into line again. The color of their costumes is THE FESTIVAL 



• • OF THE SIGHT 



a most exquisite amber, with here and there 



bright ribbons of pink, or white, or even red. 



They are dancing in the sunshine hand in 



hand, nymphs and unconventional fellows, 



playing on zithers and chanting a strange 



Indian incantation. 



How changed the scene now! What strange 

 figures, robed in gray or brown, and now in 

 white! In costumes of airy filigree they pass, 

 or covered with great white sheets, bearing 

 long icicle spears. Now they come in robes 

 positively covered with diamonds. 



These are not artists with painted banners, 

 but sculptors bearing symbols cut from cold 

 white marble. The music to which they march 

 is now lowland weird, again it rises into a riot of 

 wind instruments, and falls away into the plain- 

 tive notes of the oboe and the English horn. 



It has taken about five minutes of time to 

 tell of this pageant, but to see it you must look 

 long, for it marches through the whole year. 



It is a very ancient ceremonial, as old as the 

 flowers. The Greeks called it "the festival of 

 the sight," and it is the flowers they meant. 

 [63] ' 



