It happened one day, after returning to his capital from one of these expeditions, that a peasant living not far off was compelled from lack of fuel for his family to enter a forest to cut wood. Having over-exerted himself, and being very much fatigued, and his home being far, he resolved to sleep in the forest, near his wood pile. For the sake of security and uninterrupted sleep he constructed a rude hut, and fenced it round with the branches of the prostrate trees, and when it was completed he laid himself down and slept. And a sound sleep it was, we may imagine, induced by hard labour and fatigue, though not a dreamless one. For in his sleep, it is said, he dreamed a strange dream, wherein he thought he heard a voice, which said, “Go to a place in this forest, where the trees are very thick, round an open space near a stream running by, and you will there see something which will give you great wealth, and make you a great chief.” Three times the dream was repeated. These words caused the heart of the sleeping peasant to bound for joy; so much so that it woke him, and then he began to regret that the good which was promised him was but a dream and a mockery. But reflecting that he knew the place described, for he had often been there, and that it was not very far off, he thought he might as well obey the voice in the dream, if only for the sake of satisfying his curiosity. He had dreamed the same dream thrice, and each time the voice had been emphatic and precise, and he thought that there might be something of truth conveyed in it. After a few hours’ hurried travel, he approached the place described, and his movements towards the spot became now very cautious, lest some event might occur quite the reverse of his hopes, as dreams sometimes go by contraries. He heard the murmur and gurgle of the stream, and the soughing of the branches of the forest overhead in such a solitary place filled his heart with awe. He began to feel frightened, though he knew not at what, and was more than half inclined to turn back. Yet this eerie feeling and alarm might be causeless; he therefore advanced into the open space, and suddenly he saw there a sight that almost petrified him. Ranged in two rows, on either side of a venerable man, who reclined on a kind of throne, were many warriors seated on mats. They held spears and shields in their hands, and the complexion of these men was so light as to resemble that of white men. The central figure on the throne was that of an old man, whose long beard was white with age, and his complexion was similar to the warriors seated on the mats. All were clothed in spotless white robes. For a time no man spoke, though all eyes were turned on the astonished and awed peasant, and regarded him with a stern and awful gaze. Finally, the silence was broken by the voice of the old man, which sounded to the peasant like that which he had heard in the dream, and it said, “Peasant, tell me what country this is.”