Gentola--In the gallery over the western doorway male and female voices, accompanied by the low tones of a voûhoid[a:] (resembles a pipe organ) chant softly and continuously. Now the wide doors slide into the wall, and six boys clothed in red garments enter, bearing golden bowls filled with grain. They are followed by six girls clothed in yellow, who bear golden trays of various fruits. Ranging themselves around the altar, these children place upon it the bowls of grain and trays of fruit, and retire backward a short distance. Now six youths and as many maidens approach; the youths bear vases of red, the maidens, vases of yellow blooms, which also are placed on the altar, and all retire to near where the children with an expectant air are standing. Quietly the worshippers have entered, and the chanting of the singers and the strains of the voûhoid[a:] have grown so mournfully pathetic that I cannot refrain from tears. Now the music swells into fuller tones, and with stately tread a majestic looking Priest advances through the western doorway. He is clothed in a rich silken red robe, and around his head, holding back from his forehead his dark, abundant, waved hair is a gold fillet ornamented with red jewels. Over his forehead the fillet supports a Sun of red and yellow jewels which are dazzling in their splendor. In his left hand he carries a long golden rod tipped with a Sun of red and yellow jewels. As he approaches the altar the people rise, and with bowed heads stand motionless. Attending him are priests and priestesses robed in red and yellow, wearing gold fillets adorned with red and yellow jewelled Suns which gleam against their dusky hair. Now the high priest raises the Sun tipped rod toward the dome. The attendant Priests and Priestesses with uplifted hands bend low before the altar. The people still stand with bowed heads, and the voûhoid[a:] seems to be murmuring a wordless prayer as he passes around the altar, touching with the rod each bowl and vase. Having made the circuit of the altar he bends low toward the east, the north, the south, and the west, and now, with upturned face, he extends his hands toward the sun crowned dome, and his lips utter words that I do not understand. Now as he turns toward the altar his dark hued face glowing with religious fervor, his luminous eyes shining with the brightness of the jewelled Sun above his forehead, his majestic form towering above the low bending worshippers, one might imagine him a veritable God. Zenest[a:], I beg of you to conclude the description of this scene. Zenesta Hao--The sun is at its meridian, and its glowing radiance, falling through the red and gold of the dome, glorifies the snowy altar and the high priest, who with upraised arms reverently intones a prayer.