Then the sailors lit the lanterns for the night, and huge
moths appeared, flapping about the ship, and at moments their gorgeous
colours would be revealed by the lanterns, then they would pass into
the night again, where all was black. And again the sailors prayed,
and thereafter we supped and slept, and the helmsman took our lives
into his care.
When I awoke I found that we had indeed come to Perdondaris, that
famous city. For there it stood upon the left of us, a city fair and
notable, and all the more pleasant for our eyes to see after the
jungle that was so long with us. And we were anchored by the
marketplace, and the captain's merchandise was all displayed, and a
merchant of Perdondaris stood looking at it. And the captain had his
scimitar in his hand, and was beating with it in anger upon the deck,
and the splinters were flying up from the white planks; for the
merchant had offered him a price for his merchandise that the captain
declared to be an insult to himself and his country's gods, whom he
now said to be great and terrible gods, whose curses were to be
dreaded. But the merchant waved his hands, which were of great
fatness, showing his pink palms, and swore that of himself he thought
not at all, but only of the poor folk in the huts beyond the city to
whom he wished to sell the merchandise for as low a price as possible,
leaving no remuneration for himself. For the merchandise was mostly
the thick toomarund carpets that in the winter keep the wind from the
floor, and tollub which the people smoke in pipes.
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