“Sire,” replied the Queen Gulnare, “I shall with pleasure satisfy the king of Persia.  We can walk at the bottom of the sea with as much ease as you can upon land; and we can breathe in the water as you do in the air; so that instead of suffocating us, as it does you, it absolutely contributes to the preservation of our lives.  What is yet more remarkable is, that it never wets our clothes; so that when we wish to visit the earth, we have no occasion to dry them.  Our language is the same with that of the writing engraved upon the seal of the great prophet Solomon the son of David.

“I must not forget to inform you further, that the water does not in the least hinder us from seeing:  for we can open our eyes without any inconvenience:  and as we have quick, piercing sight, we can discern any objects as clearly in the deepest part of the sea as upon land.  We have also there a succession of day and night; the moon affords us her light; and even the planets and the stars appear visible to us.  I have already spoken of our kingdoms; but as the sea is much more spacious than the earth, so there are a great number of them, and of great extent.  They are divided into provinces; and in each province are several great cities well peopled.  In short there is an infinite number of nations differing in manners and customs, as they do on the earth.

“The palaces of the kings and princes are sumptuous and magnificent.  Some of them are constructed of marble of various colours; others of rock-crystal, with which the sea abounds, mother of pearl, coral, and of other materials more valuable; gold, silver, and all sorts of precious stones are more plentiful there than on earth.  I say nothing of the pearls, since the largest that ever were seen upon earth would not be valued amongst us; and none but the very lowest rank of citizens would wear them.

“As we have a marvellous and incredible agility to transport ourselves whither we please in the twinkling of an eye, we have no occasion for carriages or horses; not but the king has his stables and his stud of sea horses; but they are seldom used, except upon public feasts or rejoicing days.  Some, after they have trained them, take delight in riding and shewing their skill and dexterity in races; others put them to chariots of mother of pearl, adorned with an infinite number of shells of all sorts, of the liveliest colours.  These chariots are open; and in the middle is a throne on which the king sits, and shows himself to the public view of his subjects.  The horses are trained to draw by themselves; so that there is no occasion for a charioteer to guide them.  I pass over a thousand other curious particulars relating to these submarine countries, which would be very entertaining to your majesty; but you must permit me to defer them to a future opportunity, to speak of something of much greater consequence, which is, that the method of delivering, and the way of managing the women of the sea in their