reason was that I was becoming more accustomed to the new atmosphere, new circumstances, and new life. The country that we were passing through was undulating, and dotted all over with small houses surrounded with gardens resplendent with beautiful flowers. The whole seemed to me like one great pleasure garden. At each house we generally saw one or two people, all wearing the same simple white costume. The women invariably had their heads decked with flowers, gracefully arranged. At one, we would hear instrumental music, at another, singing, at another, there would be groups of people playing some game or discussing some subject. Then, all in a moment they would start off in pursuit of us, and play around us like so many birds flying in the air, only none of us seemed to have the power of flying right off the ground—we simply tripped along it, barely touching it. It seemed to me as if some strong, buoyant layer of atmosphere covered the surface of the earth, as even in passing over the finest plots of flowers, we did
