to me the objects of the most violent apprehensions. These were
unavoidably connected with solitude and darkness, and were present
to my fears when I entered this gloomy recess.

These terrors are always lessened by calling the attention
away to some indifferent object. I now made use of this expedient,
and began to amuse myself by hallowing as loud as organs of unusual
compass and vigour would enable me. I utterred the words which
chanced to occur to me, and repeated in the shrill tones of a
Mohock savage . . . "Cow! cow! come home! home!" . . . These
notes were of course reverberated from the rocks which on either
side towered aloft, but the echo was confused and indistinct.

I continued, for some time, thus to beguile the way, till I
reached a space more than commonly abrupt, and which required all
my attention. My rude ditty was suspended till I had surmounted
this impediment. In a few minutes I was at leisure to renew it.
After finishing the strain, I paused. In a few seconds a voice as
I then imagined, uttered the same cry from the point of a rock some
hundred feet behind me; the same words, with equal distinctness and
deliberation, and in the same tone, appeared to be spoken. I was
startled by this incident, and cast a fearful glance behind, to
discover by whom it was uttered. The spot where I stood was buried
in dusk, but the eminences were still invested with a luminous and
vivid twilight. The speaker, however, was concealed from my view.

I had scarcely begun to wonder at this occurrence, when a new
occasion for wonder, was afforded me. A few seconds, in like
manner, elapsed, when my ditty was again rehearsed, with a no less
perfect imitation, in a different quarter. . . . . To this quarter