"A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

mountains, and, about ten, entered a gorge which was entirely new to
me. I followed the windings of this pass with much interest. The
scenery which presented itself on all sides, although scarcely
entitled to be called grand, had about it an indescribable and to me a
delicious aspect of dreary desolation. The solitude seemed
absolutely virgin. I could not help believing that the green sods
and the gray rocks upon which I trod had been trodden never before
by the foot of a human being. So entirely secluded, and in fact
inaccessible, except through a series of accidents, is the entrance of
the ravine, that it is by no means impossible that I was indeed the
first adventurer- the very first and sole adventurer who had ever
penetrated its recesses.
"The thick and peculiar mist, or smoke, which distinguishes the
Indian Summer, and which now hung heavily over all objects, served, no
doubt, to deepen the vague impressions which these objects created. So
dense was this pleasant fog that I could at no time see more than a
dozen yards of the path before me. This path was excessively
sinuous, and as the sun could not be seen, I soon lost all idea of the
direction in which I journeyed. In the meantime the morphine had its
customary effect- that of enduing all the external world with an
intensity of interest. In the quivering of a leaf- in the hue of a
blade of grass- in the shape of a trefoil- in the humming of a bee- in
the gleaming of a dew-drop- in the breathing of the wind- in the faint
odors that came from the forest- there came a whole universe of
suggestion- a gay and motley train of rhapsodical and immethodical
thought.
"Busied in this, I walked on for several hours, during which the
mist deepened around me to so great an extent that at length I was
reduced to an absolute groping of the way. And now an indescribable
uneasiness possessed me- a species of nervous hesitation and tremor. I
feared to tread, lest I should be precipitated into some abyss. I
remembered, too, strange stories told about these Ragged Hills, and of
the uncouth and fierce races of men who tenanted their groves and
caverns. A thousand vague fancies oppressed and disconcerted me-
fancies the more distressing because vague. Very suddenly my attention
was arrested by the loud beating of a drum.
"My amazement was, of course, extreme. A drum in these hills was a
thing unknown. I could not have been more surprised at the sound of
the trump of the Archangel. But a new and still more astounding source
of interest and perplexity arose. There came a wild rattling or
jingling sound, as if of a bunch of large keys, and upon the instant a
dusky-visaged and half-naked man rushed past me with a shriek. He came
so close to my person that I felt his hot breath upon my face. He bore
in one hand an instrument composed of an assemblage of steel rings,
and shook them vigorously as he ran. Scarcely had he disappeared in
the mist before, panting after him, with open mouth and glaring
eyes, there darted a huge beast. I could not be mistaken in its
character. It was a hyena.
"The sight of this monster rather relieved than heightened my
terrors- for I now made sure that I dreamed, and endeavored to