of payment, some African elephants' teeth which I easily
obtained, though I was obliged to choose the smallest among them, that
they might not be too much for my strength. I was soon supplied and
stocked with everything I required, and began my new mode of life as a
retired philosopher.

I journeyed over the east, now measuring its mountains--now the
temperature of its streams and of its air; now observing its animals--now
examining its plants. I hastened from the equator to the pole--from one
world to another--comparing experience with experience. The eggs of the
African ostrich, or the northern sea-fowl, and fruits, especially
tropical palms and bananas, were my usual refreshments. Instead of my
departed fortune I enjoyed my _Nicotiana_--it served instead of the good
opinion of mankind. And then as to my affections: I had a love of a
little dog, that watched my Theban cave, and when I returned to it laden
with new treasures, it sprang forwards to meet me, making me feel the
spirit of humanity within me, and that I was not quite alone on the
earth. But, notwithstanding this, calamity was yet to drive me back to
the haunts of men!

CHAPTER XI.

Once, being on the northern coast, having drawn on my boots while I was
gathering together my straggling plants and seaweeds, a white bear
approached unawares the verge of the rock on which I stood. I wished to
throw off my slippers and move off to an adjacent island, which I
expected to reach over a rock whose head towered above the waves. With
one foot I reached the rock; I stretched out the other and fell into the
sea: I had not observed that my foot was only half-released from the
slipper.

{Schlemihl and the bear: p116.jpg}

Overpowered by the tremendous cold, I had the greatest difficulty in
rescuing my life from this peril; but as soon as I reached the land, I
hurried off to the wastes of Libya to dry myself there in the sun. I
had, however, scarcely set out ere the burning heat so oppressed my head,
that I reeled back again to the north very ill. I sought relief in rapid
movements; and with uncertain and hurried steps I hastened from the west
to the east, and from the east to the west. I placed myself in the most
rapid vicissitudes of day and night; now in the heats of summer, and now
in the winter's cold.

I know not how long I thus wandered over the earth. A burning fever
glowed through my veins, and with dreadful agony I perceived my intellec