第46章

As I anticipated, we had passed right through the precipice, and were now on the farther side, and immediately beneath its beetling face.The first thing I noticed was that the cliff was not nearly so high here, not so high I should say by five hundred feet, which proved that the bed of the lake, or rather of the vast ancient crater in which we stood, was much above the level of the surrounding plain.For the rest, we found ourselves in a huge rock-surrounded cup, not unlike that of the first place where we had sojourned, only ten times the size.Indeed, I could only just make out the frowning line of the opposite cliffs.A great portion of the plain thus enclosed by nature was cultivated, and fenced in with walls of stone placed there to keep the cattle and goats, of which there were large herds about, from breaking into the gardens.Here and there rose great grass mounds, and some miles away towards the centre I thought that I could see the outline of colossal ruins.I had no time to observe anything more at the moment, for we were instantly surrounded by crowds of Amahagger, similar in every particular to those with whom we were already familiar, who, though they spoke little, pressed round us so closely as to obscure the view to a person lying in a hammock.Then all of a sudden a number of armed men arranged in companies, and marshalled by officers who held ivory wands in their hands, came running swiftly towards us, having, so far as I could make out, emerged from the face of the precipice like ants from their burrows.These men, as well as their officers, were all robed in addition to the usual leopard skin, and, as I gathered, formed the bodyguard of _i_ She _i_ herself.

Their leader advanced to Billali, saluted him by placing his ivory wand transversely across his forehead, and then asked some question which I could not catch, and Billali having answered him, the whole regiment turned and marched along the side of the cliff, our cavalcade of litters following in their track.After going thus for about half a mile we halted once more in front of the mouth of a tremendous cave, measuring about sixty feet in height by eighty wide, and here Billali descended finally, and requested Job and myself to do the same.Leo, of course, was far too ill to do anything of the sort.Idid so, and we entered the great cave, into which the light of the setting sun penetrated for some distance, while beyond the reach of the light it was faintly illuminated with lamps which seemed to me to stretch away for an almost immeasurable distance, like the gaslights of an empty London street.The first thing that I noticed was that the walls were covered with sculptures in bas-relief, of a sort, pictorially speaking, similar to those that I have described upon the vaseslove-scenes principally, then hunting-pictures, pictures of executions, and the torture of criminals by the placing of a presumably red-hot pot upon the head, showing whence our hosts had derived this pleasant practice.There were very few battle-pieces, though many of duels, and men running and wrestling, and from this fact I am led to believe that this people was not much subject to attack by exterior foes, either on account of the isolation of their position or because of their great strength.Between the pictures were columns of stone characters of a formation absolutely new to me: at any rate, they were neither Greek, nor Egyptian, nor Hebrew, nor Assyrianthat I am sure of.They looked more like Chinese writings than any other that I am acquainted with.

Near to the entrance of the cave both pictures and writings were worn away, but farther in they were in many cases absolutely fresh and perfect as the day on which the sculptor had ceased work upon them.

The regiment of guards did not come farther than the entrance to the cave, where they formed up to let us pass through.On entering the place itself we were, however, met by a man robed in white, who bowed humbly, but said nothing, which, as it afterwards appeared that he was a deaf mute, was not very wonderful.

Running at right angles to the great cave, at a distance of some twenty feet from the entrance, was a smaller cave or wide gallery, that was pierced into the rock both to the right and to the left of the main cavern.In front of the gallery to our left stood two guards, from which circumstance I argued that it was the entrance to the apartments of _i_ She _i_ herself.

The mouth of the right-hand gallery was unguarded, and along it the mute indicated that we were to proceed.

Walking a few yards down this passage, which was lighted with lamps, we came to the entrance to a chamber having a curtain made of some grass material, not unlike a Zanzibar mat in appearance, hung over the doorway.

This the mute drew back with another profound obeisance, and led the way into a good-sized apartment, hewn, of course, out of the solid rock, but, to my great delight, lighted by means of a shaft pierced in the face of the precipice.In this room was a stone bedstead, pots full of water for washing, and beautifully tanned leopard skins to serve as blankets.

Here we left Leo, who was still sleeping heavily, and with him stopped Ustane.I noticed that the mute gave her a very sharp look, as much as to say, "Who are you, and by whose orders do you come here?" Then he conducted us to another similar room which Job took, and then to two more that were respectively occupied by Billali and myself.