d people, a conjecture, however, which proved
to be erroneous.

I was now left standing by the altar, the attendants observing me with
respect which I feared might at any moment take the blasphemous form of
worship. Nor could I see how I was to check their adoration, and turn it
into the proper channel, if, as happened to Captain Cook, and has
frequently occurred since, these darkened idolaters mistook me for one of
their own deities. I might spurn them, indeed; but when Nicholson
adopted that course, and beat the Fakirs who worshipped him during the
Indian Mutiny, his conduct, as I have read, only redoubled their
enthusiasm. However, as events proved, they never at any time were
inclined to substitute me for their heathen divinities; very far from it
indeed, though their peculiar conduct was calculated to foster in my
breast this melancholy delusion.

I had not been left long to my own thoughts when I marked lights
wandering in the garden or courtyard whither the messenger had been sent
by the old priest. Presently there came forth from the court a man of
remarkable stature, and with an air of seriousness and responsibility. In
his hand he carried a short staff, or baton, with gold knobs, and he wore
a thin golden circlet in his hair. As he drew near, the veil of the
temple was again lifted, and the aged priest came forward, bearing in his
arms a singular casket of wood, ornamented with alternate bands of gold
and ivory, carved with outlandish figures. The torch-bearers crowded
about us in the darkness, and it was a strange spectacle to behold the
smoky, fiery light shining on the men's faces and the rich coloured
dresses, or lighting up the white idol of Apollon, which stood among the
laurel trees at the entrance of the temple.

III. THE PROPHECY.

The priest and the man with the gold circlet, whom I took to be a chief,
now met, and, fixing their eyes on me, held a conversation of which,
naturally, I understood nothing. I maintained an unmoved demeanour, and,
by way of showing my indifference, and also of impressing the natives
with the superiority of our civilization, I took out and wound up my
watch, which, I was glad to find, had not been utterly ruined by the salt
water. Meanwhile the priest was fumbling in his casket, whence he
produced a bundle of very ragged and smoky old bits of parchment and
scraps of potsherds. These he placed in the hands of his attendants, who
received them kneeling.