Pagina 252 de 788

Who has explored the deep abysses of the Lithuanian forests up to

the very centre, the kernel of the thicket? A fisherman is

scarcely acquainted with the bottom of the sea close to the

shore; a huntsman skirts around the bed of the Lithuanian

forests; he knows them barely on the surface, their form and

face, but the inner secrets of their heart are a mystery to him;

only rumour or fable knows what goes on within them. For, when

you have passed the woods and the dense, tangled thickets, in the

depths you come upon a great rampart of stumps, logs, and roots,

defended by a quagmire, a thousand streams, and a net of

overgrown weeds and ant-hills, nests of wasps and hornets, and

coils of serpents. If by some superhuman valour you surmount even

these barriers, farther on you will meet with still greater

danger.