His comrades came questioning about him to know the reason, but he answered them nothing; he sat alone and brooded.

Then his friend came to him, and to him he spoke.
"'I have seen today,' he said, 'that which I never saw before--a vast white bird, with silver wings outstretched, sailing in the everlasting blue.

And now it is as though a great fire burnt within my breast.

It was but a sheen, a shimmer, a reflection in the water; but now I desire nothing more on earth than to hold her.' "His friend laughed.
"'It was but a beam playing on the water, or the shadow of your own head.

Tomorrow you will forget her,' he said.
"But tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow the hunter walked alone.
He sought in the forest and in the woods, by the lakes and among the rushes, but he could not find her.