er-struck to note more than that he was a man. Then
I looked about me to see if he had companions or for some signs of a
habitation, but the ice was everywhere naked. I fixed my eyes on him
again. His hair was above a foot long, black as ink, and the blacker
maybe for the contrast of the snow. His beard and mustachios, which were
also of this raven hue, fell to his girdle. He wore a great yellow
flapping hat, such as was in fashion among the Spaniards and buccaneers
of the South Sea; but over his ears, for the warmth of the protection,
were squares of flannel, secured by a very fine red silk handkerchief
knotted under his beard, and this, with his hair and pale cheeks and
black shaggy eyebrows, gave him a terrible and ghastly appearance. From
his shoulders hung a rich thick cloak lined with red, and the legs to
the height of the knees were encased in large boots.

I continued surveying him with my heart beating fast. Every instant I
expected to see him turn his head and start to behold me. My emotions
were too tumultuous to analyze, yet I believe I was more frightened than
gladdened by the sight of a fellow-creature, though not long before I
had sighed bitterly for some one to speak to. I looked around again,
prepared to find another one like him taking stock of me from behind a
rock, and then ventured to approach him by a few steps the better to see
him. He had certainly a frightful face. It was not only the length of
his coal-black hair and beard; it was the hue of his skin, a greenish
ashen colour, an unspeakably hideous complexion, sharpened on the one
hand by the red handkerchief over his ears and on the other by the
dazzle of the snow. Then, again, there was the extreme strangeness of
his costume.

I coughed loudly, holding my pole in readiness for whatever might
befall, but he did not stir; I then holloaed, and was answered by the
echoes of my own voice among the rocks. His stillness persuaded me he
was in one of those deep slumbers which fall upon a man in frozen
places, for I could not persuade myself he was dead, so living was his
posture.

This will not do, thought I; so I went close to him and peered into his
face.

His eyes were fixed; they resembled glass painted as eyes, the colours
faded. He had a broad belt round his waist, and the hilt of a kind of
cutlass peeped from under his cloak. Otherwise he was unarmed. I thought
he breathed, and seemed to see a movement in his breast, and I took him
by the