cessible crag. But presently, there was a rustling in the groves
behind, and swift as thought, something darted through the air. The
youth bounded forward. Yillah opened her arms to receive him; but he
fell upon the cliff, and was seen no more. As alarmed, and in tears,
she fled from the scene, some one out of sight ran before her through
the wood.

Upon recounting this adventure to Aleema, he said, that the being she
had seen, must have been a bad spirit come to molest her; and that
Apo had slain him.

The sight of this youth, filled Yillah with wild yearnings to escape
from her lonely retreat; for a glimpse of some one beside the priest
and the phantom, suggested vague thoughts of worlds of fair beings,
in regions beyond Ardair. But Aleema sought to put away these
conceits; saying, that ere long she would be journeying to Oroolia,
there to rejoin the spirits she dimly remembered.

Soon after, he came to her with a shell--one of those ever moaning of
ocean--and placing it to her ear, bade her list to the being within,
which in that little shell had voyaged from Oroolia to bear her
company in Amma.

Now, the maiden oft held it to her ear, and closing her eyes,
listened and listened to its soft inner breathings, till visions were
born of the sound, and her soul lay for hours in a trance of delight.

And again the priest came, and brought her a milk-white bird, with a
bill jet-black, and eyes like stars. "In this, lurks the soul of a
maiden; it hath flown from Oroolia to greet you." The soft stranger
willingly nestled in her bosom; turning its bright eyes upon hers,
and softly warbling.

Many days passed; and Yillah, the bird, and the shell were
inseparable. The bird grew familiar; pecked seeds from her mouth;
perched upon her shoulder, and sang in her ear; and at night, folded
its wings in her bosom, and, like a sea-fowl, went softly to sleep:
rising and falling upon the maiden's heart. And every morning it flew
from its nest, and fluttered and chirped; and sailed to and fro; and
blithely sang; and brushed Yillah's cheek till she woke. Then came to
her hand: and Yillah, looking earnestly in its eyes, saw strange
faces there; and said to herself as she gazed--"These are two souls,
not one."

But at last, going forth into the groves with the bird, it suddenly
flew from her side, and perched in a bough; and throwing back its
white downy throat, there gushed from its bill a clear warbling jet,
like a little fountai