the land was flat, and covered with low shrubs. I rowed into this arm
of shallow water and rested on my oar, wearily bethinking myself what
was next to be done. Looking round, however, I saw to my surprise that
at the end of this arm there was a short narrow pathway--a winding
road--leading from the river-bank. I stood up in the boat and followed
its course with my eyes. It was met by another road also winding among
the bushes, but in a slightly different direction. At the end of this
was a little, low, high-roofed, round house, without doors or windows.
And then--and then--tingling now with a thousand raptures--I beheld a
pool of water near this structure, and then another low house, a
counterpart of the first--and then, still leading on in the same
direction, another pool--and then a great rock, heart-shaped--and then
another winding road--and then another pool of water. All was a
model--_exact to the minutest particular_--of the device on the
papyrus! The first long-waved line was the river itself; the three
short-waved lines were the arm of the river and the two pools; the
three snakes were the three winding roads; the two triangles
representing the letter #A# were the two high-roofed round houses; the
heart was the rock! I sprang, now thoroughly excited, from the boat,
and ran in headlong haste to the end of the last lake. Here there was a
rather thick and high growth of bushes, but peering among them, my eye
at once caught a white oblong board supported on a stake: on this, in
black letters, was marked the words, "DESCENSUS AESOPI." It was
necessary, therefore, to go _down_: the meeting-place was subterranean.
It was without difficulty that I discovered a small opening in the
ground, half hidden by the underwood; from the orifice I found that a
series of wooden steps led directly downwards, and I at once boldly
descended. No sooner, however, had I touched the bottom than I was
confronted by an ancient man in Hellenic apparel, armed with the Greek
_ziphos_ and _peltè_. His eyes, accustomed to the gloom, pierced me