Zenesta Hao--Let me see. Ah, yes, this was the language of a race known as the D[a:]hûlo, who occupied the Province of D[a:]hûlo which, some thirty centuries ago, bordered on Indolois[a:]'s southern shore. They were highly civilized and, like the Quends of to-day, did not intermarry with other races. The province was not then infertile, and through their manufacturing industries, one of which was the production of rich silken stuffs, they became the most opulent race of Ento. Then gradually arrived the not infrequent sequence. The very rich grew arrogantly selfish, and the masses with unperceiving senses yielded their rights and fell into idleness and consequent poverty which bred discontent, and soon discontent merged into turbulence and almost suddenly they turned upon their despoilers and in an incredibly brief time such devastation occurred that cities, towns and villages and country places were little less than ruins. The Governor of the Province appears to have been a timorous, incapable man who, realizing that he could not control the frenzied people, appealed for aid to the Supreme Euler, Imraû Ilvoit[a:]s, who was a wise, just and thoroughgoing man, who quickly adjusted affairs by renaming the Province Zil-Ammon, and obliging those whose selfish greed had led to the riotous proceedings, to make reparation to the wronged people and also to remove elsewhere. These vigorous measures must have been an effective object lesson, for never since has a like event occurred. The volume further relates that through the encouragement of Imraû Ilvoit[a:]s, people from other Provinces emigrated to Zil-Ammon and thus the exclusiveness of the D[a:]hûlo race was broken up, but the Province never regained its former prosperity. At that time there was a lack of systematic irrigation and the central regions were steadily growing so infertile that long previous to the birth of Inidor[a:] and Genessano the Province of Zil-Ammon was little less than a desert. Only within two Ento centuries has an attempt been made to reclaim this waste country. This volume, which once I translated into the present Ento tongue, is a history of the extinct race of D[a:]Hûlo; from its pages I have culled the fragment I have related. I should like to assist this gentleman in his effort to read the volume, but I fear he might be greatly alarmed could he even perceive me looking over his shoulder. De L'Ester--Gentol[a:], you now understand the process. Try to lightly touch his hands.