I stood beneath the ruined walls of an Eastern temple.

Huge columns arose in the air, surmounted by colossal architraves, while the ponderous stones of which the temple was built were covered with lichen.

Large grey lizards crawled in and out among the crevices of the rocks, and seemed to laugh as they sported amidst what was once the expression of a great religious system, but which was now terrible in its weird desolation.

By and by the great building seemed to assume its original shape and became inhabited by white-robed priests, who ministered to the people who came to worship.

I watched eagerly, but they faded away, leaving nothing save the feeling that a terrible presence filled the place.