"'TO SANAIMA, THE CHIEF WHITE PRIEST OF MANOA. OR, IF DEAD, HIS DESCENDANT OR SUCCESSOR. OR TO THE REIGNING KING OF MANOA, GREETING. "'I, Apalano, the last of the descendants of the White Priests who fled with the great King Mellenda, do commend to your care the bearer of this letter, he whom ye will know by the name of Monella. He is, after myself, the sole survivor of our race outside thy land of Manoa. Treat him with all courtesy, respect and confidence, for he is of royal descent, and the unsullied blood of thine ancient line of kings flows in his veins. Mark well his counsels, give heed to his warnings, and observe his rulings; for he comes to restore the true religion of the Great Spirit, and to bring peace and happiness to our land. Long years ago he did receive a grievous injury to the head in combat with a savage foe. This cast a shadow upon his memory of the past, so that he knoweth naught of what went before, and his former life is blank, save for some vague passing glimpses that, at rare times, come back to him in the guise of dreams and visions. We could have told him much of all that went before, but we have refrained;--first for that he might not have rightly comprehended what we had to tell, and next, in mercy; for he hath suffered much. It was deemed best that the recollections of his sufferings should sleep until the time for his awakening should arrive, when the work for which the Great Spirit hath appointed him shall lie before him and shall form his sorrow's antidote and comfort. "'The memory that hath untimely been suspended--for we know that it may not be destroyed--perchance may be restored to its full power by such an accident as wrecked it; but, failing that, there is but one sure treatment--namely, to drink of the infusion of the herb called 'trenima' that groweth in Myrlanda and nowhere else. Let the stranger Monella, that bringeth this to thee, drink of 'trenima' in accordance with the rules I have laid down for him upon another scroll; let him, for some weeks, take of it sparingly even as I have written; then more frequently, and lo! all his past life, now hidden, shall be revealed to him, the sun shall light up the recesses of his memory, and he shall know himself and what lies before him. "'And my dying eyes, though unable yet to pierce the future, still can see that his coming amongst you shall be in itself a sign of the truth of these my words. When he shall appear to you I know not; only that it will be at the time the Great Spirit hath appointed--not an hour sooner nor an hour behind that time--ay, not one minute. And herein ye shall read a message from the Almighty Spirit, and ye shall know that Monella's coming at that special time was marked out by the hand of Destiny. And ye shall find upon his body marks whose meaning will be known unto Sanaima, or to him on whom hath fallen his mantle.