Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) _By the same Author._ A LITTLE PILGRIM: In the Unseen. Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON. THE LAND OF DARKNESS [Illustration: colophon] THE LAND OF DARKNESS ALONG WITH SOME FURTHER CHAPTERS IN THE EXPERIENCES OF THE LITTLE PILGRIM London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1888 _All rights reserved_ CONTENTS PAGE THE LAND OF DARKNESS 1 THE LITTLE PILGRIM 127 ON THE DARK MOUNTAINS 177 I THE LAND OF DARKNESS I found myself standing on my feet, with the tingling sensation of having come down rapidly upon the ground from a height. There was a similar feeling in my head, as of the whirling and sickening sensation of passing downward through the air, like the description Dante gives of his descent upon Geryon. My mind, curiously enough, was sufficiently disengaged to think of that, or at least to allow swift passage for the recollection through my thoughts. All the aching of wonder, doubt, and fear which I had been conscious of a little while before was gone. There was no distinct interval between the one condition and the other, nor in my fall (as I supposed it must have been) had I any consciousness of change. There was the whirling of the air, resisting my passage, yet giving way under me in giddy circles, and then the sharp shock of once more feeling under my feet something solid, which struck yet sustained. After a little while the giddiness above and the tingling below passed away, and I felt able to look about me and discern where I was. But not all at once: the things immediately about me impressed me first--then the general aspect of the new place.