And Saranoora told me that they have
named the bird the Sister of Song; but for the musicians, who
presently played again, she said they had no name, for no one knew who
they were or from what country. Then some one sang quite near us in
the darkness to an instrument of strings telling of Singanee and his
battle against the monster. And soon we saw him sitting on the ground
and singing to the night of that spear-thrust that had found the
thumping heart of the destroyer of Perdondaris; and we stopped awhile
and asked him who had seen so memorable a struggle and he answered
none but Singanee and he whose tusk had scattered Perdondaris, and now
the last was dead. And when we asked him if Singanee had told him of
the struggle he said that that proud hunter would say no word about it
and that therefore his mighty deed was given to the poets and become
their trust forever, and he struck again his instrument of strings and
sang on.
When the strings of pearls that hung down from her neck began to gleam
all over Saranoora I knew that dawn was near and that that memorable
night was all but gone. And at last we left the garden and came to
the abyss to see the sunrise shine on the amethyst cliff. And at first
it lit up the beauty of Saranoora and then it topped the world and
blazed upon those cliffs of amethyst until it dazzled our eyes, and we
turned from it and saw the workman going out along the tusk to hollow
it and to carve a balustrade of fair professional figures.
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