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40 stool, placed his elbow on his left knee, rested his chin on his hand, and looked at me in such a comical incredulous way that I could scarcely keep from laughing. My two guides passed along in the same noiseless gliding fashion as before, and led me towards the central building.

On my way across the vacant space, I could do nothing but reflect on the curious adventure in which I was engaged. Everything was so novel and so ethereal, that I began to think that death must have overtaken me, and that my spirit was passing through that land which some say intervenes between earth and heaven. Still this could not be the case, as the city and country through which I had passed was in some way or other familiar to me, although the city and the river bank had the decay of ages stamped on them. Whilst in the midst of these meditations, I arrived with my guides at the door of the great central building. This door, like that in the outer wall, was bronze, and was provided with a knocker after the same pattern, but of much less dimensions. One of my