beat upon me, the sky and sea and shore swam before me in a mist.
Presently I heard the voice of the priest, raised in the cadences which
he favoured when he was reading texts out of their sacred books, if books
they could be called. I looked at him with a faint curiosity, and
perceived that he held in his hands the wooden casket, adorned with
strangely carved bands of gold and ivory, which I had seen on the night
of my arrival on the island.

From this he had selected the old grey scraps of metal, scratched, as I
was well aware, with what they conceived to be ancient prophecies.

I was now sufficiently acquainted with the language to understand the
verses which he was chanting, and which I had already heard, without
comprehending them. They ran thus in English:

"But when a man, having a chimney pot on his head, and four eyes, appears
in Scheria, and when a ship without sails also comes, sailing without
wind, and breathing smoke, then shall destruction fall on the island."

He had not ended when it was plain, even to those ignorant people, that
the prophecy was about to be fulfilled. From the long, narrow, black
line of the steamer, which had approached us with astonishing speed,
"sailing without wind, and breathing smoke," there burst six flashes of
fire, followed by a peal like thunder, and six tall fountains, as the
natives fancied, of sea-water rose and fell in the bay, where the shells
had lighted.

It was plain that the commander of the vessel, finding himself in unknown
seas, and hard by an unvisited country, was determined to strike terror
and command respect by this salute.