Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV of this series have revealed newly deciphered portions of the cryptic diary of fur trapper Ezra Small, written in the winter of 1839. In this excerpt, we find the frontiersman clinging to his sanity as the harsh months wear on, as his supplies dwindle--and as the "spells" that foist these bizarre messages on him grow in intensity. This is from the end of February of that year.
I wait. I stir at daybreak, stoke the fire. Nothing in the traps again. Blessed silence. They always leave me alone in the morning. Back under the pelt. I wait.
With snow and ice cutting off all human contact, Small must have felt like the last man on Earth. Was it this extreme loneliness that drove him to near-madness? Or was it something more practical like a physical malady affecting his brain and nervous system?
The familiar throbbing wakes me. It's almost time again. How big the high yellow sun seems, how pale and impotent. Snow halfway up the outer walls now. I wait. This corner looks like that one. I can count the knots in the rafters. My bones hurt, fire in my head. Finally it comes, the shaking, the shrieking, blinding, piercing, murdering all my senses! Get down, let it happen. Nothing makes it stop but time. Save the words.
Probably delirious from thirst and hunger, Small frantically scrawled in his journal as he suffered these attacks. While some of his writing is simply illegible--whole portions of it consist of dark scratches and meaningless symbols resembling boxes, figure eights, circles and diamonds--the readable portions hardly seem lucid anyway. Below are presented the usual snaking, weaving strings of random letters, followed by another burst of incoherent tercets.
xakiuxuwfu euivhrkufv cvcvqulh yfuhr qudkufk gztcvz flhylf yzhzwvuh gtvez yzmvt elcztz ewzewz ilil wunu rusuhru yvifljlylh ghurfvbb gizxvzg uta gauvaktky vj vg jvez gjlfeg hlj lmzf tugj glhg dkzgj jfkja uhy euyhzgg zufg ufz zmzfqnazfz jvez jl tzumz bkjkfz mvxz ifzgvyzhj hueuh hl euh wtuxc szfl tvmzg tgy lfy ecktjfu tzumz hljavhr khjkfhzy jaz wvr uifvxlj fzztzxj fulkt wtllynlfja wzxlez jaz jfkxc qlk ekgj fzjkfh v nvtt xallgz vhjfkyz fgiuqa zzy iuizfg alty uhgnzfg xlez jl ez wfzuc lh jaflkra qlk nvtt lwzq tlhztq wujjtz euvyzh wztuq btzzjvhr buez wuhvga wvjjzf blfjkhz azutvhr jaz fvbj qlk xuhhlj zgxuiz
By its awesome power
Is clarity bestowed
But fear colors the future
You were all I wanted
All my dreams
Have fallen down
A prince wishing to keep his state
Is very often forced
To do evil
By the creekside
Elucidation was granted to me
Torment was imposed on me
