Lilith

CHAPTER XVIII. DEAD OR ALIVE?
I went walking on, still facing the moon, who, not yet high, was staring straight into the forest. I did not know
what ailed her, but she was dark and dented, like a battered disc of old copper, and looked dispirited and
weary. Not a cloud was nigh to keep her company, and the stars were too bright for her. "Is this going to last
for ever?" she seemed to say. She was going one way and I was going the other, yet through the wood we
went a long way together. We did not commune much, for my eyes were on the ground; but her disconsolate
look was fixed on me: I felt without seeing it. A long time we were together, I and the moon, walking side by
side, she the dull shine, and I the live shadow.
Something on the ground, under a spreading tree, caught my eye with its whiteness, and I turned toward it.
Vague as it was in the shadow of the foliage, it suggested, as I drew nearer, a human body. "Another
skeleton!" I said to myself, kneeling and laying my hand upon it. A body it was, however, and no skeleton,
though as nearly one as body could well be. It lay on its side, and was very cold−− not cold like a stone, but
cold like that which was once alive, and is alive no more. The closer I looked at it, the oftener I touched it, the
less it seemed possible it should be other than dead. For one bewildered moment, I fancied it one of the wild
dancers, a ghostly Cinderella, perhaps, that had lost her way home, and perished in the strange night of an
out−of−door world! It was quite naked, and so worn that, even in the shadow, I could, peering close, have
counted without touching them, every rib in its side. All its bones, indeed, were as visible as if tight−covered
with only a thin elastic leather. Its beautiful yet terrible teeth, unseemly disclosed by the retracted lips,
gleamed ghastly through the dark. Its hair was longer than itself, thick and very fine to the touch, and black as
night.
It was the body of a tall, probably graceful woman.−−How had she come there? Not of herself, and already in
such wasted condition, surely! Her strength must have failed her; she had fallen, and lain there until she died
of hunger! But how, even so, could she be thus emaciated? And how came she to be naked? Where were the
savages to strip and leave her? or what wild beasts would have taken her garments? That her body should
have been left was not wonderful!
I rose to my feet, stood, and considered. I must not, could not let her lie exposed and forsaken! Natural
reverence forbade it. Even the garment of a woman claims respect; her body it were impossible to leave
uncovered! Irreverent eyes might look on it! Brutal claws might toss it about! Years would pass ere the
friendly rains washed it into the soil!−−But the ground was hard, almost solid with interlacing roots, and I
had but my bare hands!
At first it seemed plain that she had not long been dead: there was not a sign of decay about her! But then
what had the slow wasting of life left of her to decay?
Lilith
Could she be still alive? Might she not? What if she were! Things went very strangely in this strange world!
Even then there would be little chance of bringing her back, but I must know she was dead before I buried
her!
As I left the forest−hall, I had spied in the doorway a bunch of ripe grapes, and brought it with me, eating as I
came: a few were yet left on the stalk, and their juice might possibly revive her! Anyhow it was all I had with
which to attempt her rescue! The mouth was happily a little open; but the head was in such an awkward
position that, to move the body, I passed my arm under the shoulder on which it lay, when I found the
pine−needles beneath it warm: she could not have been any time dead, and MIGHT still be alive, though I
could discern no motion of the heart, or any indication that she breathed! One of her hands was clenched
hard, apparently inclosing something small. I squeezed a grape into her mouth, but no swallowing followed.
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