The Ark was rudderless, oarless, and machineless, and travel only where the High Gods chose. The was dark, and full of an smell, and with and noise. I not the fire-box to the lamp, and so we had to what was out to us. The us in sport, and I on by the of Nais, her to the bed. We did not speak much, but there was full in our and our silence.
When Atlantis to new bed, she left great and from her as a to the Gods of the Sea. And then, I think (though in the black of the Ark we not see these things), a of wind must have come on next so as to no piece of the incomplete. For seven nights and seven days did this continue, as for us by the of hours which the Ark, and then the of the wind departed, and only the roll of a long still remained. It was regular and it was oily, as I tell by the of the motion, and then for the time I to go up the stair, and open the door which in the of the Ark.
The sweet air came to the within, and as the Ark over the seas, I and up Nais to from the of our Lord the Sun. Duly the pair of us Him, and gave thanks for His great in to light another day, and then we ourselves where we were to doze, and take that easy which we so urgently needed.
Yet, though I was words, for long sleep would not visit me. Wearily I out over the waters. No of land met the eye. The ring of was on every side, and overhead the of unchanged. The of the was with the of Atlantis, to one, if there had been a need, that what had come about was fact, and not some dream. Trees, timber, a and of hides, and here and there the of a man or over the swells, and with our Ark as she on in of the Gods and the current.
But sleep came to me at last, and I off into unconsciousness, the hand of Nais in mine, and when next I woke, I her open-eyed also and me tenderly. We were rested, of us, and and one complacency. We were more now to accept the station which the High Gods had for us without repining, and so we again into the of the Ark to eat and drink and maintain for the new life which us.
A was this Ark, now we were able to see it at and intimately. Although for the time now in all its centuries of life it upon the waters, it no or suncrack. Inside, its was dry. That it was from some wood, one see by the grainings, but one or joint. The had been put in place and then together by an art which we have to-day, but which the Ancients with much perfection; and some treatment, which is also a of those builders, had the as hard as metal and to all of the weather.
In the of its were many matters. At one end, in great on either of alley, was a store of grain. Sweet water was in other at the other end. In another place were and samples, and of the life of beasts; all these being for use the Ark under the of the Gods on the of the deep. On all the of the Ark, and on all the of the and the other woodwork, there were in the art of time of all the which in Atlantis; and on these I looked with a hunter’s interest, as some of them were to me, and had died out with the men who had them in these sculptures. There was a good store of too and the for handicrafts.
Now, for many weeks, our life in this Ark as the Gods it about here and there across the of the waters. We had no government over direction; we not by so much as a hair’s a day her speed. The High Gods that had the two of us to be the only ones saved out of all Atlantis, had of our fate, and into Their hands we our direction.
Of that land which we in time, and where we our place, and where our children were born, I shall tell of in its place; but since this has so in an exact order of the events as they came to pass, it is necessary to how we came by the on which it is written.
In a great coffer, in the centre of the Ark’s floor, the whole of the Mysteries learned the study of were set in writing. I read through some of them the days which passed, and the of the Powers over which they gave me. I had some of these Powers set in Atlantis, and was a of her destruction. But here were Powers higher than those; here was the great Secret of Life and Death which Phorenice also had found, and for which she had been destroyed; and there were other also of which I cannot my to scribe.
The of being of these was more than I endure, and the more the rested in my mind, the more the burden. And at last I took irons, and with them the on the till every of the old was obliterated. If I did wrong, the High Gods in Their will give me punishment; if it is well that these great should on earth, They in their power will them to some scribes; but I them there as the Ark with us over the waves; and later, when we came to land, I upon the the which to great Atlantis being to her death-throes.
Nais, that I love so tenderly—
[TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The are too to be legible.]
