ds of death and resurrection coincided with the
Nekysia--and on winning their favors by magical formulas and spells.

Everything was plainly visible, for the desert tract of the Nekropolis,
where at this hour utter darkness and silence usually reigned, was
brightly lighted up. Still, the blaze failed to banish entirely the
thrill of fear which pervaded the spot at night; for the unwonted glare
dazzled and bewildered the bats and night-birds, and they fluttered about
over the heads of the intruders in dark, ghostly flight. Many a one
believed them to be the unresting souls of condemned sinners, and looked
up at them with awe.

Melissa drew her veil closer and clung more tightly to her brother, for a
sound of singing and wild cries, which she had heard behind her for some
time, was now coming closer. They were no longer treading the paved
street, but the hard-beaten soil of the desert. The crush was over, for
here the crowd could spread abroad; but the uproarious troop, which she
did not even dare to look at, came rushing past quite close to them. They
were Greeks, of all ages and of both sexes. The men flourished torches,
and were shouting a song with unbridled vehemence; the women, wearing
garlands, kept up with them. What they carried in the baskets on their
heads could not be seen, nor did Alexander know; for so many religious
brotherhoods and mystic societies existed here that it was impossible to
guess to which this noisy troop might belong.

The pair had presently overtaken a little train of white-robed men moving
forward at a solemn pace, whom the painter recognized as the
philosophical and religious fraternity of the Neo-Pythagoreans, when a
small knot of men and women in the greatest excitement came rushing past
as if they were mad. The men wore the loose red caps of their Phrygian
land; the women carried bowls full of fruits. Some beat small drums,
others clanged cymbals, and each hauled his neighbor along with deafening
cries, faster and faster, till the dust hid them from sight and a new din
drowned the last, for the votaries of Dionysus were already close upon
them, and vied with the Phrygians in uproariousness. But this wild troop
remained behind; for one of the light-colored oxen, covered with
decorations, which was being driven in the procession by a party of men
and boys, to be presently sacrificed, had broken away, maddened by the
lights and the shouting, and had to be caught and led again.

At last