Hers was the stronger temperament, and she sacrificed herself -though not consciously - for me.
"As soon as I comprehended this, I made a vow never to eat or destroy anything that contained life - and I have kept it ever since.
"While I was still hardly a grown man, my father died. My mother's death followed immediately, and I hated the associations of the land.
I therefore made up my mind to travel into my mother's country, where, as she had often told me, nature was most sacred and solitary.
"One hot morning I came to Shaping's Causeway. It is so called either because Shaping once crossed it, or because of its stupendous character. It is a natural embankment, twenty miles long, which links the mountains bordering my homeland with the Ifdawn Marest.
The valley lies below at a depth varying from eight to ten thousand feet - a terrible precipice on either side. The knife edge of the ridge is generally not much over a foot wide. The causeway goes due north and south. The valley on my right hand was plunged in shadow -that on my left was sparkling with sunlight and dew. I walked fearfully along this precarious path for some miles. Far to the east the valley was closed by a lofty tableland, connecting the two chains of mountains, but overtopping even the most towering pinnacles. This is called the Sant Levels. I was never there, but I have heard two curious facts concerning the inhabitants. The first is that they have no women; the second, that though they are addicted to travelling in other parts they never acquire habits of the peoples with whom they reside.