Strona 255 z 788

These chief and patriarchal pairs of beasts, hidden in the kernel

of the forest, invisible to the world, send their children beyond

the confines of the wood as colonists, but themselves in their

capital enjoy repose; they never perish by cut or by shot, but

when old die by a natural death. They have likewise their

graveyard, where, when near to death, the birds lay their

feathers and the quadrupeds their fur. The bear, when with his

blunted teeth he cannot chew his food; the decrepit stag, when he

can scarcely move his legs; the venerable hare, when his blood

already thickens in his veins; the raven, when he grows grey, and

the falcon, when he grows blind; the eagle, when his old beak is

bent into such a bow that it is shut for ever and provides no

nourishment for his throat;83 all go to the graveyard. Even a

lesser beast, when wounded or sick, runs to die in the land of

its fathers.