Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/319

 THE FRONTIERSMAN 299 �door of brass. But the shadow was vague and form- less and indefinite, and was the shadow neither of man nor of God neither God of Greece, nor God of Chaldsea, nor any Egyptian God. And the shadow rested upon the brazen doorway, and under the arch of the entablature of the door, and moved not, nor spoke any word, but there became stationary and remained. And the door whereupon the shadow rested was, if I remember aright, over against the feet of the young Zoilus enshrouded. But we, the seven there assembled, having seen the shadow as it came out from among the draperies, dared not steadily behold it, but cast down our eyes, and gazed continually into the depths of the mirror of ebony. And at length I, Oinos, speak- ing some low words, demanded of the shadow its dwelling and its appellation. And the shadow answered, "I am SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Char- onian canal." And then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and shudder- ing, and aghast: for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their cadences from syllable to syllable, fell duskily upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends. �SILENCE A FABLE (1839) �ECSouoiv 8' 6QECOV xopucpai TE xal <p<XQ<XYY6?, HQCOOVES xe xal xQ8oau �ALCMAN: 60 [10] 646. �The mountain pinnacles slumber; valleys, crags, and caves are silent. ��� �