Sifted out, my motives to this enterprise justified not the mad deed, which, in a moment of rage, I had done: though, those motives had been covered with a gracious pretense; concealing myself from myself.

But I beat down the thought.
In relating her story, the maiden frequently interrupted it with questions concerning myself:--Whence I came: being white, from Oroolia?
Whither I was going: to Amma?
And what had happened to Aleema?
For she had been dismayed at the fray, though knowing not what it could mean; and she had heard the priest's name called upon in lamentations.

These questions for the time I endeavored to evade; only inducing her to fancy me some gentle demigod, that had come over the sea from her own fabulous Oroolia.

And all this she must verily have believed.

For whom, like me, ere this could she have beheld?
Still fixed she her eyes upon me strangely, and hung upon the accents of my voice.
While this scene was passing, the strangers began to show signs of impatience, and a voice from the Chamois repeatedly hailed us to accelerate our movements.
My course was quickly decided.