laid aside except to be replaced by a new vesture, and that was every few days; for all germs and débris that adhered to it or obstructed its pores could be destroyed and got rid of by the electric current the wearer had control of. It was on my first visit to Oomalefa that I came to know these things, as it was then that I first donned a like vesture, and was taught its properties and the ways of managing it and the minute electro-generator that went with it. There were alternative garments, that they wore under different conditions. One, almost as plastic as the ordinary vesture, but armoured by electricity against the inroads of excessive cold, was worn when they ventured up into the higher regions of the air or beyond; for it enabled them to keep up the natural temperature of the body as they flew. Another was as well suited for protection against extreme heat. It consisted of an asbestine double wall of irelium, within which was kept up a constant current of cold air by means of a minute apparatus worked by their wings and arms; and, if they could get moisture from the atmosphere to run between the two textile folds, it was at once frozen. Such an arrangement was necessary in their adventurous experiments in the bowels of the earth or under the blazing eye of the sun. The most beautiful and most convenient of all their vestures was one which looked and felt like a film of white cloud; I would have said that it was woven of the misty fleeces that caught and rent themselves on the lesser peaks of Lilaroma. It was indeed no distant mimicry of this; for though it could be thrown loosely round the figure in the most graceful forms like a toga, and seemed as thin and fragile as gossamer, it consisted of a treble fabric: between two transparent films, fairly delicate as if woven by a spider on a windless dawn, moved in cloud-like purity and dimness the airy vapour of some liquid that shone as silvery and warm as moonlight. Its purpose was to conceal and yet to reveal the general contour and movements of the body; to sift the strength of the sun’s rays as they fell in their purity from heaven, and yet to pass as much of their curative power through it as the skin needed; to cling to the limbs, and yet to impede them no more than a fleece of cloud would.