St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-10
and in few moments he obeyed. Then she

turned to me:
"Come. little MISS she said. Ego you
down. Hold onto de ladder, don't fall. An
don't be skeered, muffin hurt you.'
had no fear Of ladders, and descended
briskiy. Flora followed, shutting the trap
and boiting it behind her.
We were now in a whitewashed cellar, with
out single window. The floor was covered
full Of Jars, pots and boxes.
On a fiat stone in the centre stood an iron
pot, and about this other stones were ar
ranged in a circle, as if for seats. Nothing
else was visible.
"Sit down on one OBJ dem var stone, Missy"
the old woman said. "And whatever you
see, keep quiet. is gwine to coll dem dat
keeps de beauty stone. I calls 'em by charms
and spells. Now 'splain to you. Ell you
likes to so on you kin, If not you can
Leah it."
I shiyered, but said: ''Go on; if you can
: make me beautiful don't care how"
At this Flora went to the shelves and
brought from them sundry jars and boxes,
the contents Of which she began to sprinkle
into the great pot on the central stone. She
that the contents of the pot began to boil and
bubble and thick, blue steam to rise from
it.
In a little while everything about me began
to seem unreal. A delightful dreaminess
crept over me, the blue smoke that arose from
the pot grew denser, the whole air was filled
with singular perfume and 1 saw everything
as If through the medium Of opal glass.
It would have been impossible for me to
move, though could turn my eyes in any
direction. However, did not wish to stir;
I was perfectly content to sit with my hands
in my lap and watch what took place about
me.
On the stone beside the pot sat the monkey,
solemn and sphynx-like. Behind it, in the
thickest Of the smoke, stood the black woman,
chanting and throwing. every now and then,
some new substance into the boiling mess.
The most singular part of the spectacle
was that wnen I took my seat upon one of
the stones there was no one in the cellar but
Flora, the monkey and myself. But by de-
grees every stone in the circle became occu-
pied by strange figure. never saw one Of
them enter or take it's place; suddenly it was
there, knew not how. All were robed in
white, with hoods drawn over their heads.
Some had shouts like pigs, some had beaks
like birds of prey, some tusks like elephants.
some eyes in the middle of their foreheads,
some had bare skulls with no eyes at all.
But all of them continually moved their
heads up and down, slowly and strangely,
and all joined in Flora's wild chant.
Somewhere an unseen drum began to beat,
to which all these creatures kept time. Now
and then I heard hollow groan.
At last green serpent with fiery eyes
arose from the pot and coiled as if for a
spring. The opal light changed to a red
glare. Flora, the monkey and all the other
figures vanished, and was alone with a
gigantic being, dusky and horrible. It seemed
to have wings, it seemed to have claws, it
seemed to have horns, it certainly had great,
fiery eyes. It came nearer and nearer, it
bent over me: 'Hold fast whatI give you,''
it said. And though did not see her heard
old Flora's voice shrieking: ''You is got de
beauty stone, little missy, and you is paid a
price for it. Yes, you is gotit sure enough !;
hold fast, hold FAST
felt small, smooth object pressed into
my palm, closed my fingers over it and knew
no more.