Aspects of the Valley. 45 



there would appear a sinuous shiny line, like a 

 serpent with glittering skin lying at rest on the 

 grass. For the river must have been to the abori- 

 ginal inhabitants of the valley the one great central 

 unforgettable fact in nature and man's life. If as 

 nomads or colonists from some cis- or trans- 

 Andean country, they had originally brought hither 



The River by moonlight. 



traditions, and some super- 

 natural system that took its form and colour from a 

 different nature, these had been modified, if not wholly 

 dissolved and washed away in that swift eternal 

 green current, by the side of which they continued 

 to dwell from generation to generation, forgetting 

 all ancient things. The shining stream was 

 always in sight, and when, turning their backs 

 on it, they climbed out of the valley, they saw only 



