The sea was giving up its dead, and upon its surface everywhere their bloated bodies rocked and swung. There was not a beast of all the region whose carcass was not a part of the water’s ghastly burden, nor were there the bodies of beasts alone! The Goatskins, hundreds of them, were coming to us again! But the horror of it all was not in the sight of the bodies alone. Thousands of ravens and vultures had come to the tremendous feast and the air was vibrant with the beating of the wings of myriads more still flocking from all directions save that of the sea itself. They were riding on the bodies and tearing at them, gorging themselves. The clamour and their croaking drowned out all other sounds. Close to the shore where I stood watching, a huge vulture rode on the body of a man, a Goatskin, devouring at its leisure, and so the horrible scene extended everywhere. It was a carnival of unclean birds! The sight before us was one not long to be endured, even by men of such hardihood as made up our wandering band. The limbs of the lately beast and bird burdened tree were now bare and white, and as its inhabitants had fled, so would we from this dread region. We gathered our belongings together as swiftly as we might and took up our long march, eager to leave such land of death and desolation. Easily did we live as to food, for the forests teemed with game because of the multitude of creatures driven from the valley. There were dangers, too. I have said that it was a region of lions. Now we came upon them everywhere, restless and savage, so that none of us wandered far from the band alone. Yet one day, near nightfall, just after we had encamped at the foot of a great barren boulder-strewn slope, I ventured up among the rocks alone. Surely there could be no lions there. Then, just as I turned about a huge boulder, I came upon a great maned monster face to face! I could not fly, for should I attempt it, I knew he would be upon me in an instant. There was nothing left to me but to face him as I might. I could crouch with the butt of my spear planted in the ground and await the spring of the monster. He crept a little nearer, his eyes blazing like coals, and his body held close to the ground taut as the string of a bow. He was within three yards of me now. I braced myself for the coming shock, hopeless, indeed, but desperately resolved to make all of my one slight chance. Fear seemed to have left me. I counted myself as already dead, and I was filled with a great rage. Could I hold the spear so firmly and move it with even eye so well that it would impale him at the climax of his leap, his own weight doing all the work of a mighty thrust? Calm, as fiercely strained as the lion himself, I was now. Closer to the ground he crouched, and then, with a hideous roar, he sprang.