treated her as his equal."

"That is curious! But as I remember, they were a people of elastic
honor."

"They were so considered," said Nofuhl; "their commercial honor was a
jest. They were sharper than the Turks. Prosperity was their god, with
cunning and invention for his prophets. Their restless activity no
Persian can comprehend. This vast country was alive with noisy
industries, the nervous Mehrikans darting with inconceivable rapidity
from one city to another by a system of locomotion we can only guess
at. There existed roads with iron rods upon them, over which small
houses on wheels were drawn with such velocity that a long day's
journey was accomplished in an hour. Enormous ships without sails,
driven by a mysterious force, bore hundreds of people at a time to the
farthermost points of the earth."

"And are these things lost?" I asked.

"We know many of the forces," said Nofuhl, "but the knowledge, of
applying them is gone. The very elements seem to have been their
slaves. Cities were illuminated at night by artificial moons, whose
radiance eclipsed the moon above. Strange devices were in use by which
they conversed together when separated by a journey of many days. Some
of these appliances exist to-day in Persian museums. The superstitions
of our ancestors allowed their secrets to be lost during those dark
centuries from which at last we are waking."

At this point we heard the voice of Bhoz-ja-khaz in the distance; they
had found a spring and he was calling to us.