"Hum,"said Sir Henry,who was a scholar,having taken a high degree in classics at college,"there may be something in that;Ashtoreth of the Hebrews was the Astarte of the Phoenicians,who were the great traders of Solomon's time.Astarte,who afterwards was the Aphrodite of the Greeks,was represented with horns like the half-moon,and there on the brow of the female figure are distinct horns.Perhaps these colossi were designed by some Phoenician official who managed the mines.Who can say?"Before we had finished examining these extraordinary relics of remote antiquity,Infadoos came up,and,having saluted the "Silent Ones"by lifting his spear,asked us if we intended entering the "Place of Death"at once,or if we would wait till after we had taken food at midday.If we were ready to go at once,Gagool had announced her willingness to guide us.As it was not more than eleven o'clock,we -driven to it by a burning curiosity -announced our intention of proceeding at once,and I suggested that,in case we should be detained in the cave,we should take some food with us.Accordingly Gagool's litter was brought up,and that lady herself assisted out of it;and meanwhile Foulata,at my request,stored some biltong,or dried game flesh,together with a couple of gourds of water in a reed basket.Straight in front of us,at a distance of some fifty paces from the hacks of the colossi,rose a sheer wall of rock,eighty feet or more in height,that gradually sloped up till it formed the base of the lofty snow wreathed peak which soared up into the air three thousand feet above us.As soon as she was clear of her hammock Gagool cast one evil grin upon us,and then,leaning on a stick,hobbled off towards the sheer face of the rock.We followed her till we came to a narrow portal solidly arched,that looked like the opening of a gallery of a mine.
Here Gagool was waiting for us,still with that evil grin upon her horrid face.
"Now,white men from the stars,"she piped;"great warriors,Incubu,Bougwan,and Macumazahn the wise,are ye ready?Behold,I am here to do the bidding of my lord the king,and to show ye the store of bright stones.""We are ready,"I said.
"Good!good!Make strong your hearts to bear what ye shall see.
Comes,thou too,Infadoos,who betrayed thy master?"Infadoos frowned as he answered:"Nay,I come not;it is not for me to enter there.But thou,Gagool,curb thy tongue,and beware how thou dealest with my lords.At thy hands will I require them,and if a hair of them be hurt,Gagool,be thou fifty times a witch,thou shalt die.Hearest,thou?""I hear,Infadoos;I know thee,thou didst ever love big words;when thou wast a babe I remember thou didst threaten thine own mother.
That was but the other day.But fear not,fear not;I live but to do the bidding of the king.I have done the bidding of many kings,Infadoos,till in the end they did mine.Ha!ha!I go to look upon their faces once more,and Twala's,too!Come on,come on,here is the lamp,"and she drew a great gourd full of off,and fitted with a rush wick,from under her fur cloak.
"Art thou coming,Foulata?"asked Good in his villainous kitchen Kukuana in which he had been improving himself under that lady's tuition.
"I fear,my lord,"the girl answered,timidly.
"Then give me the basket."
"Nay,my lord,whither thou goest,there will I go also.""The deuce you will"thought I to myself;"that will be rather awkward if ever we get out of this."Without further ado Gagool plunged into the passage,which was wide enough to admit of two walking abreast,and quite dark,we following her voice as she piped to us to come on,in some fear and trembling,which was not allayed by the sound of a sudden rush of wings.
"Hallo!what's that?"hallooed Good;"somebody hit me in the face.""Bats,"said I;"'on you go."
When we had,as far as we could judge,gone some fifty paces we perceived that the passage was growing faintly light.Another minute,and we stood in the most wonderful place that the eyes of living man ever lit on.
Let the reader picture to himself the hail of the vastest cathedral he ever stood in,windowless,indeed,but dimly lighted from above (presumably by shafts connected with the outer air and driven in the roof,which arched away a hundred feet above our heads),and he will get some idea of the size of the enormous cave in which we stood,with the difference that this cathedral designed of nature was loftier and wider than any built by man.