it was an eminently thrilling oblation.

The votaries themselves were no solitary ascetics who practised heroic
mortifications to obtain dominion over life or nature. Instead of the
pale devotee who in other creed cultivates the desire to get away from
all things earthly, and whose every effort is to extinguish pleasure
in life, every theopath of Harikar cultivated a Greek perfection of
body, as well as a Gothic intensity of soul. By what powerful
incantation were the priests of Egyplosis able to overcome the law of
the outer world, that all joy must be paid for in pain, and that the
joy was nearly always too dear at the price given?

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE INSTALLATION OF A TWIN-SOUL.

The sacred musicians of the temple surrounded the throne in solid
circles each arrayed in lordly attire.

They flourished instruments of gold, that rang out music of such depth
and clearness of tone as to melt every soul in that vast audience into
one thrilling whole. The sounding song was the incarnation of all
things majestic and glorious. In its breathless measures were born the
spirits of conquest, pride, inspiration, love and sympathy. The
thrilling climax was wrought of passages eloquent of love, tenderness,
reverence, joy, adoration and poetry.

Again, with the music becoming more refined, a choir of singers in the
high cloister in the walls sang as they walked a refrain of purifying
sweetness. It was a wail of fidelity and love, and both song and music
moved in perfect accord.

Thereafter music alone was heard, when the high priest Hushnoly, and
the high priestess Zooly-Soase stood before us on the silver pavement
beneath the throne.

The blue-black hair of the high priestess fell around her olive face
and shoulders like a cloud of darkness. She wore a robe of coral-red
silken gossamer, that with its foldings shivered like quicksilver,
revealing a figure of olive marble beneath. Her shoulders, arms and
breasts, soft and heavy in mould, were dimly seen beneath their coral
veil. Her profile was perfect. Her eyes were jewels of swart fire. Her
eyebrows made perfect arches above them, enhancing the beauty of her
face. Her mouth was fine and tender, and her lips red with kisses. The
high priest, whose noble features were olive-green in hue, wore a
splendid opaque silk burnous of camellia-red, of heavier texture than
that of the priestess. He wore boots of scarlet lacquered leather.
Both wore diadems of kragon, the precio