After the evening meal Captain Baunt assembled the ship’s company on the midship deck. Standing halfway up the companionway ladder he spoke a few words in regard to Lausicaa and the town Pompodouros.

“Those of you who have visited this place before, I doubt if there are many, will understand why I must issue warnings. In a nut-shell, you will find certain customs which guide the folk of this island to be at variance with our own. They may impress you as strange, grotesque, laughable, disgraceful, picturesque or commendable, depending upon your point of view. Whatever the case, we must take note of these customs and abide by them, since the folk of Lausicaa will definitely not alter their ways in favor of ours.”

Captain Baunt smilingly acknowledged the presence of Madame Soldinck and her three daughters. “My remarks apply almost exclusively to the gentlemen aboard, and if I touch upon topics which might be considered tasteless, I can only plead necessity; so I beg your indulgence!”

Soldinck cried out bluffly: “Enough of your breast-beating, Baunt! Speak up! We are all reasonable people aboard, Madame Soldinck included!”

Captain Baunt waited until the laughter had died down. “Very well then! Look along the dock yonder; you will notice three persons standing under the street-lamp. All are men. The faces of each are hidden behind hoods and veils. For this precaution there is reason: the ebullience of the local females. So vivacious is their nature that men dare not display their faces for fear of provoking ungovernable impulses. Female voyeurs go so far as to peek through windows of the clubhouse where the men gather to drink beer, sometimes with their faces partially exposed.”

At this information Madame Soldinck and her daughters laughed nervously. “Extraordinary!” said Madame Soldinck. “And women of every social class act in this fashion?”

“Absolutely!”

Meadhre asked diffidently: “Do the men propose marriage with their faces concealed?”

Captain Baunt reflected. “So far as I know, the idea never enters anyone’s head.”

“It does not seem a wholesome atmosphere in which to bring up children,” said Madame Soldinck.

“Apparently the children are not seriously affected,” said Captain Baunt. “Until the age of ten boys may sometimes be seen barefaced, but even during these tender years they are protected from adventurous young females. At the age of ten they ‘go under the veil’, to use the local idiom.”

“How tiresome for the girls!” sighed Salasser.

“And also undignified!” said Tabazinth with emphasis. “Suppose I noticed what appeared to be a handsome young man, and ran after him and finally subdued him, and then, when I pulled away his hood, I found protruding yellow teeth, a big nose and a narrow receding forehead. What next? I would feel a fool simply getting up and walking away.”

Meadhre suggested: “You could tell the gentleman that you merely wanted directions back to the ship.”

“Whatever the case,” Captain Baunt went on, “the women of Lausicaa have evolved techniques to restore the equilibrium. After this fashion:

“The men are partial to spraling, which are small delicate bidechtils. They swim at the surface of the sea in the early morning. The women, therefore, arise in the pre-dawn hours, wade out into the sea, where they capture as much spraling as possible, then return to their huts.

“Those women with a good catch set their fires going and hang out signs, such as: FINE SPRALING TODAY, or TASTY SPRALING TO YOUR ORDER.

“The men arise in due course and stroll about the town. When at last they work up an appetite, they stop by a hut where the sign offers refreshment to their taste. Often, if the spraling is fresh and the company good, they may stay for dinner as well.”

Madame Soldinck sniffed and murmured aside to her daughters, who merely shrugged and shook their heads.

Soldinck climbed two steps up the companionway ladder. “Captain Baunt’s remarks are not to be taken lightly! When you go ashore, wear a robe or a loose gown and by some means muffle your face so as to avoid any unseemly or improper incident! Am I clear?”

Captain Baunt said: “In the morning we will moor at the dock and attend to our various items of business. Drofo, I suggest that you put this interval to good purpose. Anoint your animals well and cure all chafes, galls and cankers. Exercise them daily about the harbor, since idleness brings on impaction. Cure all your infestations; trim all gills. These hours in port are precious; each must be used to the fullest, without regard for day or night.”

“This echoes my own thinking,” said Drofo. “I will immediately give the necessary orders to Cugel.”

Soldinck called out: “A final word! Lankwiler’s departure with the starboard off-worm might have caused us enormous inconvenience were it not for the wise tactics of our Chief Worminger. I propose a cheer for the estimable Drofo!”

Drofo acknowledged the acclamation with a curt jerk of the head, then turned away to instruct Cugel, after which he went forward to lean on the rail and brood across the waters of the harbor.

Cugel worked until midnight with his cutters, burnishing irons and reamer, then treated pust, gangue, and timp. Drofo had long since vacated his place on the bow and Captain Baunt had retired early. Cugel stealthily abandoned his work and went below to his bunk.

