Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/111

Rh said, immediately fly on, we remained where we were on the second, the third, the tenth day. "What, then, is this?" quoth I. "Did you then not tell me that we should fly directly from one end of the earth to the other? and now we cannot by any means leave this spot." They then said we should wait till the relays came, and that they had relays which required neither shelter nor stable, nor forage, nor spurs, nor whip; they had only to put them to, and to drive on; I should but wait and I would see. Meanwhile, they show me cords, ropes, traces, scales, gambrels, shafts, axle-trees, waggon-beams, poles and various levers; and all these articles were fashioned in a manner different from that of the waggoners' carts. It was a cart that lay backwards, and had at its back shafts (consisting of two very long pine-trees), which projected high up into the air; from the top ropes descended to the sail-yards with various lattice-work and ladders. The axle-tree of the cart was at the back, and a man who sat there alone boasted that he could guide this huge mass in whatever direction he wished.

13. Meanwhile the wind arose. Our crew started up; they begin to run to and fro, to jump, to scream, to shout; one seized this thing, another that; some climbed rapidly up and down the ropes, let down poles, expanded what seemed to be rush mats, and