A serpent thirty cubits long, his body overlaid with gold, his eyebrows of true lapis, his beard more than two cubits. He is looking at you with enormous, patient kindness.
The great serpent lowers his golden head until his lapis brows are level with your eyes. 'Little one. You have come back.'
'Welcome to the Island of the Ka, little one. Eat. Rest. Nobody is shipwrecked here for long.'
'I am the Lord of Punt. Myrrh is mine, and the hekenu-oil, and the incense of the terraces. Your people bring me myrrh as a gift. I laugh, little one. Kindly. But I laugh.'
'This is the Island of the Ka. It is not always here. It rises when someone needs it, and when they leave it becomes water again, until the next one.'
'Many years ago another sailor lay on that beach, as you did. He promised to tell of me in his town. I hear he told everyone, and nobody believed him. That is the way of it.'
