(4) Certainly they crossed the sea when they came there to the East, when they went to receive the investiture of the kingdom. And this was the name of the Lord, King of the East, where they went. When they arrived before Lord Nacxit, which was the name of the great lord, the only supreme judge of all the kingdoms, he gave them the insignia of the kingdom and all its distinctive symbols. Then came the insignia of Ahpop and Ahpop-Camhá, and then the insignia of the grandeur and the sovereignty of the Ahpop and the Ahpop-Camhá. And Nacxit ended by giving them the insignia of royalty, which are: the canopy, the throne, the flutes of bone, the cham-cham, yellow beads, puma claws, jaguar claws, the heads and feet of the deer, dais, snail shells, tobacco, little gourds, parrot feathers, standards of royal aigrette feathers, tatam, and caxcon. All the foregoing they carried, those who came after going to the other side of the sea to receive the paintings of Tulán, the paintings, as these were called, in which they wrote their histories.

(2) And on the fifth day l He created great sea monsters in the depths of the waters, for these were the first things of flesh that were created by His hands, the fish and everything that moves in the waters, and everything that flies, the birds and all their kind.

(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?'

(11) At that time there was a movement in the sea

(520) 1221 Further, to say: O ye four who are in possession of curls, 1221 your curls are in front of you (or, on your forehead), 1221 your curls are at your temples, 1221 your curls are at the back of your head, 1221 (and that which is) in the middle of your head are braids. 1222 Bring this boat to N.; bring this boat to N. 1222 It is rr and Sees-behind-him who will ferry N. over, 1222 (when) N. ferries over to that side where the imperishable stars are, 1222 that N. may be with them. 1223 If you do not at once ferry over in the ferry-boat of N., 1223 then N. will tell this your name to the people whom he knows, 1223 to the "wicked-men"; 1223 so then N. will pluck out those braids, which are in the middle of your head, 1223 like lotus flowers in-the lotus pond.

(10) Thou art a duck, and flourishest on land and water, And dost not, like a domestic fowl, dig up the house. Thou art a king of "the sons of Adam honored by God," l And settest foot alike on sea and land; For impress on thy mind, "We have carried them by sea," Before the words, "We have carried them by land." The angels go not on dry land, And the animals know nothing of the sea; Thou in body art an animal, in thy soul an angel;

(3) Sebak, the Lord of the Marshes, said: “I sought and I found the traces of them under my fingers on the strand. I netted them in a powerful net, as the net proved to be.”

(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.

(1) O Ye, who in some pretty little boat, Eager to listen, have been following Behind my ship, that singing sails along, Turn back to look again upon your shores; Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure, In losing me, you might yourselves be lost. The sea I sail has never yet been passed; Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. Ye other few who have the neck uplifted Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which One liveth here and grows not sated by it, Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you Upon the water that grows smooth again. Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, When Jason they beheld a ploughman made! The con-created and perpetual thirst For the realm deiform did bear us on, As swift almost as ye the heavens behold. Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her; And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself,

(17) Regarding the ox-fish they say, that it exists in all seas; when it utters a cry all fish become pregnant, and all noxious water-creatures cast their young.

(5) When I was near unto the blessed shore, "Asperges me," I heard so sweetly sung, Remember it I cannot, much less write it. The beautiful lady opened wide her arms, Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath, Where I was forced to swallow of the water. Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought Into the dance of the four beautiful, And each one with her arm did cover me. 'We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars; Ere Beatrice descended to the world, We as her handmaids were appointed her. We'll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine The three beyond, who more profoundly look.' Thus singing they began; and afterwards Unto the Griffin's breast they led me with them, Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us. "See that thou dost not spare thine eyes," they said; "Before the emeralds have we stationed thee, Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his weapons."

(60) And on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over the fountains of the waters.

(16) Of the small seas that which was most wholesome was the sea Kyânsîh, such as is in Sagastân; at first, noxious creatures, snakes, and lizards (vazagh) were not in it, and the water was sweeter than in any of the other seas; later (dadîgar) it became salt; at the closest, on account of the stench, it is not possible to go so near as one league, so very great are the stench and saltness through the violence of the hot wind.

(43) Now God said, Let all Manner of Beasts come forth, every one after its Kind; and so there came forth out of the Essence of every one's kind, a Male and Female. And thus the Spirit of the Stars, or the Spirit of the Form of Fire, had now by its Longing copulated with the watery [Spirit,] and two Sexes sprung out of one Essence; the one according to the Limbus in the Form of Fire, and the other according to. the Aquaster [or Spirit of the Water] in the watery Form; yet so [blended or] mixed, that they were alike as to the Body. And so the Male was qualified according to the Limbus, or Form of Fire, and the Female according to the Aquaster in the watery Form.

(92) Timaeus: And the fourth kind, which lives in the water, came from the most utterly thoughtless and stupid of men, whom those that remolded them deemed no longer worthy even of pure respiration, seeing that they were unclean of soul through utter wickedness; wherefore in place of air, for refined and pure respiring, they thrust them into water, there to respire its turbid depths. Thence have come into being the tribe of fishes and of shellfish and all creatures of the waters, which have for their portion the extremest of all abodes in requital for the extremity of their witlessness. Thus, both then and now, living creatures keep passing

(17) I know the name of the fishermen who are fishing; they are the worms, the ancestors of Rā, the creatures, the ancestors of Seb

(7) I am gladdened in my very entrails, and am associated with the divine mariners, who circle round to the East of Heaven. I eat as they eat, and I feed upon what they feed. I eat bread from the house of the Lord of offerings

(6) A thousand longings, hotter than the flame, Fastened mine eyes upon those eyes relucent, That still upon the Griffin steadfast stayed. As in a glass the sun, not otherwise Within them was the twofold monster shining, Now with the one, now with the other nature. Think, Reader, if within myself I marvelled, When I beheld the thing itself stand still, And in its image it transformed itself. While with amazement filled and jubilant, My soul was tasting of the food, that while It satisfies us makes us hunger for it, Themselves revealing of the highest rank In bearing, did the other three advance, Singing to their angelic saraband.

(115) Antiquity has represented the angels in pictures like men with wings, but they have no need of any wings, yet they have hands and feet as men have, but after a heavenly manner and kind.

(2) "And my garment of fire, according to the will of the majesty, went down to what is strong, and to the unclean portion of nature that the power of darkness was covering. And my garment rubbed nature in her covering. And her unclean femininity was strong. And the wrathful womb came up and made the mind dry, resembling a fish that has a drop of fire and a power of fire. And when nature had cast off the mind, she was troubled and wept. When she was hurt and in her tears, she cast off the power of the spirit and remained as I am. I put on the light of the spirit and rested with my garment on account of the sight of the fish. And that the deeds of nature might be condemned, since she is blind, manifold animals came out of her, in accordance with the number of the fleeting winds. All of them came into being in Hades, searching for the light of the mind that took shape. They were not able to stand up against it. I rejoiced over their ignorance.