It happened that one night, when, as now was frequently the case, I had been summoned to entertain the king and his household by "obliging them with a little music," I was playing some soft, plaintive air--I forget what--when, chancing to glance toward Ama, who, seated on the ground on the extreme left of the semicircle, was well within my range of vision, I fancied I saw some moving object close to her left hand, which was resting lightly on the ground.  At the moment I took but scant notice of the circumstance, for the flickering flames of the fire which was always kindled upon such occasions played strange pranks with the lights and shadows, and often imparted a weird effect of movement to stationery and even inanimate objects; but presently, happening to again glance in that direction, my eye was once more caught by the same queer wavering movement.  There was something so strange and uncanny about it--for I by this time knew the ground well enough to be fully aware that there _ought not_ to be any moving thing there--that I stopped playing and sprang to my feet so suddenly that my movement appeared to startle Ama, who uttered a little cry of alarm, or surprise, and made as though she too would spring to her feet.