A Plunge to Whither-Away 83
tender Europeans shall sleep in a tent, and the Asiatics shall sleep on the uncovered ground and pile up packing-cases against your blast."
Then the Water Spirit spoke, saying : "You may perchance live without hot tea, you may, with food in your packs, burn those internal fires whose protected warmth shall defy the Air Spirit. But how shall you deal with me when I shall mock at you as a mirage, when I shall sink into the sands at your feet, when I shall change into stone before your eyes? How shall you possess me, the Indispensable? " And for answer we could but say : "When you mock at us with a shining lie, we shall yet seek after you ; when you are buried in the sand, we shall go yet farther to find your reappearance ; when you have turned into stone, we shall be the better able to carry you from place to place until you shall melt to the wooing of the Fire Spirit. We shall thirst for you, and struggle for you, but you shall yield, you shall comfort us." And, lastly, the Earth Spirit spoke, saying: "1 have trapped you here, you who have come into my sanctuary which I have kept apart for its quietness. You shall see doors in my mountain walls, they shall seem to be open, but they shall be closed against you. Your feet shall be heavy, your breathing shall be as a bellows that creaks. This land I have lifted far above the thick air which your lungs desire for the quick cleansing of your blood. This land is not made for man. You have sinned against me in leaving the habitations which I have widely prepared for you, to come into my high solitudes." And we answer : "The shut door shall we leave,
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