rase; the notes were different, more varied and rapidly
enunciated, as if the singer had been more excited. The blood rushed to
my heart as I listened; my nerves tingled with a strange new delight,
the rapture produced by such music heightened by a sense of mystery.
Before many moments I heard it again, not rapid now, but a soft
warbling, lower than at first, infinitely sweet and tender, sinking to
lisping sounds that soon ceased to be audible; the whole having lasted
as long as it would take me to repeat a sentence of a dozen words. This
seemed the singer's farewell to me, for I waited and listened in vain to
hear it repeated; and after getting back to the starting-point I sat for
upwards of an hour, still hoping to hear it once more!

The weltering sun at length compelled me to quit the wood, but not
before I had resolved to return the next morning and seek for the spot
where I had met with so enchanting an experience. After crossing the
sterile belt I have mentioned within the wood, and just before I came to
the open outer edge where the stunted trees and bushes die away on the
border of the savannah, what was my delight and astonishment at hearing
the mysterious melody once more! It seemed to issue from a clump of
bushes close by; but by this time I had come to the conclusion
that there was a ventriloquism in this woodland voice which made it
impossible for me to determine its exact direction. Of one thing I was,
however, now quite convinced, and that was that the singer had been
following me all the time. Again and again as I stood there listening it
sounded, now so faint and apparently far off as to be scarcely audible;
then all at once it would ring out bright and clear within a few yards
of me, as if the shy little thing had suddenly grown bold; but, far or
near, the vocalist remained invisible, and at length the tantalizing
melody ceased altogether.

CHAPTER III

I was not disappointed on my next visit to the forest, nor on several
succeeding visits; and this seemed to show that if I was right in
believing that these strange, melodious utterances proceeded from one
individual, then the bird or being, although still refusing to show
itself, was always on the watch for my appearance and followed me
wherever I went. This thought only served to increase my curiosity; I
was constantly pondering over the subject, and at last concluded that it
would be best to induce one of the Indians to go with me to the wood