nearer the cliff's base. Then he moved outward upon the sheer face
of the white chalk wall. In the half-light of the baby moon it
appeared that the heavy, shaggy black figure moved across the face
of the perpendicular wall in some miraculous manner, but closer
examination would have revealed stout pegs, as large around as a
man's wrist protruding from holes in the cliff into which they were
driven. Es-sat's four handlike members and his long, sinuous tail
permitted him to move with consummate ease whither he chose--a
gigantic rat upon a mighty wall. As he progressed upon his way he
avoided the cave mouths, passing either above or below those that
lay in his path.

The outward appearance of these caves was similar. An opening from
eight to as much as twenty feet long by eight high and four to six
feet deep was cut into the chalklike rock of the cliff, in the back
of this large opening, which formed what might be described as the
front veranda of the home, was an opening about three feet wide
and six feet high, evidently forming the doorway to the interior
apartment or apartments. On either side of this doorway were smaller
openings which it were easy to assume were windows through which
light and air might find their way to the inhabitants. Similar
windows were also dotted over the cliff face between the entrance
porches, suggesting that the entire face of the cliff was honeycombed
with apartments. From many of these smaller apertures small streams
of water trickled down the escarpment, and the walls above others
was blackened as by smoke. Where the water ran the wall was eroded
to a depth of from a few inches to as much as a foot, suggesting
that some of the tiny streams had been trickling downward to the
green carpet of vegetation below for ages.