me. At length one of them brought me some food in a large wooden
bowl--a strange mess of I know not what mysterious compounds, amongst
which, however, I could distinguish rice. It was palatable and I ate
it gladly, and asked, too, for a supplementary supply, which was not
denied. Overcome by exhaustion and the fierce heat of the fire, a
drowsy stupor came upon me, and I made signs that I wished to sleep.
They did not seem to have any clothing to offer me for my own which
was drying in the blaze, but they brought in several long, coarse
cloaks or mantles, and one of them enveloping himself in these,
stretched himself before the fire on the ground, to intimate to me
that in such a manner I must pass the night. Another offered me a pipe
of opium, which I knew it would be a great discourtesy, according to
their ideas, to decline, although I was quite unaccustomed to the
drug. I therefore took it and affected to smoke, and as I lay down,
they left the little room in which they had placed me, and I heard
them barricade the door outside.

I immediately fell into a profound slumber. The few whiffs of opium
which, despite of myself, I had inhaled, had their effect, and
produced a series of those magical dreams with which the drug tempts
and deceives the novice. Through all of them the idea of flight and
pursuit ran bewilderingly. I will give one as a specimen. I dreamt
that I was on the shore of the sea; the waters suddenly began to rise,
and threatened to overwhelm me. I turned and ran, but nearer and
nearer the flood came after. Then there yawned across my path a
precipice of which I could not see the bottom. Down I plunged. I
seemed to fly like a bird, and once more stood on firm ground. The
precipice seemed to reach to the sky behind me. I resumed my flight,
and looking back, beheld the flood leaping down the gulf in a mighty
volume, with the sun rising above it, and bathing the illimitable