsummer Benediction, ye should pounce upon him, even as
kites on a straying sea-bird, and maul him with your ruthless
talons! Has he broken the law of worship! Ye have broken the law
of hospitality! Has he failed to kneel to the passing Ship of the
Sun? So have ye failed to handle him with due courtesy! What
report shall he bear hence of your gentleness and culture to those
dim and unjoyous shores beyond the gray green wall of ocean-
billows, where the very name of Al-Kyris serves as a symbol for
all that is great and wise and wondrous in the whole round circle
of the world? Moreover ye know full well that foreigners and
sojourners in the city are exempt from worship,--and the King's
command is that all such should be well and nobly entertained, to
the end that when they depart they may carry with them a full
store of pleasant memories. Hence, scatterbrains, to your homes!--
No festival can ye enjoy without a gust of contention!--ye are
ill-made instruments all, whose jarring strings even I, crowned
Minstrel of the King, can scarce keep one day in happy tune! Look
you now! ... this stranger is my guest!--. Is there a man in Al-
Kyris who will treat as an enemy one whom Sah-luma calls friend?"