"I hear the voices of the shadowy dead!" went on the sorceress, striking an attitude of intense listening, and gazing upwards over the heads of her audience. "I hear their voices like the whispering murmur of many waters. I hear them in the air? No. I hear them in the roar of the salt waves of yonder blue sea? No. I hear them in the whispering leaves of the forest--in the echoing voices of the rocks? No. In the sunshine? No. I am in the dark--in the dark!" she repeated, raising her tone to a high, quavering shriek, while her features began to work, her eyes to roll wildly. "I am in the gloom of the far depths, and the world itself is rolling above me. The air is thick. I choke. I suffocate. I am in the tomb. The rock walls close me in. There are faces around me--eyes--myriads of eyes--serpent eyes--hissing tongues. They come about me in the black gloom. They scorch--they burn. Ah-ah!" An awful change had come over the speaker. Her features were working convulsively--she foamed at the mouth--her eyes were turned literally inward so that nothing but the white was visible. Her body swayed to and fro in short, irregular jerks, as though avoiding the attack of unseen enemies. The live serpent, which, grasped by the neck, she held aloft in the air, writhed its sinuous length, and with hood expanded and eyes scintillating, was hissing ferociously. The effect upon the savage audience was striking. Not a word was uttered--not a finger moved. All sat motionless, like so many statues of bronze, every eye bent in awesome entrancement upon the seer. Even Eustace felt the original contemptuous interest with which he had watched the performance deepen into a blood-curdling sort of repulsion. From the stage of mere jugglery the case had entered upon one which began to look uncommonly like genuine diabolical possession. "I am in the gloom of the depths," shrieked the hideous sorceress, "even the Home of the Immortal Serpents, which none can find save those who are beloved of the spirits. The air is black and thick. It is shining with eyes--eyes, eyes--everywhere eyes. The ground is alive with serpents, even the spirits of our valiant dead, and they speak. They speak but one word and that is `Blood! Blood--blood--blood!'" repeated the frightful monster. "Blood must flow! blood! blood!" And uttering a series of deafening howls she fell prone to the earth in frightful convulsions.