The suzerain lord of the estate is the great sire Dom Manuel, count of Poictesme. We find him enthroned on the threshold of the Cabellian saga, in a book called “Figures of Earth.” It is difficult to summarize Cabell’s novels. In epic fashion they are composed of a long string of episodes and cantos. Before he became the lord of Poictesme, Manuel began life as a plain herder of pigs. In his leisure moments he used to model little clay figures. One day a stranger passed by and admired Manuel’s handsome countenance. How could such a fine fellow be a pig herder? Let him arise and march to adventure. Upon a mountain, guarded by monsters, the magician Miramon Lluagor holds the princess Gisele captive. She awaits a Saint George to free her and by loving her to inherit the treasures of Miramon. So Manuel departs like another Siegfried. He climbs the mountain, frees Gisele and ... does not marry her. At the foot of the enchanted castle he had met the mysterious Niafer who helped him to fight Miramon’s enchantments. He marries Niafer instead of the beautiful princess. It is not easy to say why, for Cabell’s allegories are often obscure, and I leave the trouble to pick their precise meaning to scholars. Did the author want to suggest that between what Emerson called _first_ and _second_ thoughts, between _tuitions_ and _intuitions_, a wise man will “think twice” and choose the latter, and so did Manuel? Whatever may be the case, Dom Manuel has now started on his crusade. We follow him in wonderland among the most pleasant gambols of the writer’s fancy. After being delayed at the foot of the mountain by Miramon’s enchantments, they come to the magic castle on the top. And then the tale tells how Manuel freed princess Gisele; how he gave her up for his good companion Niafer; how selfish Manuel surrendered Niafer to the rider of the Pale Horse; how he made Figures of Earth; how, in order to give them life, he conquered the magician Freydis; how he missed Niafer; how he brought her back to life with the help of the Head of Misery; how he won back the kingdom of Poictesme; how he had a daughter named Melisande; how he escaped the witchcraft of Alienor and Freydis; and how he finally surrendered himself to Grandfather Death who took him over to the river Styx on his black charger, that he might see his real image in the water. The novelist never allows humor and parody to conceal his serious purpose. Dom Manuel is a most dramatic and suggestive figure, half fictitious, half real. He impersonates Cabell’s views on the conflict between life and dreams. The last chapters of “Figures of Earth” recall some of the most beautiful medieval allegories. I quote as an example the scene where Grandfather Death calls on Dom Manuel to take him away to the subterranean world: