And all this have I seen, and the talk of a thousand lovers in
the gardens of that place, comes back to me; and with it all the
memory of my dear one; and of a faint calling that would seem to
whisper about me at times; but so faint and attenuated, that even
I, who had the Night-Hearing, could not catch its import; and so
went, listening ever the more intently. And oft times calling.
Now there was a Law in the Pyramid, tried and healthful, which
held that no male should have freedom to adventure into the Night
Land, before the age of twenty-two; and no female ever.
Yet that, after such age, if a youth desired greatly to make the
adventure, he should receive three lectures upon the dangers of
which we had knowledge, and a strict account of the mutilatings and
horrid deeds done t
