fe his plan, and set off.

In every country he reached he asked whether people ever died there,
and went on at once if he was told that they did. At last he arrived
in a land where the inhabitants said they did not know what dying
meant. The traveler, full of joy, asked:

"But are there not immense crowds of people here, if none of you die?"

"No, there are no immense crowds," was the reply, "for you see, every
now and then somebody comes and calls one after another, and whoever
follows him, never returns."

"And do people see the person who calls them?" asked the traveler.

"Why shouldn't they see him?" he was answered.

The man could not wonder enough at the stupidity of those who followed
the person that called them, though they knew that they would be
obliged to stay where he took them. Returning home, he collected all
his property, and with his wife and children, went to settle in the
country where people did not die but were called by a certain person
and never came back. He had therefore firmly resolved that neither he
nor his family would ever follow any body who called them, no matter
who it might be.

So, after he had established himself and arranged all his business
affairs, he advised his wife and all his family on no account to
follow any one who might call them, if, as he said, they did not want
to die.

So they gave themselves up to pleasure, and in this way spent several
years. One day, when they were all sitting comfortably in their house,
his wife suddenly began to call:

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

And she looked around the room for her fur jacket. Her husband
instantly started up, seized her by the hand, and began to reproach
her.

"So you don't heed my advice? Stay here, if you don't want to die."

"Don't you hear how he is calling me? I'll only see what he wants and
come back at once."

And she struggled to escape from her husband's grasp and go.

He held her fast and managed to bolt all the doors in the room. When
she saw that, she said:

"Let me alone, husband, I don't care about going now."

The man thought she had come to her senses and given up her crazy
idea, but before long the wife rushed to the nearest door, hurriedly
opened it, and ran out. Her husband followed, holding her by her fur
sack and entreating her not to go, for she would never return. She let
her hands fall, bent backward, then leaned a little forward and
suddenly threw herself back, slipping off her sack a