They were of two colours, snow-white and coal-black.

The white appeared upon his right side, the black upon his left side.

Each bird in those never-ceasing streams hovered for an instant by his head, the white over his right shoulder, the black over his left shoulder, as though they whispered a message to his ear, and having whispered were gone upon their errand." "What was that errand, Father ?" "How can I know, as no one ever told me?
Yet I will hazard a guess that it had to do with the mystery of life and death.

Souls that were born into the world, and souls departing from the world, perchance, making report to one of God's ministers clothed in flesh.

But who can say?
At least I watched those magic fowls till my eyes grew dizzy, and a sort of slumber began to creep into my brain.
"How long I stayed thus I do not remember, for I had lost all sense of time.