ancestors must have held as a reasonable conviction. Doubtless they
believed themselves justified by facts whose nature we cannot even
conjecture in thinking a dead body a malign thing endowed with some
strange power of mischief, with perhaps a will and a purpose to exert
it. Possibly they had some awful form of religion of which that was
one of the chief doctrines, sedulously taught by their priesthood, as
ours teach the immortality of the soul. As the Aryans moved slowly
on, to and through the Caucasus passes, and spread over Europe, new
conditions of life must have resulted in the formulation of new
religions. The old belief in the malevolence of the dead body was
lost from the creeds and even perished from tradition, but it left
its heritage of terror, which is transmitted from generation to
generation--is as much a part of us as are our blood and bones."

In following out his thought he had forgotten that which suggested
it; but now his eye fell again upon the corpse. The shadow had now
altogether uncovered it. He saw the sharp profile, the chin in the
air, the whole face, ghastly white in the moonlight. The clothing
was gray, the uniform of a Confederate soldier. The coat and
waistcoat, unbuttoned, had fallen away on each side, exposing the
white shirt. The chest seemed unnaturally prominent, but the abdomen
had sunk in, leaving a sharp projection at the line of the lower
ribs. The arms were extended, the left knee was thrust upward. The
whole posture impressed Byring as having been studied with a view to
the horrible.

"Bah!" he exclaimed; "he was an actor--he knows how to be dead."

He drew away his eyes, directing them resolutely along one of the
roads leading to the front, and resumed his philosophizing where he