UNREST AND REST 



131 



And we helped one another in many strange ways. 

 We had one fine old patriarch among us who was 

 quite blind, and one of our number always led him 

 — believe it or not as you like. He held a twig of 

 stick in his mouth by one end, and we took it in 

 turns to hold the other end, and guide him on his 

 way. 



And so we went on for many days, or rather 

 nights. Here and there one or two members of the 

 army dropped out of the ranks, as sanity returned 

 to them, but the majority of us continued our 

 strange march, until at last we paused, and the 

 pilgrimage ended almost as suddenly as it had 

 begun. How strange it all seemed ! Hitherto 

 we had been brothers and sisters, moved by one 

 common impulse, united by one strange, half-felt 

 desire, taking but small notice of our surroundings, 

 and now we awoke from our dream, to find our- 

 selves hungry and in a strange land, and we fell to 

 marrying and giving in marriage, and to quarrelling 

 over our food, for our appetites, owing to long 

 abstention, were enormous, and clamoured to be 

 satisfied. Then, indeed, the whole district knew 

 that there was a plague of rats, for we stripped the 

 country bare : nothing was too young and tender 

 for us, nothing too old and tough ; and men came 



9—2 



