sort of box with bottom and sides each made of a slab
just like the lid. In this box was another, made of some dark metal,
which I took to be lead. I pulled it out and found that the lid of the
box was all of one piece with the rest, like a sardine tin. Evidently I
could not open it there and then. It was rather heavy, but I did not
care, and I managed without too much inconvenience to carry it home to
the place I was lodging in. Of course I put back the stone neatly and
covered it up with earth and grass again.

I was late for tea, but I had found what was better than tea.

II

THE FIRST JAR

That night I waited till the moon was up before trying to open the box.
I do not well know why, but it seemed the right thing, and I followed my
instinct, feeling that it might be the plant that made me think as I
did. I drew up the blind and laid the box on a table near the window,
where the moon shone full on it, and waited to see if anything else
occurred to me. Suddenly I heard a sort of metallic snap. I went and
looked at the box. Nothing appeared on the side nearest to me--but when
I turned it round I saw that all along the side which the moon had shone
upon there was a line along the metal. I turned another side to the
moonlight, and another snap came in two or three minutes. Of course I
went on. When the moon had made a groove on all four sides, I tried the
lid. It would not come off yet, so there was nothing to be done but
continue the process. Three times I did it: every side I turned to the
moon thrice, and when that was done the lid was free. I lifted it, and
what did I see in the box? All this writing would be very little use if
I did not tell you, so it must be done.

There were five compartments in the box: in each of them was a little
jar or vase of glass with a round body, a narrow neck, and spreading out
a little at the top. The top of each was covered with a plate of metal
and on each plate was a word or two in capital letters. On the one in
the middle there were the words _unge oculos_, the other jars had one
word apiece, _aures_, _linguam_, _frontem_, _pectus_.

Now, years ago, I took great pains to learn the Latin language, and on
many occasions I have found it _most useful_, whatever you may see to
the contrary in the newspaper: but seldom or never have I found it more
useful than now. I saw at once that the words meant _anoint the eyes_,
_the ears_, _the tongue_, _the forehead_, _the chest_. W