NEW ATLANTIS. 387 



middle of the half-pace, is a chair placed for him, 

 with a table and carpet before it. Over the chair 

 is a state, 1 made round or oval, and it is of ivy ; an 

 ivy somewhat whiter than ours, like the leaf of a sil 

 ver asp, but more shining ; for it is green all winter. 

 And the state is curiously wrought with silver and silk 

 of divers colours, broiding or binding in the ivy ; and 

 is ever of the work of some of the daughters of the 

 family ; and veiled over at the top with a fine net of 

 silk and silver. But the substance of it is true ivy ; 

 whereof, after it is taken down, the friends of the 

 family are desirous to have some leaf or sprig to keep. 

 The Tirsan cometh forth with all his generation or 

 lineage, 2 the males before him, and the females follow 

 ing him ; and if there be a mother from whose body 

 the whole lineage is descended, there is a traverse 

 placed in a loft above on the right hand of the chair, 

 with a privy door, and a carved window of glass, 

 leaded with gold and blue ; where she sitteth, but is 

 not seen. When the Tirsan is come forth, he sitteth 

 down in the chair ; and all the lineage place them 

 selves against the wall, both at his back and upon the 

 return of the half-pace, 3 in order of their years without 

 difference of sex ; and stand upon their feet. When 

 he is set ; the room being always full of company, but 

 well kept and without disorder; after some pause there 

 cometh in from the lower end of the room a Taratan 

 (which is as much as an herald) and on either side of 



1 t. e. a canopy, conopeum. 



2 linage in the original ; which seems to be the proper form of the word. 

 The e may have been introduced originally as a direction for the lengthen 

 ing of the first syllable ; and then the resemblance of the word to such 

 words as lineal may have suggested the modern pronunciation. 



8 juxia panetem, tarn a (ergo quam a lateribus auke, super gradum ascciisfo. 



