"Dip your finger in the consecrating drink!" said the Captain.
I did as directed, and the Captain then continued:
"Now drink it to the dregs, to the enemies of the South!"
I raised the bowl to my lips, and drank its contents. It was like nothing I had ever tasted before. It was sickening, yet I could not tell what it was! Instantly the band closed around us, standing two or three deep, and the Captain struck a match. Holding the little blazing stick to the hand I had dipped in the bowl, he bid me look.
The finger was stained as with blood!
He then bid me look at the bowl.
It was a human skull!
The Consecrating Bowl.