sed of flat
stones. The perilous abyss is full of these snares; beware, therefore,
of its proffered aids. The spot was tempting: the stranger mounted and
sat down. There he found himself at his ease; for his seat he had the
granite rounded and hollowed out by the foam; for supports, two rocky
elbows which seemed made expressly for him; against his back, the high
vertical wall of rock which he looked up to and admired, without
thinking of the impossibility of scaling it. Nothing could be more
simple than to fall into reverie in that convenient resting-place. All
around spread the wide sea; far off the ships were seen passing to and
fro. It was possible to follow a sail with the eye, till it sank in the
horizon beyond the Casquets. The stranger was entranced: he looked
around, enjoying the beauty of the scene, and the light touch of wind
and wave. There is a sort of bat found at Cayenne, which has the power
of fanning people to sleep in the shade with a gentle beating of its
dusky wings. Like this strange creature the wind wanders about,
alternately ravaging or lulling into security. So the stranger would
continue contemplating the sea, listening for a movement in the air, and
yielding himself up to dreamy indolence. When the eyes are satiated with
light and beauty, it is a luxury to close them for awhile. Suddenly the
loiterer would arouse; but it was too late. The sea had crept up step by
step; the waters surrounded the rock; the stranger had been lured on to
his death.

A terrible rock was this in a rising sea.

The tide gathers at first insensibly, then with violence; when it
touches the rocks a sudden wrath seems to possess it, and it foams.
Swimming is difficult in the breakers: excellent swimmers have been lost
at the Horn of the Bu de la Rue.

In certain places, and at certain periods, the aspect of the sea is
dangerous--fatal; as at times is the glance of a woman.

Very old inhabitants of Guernsey used to call this niche, fashioned
in the rock by the waves, "Gild-Holm-'Ur" seat, or Kidormur; a
Celtic word, say some authorities, which those who understand
Celtic cannot interpret, and which all who understand French
can--"_Qui-dort-meurt:_"[1] such is the country folks' translation.

The reader may choose between the translation, _Qui-dort-meurt_, and
that given in 1819, I believe in _The Armorican_, by M. Athenas.
According to this learned Celtic scholar, Gild-Holm-'Ur signifies "The
resting-place of birds."