stream. For some little while we needed no light, but soon the guide
lighted and gave to each of us a little lamp. Mat took the lead, I came
next, Miss S. followed, and an old slave brought up in the rear.

"I confess that I shuddered as I came into the darkness. Our lamps, of
course, gave but feeble light; we barely saw at first where our feet
must step.

"I looked up, trying in vain to find the ceiling or the walls. All was
darkness. In about an hour we saw more clearly. The chambers are, many
of them, elliptical in shape; the ceiling is of mixed dark and white
color, and looks much like the sky on a cloudy moonlight evening.

"A friend of ours, who has been much in the cave, says, 'If the top were
lifted off, and the whole were exposed to view, no woman would ever
enter it again.'

"We clambered over heaps of rocks, we descended ladders, wound through
narrow passages, passed along chambers so low that we crouched for the
whole length, entered upon lofty halls, ascended ladders, and crossed a
bridge over a yawning abyss.

"Every nightmare scene that I had ever dreamed of seemed to be realized.
I shuddered several times, and was obliged to reason with myself to
assure me of safety. Occasionally we sat down and rested upon some flat
rock.

"Miss S., who has a great taste for costuming, wound her plaid shawl
about her shoulders, turbaned her head with a green veil, swung her lamp
upon a stick which she rested upon her shoulder, and then threw herself