It was as though, without perceiving them, their human faculties suddenly became aware of the spirits of the unnumbered dead, thronging, watching, following--there, but intangible; speaking without words, touching without hands.
Leonard was tempted to cry aloud, so great was the strain upon his nerves, which usually were strong enough; nor was he alone in this desire.

Presently a sound arose from below him, as of some person in hysterics, and he heard a priest command silence in a fierce voice.
The sobbing and laughter went on till it culminated in a shrill scream.
After the scream came the thud of a blow, a heavy fall, a groan, and once again the invisible multitudes whispered and rustled.
"Someone has been killed," muttered Francisco in Leonard's ear; "who is it, I wonder ?" Leonard shuddered, but made no answer, for a great hand was placed upon his mouth in warning.
At length the portentous silence was broken and a voice spoke, the voice of Nam the priest.

In the silence all that he uttered could be heard plainly, but his words came from far away, and the sound of them was still and small.

This was what he said, as Juanna told it to them after the ceremony.
"Hear me, ye Children of the Snake, ye ancient People of the Mist! Hearken to me, Nam, the priest of the Snake! Many a generation gone in the beginning of time, so runs the legend, the Mother goddess whom we worship from of old, descended from heaven and came hither to us, and with her came the Snake, her child.

While she tarried in the land the crime of crimes was wrought, the Darkness slew the Daylight, and she passed hence, we know not how, or where; and from that hour the land has been a land of mist, and its people have wandered in the mist, for he whose name is Darkness has ruled over them, answering their prayers with death.