"I travel from Chaldea to the Tartar desert,—upon the shores of the Ganges and in Mesopotamia. I overtake the ostriches. I run so swiftly that I draw the wind after me. I rub my back against the palm-trees. I roll among the bamboos. I leap rivers with a single bound. Doves fly above me. Only a virgin can bridle me.
"Gallop! Gallop!"
(Anthony watches him depart.
And as he gazes he beholds all the birds that nourish themselves with wind: the Gouith, the Ahuti, the Alphalim, the Iukneth, of the mountains of Kaf, the homai of the Arabs—which are the souls of murdered men. He hears the parrots that utter human speech; and the great Pelasgian palmipeds that sob like children or chuckle like old women.
A saline air strikes his nostrils. Now a vast beach stretches before him.
In the distance jets of water arise, spouted by whales; and from the very end of the horizon come)—
The Beasts of the Sea
(round as wineskins, flat as blades, denticulated like saws, dragging themselves over the sand as they approach):