midday
But before he entered it he could not avoid seeing the bodies of his late assailants in process of dismemberment as though they had been slaughtered cattle , and , inured as he was to horrible and sickening sights , never had he been conscious of so overpowering a feeling of repulsion as now . The cannibal atrocities of these human beasts , the glowering heads stuck all over the stockade , -- the latest addition thereto being those of the slain Ba-gcatya , -- the all-pervading influence of death brooding over this demoniacal haunt , even as the ever-present circlings of carrion birds high in mid-air -- all this weighed upon his mind until he could have blown out his own brains for sheer horror and loathing . But upon this dark , enshrouding shadow , piercing , partly dispelling it , came a ray of searching light -- sweet , golden , penetrating . The vision of his midday slumbers -- Lilith . But a few hours had gone by since that dream , and within them he had fought fiercely for his life ; and now , in this hell-haunt , the sweet entrancement of it came back to charm away , as with a hallowed spell , the black horrors that hung over his soul as though on vulture wing . Presently Mgara entered , followed by people bearing food -- cooked goat-flesh and millet and plantains . From the smoking meat Laurence recoiled with a loathing he could hardly repress .