nger, so closely resembling
the scream of a human voice that the nicest ear might have been startled
and deceived. At this instant another sudden yaw brought the region of
the forecastle for a moment into view, and we beheld at once the origin
of the sound. We saw the tall stout figure still leaning on the bulwark,
and still nodding his head to and fro, but his face was now turned from
us so that we could not behold it. His arms were extended over the rail,
and the palms of his hands fell outward. His knees were lodged upon
a stout rope, tightly stretched, and reaching from the heel of the
bowsprit to a cathead. On his back, from which a portion of the shirt
had been torn, leaving it bare, there sat a huge sea-gull, busily
gorging itself with the horrible flesh, its bill and talons deep buried,
and its white plumage spattered all over with blood. As the brig moved
farther round so as to bring us close in view, the bird, with much
apparent difficulty, drew out its crimsoned head, and, after eyeing us
for a moment as if stupefied, arose lazily from the body upon which it
had been feasting, and, flying directly above our deck, hovered there
a while with a portion of clotted and liver-like substance in its beak.
The horrid morsel dropped at length with a sullen splash immediately
at the feet of Parker. May God forgive me, but now, for the first time,
there flashed through my mind a thought, a thought which I will not
mention, and I felt myself making a step toward the ensanguined spot.
I looked upward, and the eyes of Augustus met my own with a degree of
intense and eager meaning which immediately brought me to my senses. I
sprang forward quickly, and, with a deep shudder, threw the frightful
thing into the sea.

The body from which it had been taken, resting as it did upon the rope,
had been easily swayed to and fro by the exertions of the carnivorous
bird, and it was this motion which had at first impressed us with the
belief of its being alive. As the gull relieved it of its weight,
it swung round and fell partially over, so that the face was fully
discovered. Never, surely, was any object so terribly full of awe! The
eyes were gone, and the whole flesh around the mouth, leaving the teeth
utterly naked. This, then, was the smile which had cheered us on to
hope! this the--but I forbear. The brig, as I have already told, passed
under our stern, and made its way slowly but steadily to leeward. With
her and with her terrible