第59章

I turned, and followed him down the passage, and when we reached the great central cave saw that many Amahagger, some robed, and some merely clad in the sweet simplicity of a leopard skin, were hurrying up it.We mingled with the throng, and walked up the enormous and, indeed, almost interminable cave.All the way its walls were elaborately sculptured, and every twenty paces or so passages opened out of it at right angles, leading, Billali told me, to tombs, hollowed in the rock by "the people who were before."Nobody visited those tombs now, he said; and I must say that my heart rejoiced when I thought of the opportunities of antiquarian research which opened out before me.

At last we came to the head of the cave, where there was a rock dais almost exactly similar to the one on which we had been so furiously attacked, a fact that proved to me that these daises must have been used as altars, probably for the celebration of religious ceremonies, and more especially of rites connected with the interment of the dead.On either side of this dais were passages leading, Billali informed me, to other caves full of dead bodies."Indeed," he added, "the whole mountain is full of dead, and nearly all of them are perfect."In front of the dais were gathered a great number of people of both sexes, who stood staring about in their peculiar gloomy fashion, which would have reduced Mark Tapley himself to misery in about five minutes.On the dais was a rude chair of black wood inlaid with ivory, having a seat made of grass fibre, and a footstool formed of a wooden slab attached to the framework of the chair.

Suddenly there was a cry of " _i_ Hiya! Hiya! _i_ " ("_i_ She _i_ ! _i_ She _i_ !"), and thereupon the entire crowd of spectators instantly precipitated itself upon the ground, and lay still as though it were individually and collectively stricken dead, leaving me standing there like some solitary survivor of a massacre.As it did so a long string of guards began to defile from a passage to the left, and ranged themselves on either side of the dais.Then followed about a score of male mutes, then as many women mutes bearing lamps, and then a tall, white figure, swatbed from head to foot, in whom I recognized _i_ She _i_herself._i_ She _i_ mounted the dais and sat-down upon the chair, and spoke to me in Greek.I suppose because she did not wish those present to understand what she said.

"Come hither, O Holly," she said, "and sit thou at my feet, and see me do justice on those who would have slain thee.Forgive me if my Greek doth halt like a lame man; it is so long since I have heard the sound of it that my tongue is stiff, and will not bend rightly to the words."I bowed, and, mounting the dais, sat down at her feet.

"How didst thou sleep, my Holly?" she asked.

"I slept not well, O Ayesha!" I answered with perfect truth, and with an inward fear that perhaps she knew how I had passed the heart of the night.

"So," she said, with a little laugh, "I, too, have.

not slept well.Lest night I had dreams, and, methinks that thou didst call them to me, O Holly.""Of what didst thou dream, Ayesha?" I asked, indifferently.

"I dreamed," she answered, quickly, "of one I hate and one I love," and then, as though to turn the conversation, she addressed the captain of her guard in Arabic: "Let the men be brought before me."The captain bowed low, for the guard and her attendants did not prostrate themselves, but had remained standing, and departed with his underlings down a passage to the right.

Then came a silence._i_ She _i_ leaned her swathed head upon her hand and appeared to be lost in thought, while the multitude before her continued to grovel upon their stomachs, only screwing their heads round a little so as to get a view of us with one eye.It seemed that their queen so rarely appeared in public that they were willing to undergo this inconvenience, and even graver risks, to have the opportunity of looking on her, or rather on her garments, for no living man there except myself had ever seen her face.

At last we caught sight of the waving of lights, and heard the tramp of men coming along the passage, and in filed the guard, and with them the survivors of our would-be murderers to the number of twenty or more, on whose countenances the natural expression of sullenness struggled with the terror that evidently filled their savage hearts.They were ranged in front of the dais, and would have cast themselves down on the floor of the cave like the spectators, but _i_ She _i_ stopped them.

"Nay," she said, in her softest voice, I pray you stand.Perchance time will soon be when ye shall weary of being stretched out," she laughed, melodiously.Isaw a cringe of terror run along the of the poor, doomed wretches, wicked villains as they were, I felt for them.Some minutes, perhaps two or three, passed before anything occurred, during which _i_ She _i_apppeared from the movement of her head, of course, we could not see her face, to be slowly and carefully examining each delinquent.At last she spoke, addressing herself to me, in a quiet and deliberate tone.

"Dost thou, O my guest, who art known in thine own country by the name of the Prickly Tree, recognize these men?""Ay, O queen, nearly all of them," I said, and I saw them glower at me as I said it.

"Then tell to me, and this great company, the tale whereof I have heard."Thus adjured, I, in as few words as I could, related the history of the cannibal feast, and of the attempted torture of our poor servant.The narrative was received in perfect silence, both by the accused and by the audience, and also by _i_ She _i_ herself.

When I had done, Ayesha called upon Billali by name, and, lifting his head from the ground, but without rising, the old man confirmed my story.No further evidence was taken.