76 LITERATURE. 



nowadays amongst men who have fallen into the clutches of misery, they began to look 

 askance at each other, the venom of doubt had been instilled into their bosoms, and they 

 asked themselves, who was the cause of it, who had brought upon them such a malediction? 

 Dark thoughts, dire terrors, and constant fear seized upon them and took away the charms 

 of the lake, the forest, the meadows, which were themselves languishing and growing sadder 

 and sadder at not hearing the old joyous songs, not seeing any of the bright birds, not 

 receiving, each and all, the waited for, sweet, warm kiss of the sun. 



As after a few days they noticed that the rush of the stars was diminishing gradually, 

 and that the sun was regaining his usual appearance, owing to the stars forming themselves 

 into a compact mass which only at times obstructed his light, they began to hope that 

 as soon as the rush would stop altogether there would be an end of all the trouble, and tliough 

 not over confident, they surmised in their heart that they passed the worst of it; but alas ! 

 the worst was still to come. 



You will remember that last night I told you how, after having allotted to his followers 

 the empire he had conquered. War summoned the rear of his train, and, having recognised 

 in them an expedition sent against him by his father Timu, he provoked them to fight, and 

 chastised in the most exemplary manner their reluctance to do so. How he took care that 

 none of them should escape, and left his work only when the whole of their mass was covered 

 with burning lava ; but in the attack he made on them his anger was so great and the blows 

 he dealt so intense that he did not notice that one of them was so direct and strong that Paouri, 

 the son of Poura, had been precipitated by it into infinitude and escaped his chastisement, 

 unwillingly it is true, but still escaped it, falling headlong into the fathomless abyss. 



He was thrown away from the aggregate mass with such a jerk and so unexpectedly 

 that he lost consciousness, and fell with a terrible thud into the bed of the lake, out of which 

 was splashed every drop of water, its enormous sheets playing havoc all over the land, washing 

 away groves and meadows, uprooting all the giants of the forest, and leaving behind it 

 nothing but bareness and desolation. 



Ah me ! I know of no words with which to tell of the consternation and despair which 

 attended the catastrophe. How could I give any idea of such a heavy blow? Heaving, 

 jerking, and panting as does the mutilated fish thrown on the cliffs by the irresistible push 

 of the waves, there lay in the lake's bed the broken and crushed remains of Paouri's body. 



The fiery, sulphurous, and stifling exhalations it gave out in all directions caused the 

 people to flee madly away towards the unknown in the wilderness, where at every step they 

 found the corpses of some of their friends who, choked by the smoke, or dying from hunger 

 and thirst, had fallen there never to rise again. The fumes seemed to grow stronger and 

 stronger, the heat was intense, and all seemed doomed to perish ; men and things were turning 

 black like fish, whose silvery and golden scales blacken in the smoke and lose forever all the 

 brilliancy of their lovely colours. Thus were our forefathers changed into blacks which they 

 have been ever since, and will continue to be until the last of them shall have found rest and 

 happiness in death. 



Poor parents of mine ! maddened with thirst and himger, tlyuii; blindly they knew not 

 where, chased by the awful stench and unbcaral)lc heat, w]iip])ed on by dire destiny, falling, 

 rising, struggling on again, urged by the last whisper of hoi>e, exhausted by fatigue, tlieir 

 backs scorched, their feet blistered, Iheir cars and eyes bU-cdiug ; crouching, screaming, 

 gasping, dying, whilst their famished brothers stopped lor an instant, looketl at them- 

 hesitated, tlien went mad. and . . . horrible to tell ! ate their llesh and drank greedily 

 the few drops of blood which rcm.-iincd in their jioor cxhaiistecl bodii^'s. 



When the white man shall have undcr.^oue such calamities and jiassed tluougli such 

 hardships and despair, then, and then only, will it be time for him to condemn without miti- 

 gation the cannibalism of our forefathers, whose tortures gave them not one moment of respite 

 that they might turn away and consider the heinousness of their actions. 



