The Coming Race Page 4

  Chapter IV.

  I now came in full sight of the building. Yes, it had been made byhands, and hollowed partly out of a great rock. I should have supposedit at the first glance to have been of the earliest form of Egyptianarchitecture. It was fronted by huge columns, tapering upward frommassive plinths, and with capitals that, as I came nearer, I perceivedto be more ornamental and more fantastically graceful that Egyptianarchitecture allows. As the Corinthian capital mimics the leaf of theacanthus, so the capitals of these columns imitated the foliage of thevegetation neighbouring them, some aloe-like, some fern-like. And nowthere came out of this building a form--human;--was it human? It stoodon the broad way and looked around, beheld me and approached. Itcame within a few yards of me, and at the sight and presence of it anindescribable awe and tremor seized me, rooting my feet to the ground.It reminded me of symbolical images of Genius or Demon that are seen onEtruscan vases or limned on the walls of Eastern sepulchres--images thatborrow the outlines of man, and are yet of another race. It was tall,not gigantic, but tall as the tallest man below the height of giants.

  Its chief covering seemed to me to be composed of large wings foldedover its breast and reaching to its knees; the rest of its attire wascomposed of an under tunic and leggings of some thin fibrous material.It wore on its head a kind of tiara that shone with jewels, and carriedin its right hand a slender staff of bright metal like polished steel.But the face! it was that which inspired my awe and my terror. It wasthe face of man, but yet of a type of man distinct from our known extantraces. The nearest approach to it in outline and expression is theface of the sculptured sphinx--so regular in its calm, intellectual,mysterious beauty. Its colour was peculiar, more like that of the redman than any other variety of our species, and yet different from it--aricher and a softer hue, with large black eyes, deep and brilliant, andbrows arched as a semicircle. The face was beardless; but a namelesssomething in the aspect, tranquil though the expression, and beauteousthough the features, roused that instinct of danger which the sight ofa tiger or serpent arouses. I felt that this manlike image was endowedwith forces inimical to man. As it drew near, a cold shudder came overme. I fell on my knees and covered my face with my hands.