He then seized a torch held by one of the men, and waved it to and fro above his head.
"By water we call on thee!"
From a cruise that he had placed beside him, he took up water in his palm and cast it into the air.
"By air we call on thee!"
He waved his arms upward, and a sound like the rushing of wind passed over them, and every torch flickered with the sudden agitation of the atmosphere.
"By earth we call on thee!"
He cast into the air a handful of the grave-dirt, which fell back to the ground with a hollow noise like the rumbling sound of an earthquake.
Every man stood appalled. Suddenly he ceased, and took, with much form and ceremony, a black cat from a pouch slung at his waist. He elevated her in one hand, while in the other he held a drawn knife above her, and chanted, turning the animal slowly round,
"No spot of white Must meet the sight! Thrice shall it wave Above the grave! At a single blow The blood must flow!"
He waved his knife at the repetition of the second couplet thrice above the grave, and at the close of the last line severed the head of the animal, which, with the body, he dropped into it. Instantly there issued flames and dense smoke from it, which first lighted up the scene wildly for a moment, and then left it in murky darkness. When the black volumes of vapour rolled away, the wizard was standing astride the grave in the attitude of a sacrificer, his blood-dripping knife in his outstretched arm: he then began to chant,