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278 The terrible catastrophe of our separation came about in this way:—I told you, dear reader, that after a sojourn for many months with this strange people I got accustomed to their ways, and gradually forgot my past history. The things that happened to me in my previous state became as a blank in my mind, but, after my marriage, my memory of my own doings seemed to come back—doubtless brightened by the many questions that Meda put to me. I was now able to tell many tales and describe many incidents that had taken place in my previous life. I had out of modesty avoided relating anything about my own doings, nor had I said anything about my family, or about my previous marriage with my well-beloved Mary, who was now but dust. I loved all as dearly as man could love them, but with a lapse of over three thousand years, what was the use of thinking of them? Their very dust would by this time be scattered to the four quarters of the globe; the gases of which they were largely formed, must