Part 17 (1/2)

'Brother, brother, I hear them, too.'

'The woman in labour!'

'The thief at his craft!'

'The sentinel's challenge!'

'The murderer's step!'

'Oh! the merry sounds of the night!'

'Brother, brother, let us come forth and wander about the world.'

'We have seen all things. I'll lie here and listen to the baying hound.

'Tis music for a tomb.'

'Choice and rare. You are idle. I like to sport in the starry air. Our hours are few, they should be fair.'

'What shall we see, Heaven or Earth?' 'h.e.l.l for me, 'tis more amusing.'

'As for me, I am sick of Hades.' 'Let us visit Solomon!' 'In his unknown metropolis?'

'That will be rare.'

'But where, oh! where?'

'Even a spirit cannot tell. But they say, but they say, I dare not whisper what they say.'

'Who told you?'

'No one. I overheard an Afrite whispering to a female Ghoul he wanted to seduce.'

'Hah! hah! hah! hah! choice pair, choice pair! We are more ethereal.'

'She was a beauty in her way. Her eyes were luminous, though somewhat dank, and her cheek tinged with carnation caught from infant blood.'

'Oh! gay; oh! gay; what said they?'

'He was a deserter without leave from Solomon's body-guard. The trull wriggled the secret out.'

'Tell me, kind brother.'

'I'll show, not tell.'

'I pr'ythee tell me.'

'Well, then, well. In Genthesma's gloomy cave there is a river none has reached, and you must sail, and you must sail---- Brother!'

'Ay.'

'Methinks I smell something too earthly.'