in horror the old comtesse dropped this effigy upon knowing that it could only be evil , and that it looked far too much like the corn dolls made by the peasants in their old beltane rituals against which the priests are forever preaching ; and throwing open the other doors , she beheld jewels and gold beyond all reckoning , in heaps and in caskets , and in little sacks of silk , which , said the old comtesse , the woman surely meant to steal when her husband was dead .