A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

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you--are you not to be envied in having your felicity so near? above
all, in having such a death as that which is appointed for you--so
noble, so sublime? You must be mad; your happiness has turned your
head."
All this seemed like hideous mockery, and I stared at the Kohen with a
gaze that probably strengthened his opinion of my madness.
"Do you love death?" I asked at length, in amazement.
"Love death? What a question! Of course I love death--all men do; who
does not? Is it not human nature? Do we not instinctively fly to meet
it whenever we can? Do we not rush into the jaws of sea-monsters, or
throw ourselves within their grasp? Who does not feel within him this
intense longing after death as the strongest passion of his heart?"
"I don't know--I don't know," said I. "You are of a different race; I
do not understand what you say. But I belong to a race that fears
death. I fear death and love life; and I entreat you, I implore you to
help me now in my distress, and assist me so that I may save my life
and that of Almah."
"I--I help you!" said the Kohen, in new amazement. "Why do you come to
me--to me, of all men? Why, I am nothing here. And help you to
live--to live! Who ever heard of such a thing?"
And the Kohen looked at me with the same astonishment which I should
evince if a man should ask me to help him to die.
Still, I persisted in my entreaty for his help.
"Such a request," said he, "is revolting; you must be mad. Such a
request outrages all the instincts of humanity. And even if I could do
such violence to my own nature as to help you to such a thing, how do
you think I could face my fellow-men, or how could I endure the
terrible punishment which would fall upon me?"
"Punishment!" said I. "What! would you be punished?"
"Punished!" said the Kohen. "That, of course, would be inevitable. I
should be esteemed an unnatural monster and the chief of criminals. My