though the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight of
a tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowed
with forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came over
me. I fell on my knees and covered my face with my hands.



Chapter V.


A voice accosted me--a very quiet and very musical key of voice--in a
language of which I could not understand a word, but it served to
dispel my fear. I uncovered my face and looked up. The stranger (I could
scarcely bring myself to call him man) surveyed me with an eye that
seemed to read to the very depths of my heart. He then placed his left
hand on my forehead, and with the staff in his right, gently touched my
shoulder. The effect of this double contact was magical. In place of my
former terror there passed into me a sense of contentment, of joy, of
confidence in myself and in the being before me. I rose and spoke in
my own language. He listened to me with apparent attention, but with a
slight surprise in his looks; and shook his head, as if to signify that
I was not understood. He then took me by the hand and led me in silence
to the building. The entrance was open--indeed there was no door to it.
We entered an immense hall, lighted by the same kind of lustre as in the
scene without, but diffusing a fragrant odour. The floor was in large
tesselated blocks of precious metals, and partly covered with a sort of
matlike carpeting. A strain of low music, above and around, undulated as
if from invisible instruments, seeming to belong naturally to the place,
just as the sound of murmuring waters belongs to a rocky landscape, or
the warble of birds to vernal groves.