Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-15
CHAPTER XIV.

Unorna's voice sank from the tone Of
anger to lower pitch. She spoke quietly,
and very distinctly, as though to impress
every word upon the ear of the man who was
in her power. The Wanderer listened, too,
scarcely comprehending at first, but slowly
Welding 10 the influence she exerted until
the vision rose before him also with all its
moving scenes, in all its truth and in all its
horror. As in dream, the desolaue burial
ground was peopled with forms and faces Of
other days; the gravestones rose from the
earth and piled themselves into gloomy
houses and remote courts and dim streets
aud venerable churches, the dry and twisted
trees shrank down, and broadened and
swung their branches as arms, and drew up
their roots ont Of the ground rs feet under
them, ard moved hither and thither, and
the knots and bosses and gnarls upon them
became faces, dark, eagle-like and keen. and
the creaking and cracking of the boughs
and twigs under the piercing blast that
swept by, became articulste and like the
voices OF old men talking angrily together.
There were sudden changes from day to
night, and from night to day. In dark
chambers crouching men took council OF
blood together under the feeble rays of
fickering lamp In the uncertain twilight
OF winter, muf1ed figures lurked at the
corners of streets, waiting for some one to
pass, who must not escape them. As the
Wanderer gazed and listened, Israel kafka
was transformed. He no longer stood with
outstretched arms, his back against crumb-
ling slab, his filIny eyes fixed on Unorna' {
face. He grew younger; his features were
those OF boy OF scarcely Is years, pale,
earnest and frightened by soft light,
which followed him hither and thither and
he was not alone. He moved with others
through the old familiar streets of the city,
clothed il a fashion of other times. speaking
in accents comprehensive but unlike the
speech of to-day, acting in dim and far
off Ii e that had once been.
The Wanderer looked, and, as in dreams,
he knew that what ne saw was unreal, he
knew that the changing walls and streets
and houses ard public places were built up
Of grsvestones which in truth were deeply
planted in the ground, immovable and in
capable OF spontaneous motion; he knew
that the crowds of men and women were not
human beings, but gnarled and twisted
trees rooted in the earth, and that the hum
of voices which reached his ears was but the
sound of the dried branches bending in the
wind; he knew that Israel Kafka was not
the pale-faced boy who glided from place to
place, followed everywhere by so radi-
snce; be knew that Unorna was the source
and origin of the vision, and that the
mingling speeches of the actors, now sbrill
in angry alteration, now kissing in low,
fierce whisper, were really formed upon
Unorna's lips and made audible through
her tones, IS the chorus of indistinct speech
proceeded from the swaying trees. 1t was
10 him an illusion of which he understood
the key and penetrated the secret,
but it was marvellous in its way
and he was held enthralled
from the first moment when it began
TO unfold itself. He understood, further,
that Israel hafka was in a state different
from this, that be was suffering all the
reality of another life, which to the Wan
derer was but dream. For the moment all
bis faculties had double perception of
things and sounds, Distinguishing clearly
between the fact and the mirage that dis
torted and ohscured it. For the moment he
was aware that his reason was awake,
though his eyes and his ears might be Sleep
ing. Then the unequal contest between the
senses and the intellect ceased, and while
still retaining the dim consciousness that
the source of all he saw and heard Law in
Unorna's brain, he allowed himself to be
leo quickly from one scene to another, ab-
sorbed and taken out of himself by the hor-
ror Of the deeds done before him.
At first, indeed, the vision, though vivid,
seemed Oblectless and of uncertain meaning
The dark depths OF the Hebrew quarter of
the city were opened, and it was toward