I saw a most beautiful flaming object, varying in colour; it was crimson, turning from brilliant white to a deepening red. The flame also made its colours glow beautifully. I also saw a hand, which was not holding the flame; rather, the flame clung to the hand. At first it caressed the back of the hand, after that the palm or hollow, and from there all around. This went on for some time. The hand together with the flaming object then moved further away, and where it stopped there was a patch of light, into which the hand disappeared. At this point the flaming object changed into a bird, which at first possessed colours like those of the flaming object, colours which were likewise sparkling. But those colours gradually changed, and as they did so, the vigorous life in the bird changed too. It flew round about, first around my head, and then frontwards from me into something narrow like a cubicle. And the further it flew in that direction, the more the life went out of it, till at length it became like a piece of stone. At first its colour was pearly, after that it was dull; but even though devoid of life it continued its flight.