His limbs seemed of great strength; nor was he
otherwise deformed than from their undue proportion in thickness to his
diminutive height. The terrified sportsman stood gazing on this horrible
apparition, until, with an angry countenance, the being demanded by what
right he intruded himself on those hills, and destroyed their harmless
inhabitants. The perplexed stranger endeavoured to propitiate the
incensed dwarf, by offering to surrender his game, as he would to an
earthly Lord of the Manor. The proposal only redoubled the offence
already taken by the dwarf, who alleged that he was the lord of those
mountains, and the protector of the wild creatures who found a retreat
in their solitary recesses; and that all spoils derived from their
death, or misery, were abhorrent to him. The hunter humbled himself
before the angry goblin, and by protestations of his ignorance, and
of his resolution to abstain from such intrusion in future, at last
succeeded in pacifying him. The gnome now became more communicative, and
spoke of himself as belonging to a species of beings something between
the angelic race and humanity.
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