umber. Loth
to stir, I still dosed on, the sounds, however, becoming, as
it seemed, more determined to make themselves heard! and I
awoke to the consciousness that they proceeded from a belt of
adjacent jungle, and resembled the noise that would be
produced by some person felling timber.

Shutting my ears to the disturbance, I made no sign, until,
with an expression of impatience, E---- suddenly started up,
when I laid a detaining grasp upon his arm, murmuring that
there was no need to think of rising at present--it must be
quite early, and the kitchen cooly was doubtless cutting
firewood in good time. E---- responded, in a tone of slight
contempt, that no one could be cutting firewood at that hour,
and the sounds were more suggestive of felling jungle; and he
then inquired how long I had been listening to them. Now
thoroughly aroused I replied that I had heard the sounds for
some time, at first confusing them with my dreams, but soon
sufficiently awakening to the fact that they were no mere
phantoms of my imagination, but a reality. During our
conversation the noises became more distinct and loud; blow
after blow resounded, as of the axe descending upon the tree,
followed by the crash of the falling timber. Renewed blows
announced the repetition of the operations on another tree,
and continued till several were devastated.

It is unnecessary to tell more of the tale. In spite of minute
examinations and close search, no solution of the mystery of the
noises, on this or any other occasion, was ever found. The natives, of
course, attributed the disturbance to the _Pezazi_ or goblin. No one
perhaps has asserted that the Aztecs were connected by ties of race
with the people of Ceylon. Yet when the Spaniards conquered Mexico,
and when Sahagun (one of the earliest missionaries) collected the
legends of the people, he found them, like the Cingalese, strong
believers in the mystic tree-felling. We translate Sahagun's account
of the 'midnight axe':--

When so any man heareth the sound of strokes in the night as
if one were felling trees, he reckons it an evil boding. And
this sound they call _youaltepuztli_ (_youalli_, night; and
_tepuztli_, copper), which signifies 'the midnight hatchet.'
This noise cometh about the time of the first sleep, when all
men slumber soundly, and the night is still. The sound of