rags, squalor, misery, and dirt; with coarse hair
matted together, and long nails and shaggy beards. They reminded me in
their personal appearance of the cannibals of the outer shore. These
hideous beings all gathered around me, blinking at me with their
bleary eyes and grinning with their abominable faces, and then each
one embraced me. The filth, squalor, and unutterable foulness of
these wretches all combined to fill my soul with loathing, and the
inconceivable horror of that embrace wellnigh overwhelmed me. Yet,
after all, it was surpassed by the horror of the thought that Almah
might be at that very moment undergoing the same experience; and for
her such a thing must be worse than for me.

I retreated as far as possible from them, deep into the thick
darkness, and sat down. No convicted felon at the last hour of life,
no prisoner in the dungeons of the Inquisition, ever could have
suffered more mental agony than I did at that moment. The blessings,
the awful blessings of the Kosekin were descending upon my miserable
head--separation from Almah, squalor and dirt, imprisonment, the
society of these filthy creatures, darkness, the shadow of death, and
beyond all the tremendous horrors of the Mista Kosek!

I do not know how the time passed, for at first I was almost stupefied
with despair; nor could I ever grow reconciled to the society of
these wretches, scarce human, who were with me. Some food was
offered me--filthy stuff, which I refused. My refusal excited warm
commendation; but I was warned against starving myself, as that was
against the law. In my despair I thought of my pistol and rifle,
which I still kept with me--of using these against my jailors, and
bursting forth; but this wild impulse soon passed away, for its utter
hopelessness was manifest. My only hope, if hope it was, lay in
waiting, and it was not impossible that I might see Almah again,
if only once.

Joms passed away, I know not how. The Chief Pauper, who is the
greatest man in the land of the Kosekin, made several attempts to
converse with me, and was evidently very condescending and magnanimous
in his own eyes; but I did not meet his advances graciously--he was
too abhorrent. He was a hideous wretch, with eyes nearly closed and
bleary, thick, matted hair, and fiendish expression--in short, a devil
incarnate in rags and squalor.

But as the joms passed I found it difficult to repel my associates.
They were always inflicting their society upo