n their tapering formation and perfect filbert nails, I read a
likeness whose prototype, struggle how I would, I could not recall.
Gradually the hand moved upwards, and, reaching the throat, the fingers
set to work, at once, to remove the wrappings. My terror was now
sublime! I dare not imagine, I dare not for one instant think, what I
should see! And there was no getting away from it; I could not stir an
inch, not the fraction of an inch, and the ghastly revelation would take
place within a yard of my face.

"One by one the bandages came off. A glimmer of skin, pallid as marble;
the beginning of the nose, the whole nose; the upper lip, exquisitely,
delicately cut; the teeth, white and even on the whole, but here and
there a shining gold filling; the under-lip, soft and gentle; a mouth I
knew, but--God!--where? In my dreams, in the wild fantasies that had
oft-times visited my pillow at night--in delirium, in reality, where?
Mon Dieu! WHERE?

"The uncasing continued. The chin came next, a chin that was purely
feminine, purely classical; then the upper part of the head--the hair
long, black, luxuriant--the forehead low and white--the brows black,
finely pencilled; and, last of all, the eyes!--and as they met my
frenzied gaze and smiled, smiled right down into the depths of my livid
soul, I recognised them--they were the eyes of my mother, my mother who
had died in my boyhood! Seized with a madness that knew no bounds, I
sprang to my feet. The figure rose and confronted me. I flung open my
arms to embrace her, the woman of all women in the world I loved best,
the only woman I had loved. Shrinking from my touch, she cowered against
the side of the tent. I fell on my knees before her and kissed--what?
Not the feet of my mother, but that of the long unburied dead. Sick with
repulsion and fear I looked up, and there, bending over and peering into
my eyes was the face, the fleshless, mouldering face of a foul and
barely recognisable corpse! With a shriek of horror I rolled backwards,
and, springing to my feet, prepared to fly. I glanced at the mummy. It
was lying on the ground, stiff and still, every bandage in its place;
whilst standing over it, a look of fiendish glee in its light, doglike
eyes, was the figure of Anubis, lurid and menacing.

"The voices of my servants, assuring me they were coming, broke the
silence, and in an instant the apparition vanished.

"I had had enough of the tent, however, at least for that night