And the soul answered:“Come nearer,that I may speak with thee,for I have seen marvellous things.”
So he came nearer,and crouched in the shallow water,and leaned his head upon his hand and listened.
And the soul said to him:“In a city that I know of there is an inn that standeth by a river.I sat there with sailors who drank of two different-coloured wines,and ate bread made of barley,and little salt fish served in bay leaves with vinegar.And as we sat and made merry,there entered to us an old man bearing a leathern carpet and a lute that had two horns of amber.And when he had laid out the carpet on the floor,he struck with a quill on the wire strings of his lute,and a girl whose face was veiled ran in and began to dance before us.Her face was veiled with a veil of gauze,but her feet were naked.Naked were her feet,and they moved over the carpet like little white pigeons.Never have I seen anything so marvellous and the city in which she dances is but a day’s journey from this place.”