874 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 motionyI 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 woyld gush from them in hot torrents. And then 
all 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 
