Page:Thus Spake Zarathustra - Alexander Tille - 1896.djvu/261

 OF THE VISION AND THE RIDDLE 22^

And must not we recur and run in that other lane, out there, before us, in that long haunted lane must we not recur eternally ? '

Thus I spake and ever more gently. For I was afraid of mine own thoughts and back-thoughts. Then, suddenly, I heard a dog howl nigh unto the place.

Did I ever hear a dog howl like that ? My thought went back. Yea! When I was a child, in my re- motest childhood.

Then I heard a dog howl like that. And I saw it as well, with its hair bristled, its head turned upwards, trembling, in the stillest midnight when even the dogs believe in ghosts

So that I felt pity for it. For that very moment the full moon in deadly silence passed the house ; that very moment she stood still, a round glow, still on the flat roof, as if she stood on strange property.

Thereby the dog had been terrified ; for dogs be- lieve in thieves and ghosts. And when I heard that howling again I felt pity once more.

Whither had the dwarf gone ? And the gateway ? And the spider? And all the whispering? Did I dream ? Did I awake ? Between wild cliffs I stood suddenly, alone, lonely, in the loneliest moonshine.

But there lay a man ! And there ! The dog, jump- ing, with its hair bristled, whimpering, now it saw me come. Then it howled again, then it cried. Did I ever hear a dog cry thus for help ?

�� �