392 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



the branches, and the whisper which floats above the 

 ground, as though the spirits of the flowers were 

 moving about with a hush in that forest world, all 

 this keeps the eye, and ear, and mind vigilant, and 

 you tread with caution and expectancy among the 

 creeping sunbeams and quickly-flitting shadows. You 

 hear steps now, and the low footfall sounds strangely 

 in that solitude ; but it is retreating, and soon is lost 

 in the surrounding silence. You saw nothing, and it 

 is this very circumstance which imparts mystery, and 

 makes you listen still when the pattering sound has 

 quite died away. Or in strolling on, you will sud- 

 denly look round, and from out a thicket see two 

 large bright eyes and a hairy face meet your gaze, 

 and looking fixedly upon you. It is as though the 

 woods were once more peopled with their ancient in- 

 habitants, and the fawns and satyrs again returned 

 to their old leafy home. 



Every people while yet young, while their instincts 

 are still fresh and their sympathies keen and alive to 

 natural influences, has made the forest their temple; 

 choosing, if they built an altar, the dense interlacing 

 branches of venerable trees for the roof that was to 

 shelter it. They felt how solemn was the subdued 

 light, and the trembling stillness : the low murmur 

 attuned their simple minds religiously, and a presen- 

 timent awoke within them that there " was a spirit in 

 the woods." 



And now even in the songs you hear the young 

 hunters sing, while sitting round the hearth of an 



