losions and fire now arose in the veins of the leaves;
their finely cut lips ceaselessly breathed forth a kind of ethereal
flame, while ceaselessly also the heavier part of those igneous
phenomena glided about the leaves in soft waves of vapour. In the
blue-bell flowers that were on the damp soil there was a ringing and
singing; they consoled the poor old face of stone with a lively song,
and told him that if they could only free themselves from the ground
they would with right good will release him. Out of the air strange
green, red, and yellow signs, which seemed about to join themselves to
some form, and then again were dissipated, peered at the student; worms
and chafers crawled or stepped to him on every side, uttering all sorts
of confused petitions. One wished to be this, another that; one wished
for a new cover to his wings, another had broken his proboscis; those
that were accustomed to float in the air begged for sunshine, those
that crawled, for damp. All this rabble of insects called him their
deity, so that his brain was nearly turned.

"Among the birds there was no end to the chirping, twittering, and
tale-telling. A spotted woodpecker clambered up and down the bark of
an oak, hacked and picked after the worms, and was never tired of
crying: 'I am the forester, I must take care of the wood.' The wren
said to the finch: 'There is no more friendship among us. The peacock
will not allow me to strike a circle, thinking that no one has a right
to do so but himself, and therefore he has accused me to the supreme
tribunal. Nevertheless I can strike as good a circle as he with my
little brown tail.' 'Leave me alone,' replied the finch, 'I eat my
grain and care for nothing else. I have cares of quite another sort.
The proper artistical melody I can only add to my native woodland song
when they have blinded me, but it is a terrible thing that no good can
be done with one unless one is so horribly maimed.' Others chattered
about thefts and murders, which no one but the birds had seen.

'Over the road they fly,
Traced by no mortal eye.'

"Then they perched themselves stiffly on the branches and peeped down
mockingly at the scholar, while two impudent titmice cried out: 'There
stands the conjurer listening to us and cannot make out what has
happened to him.' 'Well, how he will stare!' screamed the whole troop,
and off they flew with a chirping which sounded half like laughter.

"The scholar now fe