He had not
listened long before he saw the apparition of a milk-white steed,
with a young man on the back of it, advancing upon full stretch
after the souls of about a hundred beagles, that were hunting down
the ghost of a hare, which ran away before them with an unspeakable
swiftness. As the man on the milk-white steed came by him, he
looked upon him very attentively, and found him to be the young
prince Nicharagua, who died about half a year before, and, by reason
of his great virtues, was at that time lamented over all the western
parts of America.
He had no sooner got out of the wood but he was entertained with
such a landscape of flowery plains, green meadows, running streams,
sunny hills, and shady vales as were not to be represented by his
own expressions, nor, as he said, by the conceptions of others.
This happy region was peopled with innumerable swarms of spirits,
who applied themselves to exercises and diversions, according as
their fancies led them. Some of them were tossing the figure of a
quoit; others were pitching the shadow of a bar; others were
breaking the apparition of a horse; and multitudes employing
themselves upon ingenious handicrafts with the souls of departed
utensils, for that is the name which in the Indian language they
give their tools when they are burnt or broken.
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