Presently we came to a little broken-down rude kind of chapel in
the midst of the wood. It was built of stone; and masses of stone,
shapeless and moss-grown, were lying scattered about on the ground
around it. At a little rough-hewn altar within it stood a Christian
priest, blessing the elements. Overhead, the great dark sprays of
the larches and cone-laden firs swept its roof. I sat down to rest
on one of the stones, and looked upwards a while at the foliage.
Then turning my gaze again towards the earth, I saw a vast circle
of stones, moss-grown like that on which I sat, and ranged in a
circle such as that of Stonehenge. It occupied an open space in
the midst of the forest; and the grasses and climbing plants of
the place had fastened on the crevices of the stones.

One stone, larger and taller than the rest, stood at the junction
of the circle, in a place of honor, as though it had stood for a
symbol of divinity. I looked at my guide, and said, " Here, at
least, is an idol whose semblance belongs to another type than that
of the Hindus." He smiled, and turning from me to the Christian
priest at the altar, said aloud, "Priest, why do your people receive
from sacerdotal hands the bread only, while you yourselves receive
both bread and wine?" And the priest answered, "We receive no more
than they. Yes, though under another form, the people are partakers
with us of the sacred wine with its particle. The blood is the
life of the flesh, and of it the flesh is formed, and without it
the flesh could not consist. The communion is the same."

Then the young man my guide turned again to me and waved his hand
towards the stone before me. And as I looked the stone opened from
its summit to its base; and I saw that the strata within had the
form of a tree, and that every minute crystal of which it was formed,