The Voices of the Wilderness 



make a break in the mass of trees, a sea of light floods 

 all the ground a flood of light so strong that our eyes, 

 accustomed to the obscurity, the mysterious semi-darkness 

 of the forest, are dazzled, and there comes to our minds 

 involuntarily recollections of old Bible pictures, in which 

 such floods of light are shown streaming down from 



o o 



heaven to earth. A confusion of trees, creepers and 

 undergrowth, with amidst it uprooted tree-trunks lying 

 mouldering away ; the earth black, and often marshy ; 

 no road or way far and wide, but only here and there 

 the tracks and beaten paths made by the elephants and 

 rhinoceroses that have roamed the old forest since primeval 

 times. 



Deep silence all around. If the traveller stands still 

 and holds his breath, this silence seems to weigh down 

 upon the soul with a weird force. At such moments 

 it is as though some vague disaster threatened, or some- 

 thing wicked and dangerous were creeping around unseen. 



Suddenly, a squealing and chattering. There is a 

 scurry up and down the tree-trunks, and again there 

 is a strange sound of spitting and growling. Just now 

 there had come over us a feeling such as is expressed 

 in Bocklin's l masterly picture, directly inspired by nature, 

 Schweigen dcs ]]\nldcs (the "Silence of the Forest"). 

 \Ye had almost expected each moment that legends set 

 before us by the power of his genius would here become 



1 Franz Hermann Meissner in his work, Arnold Bb'cklin, says : ' I 

 have often found that I had to consider these pictures with the blue 

 eyes of an old Ostrogoth seer of primitive days.''' And I am of opinion 

 that in order to take full delight in the charm of the tropics one must 

 look on them with northern eyes. 



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