While thus absorbed, he heard a great noise in the forest, and,
fearful lest the hostile tribe of the Alrich might pass that
way, he ascended one of the loftiest pine-trees, to whose
perpetual verdure the winter had not denied the shelter he
sought, and, concealed by its branches, he looked anxiously
forth in the direction whence the noise had proceed.

And IT came--it came with a tramp and a crash, and a crushing
tread upon the crunched boughs and matted leaves that strewed
the soil--it came--it came, the monster that the world now holds
no more--the mighty mammoth of the North!

Slowly it moved in its huge strength along, and its burning eyes
glittered through the gloomy shade: its jaws, falling apart,
showed the grinders with which it snapped asunder the young oaks
of the forest; and the vast tusks, which, curved downward to the
midst of its massive limbs, glistened white and ghastly,
curdling the blood of one destined hereafter to be the dreaded
ruler of the men of that distant age.

The livid eyes of the monster fastened on the form of the
herdsman, even amidst the thick darkness of the pine. It
paused--it glared upon him--its jaws opened, and a low deep
sound, as of gathering thunder, seemed to the son of Osslah as
the knell of a dreadful grave. But after glaring on him for some
moments, it again, and calmly, pursued its terrible way,
crashing the boughs as it marched along, till the last sound of
its heavy tread died away upon his ear.