Almost immediately, or so it seemed, he was aroused by Codnicks the deck-boy. Blinking and yawning Cugel stumbled up to the deck, to find the sun rising and Captain Baunt impatiently pacing back and forth.

At the sight of Cugel Captain Baunt stopped short. “Hurrah! You have finally decided to honor us with your presence! Naturally our important business ashore can wait until you have drowsed and dozed to your heart’s content. Are you finally able to face the day?”

“Aye, sir!”

“Thank you, Cugel. Drofo, here, at long last, is your worminger!”

“Very good, Captain. Cugel, you must learn to be on hand when you are needed. Now return your worms into cincture. We are ready to work our way into the dock. Keep your muffles ready to hand. Use no bait.”

With Captain Baunt on the quarter-deck, Drofo alert at the bow and Cugel tending worms to port and starboard, the Galante eased across the harbor to the dock. Longshoremen, wearing long black gowns, tall hats with veils shrouding their faces, took mooring-lines and made the ship fast to bollards. Cugel muffled the worms, eased cinctures and fed victual all around.

Captain Baunt assigned Cugel and the deck-boy to gangplank watch; every one else, suitably dressed and veiled, went ashore. Cugel immediately concealed his features behind a makeshift veil, donned a cloak and likewise went ashore, followed in short order by Codnicks the deck-boy.

Many years before, Cugel had passed through the old city Kaiin in Ascolais, north of Almery. In the decayed grandeur of Pompodouros he discovered haunting recollections of Kaiin, conveyed principally by the fallen and ruined palaces along the hillside, now overgrown with foxglove and stone-weed and a few small pencil cypresses.

Pompodouros occupied a barren hollow surrounded by low hills. The present inhabitants had put the mouldering stones from the ruins to their own purposes: huts, the men’s clubhouse, the marketdome, a sickhouse for men and another for women, one slaughter-house, two schools, four taverns, six temples, a number of small work-shops and the brewery. In the plaza a dozen white dolomite statues, now more or less dilapidated, cast stark black shadows away from the wan red sunlight.

There seemed no streets to Pompodouros, only open areas and cleared spaces through the rubble which served as avenues. Along these by-ways the men and women of the town moved about their business. The men, by virtue of their long gowns and black veils hanging below their hats, seemed tall and spare. The women wore skirts of furze dyed dark green, dark red, gray or violet-gray, tasseled shawls and beaded caps, into which the more coquettish inserted the plumes of sea-birds.

A number of small carriages, drawn by those squat heavy-legged creatures known as ‘droggers’, moved through the places of Pompodouros; others, awaiting hire, ranged in a line before the men’s club-house.

Bunderwal had been delegated to escort Madame Soldinck and her daughters on a tour of nearby places of interest; they hired a carriage and set off about their sightseeing. Captain Baunt and Soldinck were met by several local dignitaries and conducted into the men’s clubhouse.

With his face concealed behind the veil, Cugel also entered the club-house. At a counter he bought a pewter jug of beer and took it to a booth close beside that where Captain Baunt, Soldinck, and some others drank beer and discussed business of the voyage.

By pressing his ear against the back of the booth and listening with care, Cugel was able to capture the gist of the conversation. “— most extraordinary flavor to this beer,” came Soldinck’s voice. “It tastes of tar.”

“I believe that it is brewed from tarweed and other such constituents,” replied Captain Baunt. “It is said to be nutritious but it slides down the gullet as if it had claws … Aha! Here is Drofo.”

Soldinck lifted his veil to look. “How can you tell, with his face concealed?”

“Easily. He wears the yellow boots of a worminger.”

“That is clear enough. Who is the other person?”

“I suspect the gentleman to be his friend Pulk. Hoy, Drofo! Over here!”

The newcomers joined Captain Baunt and Soldinck. Drofo said: “I hereby introduce the worminger Pulk, of whom you have heard me speak. I have hinted of our needs and Pulk has been kind enough to give the matter his attention.”

“Good!” said Captain Baunt. “I hope that you also mentioned our need for a worm, preferably a ‘Motilator’ or a ‘Magna-fluke’?”

“Well, Pulk,” asked Drofo, “what of it?”

Pulk spoke in a measured voice. “I believe that a worm of the requisite quality might be available from my nephew Fuscule, especially if he were signed aboard the Galante as a worminger.”

Soldinck looked from one to the other. “Then we would have three wormingers aboard ship, in addition to Drofo. That is impractical.”