Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/192

Detdiar sidj as efterluket wurden.


CHAPTER XVI.


THE EBB-WALKERS.

     Each new wave for me is weaving
          A watery shroud that I must wear ;
       Each new wave, with steady heaving,
          Sounds the death-call in mine ear.

 
  We pass over the short stay on the island, whose in-
terior, surrounded and intersected by strong dikes more
than twenty feet in height, and from eighty to a hun-
dred feet in thickness, was thus cut off from all view
of the ocean, and presented the appearance of a camp
defended by ramparts, now forsaken by its garrison, or
occupied by peaceful husbandmen who had hitherto
neglected to remove the bulwarks.
  On their return to the hallig, the vessel had at first
to contend with contrary winds; then came a perfect
calm, and, within about a mile from the ordinary land-
ing, the anchor was cast, for as the ebb-tide was ap-
proaching, they could advance no further even with a
favorable wind. It was a bright afternoon, and the
scattered houses of the hallig lay in full view. of the
persons so unpleasantly detained. The vessel was soon
left on dry ground, and it seemed very easy to walk
over the little space which separated them from the