say, spotted were all these shadows! Some in a
sitting posture, some standing, some walking, some gliding swiftly to
and fro. Many, after remaining motionless for a time, would, all at
once, begin dodging, skipping, flitting about among the columns in the
most fantastic manner imaginable; then would they come to a pause, and,
after again remaining motionless for a brief space, suddenly vanish.

The large majority of these airy figures were not sufficiently marked
for safe conjecture as to the manner of persons to whom they were
referrable, but many were too apparent to be mistaken. Some stood, with
magisterial dignity, staff in hand. Some, with military stalk, moved
slowly to and fro--swords, epaulets, plumes--all distinctly traceable.
Here sat one, with the likeness of a kingly crown upon his head; while
not far off, incongruous, as it may seem, appeared the picturesque
silhouette of an Indian warrior, moving onward with a majestic pace,
scalp lock, plumed, bow in hand, quiver on shoulder.

But it was a spectacle stranger still to observe how the elves, or, more
properly speaking, "Manitous," were busying themselves about these
shadows--now approaching them, now receding from them; sometimes
standing beside them, earnestly gesticulating, as if engaged in
conversation with the unseen, unheard personages who cast them. While
watching these mysterious movements Sprigg became cognizant of another
curious circumstance--the very counterpart of the shadow mystery. He
perceived that, while those invisible mortals were shadowed forth with
such distinctness, the Manitous themselves, with the light thrown full
and strong upon them, were as shadowless in that light as air itself.
Noting this, he glanced upward to see what manner of light it must be
that could shadow forth the unseen, and shadowless leave the seen. How
the boy started! Then backward shrank, till abruptly checked by a
column, against whose base, as were he an effigy carved upon it, he
stood, gazing coweringly upward. That globe of living light was a living
_eye_! An eye immensely large, of calm and terrible look, which Sprigg
felt to be bent directly upon himself, piercing his very soul and laying
it open, stripped of all disguise. Though so bright that it illumined
the vast temple to its uttermost bounds, that wondrous eye did not
blind, nor even dazzle, the sight; for it imparted to the mortal eye,
that need must meet it, strength to bear its light and behold the