(1) The Heron came in all haste and at once began to speak about himself. ' My charming house is near the sea among the lagoons, where none hears my song. I am so inoffensive that no one complains of me. Sad and melancholy, I stand pensively on the salt sea's verge, my heart filled with longing for the water, for if there were none what would become of me! But since I am not one of those who dwell in the sea, I am like to die, my lips parched, on its shore. Though the waters boil and the waves break at my feet, I cannot swallow a single drop; yet if the ocean should lose even a little of its water my heart would burn with vexation. For a creature such as I my passion for the sea is enough. I have not the strength to go in quest of the Simurgh, so I ask to be excused. How could one like me, who seeks only a drop of water, possibly attain union with the Simurgh?'

Said the Hoopoe: 'O ignorant of the sea, don't you know that it is full of crocodiles and other dangerous creatures? Sometimes its water is bitter, sometimes salt; sometimes it is calm, sometimes boisterous; always changing, never stable; sometimes it flows, sometimes it ebbs. Many great ones have been swallowed up in its abyss. The diver in its depths holds his breath lest he should be thrown up like a straw. The sea is an element devoid of loyalty. Do not trust it or it will end by submerging you. It is resdess because of its love for its friend. Sometimes it rolls great billows, sometimes it roars. Since the sea cannot find what it desires, how will you find

there a resting place for your heart! The ocean is a rill which rises in the way that leads to its friend; why then should you remain here content, and not strive to see the face of the Simurgh?'

(4) Now follow me, and mind thou do not place As yet thy feet upon the burning sand, But always keep them close unto the wood." Speaking no word, we came to where there gushes Forth from the wood a little rivulet, Whose redness makes my hair still stand on end. As from the Bulicame springs the brooklet, The sinful women later share among them, So downward through the sand it went its way. The bottom of it, and both sloping banks, Were made of stone, and the margins at the side; Whence I perceived that there the passage was. "In all the rest which I have shown to thee Since we have entered in within the gate Whose threshold unto no one is denied, Nothing has been discovered by thine eyes So notable as is the present river, Which all the little flames above it quenches." These words were of my Leader; whence I prayed him That he would give me largess of the food, For which he had given me largess of desire. "In the mid-sea there sits a wasted land," Said he thereafterward, "whose name is Crete, Under whose king the world of old was chaste.

(87) For the thin water seeketh for the valley, and is a humility of the life, which did not exalt itself, as the astringent and the bitter qualities, and the fire's quality, have done in those creatures the devils.

(4) "God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit, Thy sight is," said I, "so that never will Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; Thy voice, then, that for ever makes the heavens Glad, with the singing of those holy fires Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl, Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me." "The greatest of the valleys where the water Expands itself," forthwith its words began, "That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, Between discordant shores against the sun Extends so far, that it meridian makes Where it was wont before to make the horizon. I was a dweller on that valley's shore 'Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese. With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly Sit Buggia and the city whence I was, That with its blood once made the harbour hot. Folco that people called me unto whom My name was known; and now with me this heaven Imprints itself, as I did once with it;

(40) In the water it causes a stink, putridness and rankness, a forgetfulness of all good things, a melancholy or sadness of life, a house of death, a beginning of sorrow and an end of joy Of the Astringent or Saltish Quality.

(6) Beneath the water people are who sigh And make this water bubble at the surface, As the eye tells thee wheresoe'er it turns. Fixed in the mire they say, 'We sullen were In the sweet air, which by the sun is gladdened, Bearing within ourselves the sluggish reek; Now we are sullen in this sable mire.' This hymn do they keep gurgling in their throats, For with unbroken words they cannot say it." Thus we went circling round the filthy fen A great arc 'twixt the dry bank and the swamp, With eyes turned unto those who gorge the mire; Unto the foot of a tower we came at last.

(8) And for Ham came forth the second portion, beyond the Gihon towards the south to the right of the Garden, and it extendcth towards the south and it extendeth to all the mountains of fire, and it extendeth towards the west to the sea of 'Atel and it extendeth towards the west till it reacheth the sea of Ma'uk • — that (sea) into which feverything which is not de- stroyed descendethj.

(4) An ocean, a seer alone without duality, becomes he whose world is Brahma, O King! ' — thus Yajnavalkya instructed him. £ This is a man's highest path. This is his highest achievement. This is his highest world. This is his highest bliss. On a part of just this bliss other creatures have their living.

