When all the beasts had collected they began to dance about
in a lumbering, unnatural fashion, and to imitate the sounds produced
by the respective animals they represented, till the whole air was alive
with roars and bleating and the hissing of snakes. This went on for a
long time, till, getting tired of the pantomime, I asked Ayesha if there
would be any objection to Leo and myself walking round to inspect the
human torches, and, as she had nothing to say against it, we started,
striking round to the left. After looking at one or two of the flaming
bodies, we were about to return, thoroughly disgusted with the grotesque
weirdness of the spectacle, when our attention was attracted by one of
the dancers, a particularly active leopard, that had separated itself
from its fellow-beasts, and was whisking about in our immediate
neighbourhood, but gradually drawing into a spot where the shadow
was darkest, equidistant between two of the flaming mummies. Drawn by
curiosity, we followed it, when suddenly it darted past us into the
shadows beyond, and as it did so erected itself and whispered, "Come,"
in a voice that we both recognised as that of Ustane.
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