I forced myself not to perceive the bitterness of their expression, and gazing down steadily into the depths of the ebony mirror, sang with a loud and sonorous voice the songs of the son of Teios.  But gradually my songs they ceased, and their echoes, rolling afar off among the sable draperies of the chamber, became weak, and undistinguishable, and so faded away.  And lo! from among those sable draperies where the sounds of the song departed, there came forth a dark and undefined shadow —­ a shadow such as the moon, when low in heaven, might fashion from the figure of a man:  but it was the shadow neither of man nor of God, nor of any familiar thing.  And quivering awhile among the draperies of the room, it at length rested in full view upon the surface of the door of brass.  But the shadow was vague, and formless, and indefinite, and was the shadow neither of man nor of God —­ neither God of Greece, nor God of Chaldaea, nor any Egyptian God.  And the shadow rested upon the brazen doorway, and under the arch of the entablature of the door, and moved not, nor spoke any word, but there became stationary and remained.  And the door whereupon the shadow rested was, if I remember aright, over against the feet of the young Zoilus enshrouded.  But we, the seven there assembled, having seen the shadow as it came out from among the draperies, dared not steadily behold it, but cast down our eyes, and gazed continually into the depths of the mirror of ebony.  And at length I, Oinos, speaking some low words, demanded of the shadow its dwelling and its appellation.  And the shadow answered, “I am SHADOW, and my dwelling is near to the Catacombs of Ptolemais, and hard by those dim plains of Helusion which border upon the foul Charonian canal.”  And then did we, the seven, start from our seats in horror, and stand trembling, and shuddering, and aghast, for the tones in the voice of the shadow were not the tones of any one being, but of a multitude of beings, and, varying in their cadences from syllable to syllable fell duskly upon our ears in the well-remembered and familiar accents of many thousand departed friends.