Then, in a great open space respectfully avoided by all the animals, came a group of wonderful figures. All had the shapes of animals, only they were larger and more perfectly formed. They seemed also to be much more proud and sagacious, and they moved not by means of feet and wings, but floated like shadows, while their eyes and heads seemed to emit rays of light, like the sea on a dark night.
"Come up nearer," said Wistik. "They know us."
And it really seemed to Johannes as if the ghosts of the animals greeted them, sadly and solemnly; but only those of the animals known to him in his native land. And what most impressed him was that the largest and most beautiful were not those esteemed most highly by human beings.
"Oh, look! Wistik, are those the butterfly-spirits? How big and handsome they are!"
They were splendid creatures—large as a house—with radiant eyes, and their bodies and wings were clearly marked in brilliant colors. But the wings of all of them were drooping as though with weariness, and they looked at Johannes seriously, silently.
"Are there plant-spirits, too, Wistik?"
"Oh, yes, Johannes, but they are very large and vague and elusive. Look! There they come—floating along."
And Wistik pointed out to him the hurrying, hazy figures that Johannes had first seen in front of the procession.
"Now he is coming! Now he is coming! Oh! Oh! Oh!" wailed Wistik, taking off his cap and beginning to cry again.
Surrounded by throngs of weeping nymphs who were singing a soft and sorrowful dirge—their arms intertwined about one anothers' shoulders—their faded wreaths and long hair dripping with the rain—came the great bier of rude boughs whereon lay Father Pan, hidden beneath ivy and poppies and violets. He was borne by young, brawny-muscled fauns, whose ruddy faces, bowed at their task, were distorted with suppressed sobs. In the rear was a throng of grave centaurs, shuffling mutely along, their heads upon their chests, now and then striking their trunks and flanks with their rough fists, making them sound like drums.