IDOLS CONDEMNED TO THE FIRE. ill 
strange air of mysterious foreboding, agitating the 
bosoms of the multitude, were strongly marked in 
the countenances of the spectators; resembling, 
perhaps in no small degree, the feeling depicted 
in the visages of the assembled Israelites, when 
the prophet Elijah summoned them to prove the 
power of Baal, or to acknowledge the omnipotence 
of the Lord God of Israel. A short time before 
sun-set, Patii appeared, and ordered his attend¬ 
ants to apply fire to the pile. This being done, 
he hastened to the sacred depository of his gods, 
brought them out, not indeed as he had been on 
some occasions accustomed to do, that they might 
receive the blind homage of the waiting populace, 
—but to convince the deluded multitude of the 
impotency and the vanity of the objects of their 
adoration and their dread. When he approached 
