“Who are they?” I asked him.  He answered, his face white with terror; “They are robbers and assassins.  This forest is their haunt.  They will murder me, and seize my treasure.”  “If this be so,” said I, “why did you build your house in the midst of this forest, and why are there no shutters to the windows?  Are you mad, or a fool, that you do not know every one can see from without into your lighted rooms?” He looked at me with stupid despair.  “I never thought of the shutters,” said he.

As we stood talking, the robbers outside congregated in great numbers, and the old man fled from the room with his treasure bags into another apartment.  But this also was brilliantly illuminated within, and the windows were shutterless.  The robbers followed his movements easily, and so pursued him from room to room all round the house.  Nowhere had he any shelter.  Then came the sound of gouge and mallet and saw, and I knew the assassins were breaking into the house, and that before long, the owner would have met the death his folly had invited, and his treasure would pass into the hands of the robbers.

—­Paris, Aug. 3, 1877

VII.  The Forest Cathedral

I found myself—­accompanied by a guide, a young man of Oriental aspect and habit—­passing through long vistas of trees which, as we advanced, continually changed in character.  Thus we threaded avenues of English oaks and elms, the foliage of which gave way as we proceeded to that of warmer and moister climes, and we saw overhead the hanging masses of broad-leaved palms, and enormous trees whose names I do not know, spreading their fingered leaves over us like great green hands in a manner that frightened me.  Here also I saw huge grasses which rose over my shoulders, and through which I had at times to beat my way as through a sea; and ferns of colossal proportions; with every possible variety and mode of tree-life and every conceivable shade of green, from the faintest and clearest yellow to the densest blue-green.  One wood in particular I stopped to admire.  It seemed as though every leaf of its trees were of gold, so intensely yellow was the tint of the foliage.

In these forests and thickets were numerous shrines of gods such as the Hindus worship.  Every now and then we came upon them in open spaces.  They were uncouth and rudely painted; but they all were profusely adorned with gems, chiefly turquoises, and they all had many arms and hands, in which they held lotus flowers, sprays of palms, and colored berries.

Passing by these strange figures, we came to a darker part of our course, where the character of the trees changed and the air felt colder.  I perceived that a shadow had fallen on the way; and looking upwards I found we were passing beneath a massive roof of dark indigo-colored pines, which here and there were positively black in their intensity and depth.  Intermingled with them were firs, whose great, straight stems were covered with lichen and mosses of beautiful variety, and some looking strangely like green ice-crystals.