Pale and uneasy, all stared at one another, while one terrified senora caught hold of Padre Salvi.
The box then opened of its own accord and presented to the eyes of the audience a head of cadaverous aspect, surrounded by long and abundant black hair.

It slowly opened its eyes and looked around the whole audience.

Those eyes had a vivid radiance, accentuated by their cavernous sockets, and, as if deep were calling unto deep, fixed themselves upon the profound, sunken eyes of the trembling Padre Salvi, who was staring unnaturally, as though he saw a ghost.
"Sphinx," commanded Mr.Leeds, "tell the audience who you are." A deep silence prevailed, while a chill wind blew through the room and made the blue flames of the sepulchral lamps flicker.

The most skeptical shivered.
"I am Imuthis," declared the head in a funereal, but strangely menacing, voice.

"I was born in the time of Amasis and died under the Persian domination, when Cambyses was returning from his disastrous expedition into the interior of Libya.