The chief who had first addressed us bade us pass on, and we left the Hall of the Novitiate as accepted members of the Order....

That into which we next entered was so dark that its form and dimensions were scarcely defined to my eyes.
I supposed it, however, to be circular, surmounted by a dome resembling in colour the olive green Martial sky and spangled by stars, among which I discerned one or two familiar constellations, but most distinctly, brightened far beyond its natural brilliancy, the arch of the _Via Lactea_.

Presently, not on any apparent sheet or screen but as in the air before us, appeared a narrow band of light crossing the entire visible space.

It resembled a rope twisted of three strands, two of a deep dull hue, the one apparently orange, the other brown or crimson, contrasting the far more brilliant emerald strand that formed the third portion of the threefold cord.

I had learnt by this time that metallic cords so twined serve in Mars most of the uses for which chains are employed on Earth, and I assumed that this symbol possessed the significance which poetry or ritual might attach to the latter.
This cord or band retained its position throughout, crossing the dark background of the scenes now successively presented, each of which melted into its successor--rapidly, but so gradually that there was never a distinct point of division, a moment at which it was possible to say that any new feature was first introduced.
A bright mist of various colours intermixed in inextricable confusion, an image of chaos but for the dim light reflected from all the particles, filled a great part of the space before us, but the cord was still discernible in the background.