On the night of the Soirée a great multitude of natives as well as eminent European personages were present, in all the picturesque splendor of the habilaments of their respective countries. There were Maharajahs, dazzling with diamonds, accompanied by their retinue blazing with silver and gold embroidered costumes, Ascetic Brahmins and sombre looking Fakirs from the seats of learning of Hyderabad, mysterious emissaries from the sacred city of Delhi, learned Sheiks with flowing patriarchal beards from Arabia and Egypt, Magicians from all over Persia, besides all fashionable folk from military posts throughout the East Indian Empire. Dashing and handsome officers vied with each other in their endeavor to do homage to the beautiful Aurora, who was enthroned next to her mother. After a prelude on the dulciphone, Abou Shimshek, amidst the huzzah and clamor of the assemblage, with great dignity came forward, and with uplifted arms, invoking the spirits of Hafiz and Firdozy to endow him with eloquence, began the account of his thrilling adventure as follows: CHAPTER XII ADVENTURES OF ABOU SHIMSHEK, THE ASTRONOMER OF ISPAHAN "Up, on the Kinchinginga's lofty summit, where earth and heavens meet, where myriads of crystalline, icy temples in their immaculate and prismatic garbs here and there, and manywhere abound, temples, in whose solid glacial niches saints perpetually hold communion with Mahatma's Son. "I said, I was upon the Kinchinginga's. Aye, for no other purpose than on a mission sublime, to climb nearer to heaven in search of the Creator's secrets profound and reveal them to the human race. Day after day, thus, dauntless and resolute, I scaled craggy precipices. Through mammoth caverns of desolate solitude I wended my way up to reach the goal of my ambition, lured there by my faith. "Night after night, thus, I gazed and scanned heaven's canopy, studded with twinkling jewels. But alas! it seemed, farther and more remote grew the space between me and the blue heaven, with no mortal kind to cheer my solitude, except the wails of hungry jackals and the wild groans of the Bengal tiger fierce, with myriads of phantom spirits, darting here and there, in weird, fantastic forms; I could not tell whether they were the creatures of some world unseen, or the ghosts of Gothama and his saints keeping vigil over the faithful. But at last, so dire and awful did grow my solitude that, overcome by fright and fatigue, I retreated into a glacial cave beneath a lofty peak. "I laid my head on a chilled stalagmite, the frozen floor to my back, and my face and belly against what I thought to be the dome of my cavern. But, by the sacred wart that grew on Gehangire's nose, what reality! What a wonderful sight! A new world, revolving through space--entirely different from ours as it had living souls and vegetation in a far more advanced stage of development than ours,--was revealed to my astonished eyes!