she
took from it a large vitrified double-handed vase, the mouth of which
was tied up with a bladder. This she loosed, and then, having bent down
and gently kissed the white forehead of the dead man, she undid the
vase, and sprinkled its contents carefully over the form, taking, I
observed, the greatest precautions against any drop of them touching
us or herself, and then poured out what remained of the liquid upon the
chest and head. Instantly a dense vapour arose, and the cave was filled
with choking fumes that prevented us from seeing anything while the
deadly acid (for I presume it was some tremendous preparation of that
sort) did its work. From the spot where the body lay came a fierce
fizzing and cracking sound, which ceased, however, before the fumes had
cleared away. At last they were all gone, except a little cloud that
still hung over the corpse. In a couple of minutes more this too had
vanished, and, wonderful as it may seem, it is a fact that on the stone
bench that had supported the mortal remains of the ancient Kallikrates
for so many centuries there was now nothing to be seen but a few
handfuls of smoking white powder. The acid had utterly destroyed the
body, and even in places eaten into the stone. Ayesha stooped down, and,
taking a handful of this powder in her grasp, threw it into the air,
saying at the same time, in a voice of calm solemnity--

"Dust to dust!--the past to the past!--the dead to the
dead!--Kallikrates is dead, and is born again!"

The ashes floated noiselessly to the rocky floor, and we stood in awed
silence and watched them fall, too overcome for words.

"Now leave me," she said, "and sleep if ye may. I must watch and think,
for to-morrow night we go hence, and the time is long since I trod the
path that we must follow."

Accordingly we bowed, and left her.

As we passed to our own apartment I peeped into Job's sleeping place,
to see how he fared, for he had gone away just before our interview with
the murdered Ustane, quite prostrated by the terrors of the Amahagger
festivity. He was sleeping soundly, good honest fellow that he was,
and I rejoiced to think that his nerves, which, like those of most
uneducated people, were far from strong, had been spared the closing
scenes of this dreadful day. Then we entered our own chamber, and here
at last poor Leo, who, ever since he had looked upon that frozen
image of his living self, had been in a state not far removed from
stupefaction