Within that courtyard there was a horse of brass with a giant man of
brass upon it, the giant man holding a great bow in his hands. My
master said to me, “If one came over the bridge of air without my
authority, the arrow of that bow would be loosened, and he who came
across the bridge would be slain by this giant man of brass.” We went
within the castle. In the hall were benches and tables, and there were
statues holding torches in their hands standing by the wall. Also in
that hall there was the statue of a woman holding a dart in her hand.
When my master came within, the statue that held the dart flung it, and
the dart struck a gleaming carbuncle that was in the wall. Lights came
into the torches that the statues held, and all the hall was lighted up.
I sat with my master at a table, and the statues moved to us, bringing
us wine and fruits. We ate and drank, and afterward a golden figure
came to the Enchanter, and, sitting down before him, played a game of
chess with him.
The next day my master showed me more of the wonders of the Inaccessible
Island. No ships came near, for there was no way to come to that island
except by following the birds that were of the whiteness of a swan and
that flew always in the middle distance. On this island Zabulun the
Enchanter had lived for longer than the lifetimes of many men, studying
magic and all the ways of enchantment. And for three years I, Eean, the
son of the fisherman of the Western Island, stayed with him, learning
such things as were proper for one apprenticed to an Enchanter to know.
III. THE ENCHANTER GOES TO BABYLON
In the three years that were passed in the Inaccessible Island, nothing
that is worth my telling happened, O King. But at the end of the three
years my master said to me, “We will leave the Inaccessible Island, for
I have a mighty business before me.” And when I asked, “Where do we
go, O master?” he answered, “We go to Babylon.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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