THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
her think of the alleys of Estrighoil Castle and likewise of Rupert de Launay, though for the like of her she could not discover why it was so. And being seated on a stool, the stranger began his incantations anew, and talked more and more wildly and fantastically, till Eva and her women thought the walls were turning round and the floor heaving, and took hold of each others hands and squeezed them hard as though they had been a bevy of lovers. And this is how the brown and yellow man brought his histories to a close. "Now," said he, "'tis almost time for me to be gone since I must sup tonight with the Lord of the Castle of Rohalgo; but one more relation I will devise for you. Know that in the realm of the Great Chan there is an exceeding vast desert, to cross the which you shall journey five years, if you have good camels and skilled guides who lead you by the shortest way. But 'tis more like that you take ten years, and few care to travel through this wilderness, preferring to journey along the border of it, by a track where there is victual and provender for them and their beasts. And some say that there are no wells nor fountains, nor trees, nor any green thing nor living creatures throughout the whole length and breadth of this desert; but this is not the truth, for I talked with a wise man of Cathay who used geomancy, and he showed me the nature of the place, and gave me such reasons that I perceived he was not lying nor deceiving me. Know then that toward the midst of the wilderness there is a great circle of sand that never is still, but heaves up and down in waves and breakers like
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