his deep eyes, which were like those of asses, and his black beard on
which tufts of lamb's wool had been left by the thickets.

Two doves accompanied him. They flitted from branch to branch in the
sweetness of the night. The tender beat of their wings was like the
fallen petals of a flower, and as if these were striving to re-unite
again and expand once more into a blossom.

Three poor dogs that wore spiked collars and wagged their tails
preceded the man, and an ancient wolf was licking the hem of his
garment. A ewe and her lamb, bleating, uncertain, and enraptured,
pressed forward amid the crocuses and trod upon their emerald, while
three hawks began to play with the two doves. A timid night-bird
whistled with joy amid the acorns. Then it spread its wings and
overtook the hawks and the doves, the lamb and the ewe, the dogs, the
wolf, and the man.

And the man approached Rabbit and said to him:

"I am Francis. I love thee and I greet thee, Oh thou, my brother. I
greet thee in the name of the sky which mirrors the waters and the
sparkling stones, in the name of the wild sorrel, the bark of the
trees and the seeds which are thy sustenance. Come with these sinless
ones who accompany me and cling to my foot-steps with the faith of the
ivy which clasps the tree without considering that soon, perhaps, the
woodcutter will come. Oh Rabbit, I bring to thee the Faith which we
share one in another, the Faith which is life itself, all that of
which we are ignorant, but in which we nevertheless believe. Oh dear
and kindly Rabbit, thou gentle wanderer, wilt thou follow our Faith?"