374 WILD SCENES AND "WILD HUNTERS. 



ten thousand wings. I began to see strange sights on the 

 prairie. Armies with banners would hurtle by, and their 

 tread would shake the earth. It would turn out to be a 

 flying troop of mustangs. Great lakes of water would 

 glimmer in the sun before me, and when I would reel along 

 a little faster to reach them, they would still travel on, and 

 I could not lessen the distance between them and me. 



I was too weak to curse, but I thought of heaven-doomed 

 Tantalus ! The star-beams hurt me with their icy keenness, 

 and the moon's light made my teeth chatter ; mist forms of 

 those I loved would sail along the air, solemnly and slow, 

 their still eyes fixed on me. The wail of the accursed wolves 

 would sound like the clamoring volume of agonies rolled up 

 from a teeming bell-pick, or the moaning of a northern ocean 

 through cavernous icebergs. The blood tingled sharply and 

 stung along my veins ; while my stomach was cold as if it 

 were dead. I felt as if I were cut in two, and my head and 

 feet acting from different volitions. At night, I would lie 

 with my mouth open and tongue out, gasping for the dew. I 

 would eat the grass like a beast, before the sun had dried it. 



Yet I travelled on, for while I was in motion, I felt the 

 horrors less ; and sometimes my body seemed to drink in 

 unnatural vigor from the atmosphere, giving me ecstatic 

 visions. The most delicious moments of my life would 

 crowd upon me, bringing all familiar faces, wearing the 

 expression I loved best to remember them by. But they 

 were spiritualized, and seemed to be the angels of old joys ; 

 and they looked with such pitying tenderness into my eyes, 

 that tears would gush from them in hot torrents. And then 

 tJl mirthful phantasies would dance and gleam about me, in 

 such quaint shapes of sparkling beauty, that I would laugh 

 aloud and stretch my arms to clasp, that I might kiss them. 

 But when, from sheer exhaustion, I was compelled to lie 

 down, then the awful hell of torture would commence to 



