Volume I Part 18 (1/2)

At other ti i the vale, surrounded her retreat, dancing there till evening caarlands of flowers, and baskets of fish, were laid upon an altar without, where stood Alee to his were laid at his feet

When Aleelen, and wandered a the trees, and reposed by the banks of the streari moss

Toward the lower end of the vale, its lofty walls advancing and overhanging their base, alreat rock, hurled fro into the space intercepted, there remained fixed Aerial trees shot up froe vines roved abroad, overrunning the tops of the trees, lying thereon in coils and undulations, like anacondas basking in the light Beneath this rock, was a lofty wall of ponderous stones Between its crevices, peeps were had of a long and leafy arcade, quivering far away to where the sea rolled in the sun Lower down, these crevices gave an outlet to the waters of the brook, which, in a long cascade, poured over sloping green ledges near the foot of the wall, into a deep shady pool; whose rocky sides, by the perpetual eddying of the water, had been worn into a grotesque reseed, indolently reclining about the basin

In this pool, Yillah would bathe And once, e, she heard the echoes of a voice, and called aloud But the only reply, was the rustling of branches, as some one, invisible, fled down the valley beyond Soon after, a stone rolled inward, and Alee that the voice she had heard was his But it was not

At last the weary days grew, longer and longer, and the maiden pined for companionshi+p When the breeze blew not, but slept in the caves of the mountains, and all the leaves of the trees stood motionless as tears in the eye, Yillah would sadden, and call upon the spirits in her soul to awaken She sang low airs, she thought she had heard in Oroolia; but started affrighted, as froles and dells, came back to her strains more wild than hers And ever, when sad, Aleeht scenes of Oroolia the Blest, to which place, he averred, she was shortly to return, never more to depart

Now, at the head of the vale of Ardair, rose a tall, dark peak, presenting at the top the grim profile of a human face; whose shadow, every afternoon, crept down the verdant side of theall over the bosolen

At times, when the phanto its approach, lay her down by the shadow, disposing her ar, ”Oh, Apo! dost accept thy bride?” And at last, when it crept beyond the place where he stood, and buried the whole valley in gloom; Aleema would say, ”Arise Yillah; Apo hath stretched himself to sleep in Ardair Go, slumber where thou wilt; for thou wilt sluht, slept the rim Apo

One day when Yillah had co that every day moved before her eyes, where all was so deathfully still; she went forth alone to watch it, as softly it slid down fro a chas its lips, she heard a loud voice, and thought it was Apo calling ”Yillah! Yillah!” But now it see in the pool Glancing upward, she beheld a beautiful open-ar But presently, there was a rustling in the groves behind, and swift as thought, soh the air The youth bounded forward Yillah opened her arms to receive him; but he fell upon the cliff, and was seen no more As alarmed, and in tears, she fled froh the wood

Upon recounting this adventure to Alee she had seen, must have been a bad spirit coht of this youth, filled Yillah ild yearnings to escape froliested vague thoughts of worlds of fair beings, in regions beyond Ardair But Alee she would be journeying to Oroolia, there to rejoin the spirits she dimly remembered

Soon after, he ca of ocean--and placing it to her ear, bade her list to the being within, which in that little shell had voyaged from Oroolia to bear her company in A her eyes, listened and listened to its soft inner breathings, till visions were born of the sound, and her soul lay for hours in a trance of delight

And again the priest caht her a milk-white bird, with a bill jet-black, and eyes like stars ”In this, lurks the soul of a reet you” The soft stranger willingly nestled in her boso

Many days passed; and Yillah, the bird, and the shell were inseparable The bird grew familiar; pecked seeds fro in her ear; and at night, folded its wings in her boso and falling upon theit flew from its nest, and fluttered and chirped; and sailed to and fro; and blithely sang; and brushed Yillah's cheek till she woke Then ca earnestly in its eyes, saw strange faces there; and said to herself as she gazed--”These are two souls, not one”

But at last, going forth into the groves with the bird, it suddenly flew fro back its white downy throat, there gushed fro jet, like a little fountain in air Now the song ceased; when up and away toward the head of the vale, flew the bird ”Lil! Lil! come back, leave me not, blest souls of theits way till a speck

It was shortly after this, and upon the evening of a day which had been tulen; that Alee--”Yillah, the time has come to follow thy bird; come, return to thy hoe there: by the vortex on the coast of Tedaidee That night, being veiled and placed in the tent, the maiden was borne to the sea-side, where the canoe was in waiting

And setting sail quickly, by next ht

And this was the voyage, whose sequel has already been recounted

CHAPTER LI The Dreae associations, hich a mind like Yillah's must have invested every incident of her life, the story of her abode in Ardair seemed not incredible

But so etherealized had she become from the wild conceits she nourished, that she verily believed herself a being of the lands of dreams Her fabulous past was her present

Yet as our inti their hold And often she questionedmy own reht to produce the impression, that whatever I had said of that clime, had been revealed to me in dreams; but that in these dreams, her own lineaments had s after the substance of this spiritual iht it was to swear it, upon her white arms crossed For oh, Yillah; were you not the earthly sehts?