- end_line
- 5606
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:18.535Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 5538
- text
- seek to cheer her soul, by calling to mind the bright scenes of Oroolia
the Blest, to which place, he averred, she was shortly to return, never
more to depart.
Now, at the head of the vale of Ardair, rose a tall, dark peak,
presenting at the top the grim profile of a human face; whose shadow,
every afternoon, crept down the verdant side of the mountain: a silent
phantom, stealing all over the bosom of the glen.
At times, when the phantom drew near, Aleema would take Yillah forth,
and waiting its approach, lay her down by the shadow, disposing her
arms in a caress; saying, “Oh, Apo! dost accept thy bride?” And at
last, when it crept beyond the place where he stood, and buried the
whole valley in gloom; Aleema would say, “Arise Yillah; Apo hath
stretched himself to sleep in Ardair. Go, slumber where thou wilt; for
thou wilt slumber in his arms.”
And so, every night, slept the maiden in the arms of grim Apo.
One day when Yillah had come to love the wild shadow, as something that
every day moved before her eyes, where all was so deathfully still; she
went forth alone to watch it, as softly it slid down from the peak. Of
a sudden, when its face was just edging a chasm, that made it to look
as if parting its lips, she heard a loud voice, and thought it was Apo
calling “Yillah! Yillah!” But now it seemed like the voice she had
heard while bathing in the pool. Glancing upward, she beheld a
beautiful open-armed youth, gazing down upon her from an inaccessible
crag. But presently, there was a rustling in the groves behind, and
swift as thought, something darted through the air. The youth bounded
forward. Yillah opened her arms to receive him; but he fell upon the
cliff, and was seen no more. As alarmed, and in tears, she fled from
the scene, some one out of sight ran before her through the wood.
Upon recounting this adventure to Aleema, he said, that the being she
had seen, must have been a bad spirit come to molest her; and that Apo
had slain him.
The sight of this youth, filled Yillah with wild yearnings to escape
from her lonely retreat; for a glimpse of some one beside the priest
and the phantom, suggested vague thoughts of worlds of fair beings, in
regions beyond Ardair. But Aleema sought to put away these conceits;
saying, that ere long she would be journeying to Oroolia, there to
rejoin the spirits she dimly remembered.
Soon after, he came to her with a shell—one of those ever moaning of
ocean—and placing it to her ear, bade her list to the being within,
which in that little shell had voyaged from Oroolia to bear her company
in Amma.
Now, the maiden oft held it to her ear, and closing her eyes, listened
and listened to its soft inner breathings, till visions were born of
the sound, and her soul lay for hours in a trance of delight.
And again the priest came, and brought her a milk-white bird, with a
bill jet-black, and eyes like stars. “In this, lurks the soul of a
maiden; it hath flown from Oroolia to greet you.” The soft stranger
willingly nestled in her bosom; turning its bright eyes upon hers, and
softly warbling.
Many days passed; and Yillah, the bird, and the shell were inseparable.
The bird grew familiar; pecked seeds from her mouth; perched upon her
shoulder, and sang in her ear; and at night, folded its wings in her
bosom, and, like a sea-fowl, went softly to sleep: rising and falling
upon the maiden’s heart. And every morning it flew from its nest, and
fluttered and chirped; and sailed to and fro; and blithely sang; and
brushed Yillah’s cheek till she woke. Then came to her hand: and
Yillah, looking earnestly in its eyes, saw strange faces there; and
said to herself as she gazed—“These are two souls, not one.”
- title
- Chunk 2