Our visitors used to be filled with
astonishment.
Another animal that impressed us deeply and painfully was the skunk.
They were fearless little beasts and in the evening would come quite
boldly about the house, and if seen and attacked by a dog, they would
defend themselves with the awful-smelling liquid they discharge at an
adversary. When the wind brought a whiff of it into the house, when
all the doors and windows stood open, it would create a panic, and
people would get up from table feeling a little sea-sick, and go in
search of some room where the smell was not. Another powerful-smelling
but very beautiful creature was the common deer. I began to know it
from the age of five, when we went to our new home, and where we
children were sometimes driven with our parents to visit some
neighbours several miles away. There were always herds of deer on the
lands where the cardoon thistle flourished most, and it was a delight
to come upon them and to see their yellow figures standing among the
grey-green cardoon bushes, gazing motionless at us, then turning and
rushing away with a whistling cry, and sending out gusts of their
powerful musky smell, which the wind sometimes brought to our
nostrils.
But there was a something in the serpent which produced a quite
different and a stronger effect on the mind than bird or mammal or any
other creature.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240