Costly spices grew on the shores : the pepper plant , the cinnamon tree , ginger , saffron ; the coffee plant and the tea plant . Brown people with long ears and thick lips , and hideously painted faces , hunted a yellow-spotted tiger among the high bamboos on the shore , and the tiger turned on them and stuck its claws into one of the brown men . Then all the others took to flight . ` Shall we land here ? ' asked the dream-boy . ` No , ' said Little Lasse . ` Do n't you see the tiger away there by the pepper plant ? Let us travel to another part of the world . ' ` We can do so , ' said the dream-boy with the blue eyes . ` We are not far from Africa ' -- and as he said that they were there . They anchored at the mouth of a great river where the shores were as green as the greenest velvet . A little distance from the river an immense desert stretched away . The air was yellow ; the sun shone so hot , so hot as if it would burn the earth to ashes , and the people were as black as the blackest jet . They rode across the desert on tall camels ; the lions roared with thirst , and the great crocodiles with their grey lizard heads and sharp white teeth gaped up out of the river . ` Shall we land here ? ' asked the dream-boy . ` No , ' said Little Lasse . ` The sun would burn us , and the lions and the crocodiles would eat us up . Let us travel to another part of the world . ' ` We can travel back to Europe , ' said the dream-boy with the fair hair .
And XXXXX that they were there .
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