i io ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



matter seen at a distance appears blue water and 

 trees and mountains ; only the sky country is at so 

 vast a distance that we see nothing but the blue colour 

 of it. But there are openings or windows in the great 

 plain, and these are the stars, and through these win- 

 dows the clear, brilliant light of that country shines 

 down on us when it is dark. 



How do the dead get there flying like soaring 

 birds, up, up, up, until they come to it ? They can 

 certainly fly like birds, but no high-soaring bird and 

 no disembodied spirit can rise by flying to so immense 

 a height; yet when men die they have no thought 

 and desire but for that country, and have no rest or 

 pleasure here, but roam up and down the earth, flying 

 from the sight of human beings, even of their nearest 

 relations and friends, because they are now invisible 

 to mortal eyes, and to find themselves unrecognised 

 and unheard when they speak and no longer re- 

 membered is intolerable to them. Therefore, by day, 

 when people are abroad, they fly to forests and unin- 

 habited places, where they lie, but at night they come 

 forth to range the earth in the form of owls and night- 

 jars and loons and rails and all other wandering night- 

 birds with wild and lamentable voices. Night by 

 night they wander, crying out their misery and asking 

 of those they meet to tell them of some way of escape 

 from earth so that they might come at last to the 

 country of the dead ; but none can tell them, for they 

 are all in the same miserable case, seeking a way out. 

 But at last, after months and perhaps years, they come 



