thinks at times they cast
Sidelong glances at the witch.

She, Uraka, ancient, grim,
Crouches low beside her son,
Mute Lascaro near the fire
Where the twain are casting slugs.

Casting that same fateful ball
Whereby Atta Troll was slain.
How the lurching firelight flares
O'er the witch's features gaunt!

Ceaselessly, yet silently
Move her thin and quivering lips.
Are those magic spells she murmurs
That the balls may travel true?

Now and then she nods and titters
To her son. But he is deep
In the business of the casts
And sits silently as Death.

Overcome by fevered fears,
Yearning for the cooler air,
To the window then I strode
And looked down the gulches dim.

All that in that midnight hour
I beheld, all that will I
Faithfully and featly tell
In the canto that shall follow.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CANTO XVIII

'Twas the night before Saint John's,
In the fullness of the moon,
When that wild and spectral hunt
Fills the Hollow Way of Ghosts.

From the window of Uraka's
Little cabin I could see
All that mighty host of wraiths
As it drifted through the gorge.

Yea, a goodly place was mine
Wherefrom I might well behold
The tremendous spectacle
Of the raised, carousing dead.

Cracking whips, hallo! hurrah!
Neigh of horses, bark of dogs,
Laughter, blare of huntsmen's horns--
How the tumult echoed there!

Dashing in advance there came
Stags and boars adventurous
In a solid pack; behind
Charged a wild and merry rout.

Huntsmen come from many zones
And from many ages too.
Charles the Tenth rode close beside
Nimrod the Assyrian.

High upon their snowy steeds
They charged onward. Then on foot
Came the whips with hounds in leash
And the pages with the links.

Many in that maddened horde
Seemed familiar--yon knight
Gleaming all in golden mail,--
Surely was King Arthur's self!

And Lord Ogier the Dane
In chain-armour shining green,
Truly close resemblance bore
To some mighty frog forsooth!

Many a hero I beheld
Of the gleaming world of thought;
Wolfgang Goethe straight I knew
By the sparkling of his eyes.

Being damned by Hengsten