618 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



stoiie ; not a morsel was handed to the fatigued and hungiy 

 little wayfarer ; so he wept on, and wept in vain. 



" After a while the boy looked more cheerful ; he had dried his 

 tears, and was now engaged in catching a dog and a cat. These 

 he put together on the mat, round which all the people were 

 seated. The cat and the dog played, or more likely, as these 

 animals will do, fought together ; but whatever it was, there was 

 something so ludicrous in it all, while the boy sat over them 

 and set them at each other, that the whole assemblage burst into 

 immoderate laughter. The boy, it would seem, was working 

 some spell — ^there was an object in what he had been doing. 

 Perhaps he was in communication with evil spirits, or rmder 

 their influence ; there was something ominous about it, we know 

 not what. But to proceed : presently the sky became overcast, 

 and gradually great volumes of black clouds came sailing up, 

 propelled by sudden gusts of wind. One by, one they rolled 

 along, and were heaped up one on top of another, or got all 

 broken up, as it were, in their collisioa The sky appeared one 

 mass of Conxion, looking blacker and more angiy as the sun 

 gradually disappeared in the darkness. At last the storm burst 

 forth with a fury never known before ; sharp flashes of lightning, 

 followed by awful peals of thunder, succeeded one another, fast 

 and furious ; the very ground below shook as the palm-leaf 

 quivered in the breeze — ^it seemed as if the great end of all things 

 was at hand. 



" Now commenced a gradual but awful change. Amidst the 

 rolling thunder, and the dazzling lightning, which only served 

 to make the awful darkness visible, the village, the houses, all 

 began to dissolve, to melt away, as it were, into burning lava, 

 and, with his works, man perishing likewise. There you might 

 see the grey-headed chief starting up, with his grandson in his 

 anna, but, ere reaching the door, being gradually hardened into 

 stone. There mothers would be seen flying with their little 

 ones, to escape the same dreadful fate, but all in vain. There a 

 young and helpless maiden would be clinging to her brave 

 warrior, to that arm which had always been the first to help her, 

 which could surely save her now. Alas ! that cruel transforma- 

 tion ! The living light in those bright eyes is gone, the tender 

 grasp of that warm hand is cold; from flesh and blood they, 

 too, pass away into senseless petrifactions ; whilst, minghng 



