She stood by the stone of sacrifice, a piteous sight to see, for her
frenzy or rather her madness had outworn itself, and she was as she had
ever been. There stood Otomie, gazing with wide and horror-stricken
eyes now at the tokens of this unholy rite and now at her own hands--as
though she thought to see them red, and shuddered at the thought. I
drew near to her and touched her on the shoulder. She turned swiftly,
gasping,
'Husband! husband!'
'It is I,' I answered, 'but call me husband no more.'
'Oh! what have I done?' she wailed, and fell senseless in my arms.
And here I will add what at the time I knew nothing of, for it was told
me in after years by the Rector of this parish, a very learned man,
though one of narrow mind. Had I known it indeed, I should have spoken
more kindly to Otomie my wife even in that hour, and thought more gently
of her wickedness. It seems, so said my friend the Rector, that from the
most ancient times, those women who have bent the knee to demon gods,
such as were the gods of Anahuac, are subject at any time to become
possessed by them, even after they have abandoned their worship, and to
be driven in their frenzy to the working of the greatest crimes. Thus,
among other instances, he told me that a Greek poet named Theocritus
sets out in one of his idyls how a woman called Agave, being engaged in
a secret religious orgie in honour of a demon named Dionysus, perceived
her own son Pentheus watching the celebration of the mysteries, and
thereon becoming possessed by the demon she fell on him and murdered
him, being aided by the other women.
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