Scary stories

the mummys foot

glittering of two small, yellow eyes which shifted in their orbits like

two louis d'or floating on quicksilver. The curve of his nose gave him

an aquiline silhouette, which suggested the Oriental or Jewish type. His

hands, long, slender, with prominent veins and sinews protruding like

the strings on a violin, with nails like the claws on the membraneous

wings of the bat moved with a senile trembling painful to behold, but

those nervously quivering hands became firmer than pincers of steel, or

the claws of a lobster, when they picked up any precious object, an onyx

cup, a Venetian glass, or a platter of Bohemian crystal. This curious

old fellow had an air so thoroughly rabbinical and cabalistic, that,

from mere appearance, he would have been burned at the stake three

centuries ago.

"Will you not buy something from me to-day, sir? Here is a kris from

Malay, with a blade which undulates like a flame; look at these grooves

for the blood to drip from, these teeth reversed so as to tear out the

entrails in withdrawing the weapon; it is a fine specimen of a ferocious

weapon, and will be an interesting addition to your trophies; this

two-handed sword is very beautiful--it is the work of Joseph de la Herz;

and this cauchelimarde with its carved guard--what superb

workmanship!"

"No, I have enough weapons and instruments of carnage; I should like to

have a small figure, any sort of object which can be used for a paper

weight; for I cannot endure those commonplace bronzes for sale at the

stationers which one sees invariably on everybody's desk."

The old gnome, rummaging among his ancient wares, displayed before me

some antique bronzes--pseudo-antique, at least, fragments of malachite,

little Hindu and Chinese idols, jade monkeys, incarnations of Brahma and

Vishnu, marvelously suitable for the purpose--scarcely divine--of

holding papers and letters in place.

I was hesitating between a porcelain dragon covered with constellations

of warts, its jaws embellished with teeth and tusks, and a hideous

little Mexican fetish, representing realistically the god

Vitziliputzili, when I noticed a charming foot, which at first I

supposed was a fragment of some antique Venus.

It had that beautiful tawny reddish tint, which gives the Florentine

bronzes their warm, life-like appearance, so preferable to the verdigris

tones of ordinary bronzes, which might be taken readily for statues in a

state of putrefaction; a satiny luster gleamed over its curves, polished

by the amorous kisses of twenty centuries; for it must have been a

Corinthian bronze, a work of the finest period, molded perhaps by