rtunately wanting, to
describe the awful and hideous grandeur of the spectacle thus presented
to us is, I feel, so absolutely beyond my poor powers that I scarcely
dare attempt it. To begin with, it appealed to the moral as well as the
physical susceptibilities. There was something very terrible, and yet
very fascinating, about the employment of the remote dead to illumine
the orgies of the living; in itself the thing was a satire, both on the
living and the dead. Caesar's dust--or is it Alexander's?--may stop a
bunghole, but the functions of these dead Caesars of the past was to
light up a savage fetish dance. To such base uses may we come, of so
little account may we be in the minds of the eager multitudes that we
shall breed, many of whom, so far from revering our memory, will live to
curse us for begetting them into such a world of woe.

Then there was the physical side of the spectacle, and a weird and
splendid one it was. Those old citizens of Kor burnt as, to judge from
their sculptures and inscriptions, they had lived, very fast, and with
the utmost liberality. What is more, there were plenty of them. As soon
as ever a mummy had burnt down to the ankles, which it did in about
twenty minutes, the feet were kicked away, and another one put in its
place. The bonfire was kept going on the same generous scale, and its
flames shot up, with a hiss and a crackle, twenty or thirty feet into
the air, throwing great flashes of light far out into the gloom, through
which the dark forms of the Amahagger flitted to and fro like
devils replenishing the infernal fires. We all stood and stared
aghast--shocked, and yet fascinated at so strange a spectacle, and half
expecting to see the spirits those flaming forms had once enclosed come
creeping from the shadows to work vengeance on their desecrators.

"I promised thee a strange sight, my Holly," laughed Ayesha, whose
nerves alone did not seem to be affected; "and, behold, I have not
failed thee. Also, it hath its lesson. Trust not to the future, for
who knows what the future may bring! Therefore, live for the day, and
endeavour not to escape the dust which seems to be man's end. What
thinkest thou those long-forgotten nobles and ladies would have felt had
they known that they should one day flare to light the dance or boil the
pot of savages? But see, here come the dancers; a merry crew--are they
not? The stage is lit--now for the play."

As she spoke, we perceived two lines of