At the same moment a fleeting, dark shadow fell on the ground close to the shaman: an eagle was hovering between him and the sun. A piercing cry rent the air, and the people bent like grass before the gale.
Who cried? The shaman or the eagle?
No one knew.
'It is bad, it is bad,' the people murmured.
'Hush!'
The drum sounded several times with a deep and mournful echo, as the crowd was frightened into silence.—The eagle flew away into the distance.
Once more there was stillness, interrupted only by the shaman's muttering. After a while isolated sounds, coming, as it seemed, from the distant wood and depths of the mountain clefts, began to mingle, like the murmur of a swarm of bees, or the twitter of birds calling to one another. Then Oltungaba shook his bells. By degrees these sounds grew louder, and came nearer, until they passed away in the roar of the waterfall and the splash of the rain which was now falling in torrents. Yet deep and painful sighs, repeated more and more frequently, could be heard above the rush of the water. Oltungaba suddenly raised the drum above his head. Trembling violently, and covered with the pelting hail, he began to utter frightened sounds, like a sheep chased by a wolf. Then, all at once, throwing his hand into the soft reindeer skin, he became silent, but continued to tremble.
'Oh, Goloron!' the shaman groaned, hiding his face with his hands.
And there was stillness once more. Nothing was heard but the shaman's sobs and indistinct mutterings, accompanied by the beating of the drum. Above these sounds rose the intermingled cries of eagles, hawks, crows, and lapwings, which appeared to be circling in flights round the mountain tops. Their shrieking and cawing alternated with the shaman's unintelligible incantations. It almost seemed as if they foresaw some dreadful event, and were hastening to bring news of it in advance to the lords of the äerial world.
By degrees the incantations became more distinct, the words more intelligible, till finally the first strophe of a chant burst from the shaman's lips.