Page:Karl Gjellerup - The Pilgrim Kamanita - 1911.djvu/166

 "But how could ye know that just I happened to be the newcomer?"

The figures floating around him smiled charmingly.

"Thou are not yet fully awake. Thou dost look at us as though thou sawest dream-figures and wert afraid that they might suddenly disappear, and that rude reality might again surround thee."

Kamanita shook his head.

"I don't quite understand. What are dream-figures?"

"Ye forget," said one white-robed figure, "that he has assuredly not yet been to the Coral Tree."

"No, I have not yet been there. But I have already heard of it. My neighbour in the pond mentioned it; the tree is said to be such a wondrous one. What is there about it?"

But they all smiled mysteriously, looking at one another, and shaking their heads.

"I would like so much to go there at once. Will no one show me the way?"'

"Thou wilt find the way thyself when the time has come."

Kamanita drew his hand over his forehead.

"There is yet another wonderful thing here of which he spoke.… Yes, the heavenly Gunga … by it our pond is fed. Is that so with yours also?"

The white-robed figure pointed to the clear little river that wound round about the foot of the hill and so, by easy turnings, onward to the pond.

"That is our source of supply. Countless such arteries intersect these fields, and that which thou hast seen is a similar one even if somewhat larger. But the heavenly Gunga itself surrounds the whole of Sukhavati"

"Hast thou seen it also?"