Chapter 39
A Vision of majestic buildings, vast, stately and gigantic! '—of streets crowded with men and women in white and coloured garments, adorned with jewels,—of flowers that grew on the roofs of palaces and swung from terrace to terrace in loops and garlands of fantastic bloom,—of trees, broadbranched and fully leafed,—of marble embankments overlooking the river,—of lotus-lilies growing thickly below, by the water's edge,—of music, that echoed in silver and brazen twangings from the shelter of shady gardens and covered balconies,—every beautiful detail rose before me more distinctly than an ivory carving mounted on an ebony shield. Just opposite where I stood, or seemed to stand, on the deck of a vessel in the busy harbour, a wide avenue extended, opening up into huge squares embell
