nvoking them upon
myself. At each petition, the tall negro, still smiling, picked up some
bird or animal from the heaving mass upon his left, slew it with the
knife, and tossed its body on the ground. At length, it seemed, it
reached the turn of the high priestess. She set down the basket on the
steps, moved into the centre of the ring, grovelled in the dust before
the reptiles, and still grovelling lifted up her voice, between speech
and singing, and with so great, with so insane a fervour of excitement,
as struck a sort of horror through my blood.

"Power," she began, "whose name we do not utter; power that is neither
good nor evil, but below them both; stronger than good, greater than
evil--all my life long I have adored and served thee. Who has shed blood
upon thine altars? whose voice is broken with the singing of thy
praises? whose limbs are faint before their age with leaping in thy
revels? Who has slain the child of her body? I," she cried, "I,
Metamnbogu! By my own name, I name myself. I tear away the veil. I would
be served or perish. Hear me, slime of the fat swamp, blackness of the
thunder, venom of the serpent's udder--hear or slay me! I would have two
things, O shapeless one, O horror of emptiness--two things, or die! The
blood of my white-faced husband; oh! give me that; he is the enemy of
Hoodoo; give me blood! And yet another, O racer of the blind winds, O
germinator in the ruins of the dead, O root of life, root of corruption!
I grow old, I grow hideous; I am known, I am hunted for my life: let thy
servant then lay by this outworn body; let thy chief priestess turn
again to the blossom of her days, and be a girl once more, and the
desired of all men, even as in the past! And, O lord and master, as I
here ask a marvel not yet wrought since we were torn from the old land,
have I not prepared the sacrifice in which thy soul delighteth--the kid
without the horns?"

Even as she uttered the words, there was a great rumour of joy through
all the circle of worshippers; it rose, and fell, and rose again; and
swelled at last into rapture, when the tall negro, who had stepped an
instant into the chapel, reappeared before the door, carrying in his
arms the body of the slave-girl, Cora. I know not if I saw what
followed. When next my mind awoke to a clear knowledge, Cora was laid
upon the steps before the serpents; the negro with the knife stood over
her; the knife rose; and at this I screamed out in my great horr