112 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



to them, and to have a Httle fun he cried out to those 

 near him: "Look! here comes an old woman, just 

 arrived, to fish; let's close up and say there is no room 

 for another here and have a laugh at her expense." 



Here the reader must be told that the part of a man 

 which survives death is in appearance the exact coun- 

 terpart of the man when alive. To mortal eyes he is 

 invisible, being of so thin a substance; but the dead 

 and immortal see him as he was, young or old and ugly, 

 with his grey hair and wrinkles, and every sign of suf- 

 fering and care and passion on his countenance. And 

 as with the face and the whole body so it is with the 

 mind: if it has been evil, full of spite and malice, it 

 is so still. But he must be told, too, that this state is 

 not permanent, for in that bright and buoyant atmos- 

 phere it is impossible for the marks of age and misery 

 to endure; they fade out as the easy, happy existence 

 finds its effect; they grow youthful in appearance once 

 more; and the change is also in the mind. The old 

 woman had, alas! not been long enough in that happy 

 land for any change to have taken place in either her 

 appearance or her spiteful temper. 



That was how the people by the lake no sooner beheld 

 the newcomer than they knew her for what she had 

 been, and was still — a spiteful old woman; and being 

 of a merry disposition they were only too ready to take 

 part in the joke. As she drew near they closed up and 

 cried out: "No room for another fisher here; go 

 further on and find yourself a place." 



On she went; but those who were further up saw 