(5) Let us descend now unto greater woe; Already sinks each star that was ascending When I set out, and loitering is forbidden." We crossed the circle to the other bank, Near to a fount that boils, and pours itself Along a gully that runs out of it. The water was more sombre far than perse; And we, in company with the dusky waves, Made entrance downward by a path uncouth. A marsh it makes, which has the name of Styx, This tristful brooklet, when it has descended Down to the foot of the malign gray shores. And I, who stood intent upon beholding, Saw people mud-besprent in that lagoon, All of them naked and with angry look. They smote each other not alone with hands, But with the head and with the breast and feet, Tearing each other piecemeal with their teeth. Said the good Master: "Son, thou now beholdest The souls of those whom anger overcame; And likewise I would have thee know for certain

(89) And that sea was divided, and the water stood on this side and on that before their face, and their Lord led them and placed Himself between them and the wolves.

(113) Now in the elementary water on earth the sweetness is not the chief or upper regent, but the astringent, bitter and sour quality; else the water were not mortal, but were as that water is out of which heaven is created.

(6) I watched the appearance of the weather-- the weather was frightful to behold! I went into the boat and sealed the entry. For the caulking of the boat, to Puzuramurri, the boatman, I gave the palace together with its contents. Just as dawn began to glow there arose from the horizon a black cloud. Adad rumbled inside of it, before him went Shullat and Hanish, heralds going over mountain and land. Erragal pulled out the mooring poles, forth went Ninurta and made the dikes overflow. The Anunnaki lifted up the torches, setting the land ablaze with their flare. Stunned shock over Adad's deeds overtook the heavens, and turned to blackness all that had been light. The... land shattered like a... pot. All day long the South Wind blew..., blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water, overwhelming the people like an attack.

(44) And when the Light of the Sun appeared in the fierce [Sourness or] Harshness, then the Harshness became thin and a sweet, even Water, and the Fierceness in the Fire-flash was extinguished by the Water, so that the Anger stood still, yet the Will could not rest, but went forth in the Mother, out of the Water, and moved itself, which is the Air: And that which the fierce Sourness had attracted to it, that was thrust out of the Element, in the Water, as you see that the Earth swims in the Water.

(14) Some are of the quality of the water, and those are light, like the holy heaven; and when the light shineth on them, then they look like to a crystalline sea.

(56) The gods and the glorious ones look at its water from afar, they do not quench their thirst, and their heart is not set at rest, because they may not go near it

(2) Its eastern quarter is called Guhû, its southern Sahamânâ, its western Râgñî, its northern Subhûtâ . The child of those quarters is Vâyu, the air, and he who knows that the air is indeed the child of the quarters, never weeps for his sons. 'I know the wind to be the child of the quarters, may I never weep for my sons.'

(91) The astringent or harsh quality in the spirit that went forth kindled the astringent or harsh quality which was in the place of its region, or in nature, viz. in the seventh qualifying or fountain spirit, and ruled powerfully in the astringent quality in the Salitter; and that, the astringent quality in the Salitter would not have, but strove with the sweet water against this spirit; but all would not help, the storm grew hotter and hotter, the longer the greater, till at length the astringent or harsh quality of the Salitter was kindled.

(9) For when the seven spirits kindled themselves in their outermost birth or geniture, then they generated such a violent moving spirit; and so the sweet water, which before the times of the wrath was very rarified and thin and incomprehensible, grew very thick and elevated and swelled, and the astringent quality grew very sharp and coldfiery or fiercecold, for it got a strong attracting together, like salt.

(29) For in the sweet water it is very meek, from whence love existeth, and is only a loving warmth, but no fire.

(1) To run o'er better waters hoists its sail The little vessel of my genius now, That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel; And of that second kingdom will I sing Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy. But let dead Poesy here rise again, O holy Muses, since that I am yours, And here Calliope somewhat ascend, My song accompanying with that sound, Of which the miserable magpies felt The blow so great, that they despaired of pardon. Sweet colour of the oriental sapphire, That was upgathered in the cloudless aspect Of the pure air, as far as the first circle, Unto mine eyes did recommence delight Soon as I issued forth from the dead air, Which had with sadness filled mine eyes and breast. The beauteous planet, that to love incites, Was making all the orient to laugh, Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort. To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind Upon the other pole, and saw four stars Ne'er seen before save by the primal people.