After a while the crowd began to sing a certain strange hymn, at first in a low voice, and then louder.

Vinicius had never heard such a hymn before.

The same yearning which had struck him in the hymns murmured by separate persons on the way to the cemetery, was heard now in that, but with far more distinctness and power; and at last it became as penetrating and immense as if together with the people, the whole cemetery, the hills, the pits, and the region about, had begun to yearn.

It might seem, also, that there was in it a certain calling in the night, a certain humble prayer for rescue in wandering and darkness.
Eyes turned upward seemed to see some one far above, there on high, and outstretched hands seemed to implore him to descend.

When the hymn ceased, there followed a moment as it were of suspense,--so impressive that Vinicius and his companions looked unwittingly toward the stars, as if in dread that something uncommon would happen, and that some one would really descend to them.
Vinicius had seen a multitude of temples of most various structure in Asia Minor, in Egypt, and in Rome itself; he had become acquainted with a multitude of religions, most varied in character, and had heard many hymns; but here, for the first time, he saw people calling on a divinity with hymns,--not to carry out a fixed ritual, but calling from the bottom of the heart, with the genuine yearning which children might feel for a father or a mother.