Page:Artabanzanus (Ferrar, 1896).djvu/185

Rh one. Whether it occurred to me during sleep, or I was carried up by one of those powerful genii of whom your Majesty has heard, I do not know. I was upborne into the regions of upper air, into the dazzling light of a warm summer's day, and set down, after a long journey over mountains and through clouds, beside a heavenly lake of delicious water, surrounded by magnificent woods and hills. It was the Field of the Cloth of Gold, bereft of its decorations of art. I saw trees growing tall and stately under a blue sky, and green grass and flowers under my feet, and rocks and ornaments of nature a thousand times more beautiful to me than the sapphires and diamonds of this wretched place. Then by degrees, as my eyes could bear them, I saw sheep, horses, and cattle grazing on the hills; and as I travelled on without a guide through this splendid country, not knowing whither I was going, I saw a multitude of roads leading in all directions, some parallel with each other, and some crossing each other at all kinds of angles. They took up nearly the whole of the land, so that there was scarcely any room for gardens or meadows, or houses in which men might live. And I saw that a vast number of these roads had parallel lines of iron upon them, and every hour or so a long string of curious looking coaches would come rushing past me, suddenly appearing on one side and disappearing on the other, rolling on with a thundering sound, the horses flying so fast that I could not see them. I walked on and on in ever-increasing astonishment until I came to a large city, but it seemed only the ghost of a city. It had evidently been once rich and populous, but now had all the appearance of having been ruined by the wasteful extravagance of its inhabitants, or by the spoliations of a foreign enemy; but the coaches on their iron roads came in constantly snorting and whistling, bringing nothing or next to nothing. I wondered