Page:The land of many names (1926).pdf/59

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THE LAND OF MANY NAMES
55

First Man:

Elan Chol, are you not preparing to go to the Land of Hopes?

Elan Chol:

I do not know—I think—perhaps I too will go there.

The Stripling:

And tell us, are there any people in this Land of Hopes?

Elan Chol:

I see them there. I see people there in tents, by fires and in rocky clefts——

The Stripling:

Wild nations. And what else do you see?

Elan Chol:

I see great waters, and my gaze beholds a sandy wilderness above which a red moon rises. Against a rocky shore a wave mournfully breaks and a mighty girdle of clouds drifts above the new continent. In the clouds a white bird soars and utters a piercing cry. The south wind and the east have clashed, and the first rain has gathered above the new continent. You must think of yourself. Sit down yonder on that promontory. From the new continent gaze out at the five old continents; they are five stars and in their midst the sixth one, the most beautiful of them, with its dark lustre.

The Stripling:

And is any wealth there?